Abaddon Born(e)
by Publiclee Speaking
Summary: Two and a half well intentioned fools find themselves in the Worm Universe, gifted by Abaddon. In their attempts to save some, they may just doom all. SI based on the Worm CYOA Update Gimel.
1. Conception 1-1

**Standard Disclaimer: This is a work of fan-fiction. I don't own Worm, Wildbow does.**

 **Abaddon Born(e)**

A Worm Fanfiction

By PublicLee Speaking and Brownie

 **Conception** **Arc 1.1**

It started, as too many things do, with screaming.

I came to with blood pounding through my veins, colors dancing in my vision and a sound both similar to, and completely unrelated with, wind whistling past my ears as the sense of falling kick-started my heart into overdrive. A yell of terror mixed with excitement reverberating around wherever I was sounded oddly familiar. Twisting around, a sea of prismatic light surrounded me, flowing past me as I descended, the strange gale pushing against me and twisting me around. I spotted the source of the sound that woke me, a dark form, partially obscured by the rainbow-colored clouds that we moved through, the figure leaving a comet trail of gold and purple fire behind him as he fell. The royal purple conflagration dancing and intermixing with flames that looked to be flickering and shimmering golden statues of fire, the two intermixing, distinct and separate but moving in tandem.

I tried to approach it, flailing my arms in a swimming motion ineffectively, doing nothing but sending me spinning at nausea inducing angles. As I passed through another cloud, I almost groaned at my stupidity. _Dumbass, I'm not swimming, I'm FALLING_! Spreading my limbs at an angle to divert airflow worked much better, stopping my spin and setting me slowly drifting my way closer to the person, who had stopped yelling and was now twisting back and forth, drifting with purpose, seemingly aiming for clouds to pass through.

As I drew closer the shape sharpened without intervening clouds, and I realized it was my best friend, Herb, a man who was my opposite in many ways. "Hey!" I yelled when I was couple dozen feet away trying to be heard over the near howling not-wind. Herb, who was casually spinning, jerked and lost control pinwheeling off to the side.

"Holy Shit!" he exclaimed, the sound reaching me as if he was right next to my ear, flailing in an attempt to stop the same unrestrained spirals I had just been in. I drifted closer and tried to grab him to help, getting kneed in the ribs before trapping his leg, letting him rebalance. Pushing off slightly, I moved us so we were roughly face to face.

"Dude, what's going on!" he yelled, causing me to wince.

"Just talk, I can hear you just fine," I responded. "I have no idea, I woke up here!" I continued in a normal tone, trying to keep myself from drifting away, the winds whipping at our faces and clothing as we attempted to keep stable.

"Same here. Wait, are you on fire?" he asked looking just above me, an expression of disbelief written across his features. Turning over in the air to lay on my back I saw that I also had a trail of flame pouring off of me as well, forming a tail of bloody red mixing with purple the same shade as my friend's stream. I wordlessly pointed above him as he turned as well, seeing the track he was leaving with a shout of "Holy shit! That's awesome!" He turned to look at me, grinning. "This is so effing awesome."

"Yeah, until we hit the bottom." I responded, looking down.

"Eh." He shrugged.

We both spun back to look down in this endless sea as we fell, for some indication of what was happening in this endless void.

"So," I said, trying to do something, anything that would let me focus on something other than this endless falling. "Know how we got here?"

He shook his head. "Not a fricken clue. Don't even know where here is. Kinda fun though, like infinite skydiving!"

"Yeah, but diving through what? Is this the Afterlife? Are we dead?"

"Well, if it is, and we're falling, that doesn't say good shit about what's gonna happen, does it?"

"Herb, you wouldn't go to hell. I sure as, well, hell shouldn't be going to hell either," I reasoned.

"Eh, you know I've got people I've got to go pick up from there."

"That's not how hell works you idiot. And you haven't done anything to deserve going there."

"Well, I've worked double-shifts on Sunday, don't particularly care about the dude upstairs, and have coveted the hell out of some of my neighbor's wives, never mind the two people I've killed. That's, like, four strikes right there."

I smacked him on the shoulder, sending him drifting off before he angled himself to drift back. "Dude _you_ didn't actually kill anyone, you work in an old folk's home. So, without that thing which _wasn't your fault_ , if that's all it takes, then everyone's going there." And really, if that's all it took, the only people up top would be babies, idiots, and holier-than-thou jerks.

"Well we are on fire," he commented, waving at the infernos streaking behind us.

I spun around and cautiously put my hands in the flame coming off my chest, feeling nothing there. "Yeah, but it doesn't seem like hellfire. Not that I know what that actually feels like." I spun back looking at him. "Any other guesses?" He shrugged and we went back to try and see what we were falling towards.

"Hey" He commented after a few minutes. "Are we speeding up & slowing down?"

I looked around as we descended, trying to gauge our speed by the clouds we passed. "I don't think so. Maybe? It's kinda hard to tell. I think so, my eyes are starting to water?" I turned my head to the side to stop them from drying, but the feeling only got worse as I turned, even closing them not helping.

"Um, I don't think it's the wind man, your eyes are glowing!" he said, nonplussed, one hand half reaching out to try and help.

I choked out a cry as the pain spiked in my eyes, the prismatic clouds sharpening and defining, turning colors for which I had no name. Unable to close them as I looked around, seeing lines that wove into complex patterns around us, congregating in the clouds, all stemming from a point far below. Hearing a pained sound from Herb I looked seeing him glow as well. As I watched him he flickered in and out of existence, a second, then third copy of him being made as he disappeared and reappeared, each one reacting to the pain in a different way. Each of him grew a glowing shadow, wispy and amorphous, a hidden figure of flame not quite matching his movements.

His copies spread out, each one with a smaller trail that connected to the main flame, twisting into it until the merged into one inferno. I felt a wracking pain as I saw tendrils of my trail extend, almost squid-like, touching his and skimming parts off, merging bits of his golden flame into my red, our purples merging seamlessly.

We continued, spiraling down through that prismatic hell. As I grabbed the original him and we held on to each other as we were wracked with pain, which ratcheted up as the glow around us intensified and we caught fire. The two of us screamed in agony as flesh bubbled and melted. Both of us were obese, and now that fat liquified, skin long burned off, flowing and wrapping around our limbs in in fiery lines of suffering. The pain reached inwards, burning bones and cooking organs for an eternity until it reached our spines, incinerating everything, the only feeling that wasn't pure agony was the feelings of our hands holding each other's arms.

The pain threatened to overwhelm me, coloring every cell with agony as I shuddered and convulsed for an interminable amount of time. I wanted to die, curl up and do whatever it took to make the pain go away. Several times the pain pushed me beyond what I thought I could bear, and then I did. Never sure if this time I'd finally snap and do anything to just make it go away. If it didn't mean I would be leaving Herb here alone, I just might have, but I didn't, though every time I went past my limit I felt like bits of me were breaking off, like a sandblaster to the soul.

Suddenly, and without warning, the pain blew away as if it were never there, leaving us gasping for a moment, blinking away tears. They ache in my eyes remained, but was nothing now that the fire had passed. Looking at my friend it took me a moment to recognize him. Where before he had a, to put it nicely, doughy physique there were instead hard muscles outlined against his sand colored skin, his shirt and pants now flapping greatly in the not-wind as the form they'd contained had shrunk and hardened. Looking at myself I saw the same thing. Where before I had a keg, I now had a washboard, my arms and legs thickened with muscle as well, seemingly rippling with strength.

"Holy Motherfucking Cocksucking Monkey Shit Fuck Suck a Motherfucker that Hurt!" he swore in a continuous stream, before looking at his new physique and uttering a small "damn."

"Heh," I choked out a laugh. "It hurt enough, but at least we'll look good if this is hell." Herb groaning as we plummeted we fell through another rainbow cloud, the vapor streaming past us. On a whim, I reached out and tried to grab a bit of the cloud stuff, hand hooking into the pattern that twisted through it, strands snapping from the pattern and reaching backwards, wrapping around me as the broken lattice flailed before weaving itself back as it was. As it wrapped around me my now loose shirt and pants tightened around, fabric shifting and shrinking to fit my new body type.

"Nope," he disagreed, eyes still clenched from the memory of the pain. "If this was hell it wouldn't have stopped."

Once again came a spike of pain as my flesh glowed, but the pain abated quickly as the glow settled into my skin, light outlining veins as it descended into my core. Herb's light did the exact opposite, branching outward from him in thin tendrils which caught some of the trail of fire coming off of me, but instead of absorbing it, the flame was held in place as Herb's eyes flickered and he gasped, looking around, paying attention to the patterns that flowed around us as his flesh glowed for a moment.

Panting for breath we looked down, seeing the patterns below start tightening towards something at the bottom. A third voice, this one a guttural, horrible laugh came from above us. Looking up we saw a . . . something hurtling down towards us. Whatever it was its coloring was monochrome, entirely done in blacks and greys as it descended. A humanoid figure was at its front with a long tether to the main body, a mass of long questing tentacles originating from a shrouded form reaching long past the figure, it's tail long and thin as it plummeted, laughing horribly as it did so.

It's tentacles, seemingly a mile long, brushed against us, finding no purchase on me, but wrapping around Herb before shuddering and letting go as whatever, or whoever it was streaked past us and quickly dropping out of sight, echoes of that mirthless laughter quickly fading.

We fell after it, the patterns around us tightening closer and closer until at the bottom a tiny well of light peeked out. As we descended a shape around that disk resolved into being, a long serpent, coiled in, around, and seemingly through itself, body studded with hornlike protrusions that glowed and shifted as it laid still, watching the disk.

"I think that's where we're going, and that's a whole lotta nope. Nope. Nope. Nope!" Herb pointed out helpfully, his voice sounding as weary from pain as I felt, looking at our destination with trepidation, fear, and revulsion.

"Hopefully the snake is friendly?" I tried. At his flat look, I got defensive. "What, it could be!"

He shook his head with a murmur of "effin' white people" as we descended.

The closer we got to the disk the larger it grew, from the size of a coin, to a pool, to a lake, and ever larger, putting the creature around it into greater and greater scale. It slithered up slightly, as we approached, head rising above its coils. By the time that we came even with its head, a great thing with far too many eyes, I had a hard time conceiving of how big it was, glancing over to see Herb hiding behind me reciting a constant repeating mantra of "Please don't eat us. Please don't eat us." Looking at it, trying to describe its size, words just could not express. Whatever this thing was, it didn't come from anything close to earth.

Looking at it a name sprang, unbidden to my lips. "Abaddon," I murmured, the name echoing weirdly in the space. Herb glanced at me before looking back at it, the head tracking us as we fell, giving a sense of smug satisfaction as we passed it, settling back down as we hit the disk, passing through a wave of light and leaving that realm of prisms and horror.

* * *

The light passed and left us blinking in the darkness, dotted with light. I heard Herb gasp and turned around to look the way he was and had to gasp. Below us stretched a huge sphere, dotted with bits of white, half of it a deep blue, the other half a patchwork of greys, greens, browns & lighter blues. I sighed at the beauty of the sight my breath freeing into crystals in front of me. As I tried to breath in I got something, but not much, panic starting to set in as I realized just how high up we were. The feeling of falling, which had lessened after we passed the barrier, started to pull at us again, dragging us down. I looked at Herb, whose eyes were wide with panic, seeing him mouth "What the fuck?" the sound muted in the thin atmosphere. I shrugged as I looked around, keeping a firm grip on his arm.

Honestly, if we were at a point we could see the curvature of the earth, we should be frozen, but we were fine. Not breathing was going to be an issue, but I knew I'd be able to hold my breath for a good 10 minutes, as would Herb. That certainty of that thought spooked me a little. _How did I know this? I should be freaking out. I must be in the Freaking Stratosphere!_ But I was fine, not even a little cold, though that same certainty told me that if I let Herb go, he'd die. With this Truth in mind I grabbed my belt, now superfluous that my pants fit me exactly, and wound it around our arms, cinching it tight. At his look I tried to tell him "Don't let go!" I wasn't sure if he heard me, but he looked at our tied arms and nodded vigorously.

We picked up speed as we fell, the muted sound of air increased the farther we went, going faster and faster with no sign of stopping. As we traveled I realized that we weren't going in at a nice slow entry, whatever had dropped us off had done so geosynchronously so we were falling straight down. As this panicked thought passed through my head Herb waved his had in my face to get my attention. Pointing at the horizon I followed his finger, not seeing anything, until my eyes burned for a second, highlighting a halo of . . . something. Staring at it, our changing position quickly altered our perspective, outlining the figure not against the white of the horizon, but the black of space.

The figure wasn't that far off, and appeared to be almost angelic. A pale woman, with long platinum hair. She appeared to be naked, but had covered herself with three long silvery-white wings that extended from back, a large number of other wings extended out from her. The wings were irregularly sized and spaced, something I'd never seen in depictions of angels. It pulled at my memory, but I couldn't remember where I'd seen something like her.

Turning back to Herb I shrugged. _So we're somewhere with angels. That's cool._ My friend though was wide eyed and shaking in fear, looking between me and her. I looked back and noticed she seemed to be staring at us. Well, not us exactly, she seemed to be staring at Herb, who seemed to be trying to hide behind me. I mouthed a "Sorry" to the angel and turned my back to her, cocking an eyebrow at my friend. Moving to his ear to be heard above the ever-increasing sound of wind I yelled "What's wrong". He looked at me as if I was crazy. He yelled something that I couldn't quite make out. "Smurfs?" I asked.

He grabbed my head and brought my ear to his mouth. "SIMURGH!" he screamed. I stopped and turned back to the being that was intently staring at Herb. Silver coloring. _Check_. Irregular wings. _Check._ Hangs out in low earth Orbit and would know where just to be to see something unexpected popping in. _Double check._

If the Simurgh was here then this meant that we were in Worm, the grimdark superhero story which I skimmed and Herb hadn't finished reading yet. The story that would result in the destruction of every earth if everything didn't go exactly right, and would still result in the deaths of hundreds of millions, and the suffering of tens of BILLIONS.

Well, **_Fuck_**.


	2. Conception 1-2

**Conception** **1.2**

Looking at the endbringer, the psychic kaiju that was arguable the worst of the three, casually stare at us was certainly an unsettling experience. As Herb continued to hide behind me, my eyes prickled and I no longer saw just her, but a corona of silver and white energy surrounding her, extending in crystalline patterns, thousands of threads of incandescence extended down to the world below, blanketing the planet in a thick weave. Several threads of what I realized were her powers extended towards us, not aggressively, but cautiously, questing for something. Herb's terrified whimpering hit a higher pitch as they reached us while we fell farther and farther away from her. I felt part of myself reaching out to meet it, trying to do, something, but I got the sense of slipperiness, of trying to grab onto something that I knew was there, but not being able to even touch.

The probes of power continued closer, passing through me as without pausing before softly wrapping around Herb, who had now risen to a pitch that only dogs would be able to hear. I jerked in surprise, our connected arms twisting him slightly, and the bindings on my friend broke instantly, the threads waving around, slowly gaining a hold on him until I moved him, which freed him instantly. Looking back up, she was just a speck of white on the rapidly lightening skies as we descended farther and farther, the massive network of energy spreading on her vanishing as I lost track of her.

"So," I yelled to be heard over the wind. "That happened. She didn't scream or show us messed up memories or anything, so we should be fine." I turned to look at him as he patted at his chest, trying to feel the threads of power that were even now probably trying to re-attach to him. "You know what this means right?"

He looked up at me, wide eyes watering from the wind. "I've been Ziz'd?"

I shook my head. "No you haven't, but that's not the point. The point is we're in Worm!"

"That's awesome!"

"No it isn't!" I insisted.

"There's all this great stuff that's going to happen!" he yelled excitedly.

All I could do was stare it him in disbelief. "Have you read the fucking book!?"

He shrugged, "Yeah I have. Oh, first things first," he said, holding up a finger imperiously as we plummeted.

I wondered at what exactly he was thinking. While I tended to weather chaos through planning and understanding, he tended to surf the waves of uncertainty to get where he wanted to go, many times messing up my plans in the process. Both of us however, tended to get caught up in the moment. "What?" I finally asked, as he had fallen silent.

"Ah," he responded. "Now I'm not gonna tell you 'cause you're not gonna let me do it."

 _We didn't have time for this_. "What is it?" I asked again, trying to keep the aggravation from my tone, hoping to get this over with quickly so we could turn back to the more pressing matter of the ground far, far below us.

"No," he stubbornly insisted. "Not gonna tell you 'cause you're not gonna let me do it."

"I might if I knew what it was," I reasoned. "And either way I will probably mess up your plans with plans of my own. It happens all the time."

He laid his free hand on my shoulder & looked me in the eye. "Okay. We gotta stop Taylor's Trigger event. We gotta go to the school. We gotta save that poor girl."

"Yes!" I responded instantly. "God yes!" Stopping that girl from experiencing the worst day in her life was something I could get behind. _That's what he was worried about?_ I thought. Technically though, he was right, as I considered about what doing so would have meant. If it never happened, her powers would never activate because of her Trigger event, and then world was fucked. In retrospect, I would have stopped him. "But, can we wait like 30 seconds later, so she has the Trigger and then we get her out and get her help immediately so she's not in there for fucking hours? But she still gets the power which may let her, you know, save the world?" I hoped he'd see that I was right.

He sighed, looking down before turning his attention back to me as we continued to fall. "Alright. Only, only. . ." he trailed off.

I waved to the sun coming over the horizon, sending light and cloud caused streaks of shadow to play over the ground far below us. "It's like, dawn. We should have a couple of hours to get down, find the school, and get in position to pull her out after her Trigger happens. Plenty of time."

He nodded, "What I'm saying is-"

"We have time!" I insisted. The wind howled louder, but my hearing had been sharpened along with my physique, and I could still pick out his shouted words.

"What I'm sayin is," he repeated loudly. "Only if you buy breakfast."

I looked at him for a moment, the words coming up before I thought to stop them. "Damn you're cheap." Before panic kicked my brain into gear. "I mean deal, we get breakfast, that should take long enough to let us get where we need to go. Yes, no, right, we get there in time to pull this off and-" I stopped at his thoughtful gaze. "What?"

"Nevermind," stated dismissively. "I don't want breakfast."

It wasn't like him to let go of something like that. "Whhhhyyyyyyy?" I drew out the question, full of suspicion.

He looked at me, all emotional control leaving him as he yelled "BECAUSE WE'RE GONNA DIE!" pointing at the quickly approaching ground.

"Yeah. Right. So. That. Right. Yeah. Okay." I rallied, turning my attention to the much closer ground. "So, I'm 99% sure we have powers."

"Cool," he said in a strained voice, looking down, before shrugging and thrusting his hand out in front of him. Nothing happened. "Nope, don't have powers."

"Okay, look how buff we are, and also, we're in the middle of re-entry and not burning up. We have superpowers." _We just don't know how to use them yet._

Herb looked at himself again, using his free hand to squeeze his now muscular abs, bicep, and pecs. A thoughtful look on his face he grabbed his pants, oversized as they were and flapping with the force of re-entry, and pulled them out for a second, letting them go to be once again plastered against his front by the force of the wind. "You're right. I can see it."

"T.M.I. man!" I spluttered. "Let's focus on what's important." Seeing his raised eyebrow I added. "What's important right now!"

"Just sayin'," he responded unrepentantly. "It's the first time I've seen it in a while without effort."

 _I love him like a brother_ I thought _but his priorities need work._ "I didn't need to know that man. My point is, remember that Choose Your Own Adventure thing we did a few weeks ago?"

"Yeah?"

"What's the power that we both chose?" I insisted. Looking down, we were definitely going to hit somewhere north of Massachusetts. We needed to get a handle on this quickly.

"The power copying thing?" he asked.

"Yes. No. Kind of. Different." I tried to answer him as quickly as I could. "No, We both got that but in different ways. No, we both got the thing, best shape ever, the thing keeps us in ideal physical condition, hence the new bods."

"Ooooh, yeah. Okay. And?" he said, eyeing the coming ground.

"I got temperature resistance, and you copy powers if they're close, so we both got it, hence the lack of freezing in space or burning now. That means you also got the power that lets you make Stands." I explained further at his look of confusion. "That projection thing, which itself can turn into animals, like a giant fucking dinosaur bird. You make it, it changes, we fly down to safety & Bob's your uncle."

"But Bob isn't my uncle." He said, straight-faced.

"You know what I mean, so summon the thing and keep us from hitting the ground, since neither of us have anything that's gonna let us survive this fall!" I practically screamed as individual building could now be made out. We were falling towards a port city, but I wasn't sure if we were going to hit the port, or the city. Either way, it was going to be bad.

Herb stuck his hands out, pulling along my arm as my belt still bound us together. Nothing happened. He tried the webslinging pose. Nope. He tried some wrestling looking strongman thing. Nada. Twisting his nipples. Still nothing. He smacked the inside of his elbow for a second before muttering. "No, it isn't heroin."

"Dude, maybe think about making another you. No, wait, that might do something else. Make another you that isn't you!"

He nodded, and started drawing on his hand with his finger.

"What are you doing?" I cried, now making out boats in detail. It looked like we were gonna hit the bay, but at this speed it would be like hitting concrete. _Dear god we're gonna die. Picking the Worst Day Ever drawback wasn't worth the points!_

"I'm making a mini-me to summon, like that show with the blonde kid in orange." He explained, not stopping.

"That's the Ninja Hand-signs! Do those!" I corrected him, demonstrating, as he copied them as we drew ever closer. Still nothing. "Aren't your powers telling you how to use them?" I cried.

"You know what they are telling me?" he replied angrily.

"No?" I asked. We _really_ didn't have time for this shit.

"THAT WE'RE GONNA FUCKING DIE!" He screamed as I grit my teeth to prepare for the impact, twisting to impact on my side like you're supposed to, and dragging him to mirror me.

A fraction for a second before we hit something flashed in front of us, something humanoid that distorted into something large, hitting the water right before us, the impact knocking the air from my lungs. After that there was a lot of tumbling and darkness as we twisted down, trying to figure out which way was up, before seeing the sunlight far above us, half swimming, half dragging Herb to the surface as he tried to do the same for me.

We burst to the surface, gasping for air and trying to keep our heads above the waves. My entire right side throbbed from where I hit, though not as much as I would have expected, as I turned to look at Herb. "Holy shit!" I cried, in pain and relief. "We survived!"

"Yeah," he agreed wincing. "Oooowww. At least the water took care of our trail."

"Trail?" I asked as we started to make for the shore, large concrete docks being the closest thing with rusted metal latter inset into them, staining the created rock they were sunk into.

"Yeah," he said as we swam. "There might have been a little trail of pee following us down, but, like, we're in the ocean, which everything pees in, so it's okay."

I couldn't help but laugh. "That was the least of our concerns man, the least of our concerns."

He sighed as we continued, "And I wish I had another pair of underwear. Though being in the ocean after all that falling feels oddly freeing, ya know?"

Something about that statement struck me as strange, so I glanced over at him, seeing his now bare shoulders. "Um. Herb. Where's your shirt?"

He glanced down, thoughtful. "I think it got torn off when we landed."

It was hard to see in the morning light of the bay but I had to ask. "Did you keep your pants at least?"

He paused for a second, one of his hands disappearing under the water. "Oh, that explains the freedom."

 _No. It couldn't be._ "Herb, are you naked?"

He shook his head, "Naw." _Oh good._ "I'm still wearing socks and shoes." _Damnit._

We got a bit closer. "So, I think we're in New Hampshire, so this might be Brockton Bay."

"God Damnit, that sucks."

"Brockton Bay?" I asked.

"No, New Hampshire"

"What's wrong with New Hampshire?"

"Nothing, but it explains why everything goes to shit here." He commented, starting to swim towards the shore again.

"How?"

"You wouldn't understand." He dismissed.

 _Oh, that is such a cop-out_. "We'll talk about this later," I promised.

* * *

Several minutes of awkward swimming later we reached the rusted latter, which came apart in our hands, dumping us back in the water, forcing us to swim further until we found a ramp we flopped onto, laying on our backs looking straight up, taking in the fact that we were alive.

As we lay there the scent of the docks, of sea, rust, and rot washed over us, the seaside breeze varying the levels of the smells as it blew back and forth. "So," I said, deliberately not looking at my friend. "First order of things, get you some clothes."

"Why?" he asked looking over. "Why should I hide it?"

"I have no idea how to take that statement."

"My muscles. Why should I hide it." He clarified.

I sighed. "Herb, muscles are plural, why should I hide _them_ is correct. I thought you were talking about something else.

"No, that too."

"Damnit Herb, I don't have time for this." I sat up, undoing the belt which held us together as we plummeted and looping it back through my strangely undamaged cargo pants. "One, naked people are generally arrested, or worse. Two, yo-"

"Can I say something?"

"Yeeeeeeesss?" I drew out, waiting for the next non-sequitur.

"We're alive, and met the fucking Simurgh, and we're alive."

I sighed, completely understanding him. "Yeah, and if you weren't naked I'd hug you or something, so let's get some clothes."

"Yeah," he nodded in agreement. "No homo."

"Yeah, sure, let's go with that," I told him as I helped him up. Looking around I saw we made it to one of the abandoned docks, and hitting the water right between those concrete peninsulas was threading the proverbial needle considering we started from _space_. Looking at the rusting exposed steel and occasional bits of glass I was happy that his shoes had survived the fall.

Walking inside an abandoned warehouse to try to find our way towards _somewhere_ we could find him clothes we were interrupted. Halfway through it we heard raucous voices as four people walked in what I could only describe as hobo-gangsta' chic. The colors clashed, even on each individual person, they were dirty, with holes and unidentifiable stains, and everything was at least one size too big, except the girl's top, which had the opposite problem. They stopped talking as soon as they saw us, three guys and a girl. The others looked at the tallest guy in the group, lanky and ethnic, but not in any discernable way. Out of all them, he had the most plastic colored armbands, like the type people used to wear for cancer awareness, and it was this detail that made the least sense to me. I knew it had to mean something, but for the life of me I couldn't remember what.

He looked at us uncertainly, before rallying as he walked closer to us, stopping nine feet away from us with his followers half following, half hiding behind him, fear flitting across their faces. _Why would they do that_? It kinda bothered me, I've never had anyone act openly scared of me before and it was an odd experience. I looked over at Herb, and his professional-wrestler level physique before it clicked. _Right, we're ripped, and he's naked. No matter how you look at this, this is weird_. I opened my mouth to ask them where we could get some clothes, hopefully my wallet had survived the fall, but I was interrupted before I could even start.

"How much?" he asked, to his followers' hesitant laughter. _How much?_ I thought. _How much for what?_

Herb looked confused for a second, before he rolled his eyes, sashaying closer and saying with a pronounced lisp "Oh Baby, Oh Baby, for this?" before he dropped to a dead serious tone. "Go fuck yourselves, I'm not cheap."

"You're also not a whore Herb." I felt compelled to remind him.

He turned his back to the spluttering thug. "I'm just saying, even if I would, not for them. They look cheap as shit."

Seeing the leader's mouth open in disbelief, and now being close enough to smell the stink of cheap weed on him, I had to add, "Okay, I understand not them, his teeth look rot to hell, and that can't be hygenic, but wait, nevermind, not the issue here man!"

The tall guy, reached inside the front of his pants and pulled out a knife. _Where was he keeping that?_ I couldn't help but wonder. "Fuck you, give us all your money and maybe we won't fuck you up!"

I just stared. "What money? He's naked! I know drugs rot your brain but they shouldn't make you blind." I remembered there was a druggie gang that in Brockton Bay, but I couldn't remember their name. "I mean, he might have hid it up his ass, but I don't think you'd want to search for it. Or maybe you would, I don't judge, but it's pretty unlikely."

Herb nodded. "No he's gay as fuck, he did ask for how much," he reminded me.

I nodded sagely back, "True."

The leader waved his knife between us, trying to take control of the situation. "Fuck you, getting a blowjob ain't gay, it-"

"Yes it is." I interrupted. His three followers had grabbed rusty pieces of metal from the ground, but looked hesitant about using them as their leader faltered. "If it's from a guy, it's like the definition of gay."

Herb shook his head sadly, "Oh my god dude. Me just giving you a kiss is gay. Just sayin', it's gay. You like kissing guys. It's not your fault, and it's not wrong. You like kissing guys. Admit your gay you tall ass tweak." he finished with a half shrug. "Just get some Diana Ross clothing and work that shit."

"Diana Ross?" I asked, cutting off the leader as he opened his rotting mouth.

"Yeah, Diana Ross, the big wig, the long dress, the sequins, the tall heels, the makeup, looked kinda guy-ish, gays really liked her."

"Was she trans?"

"Nah, but she kinda looked it. You know: 'Stop! In the name of love!'. Her."

I nodded. "Oh, her, yeah, I kinda see it a little."

"Oh fuck you!" the thug shouted, jumping forward to stab Herb with the knife, only to have it taken from him as his target side stepped, grabbing the guy's wrist and twisting it with a loud cracking sound, the clatter of the dropping knife happening at the same time as the thug's "oof" of breath as Herb smacked him dead in the chest before grabbing him by the face, jumping in the air and forcing the thug down with a cry of "RKO!"

I looked at him. "Is that a wrestling move?"

He gave me a chagrined smile as he stood up, the thug whimpering on the ground. "Yeah. I know kung-fu."

I turned to look at the thug's followers, frozen in fear. "I also know kung fu." I commented.

"And To Wong Foo," Herb added. "So if you want to get all dressed up and not, you know, against gays like this self-hating bitch, just sayin'. I mean, I just whooped his ass and now I don't feel threatened whatsoever."

The female of the group, a medium sized girl who was probably blond yelled "We'll fuckin' get you!" before turning on her heel and running, the other two following.

We turned to the now unconscious leader as I glanced at Herb. "Well, they won't fit great, but we found clothes. You might not want the underwear though."

We quickly claimed his possessions, his wallet, while thick, was filled mostly with ones. "Who does that?" I asked. "Does he work as a delivery driver or something."

Herb stared at me for a second before shaking his head. "It's for shitty strip clubs. It's dark and they don't see that all the bills your stuffing down her bra are ones."

"What? That's. Um. Okay? Not my realm of expertise." I conceded. The clothing didn't quite fit Herb, but the thug's propensity for oversized clothing helped even everything out in that respect. Checking the money, it looked the same as what I had in my wallet, so the cash I had on my wallet was still good, and would be enough for food, some basic supplies, and a night or two at a hotel. Looking at my bright red t-shirt and urban camo I couldn't help commenting out loud. "Wish the others tried something, I could have worn one of their sweatshirts and blended in better."

With that my shirt rippled and shifted, extending out and up, forming into a dark red hoodie that still fit me. "Holy shit!" Herb commented. "How does that work?"

I stared at it for a second, and as I did, I felt a familiar feeling in my eyes as slowly shifting lines appeared on my clothing. Concentrating on wearing a t-shirt again, the patterns started curling inwards, the fabric shifting and pulling themselves into a purple t-shirt, another thought formed a sanguine fleur-de-lis. I shifted it into a dark blue hoodie, adding lime green polka-dots instead of the flower to match the garishness of my friend's new threads. "I grabbed one of the clouds in that. . . other place. I think it bonded with my clothing. And maybe me. No idea how it works."

"That's not fair. You got instant wardrobe, and I ended up naked."

"We can find a store to get you underwear while we walk." I told him, heading out the way the followers fled, but turning in the opposite direction. "So, do you remember what I was talking about the Choose Your Own Adventure thing we did. The one where you had the 'If you were dropped into this world, what powers and stuff would you want? We did one for GoT, and a mystic apartment, and the derelict space-station as well."

"Yeah dude, but that was like, a bullshit what-if thing. I didn't know _this_ ," he waved at our surroundings, "was gonna fucking happen."

"I didn't either. But it looks like we're here. Do you remember your powers?"

"I think so," he hazarded. "I can copy other powers, I got the thing that makes me buff, and I can make the thing that helps me. I just don't know how."

"The copy thing has a range of five meters from the source of the power, and you can also make a copy of yourself, though that one seems to be recharging or something." I told him, eyes warm as I stared at the gold and purple phantom flames that licked his form when I concentrated, seeing his powers and Knowing them, on a soul-deep level. "And you can make another person/thing that helps and has its own powers, but I can't remember what you picked other than the animal shape one, maybe later, my head's still spinning a bit. I can't tell you for sure until I see it." Herb nodded, pushing his hand out to try to summon it as we walked to no avail. "I've got the Peak Condition power like you, Power Sight, which lets me tell you what you have, Immunity to heat and a few other things, and power copying, but the better version from yours that cost a ton more. You have powers that are near you till the person leaves. If I see a person use a power, I get a copy of it, forever. Only restriction is, the power has to have a physical effect."

"Dude, that's broken." He commented, looking at me in disbelief.

I shook my head. "With what's coming, not really. I'll need everything to take down the Golden Man. Besides, it wouldn't have stopped me breaking every bone in my body when I hit the ground."

Herb stopped, turning me to face me with a hand on his shoulder. "Wait, Scion? He's cool. He cures cancer and fights endbringers and shit. Like, he's got some beef with Eidolon, but he's good."

"Herb, how far have you actually read Worm?" I asked, trying to gauge how badly he was going to respond to what I had to tell him.

"The Undersiders kicked Dragon's multiple assess and Coil told them to lay low, which is complete bullshit. Then there was the interlude with Armsdick." _Armsdick? It fits_ I mused.

"We don't have time for the long version, short version, Scion isn't human, talks to Jack Slash, and then decides to destroy Earth. All of them. In every reality."

My friend stood in shock, looking at me. "Well. Shit."

I nodded, turning around and continued walking down the street towards where a corner store was opening. Waving in what I hoped was friendly manner to the guy opening the security grate. After a moment Herb walked up next to me. "So, power copying might be needed."

I laughed. "Thing was, I wanted to make it even more broken. I'm limited to powers with observable effects. I thought I could chain it with Power Sight to get around that, as I could see the power activating, and copy it that way. It either doesn't work that way, or like your Stand power, it's taking longer because It's a Second Trigger power."

"Like Grue?" he asked, as we waited for the shop owner to finish.

"Yeah, but since we got our powers all at once, it might be more like a double trigger like Taylor's bug control. Thing is, that might be taking longer to kick in because of it. I've tried to copy your copy power when I saw you copy my Immunity, but got nothing from it. Sorry for that by the way. I'm pretty sure the threads from Ziz were her brainwashing, and I got nothing from that either."

"Right, that was fucking weird. Why didn't they touch you? And how could you break them?"

"Ziz's brainwashing normally gets screwed up by other precognitives. She's blind to the present, but sees the past and future. Precog's change their actions in the present which ripple out to change the future she sees, making them disrupt her powers. Sometimes."

"What do you mean sometimes. And you didn't say you had precog powers."

"Nah, I got something better. I'm a Blindspot."

"What the hell's a blindspot?"

"It means I'm immune to ANY precog. I'm right up there with Goldie and the Endbringers when it comes to that shit. That means, I do ANYTHING that affects someone's programming and I screw up Ziz's plans. She couldn't even see me right next to you."

"Holy shit!" he exclaimed. "That's awesome!"

I winced, holding up a hand and waving it back and forth. "Yes and no. It also means that if I make too many waves, all the precogs on the side of the guys trying to save the world also get all their plans wrecked. That's why I need to get stupid powerful and do this shit myself, because just by being here, I've probably already fucked up the plan to save the world."


	3. Conception 1-3

**Conception** **1.3**

"That's some heavy shit dude," Herb uttered at my declaration.

"Yeah, if my being here fucks up their Path to Victory, I just need to make my own. Preferably one that saves _way_ more people than the canon ending."

"How many die there?" he asked with trepidation.

"Little more than half the cast. Civilian deaths, over ten Billion." I informed him, starting to walk towards the door to the corner store.

"Wait. Wait. Hold the fuck up!" Herb said, stopping and pinning me with a disbelieving stare. "Billion. With a B? That's more then everyone on earth!"

"This earth, or our old earth. You fight a multidimensional entity, you take losses across dimensions. Even then, world's pretty fucked up by the end. It's effectively knocked back to the Dark Ages, with capes as warlords. That's why we need to get a path to victory on our own. Step one: get you some underwear."

I started walking off again as he followed, going "No, no no, you don't drop that on a motherfucker and then go buy fucking underwear!"

I smiled amused at being the other end of our dynamic. I could see why he did it. This was fun. "Pretty sure I am."

"You don't just say 'hey, the world's gonna end unless we save it.' and then walk away!" he ranted, dropping his voice to a whisper as we entered the store. I nodded to the tan skinned man behind the glass screen on the counter as my friend continued. "I thought this was gonna be all 'let's chill out, be supervillains, and have fun.' Not save the freaking world!"

"And fight the Endbringers," I added casually, looking for clothing. They had a small selection, shrink-wrapped packs of socks and t-shirts. Glancing at him I grabbed a pack of the 2XL shirts. He'd need them more for muscle mass then weight.

"What do you mean fight Endbringers!" he hissed. "I can't even use my powers right!"

I stopped and looked at him. "You really don't remember what you picked, do you? We're both gonna be Endbringer Targets. When Leviathan hits here in May, we gotta fight him. We don't have to win, just survive. Besides it's the S9 you really have to worry about in the beginning of June."

He grabbed my shoulders. "What. Did. You. Do?"

I chuckled. I realized how screwed we were as soon as we got here, but I think he got swept up with the re-entry thing. Understandable, but we needed to get past this quickly. _Like a band-aid being ripped off, but way worse. Still the same principle_ I thought. "I didn't do anything. You're the one who picked the downsides. Beginning of June, the Slaughterhouse Nine will be recruiting. Two of the nominations are you and me. That's gonna be way harder since they'll be hunting us specifically. I'd take a Kaiju fight with assistance of all the major heroes over that shit. You read that part, you know what happens. The dumbass PRT didn't pull out the big guns until the city was already in the middle of a genetically engineered prion plague."

I finally found the underwear and turned to my friend. "I do have bad news though."

He looked at me in desperation. "What? What could be worse than any of that."

"They only have pink underwear," I told him, holding up the package.

He stared dumbly at the package before breaking down into laughter. "Um, are you okay man? Should I get these?"

"No, fuck that, I'll go commando." He gasped between guffaws. "It's just too much."

I felt kinda bad. Maybe this straight-faced dropping information thing needed more skill than I thought. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay. It's okay. Yeah, I did choose that, it does make things better. Winning easily is way too boring, it's the journey that matters." He took several deep breaths, centering himself. "Okay, I'm good. What else did I get?"

"We both picked up Rough Start, I got two out of a max of three, you went all for the max, so you're gonna end up in debt, homeless, and a social outcast pretty fast. I'm probably just homeless, maybe in debt somehow, which considering neither of us officially exist, is kinda automatic. We both picked up two out of three of Worst Day Ever, and all three means the world is out to get you." I counted off.

"Um, Simurgh, re-entry, jumped by Merchants?" He asked. "How is that not all three?"

 _Merchants, that's what they're called!_ "We've gotten downtime," I motioned around at the store. "and we didn't hit the ground. Still sucks, could be worse. Lastly, we'll be very minor Case 53's, though that hasn't kicked in yet. You get vampire teeth and my irises should go prismatic. Might happen when we get our second triggers." I walked to the counter, grabbing a pair of shades and two bottles of water. Paying for everything with my liberated one-dollar bills, I saw the owner looking wary of Herb. "Don't worry about it him," I said, slipping him a few extra bucks. "We've just had a really bad day."

We walked out with our purchases in a bag, and hadn't taken more than three steps we heard a woman yell "It's them! Those are the assholes who jumped C-dog!" looking down the street I saw the three followers of the sexually repressed thug we'd counter-mugged pointing at us to a guy Herb's size, along with several others.

Herb, hearing this, broke into giggles. "What?" I asked, seeing that the followers and new guys all had knives, the big guy wearing fancy brass knuckles.

My friend held up a hand as the group approached. "The guy we beat is called C-dog!" he burst into more laughter.

The girl who singled us out shoved her chin forward in what she probably thought was an aggressive gesture. "Yeah, what of it dead meat!"

Herb had now progressed to full on wheezing. "The guy who wanted me to suck his dick, C-dog, is cock hound! That's amazing!" A couple of the new guys started giggling as well. Apparently, C-dog had a rep, and no one made the connection to his name.

"Fuck you, no one jumps Merchants on their territory! You're gonna die!" she shrieked, running at Herb with her knife extended. She was focused on her target she never saw me grab her knife hand, striking her in the temple with my other hand, dropping her instantly.

I turned to the others, who weren't looking happy anymore. "I don't know what she told you but-"

"Hey, he hit T-back, fuck him!" one of the new guys yelled, running at me with his own knife, the rest of the gang following him.

"T-back, Seriously?" I asked, dodging backwards as Herb, still smiling, swept a leg to trip the guy trying to stab me, the Merchant falling and stabbing himself in the arm as he fell.

With that the others were on us, thankfully none of them really knew how to use their knives, but that didn't stop them from being dangerous. Herb and I fought back to back, doing well, but when I dodged one slash the leader chose that moment to strike, his metal clad fist swinging out. I tried to dodge that too, but took it the ribs, the impact sending me sprawling towards one the others, twisting to avoid his knife and catching him with an arm as I fell, rolling out and up to get back on my feet, in time to see the leader swing for Herb's unprotected head as he grappled with two others, both my friend's hands busy holding off their weapons.

I got a call of "Behind you!" off before seeing a flicker of something, obscured by the leader's body. There was a sharp _crack_ of breaking bone, but instead of my friend going down with a broken skull, it was the leader who fell, not just down but backwards a dozen feet, dropping on one of his cronies. Herb twisted one of the guys he was fighting into another's stab, then spun, kicking the stabber in the head before glancing at the downed leader. "Um, that wasn't me," he said, dodging another stab, kneeing his attacker in the gut before chopping him on the back of the neck.

"If you say so," I responded, taking the knife off one of the last attackers and using the base to smack the thug in the back of the head, dropping him.

"I do!" Herb insisted, taking a step towards the last guy who took off running. My friend gave the fleeing Merchant a considering look, before shaking his head.

I walked over to the fallen leader, wondering how hard he was hit. It looked like he tried to headbutt a bull; his nose was smashed flat, he was missing teeth, though I wasn't sure if that was from the blow, and his entire face appeared to be one large bleeding bruise. Leaning down I put a finger to his neck, the heavy heartbeat telling me that he wasn't dead, just out cold. I propped him up so that he wouldn't choke on his own blood, confiscating his brass knuckles and his wallet as I did so. Standing, wiping the blood on my pants, which promptly disappeared, I turned back to Herb, who was crouching down, taking the cash from the wallets of the now unconscious Merchants. "You hit him pretty hard." I called.

He looked up, eyebrows raising at the distance, "I said I didn't do it."

"So something else punched him so hard he flew back several yards, knocking him out."

"Obviously," he responded with surety. "I don't punch that hard, besides, he deserved it, trying to sucker punch. . . I didn't do it."

"Superpowers," was my response.

"Yeah, didn't do it. You cannot prove this in a court of law."

"Whatever," I relented, helping him search their wallets and grab their crash. On the bright side, a life of organized crime seemed to mean that the people we were searching had far more cash than I would ever be comfortable carrying. Finding a gift card for a coffee shop called the MaHotma Grindy I called my friend, laughing as I held it up. "Should we take these too?"

He shook his head. "Nah man, that shit can be tracked. Cold hard cash only, unless you got someone that can hack that shit."

"I don't want to know how you know that," I commented, turning back to my self-appointed task.

He humphed. "I watch the news, it's not always experience. Racist."

I dropped the now cashless wallet on a different unconscious thug and looked at him with a deadpan look. "It usually is."

He opened his mouth to rebut my point, stopping and nodding. "Usually," he agreed.

After searching the last guy, and tossing his wallet on the guy next to him, I looked up to see the shop owner staring at us. Walking towards the door he frantically reached under the counter, pulling out a pistol, not pointing it at me, just showing that he had it. I grabbed my bag of purchases from where I'd left it by the door, and gave him a friendly wave, turning around and walked away. "We should go," I told my friend, who was trying to suppress an amused grin and failing.

"Yeeeeah, we're making a great impression," he agreed, turning and walking with me. I opened the package of shirts and held onto his now slightly more blood-stained jacket as he put one on. "Oh, that feels better," he moaned. As he was putting the jacket back on, he asked. "Why were you dropping the wallets on different people?"

"Takes 'em longer to figure out, and while we might not be taking cards, they might, then blame each other, and maybe blame each other even if they didn't have any cards, who knows?" I sighed. "Those guys are assholes, if it takes an extra couple seconds to screw with 'em, why not?"

We counted our newfound wealth as we walked, easily coming in with over a thousand dollars each. "Ya know," Herb commented, "For this place, we're not doing bad."

I bobbed my head in agreement. "We've only been here half an hour and already have couple grand."

"And a few fights," he added.

I looked at him, wondering if his new muscles were going to his head. "I wouldn't count that as a positive. We have Abaddon shards, that means they _aren't_ pushing us to seek conflict."

He shrugged. "I don't have to be pushed to have fun in a fight."

"But the risk-" I started.

"Is part of what makes it fun," he finished.

I rolled my eyes. "Regardless, we've made more than enough to find someplace to stay for the night."

"And we've put the fear of god in the local ragtag." He grinned proudly. "We're gonna make great villains!"

I stumbled, turning as we walked and crossing my arms in negation. "I, n-, no. I'm gonna be a hero!"

He nodded. "A hero villain."

I tried to figure out what he meant with that oxymoron. "You mean like a vigilante?"

"No," he told me. Apparently, I completely misunderstood. "Those people are stupid."

When he didn't explain I went ahead correcting him. "No, I'm gonna save the world. That makes me a hero, by definition."

"Yeah," he agreed. " _We're_ gonna save the world, as we make money, and profit by kicking ass."

I held my palm aloft in a questioning gesture. "I don't get how that makes us villains in the slightest."

"Yeah," he agreed again, not answering my question _at all_. "'cause everyone has to pay."

I nodded. "Yeah, sometimes literally. Cops and the army get paid. The Protectorate gets paid. You do a job, you get rewarded for doing so. I'm not sure why that's even a point that needs to be brought up." With that matter settled we looked around. We had been walking aimlessly, trying to find, well, anything really. I was pleasantly surprised when we came out of an alley and saw a run-down shopping center. It looked about as well kept as everything in this area, dirty with peeling paint, but people were walking around and it seemed open for business. As we got closer I saw there was a bit of a bottleneck to get it, with two guys about the same size as the Merchant leader with the brass knuckles, that now was a comforting weight in my pocket, at the entrance, giving out yellow armbands to everyone as they walked in. The two themselves wore several armbands, some of them doubles. "Hopefully they'll have underwear in here," I commented as we moved closer, passing him one of the water bottles I'd bought, drinking from mine.

Herb nodded, looking at the armbands in thought. "Yeah, I don't mind swinging free, but it'd be nice. And maybe we could get something to eat. That greasy food place, what was it called?"

I wracked my memory to try to figure out what he meant. "Hooters?" I hazarded.

"No, the other place."

"Fuddruckers?"

"No, the _other_ place. Buttfuckers."

I made the connection. "You mean Fugly Bob's. No, that's at the market. It's open air, not this," I waved to what I was starting to think was actually a converted warehouse. "You're thinking of Idiocracy."

He looked around at the unwashed masses around us, the smell of blood, sweat, piss, and drugs as offensive as the fashion sense and personal hygiene on display. "Isn't it though?"

One of the people next to us looked like he was going to say something, but looked at our muscles and Herb's newly bloodstained clothing, looking away before he could meet my eyes. As we got to the door one of the doormen offered me an armband. "No thanks, I'm good," I told him as I tried to walk in the door.

He put a hand up to stop me, "Take a fucking band!" he yelled in my face. I took it, rolling my eyes, wishing his drug of choice was Listerine, not steroids, before he stepped back and tried to shove me in. I went with the push, smoothly entering to see that, yes, this place was in fact a converted warehouse, and not the small shopping area I thought. People were still selling things, though it all looked pretty shady.

I turned to Herb, who had taken an armband from the other guy, and then threw it off to the side. "I don't want a fucking armband," he told the other doorman.

The guy got in his face, yelling "Get the fuck in there, I'll deal with you later, before trying to shove him in as well. Herb took the shove without moving, then when the guy pulled his hand back to try again he walked inside.

"It's a shopping center" I told him. "Of sorts. Let's just get some clothes and a bite to eat, don't make a deal out of the awareness bands." At that both thugs laughed, before turning their attention back to the people waiting to get inside. As we wandered I glanced at Herb. "These armbands. They're for something, but I can't remember what. I thought it was like, cancer awareness, or something but that's probably not true."

"I can't remember either," he commented as I put mine in my pocket. "That's why I'm not fucking putting one on."

I tried to think back to what I remembered from the source material. "Do you remember the section in the book where they went to that Merchant party? The one Faultline broke up? It was at the beginning of the S9 arc. They mentioned the bands, but I can't remember."

"Oooh, right," he responded, putting his hands to his head as he tried to recall. "These fucking, you know what it is?" he asked either me or himself. "What color were they?"

"In the book? Red. These are yellow." I supplied.

He put his hands down, looking at the piss yellow rubber bracelets everyone was wearing. "They're Merchant things. If it was red then someone's gonna get murdered. Yellow? I don't know."

I looked around as well, taking in how many people were wearing the Merchant badges of pride. "So we're _deep_ in their territory. Lovely. Let's get our shit and get out."

We walked around for a few minutes, looking at the drugs, weapons, pirated movies, and a large variety of goods that were probably stolen, finding nothing so mundane as underwear. We passed one guy who was either a pimp selling whores, or selling people, I wasn't sure which was worse. I didn't know the going rate for either, and I wasn't going to ask my friend about it right that moment. After a full circuit of the place, finding nothing we wanted, and turning down a couple of offers for my brightly colored hoody, probably because it was the cleanest thing in here, I turned to my friend.

"These morons," he commented, breaking my line of thought.

"What?"

"All of these people here selling shit, and no one thought to sell some fucking food. You'd make so much money," he commented sadly, chastising the gang known for their heavy drug use for their lack of foresight.

"Right," I responded. "Let's just leave."

He nodded. "You know what? I'm gonna be happy when I kill every damn one of these fuckers."

I looked at him in worry. "Some of the people here might not deserve it, or might not even want to be here." I sighed, looking at the examples of human refuse around us, making a plan of action as I did so. "So, come back here, save who we can, take down the rest. Those that chose this. . . Fuck it, I don't give a shit about them. We'll make a plan, in the meantime, we're deep in Merchant territory. Let's get the fuck out of here." I half-led, half-dragged him towards the door as he looked around, probably figuring out the details of how to do so when a shouted voice cut through the crowd.

"Those are the guys who killed Bizzy!" I, along with half the crowd, turned to see the guy who ran from us outside the quickie mart pointing straight at Herb. My friend looked around and pushed his hands out to either side dramatically. Nothing happened. He tried a different pose. Nothing happened with that either.

There was a confused silence as everyone stared at him. "What are you trying to do?" I asked.

"The thing!" he said, trying a third pose.

"I don't think it's working yet." I tried to tell him, aware of everyone's stares.

"It did before! When do I get the cool stuff?"

I whispered "Yeah, but that was just a flicker. I don't think it's ready yet," not that it really helped in the growing silence.

"Why can't I be more like Purity?" he whined. "Just be all like, Pzzzz!" he said, making a laser sound effect.

I gave him a look. "Why can't you be like the Neo-Nazi?"

"Not like a Nazi, why can't I just shoot beams of awesomeness all over the place?" he demanded.

"You can figure out how to shoot your stuff off later, I'll help. . . Damn that sounded gay," I amended. "You can do it later, let's _leave_." I started to walk away when the crowd around us closed ranks, boxing us in.

I retreated so I was back to back with my friend, ready to fight overwhelming odds when a harsh voice rang out. "What the fuck do you mean a cape's here ya cross-eyed gloryhole cocksucker?"

"Oh fuck a monkey," uttered Herb as I looked around. A black guy in a shitty costume was getting up on a platform at the back, a smaller dude talking to him and motioning in our direction. Following the speaker was a girl in a white tank top, heavily stained with either dirt or oil, wearing either short shorts or large panties, it was hard to tell. What wasn't hard to tell was that she looked like she tried to dress sexy, but overshot well into the trying too hard territory of embarrassingly indecent. My eyes prickled as I looked at them and I Knew them. The costumed cusser had Ranged Location-Dependent Unidirectional Compounding Tactile Telekinesis Fields. The girl had Technical Knowledge of how to make anything relating to movement, Skill at using such, and Micro-Telekinesis to do both. If I had to guess, these would be Skidmark and Squealer, The leader of the Merchants and his tinker girlfriend.

"Herb, remember how I said I think we were deep in Merchant territory." At his nod I continued, "I think that was understating it, I think we're at the _heart_ of it."

Skidmark had gotten to the front of his "stage" and was now looking at us, taking a wireless microphone from a flunky. "You pair of sphincter riders come into my territory, fuck up my men, and then come into my house like you own the place? Get over here!" he yelled as the crowd parted between us. With a wave of his hand the ground underneath us glowed blue as we were dragged down the illuminated line to stop a few yards in front of him. I saw my own power reach out and pull a bit of the weak blue and purple flame from the ground, pushing it into my chest and had to clench my jaw as the burning passed into me and settled at my core. I Took the power as we were dragged, not like a moving sidewalk but with distributed force across our bodies. Concentrating on my new ability, I tried to apply it to the tip of my finger, experimentally closing my hand only for that finger to be dragged away from my palm, making my hand open. The power only lasted a few seconds as I used it, sputtering into nothingness as I barely listened to what was going on around me, focusing on getting the power to work.

"Hi Skidmark," Herb waved as we got closer.

He spat in our direction, the spit getting caught at the edge of the field and was dragged, whole, to the end of the effect before it splattered on the ground. "Don't hi me you pig faced piss gargler!" Herb took a moment to breathe, grinning widely at the foul-mouthed gang leader. "You-" Skidmark started.

"You cock-gobblin piece of shit!" Herb interrupted, voice booming and carrying through the space. "You open that dirty little cunt-dragging dumb mouth of yours one more time in my direction, I'm gonna consider it an insult 'cause it smells like the fucking whore that your mother is!"

I glanced up and the stunned look on Skidmark's face showed that he was a glass cannon when it came to profanity, dishing it out with speed, but completely unable to take it. I sighed, adding "Wow, that was such a helpful and constructive comment," before turning my attention back to my hands, trying to get my new power to work.

My friend gave a start as he looked at me, before grinning back. "I'm just trying to fit in here."

Skidmark rallied "You beat up my pushers and think that's fitting in you dick-gagger!"

Herb held up his hands "When you say 'beat up' and 'your pushers'," he responded, using air-quotes. "I don't think the first guy was a pusher unless he was the one pushing your dick into her ass, from behind." I looked at Herb in mute horror. I had no idea how this was going to go well, and if it did I was going to have to re-evaluate everything I knew about drug-dealers.

"I'm not gay you spunk bubble, _you're_ prolly gay you fudge packer, and I'm gonna make you my bitch when I beat your ass down till your begging for your boyfriend to suck my dick 'cause you ain't getting no lube!"

Without missing a beat Herb replied with no inflection, "So you are gay."

Skidmark, now so enraged that spittle was flying between his rotting yellowed teeth yelled. "I'm not actually gonna fuck ya, ya minge blender, I'm gonna motherfuckin' kill ya!" I got the power on my hands stable enough that it started flashing a bit as I dispelled it. Figuring out how to layer it as fast as I could, realizing that my friend's verbal sparring wasn't because he had a death wish, but to buy me time to figure a way out of it. "And you ass handler!" the villain continued, turning his attention to me. "What the fuck are you doin' you pasty waffle jacker!"

"Woah," Herb said, stepping in front of me. I murmured an "almost got it" and he nodded. Focusing everything I had on figuring it out asap, I tuned him out as he continued. "You don't talk to my boy, we're not done yet. As a matter of fact you're such a piece of rotten dog shit, left on the corner, turned ripe, eaten, regurgitated, eaten again, then shit out of your own ass then eaten again before its even so bad that your rotten mouth can't take it, so you puke again because you don't understand the concept of eating something that ain't meth, just look at your backed up teeth, that, oh my god, how many more scars are you gonna put on you? When people talk about track stars, they mean running dumbass. And shooting that much? It's not a tattoo my friend, not a tattoo."

I layered the effect of my new power on the strip of ground behind us, nothing happening till the fifth layering, where it turned a darker blue and started running in the opposite direction. "Okay, we can leave," I told him, looking up and seeing Skidmark turning colors as he became increasingly apoplectic in rage in the sudden silence. I asked disbelievingly "What did you say?"

Herb shrugged. "I was just telling him he was making bad life choices."

I rolled my eyes. "No shit Sherlock, he's a meth head."

Skidmark bit out "What did you call me you sack shiner?"

Herb gave him a raised eyebrow. "It's an easy conclusion, he just followed the tracks in your arms."

At that Skidmark, startled fumbling with his belt, pulling out a gun. "Stop helping!" I told him, laying down a field from our location straight to the door. The first application started ruffling people's clothing, the second started gently moving them out the door, the third pushing them, the fourth dragging them. On the fifth people were being thrown out the door and the field behind us gave way, throwing us bodily out the warehouse, Skidmark having dropped his gun and looked as we rode his power out of his base. "It looks like he wants us to leave," I loudly commented as we rushed past improvised stalls.

"Yeah, good, it stinks in here!" Herb agreed loudly over the strangled "What the fucking hell?" from the villain.

My grinning agreement of "Yes, and the drugs were of inferior quality" not quite drowning out a quieter "Why you doin' that Skidsy?" from Squealer, whose voiced matched her name.

"I'm not fu-" he caught himself. "Cause I want those crap-headed diarrhea extractors outta my fuckin' territory!" We heard as we exited the door. I rode the path, creating a new one off the side, pulling Herb so he didn't fall into the pile of people I'd pushed ahead of us on our way out. As we ran with the metaphorical wind at our backs I heard the villain shout "And I want you virgin crap shiners to chase 'em outta here. If any of you make em bleed you get two hits of whatever you shit pipes want!"

 _Damn,_ I thought. _This is gonna suck._


	4. Conception 1-4

**Conception** **1.4**

I pulled Herb along as we ran, the junky hordes that made up the Merchants hot on our heels, our blood buying them their next fix. Pelting down streets, and through alleys, we had the advantage of being in peak condition, but they knew the territory, and as we exited an alley we had to duck under a set of swung pipes from a pair of Merchants lying in wait. Herb and I lashed out, slamming them both in the diaphragm in unison, and ran on as they fell to the ground gasping like a pair of panicked seals.

Another few turns and another ambush, this one with knives, had Herb panting as we ran, "This is bad." He look askance at me as I stopped running to laugh.

"God Skidmark's an idiot." I commented as I looked down the alley we had stopped in, seeing no-one.

"Why?" he asked, shaking his head. "We gotta move."

"Because he had it the entire time and never did _this_." I responded, layering the effect four times, half a foot wide, in a line from chest height up the four stories to the top of the building.

"Huh? Aaah!" was my friend's response as I grabbed his hand, putting it on the strip the same time as I put mine on it, slightly higher. Without a jolt, we both rose up as if on an elevator, but with even less sensation of movement. We both crested the top of the building, propelled up into the air. Starting to fall as I layered another on field the top of the rooftop, pointing inwards. I kept hold of Herb, catching it with my foot and we were both pushed on top of the building, where I stumbled and he fell in a roll, coming up and looking around. From our position the maze of the trainyards, the slums, and the midway were laid bare, showing the skyscrapers of Downtown to the south, the residential district to the west, and the seemingly floating futuristic structure of Protectorate Head Quarters in the middle of the bay, a barely perceptible bubble around it oversaturating the colors within and giving it an unreal appearance. "Holy shit," my friend commented, looking at the PHQ. "We're really here."

"Yeah," I responded, walking to the southern edge of the building, the gap between buildings a good ten feet. "Let's go south to get out of Merchant territory, get a bit to eat, then find Winslow High and save Taylor."

Herb walked up, looking at the gap. "We gonna have to jump that, or will poop-stain's power carry us?"

I winced. "It's _my_ power now, so please don't call it that. And a little bit of both?" I responded, layering the power on a square foot piece of the ground, trying to aim it not perpendicular to the surface, but at an oblique angle. "I think I have to anchor it to something, so it can't just carry us." It was slippery trying to modify the angle of the push, using a sense I didn't have ten minutes ago, so I dropped the brass knuckles I still had on the surface to test it, only for them to shoot almost straight up, clattering to the ground halfway between the two buildings, eliciting a cry from below.

"Shit," Herb said looking over. "I think you got one but they found us."

I nodded, concentrating. I dismissed the effect, layering a new one at more of an acute angle, spitting into it to judge the direction. It launched my ad-hoc projectile in the right direction, but not hard enough. I layered another, hesitating to put down another on top of that. The increase in thrust wasn't linear, but it wasn't exponential either. I couldn't remember the term for it. Quadratic? It didn't matter, I heard the excited yells from the way we came, which meant they found the lift. "Let's go," I said, stomping on the square and launching myself across the gap, soaring for a moment before catching my foot on the far ledge and putting myself into a spin as I tumbled across the roof. A yell of "Incoming" prompting me to roll out of the way as Herb rolled past the space I was just lying. I got up, offering a hand to my friend as we ran to the next gap, layering the square an extra time and brought the angle up slightly, not stopping as I ran into it, launching across the gap, hitting the ground running, the sound of my friend's steps right behind me. Three more jumps later we got to a street, easily thirty feet wide. I bumped the angle up, and layered it six deep, spitting in this one. I lost track of it halfway across, but it looked good.

I hit it, launching myself across the gap. I flew, hearing the gasps of people below me, and the yell of Herb behind me, the cursing of the Merchants farther behind. As I hit the apex of my arc, I did some quick mental math and realized I wasn't gonna make it. I had needed a seventh layer, though that probably would have put me at least ten feet past the leading edge. Starting to fall I guessed where'd I'd impact on the side of the building and laid another lift to the top, this one several feet wide in case I missed, layering the top bit to point inwards so it would push us over the building instead of just up. I hoped the lifting effect would negate my momentum, softening the impact, but put out my hands and feet to lessen the coming blow.

The force still almost knocked the wind out of me as I hit the brick wall at running speed, my downward force negated by the push upwards, but my horizontal force untouched. The twisted bit at the top did put me over the building, but my foot caught on the top once again, faceplanting me into the gravel, rolling to the side to avoid Herb.

As we sat up we saw the braver druggies following our path, some having reached the third rooftop.

"Hey, question?" Herb asked. "Those things you lay down, how long do they last?" He motioned towards the gawking civilians below us, some getting out phones. "Because: Pedestrians?"

I blinked at him. "Um, they last forever until I disperse them. I mean, I might have a limit for how many I can lay down, but that's kinda it." I looked at the slowly approaching Merchants. "Oh, right, them. Close your eyes." I reached out with my stolen power and felt the fields in front of me, snapping my finger they dispersed in a series of bright flashes of light, the screams of several merchants in quick succession reaching me as they reached the end of a roof, tried to hit a field that wasn't there anymore, and couldn't slow down fast enough to stop themselves from plummeting over the edge, along with a few that might have been taking the first lift that I made. Looking down before backing away from the edge, and visual range, looking at Herb. "Let's make a few more jumps before coming down to street level. We need to cover our faces though, we're getting out of the industrial areas."

Herb nodded, "And we need to do something about your eyes."

I froze, reaching up to my eyes but not touching them. "What's wrong with my eyes?"

"Nothing," he commented. "Except for the fact that they've got every color of the rainbow. And are kinda spinning. And are glowing. But other than that, nothing at all."

I panicked for a second before my logic kicked in. "Right," I said shaking my head. "I knew that was gonna happen. We both picked up the first tier of the Case 53 drawback, so we both got minorly inhuman features. I got prismatic features and you got vamp teeth." I glanced at him. "Which you don't have yet. My working theory is that they manifest when we get our second trigger powers. When did they start glowing?"

"When we were talking to the druggie," he supplied.

"That describes half the people we've talked to today!" I snapped. "Sorry, not helpful. Which druggy?"

Herb waved away my apology. "It's been one of those days. It was Skidmark"

I nodded. "Yeah, I'd already grabbed his power, which was my second trigger. I planned for this," I explained, reaching into the plastic bag I'd wrapped around my wrist. "That's why I picked up Sun-. . . Goddammnit." I swore sadly as I pulled out the plastic shards, crushed from one of my impacts in our flight from the land of low long-term planning. I looked back up to my friend who winced in sympathy. "Okay, new plan, I make my hoody have a better hood, and go with that." I concentrated on my clothing, which transitioned from urban ghetto eyesore to a dark grey hoodie with a larger than normal hood, manifesting a leather jacker over it to better take the impacts in case I fell again. Turning I flipped the hood up, asking "How about now?"

Herb winced. "Ya know how I said your eyes glowed?" At my nod he continued, "Well, it's not that noticeable in the day, but with the hood, it's the first thing ya notice, even more than your edgy black leather jacket."

"It's not edgy!" I defended, "It's to protect from falls or stabs or. . . fine it's edgy," I conceded. I had the fabric of the hood grow up to cover my nose and mouth. "Does this at least hide my identity?" The cloth didn't muffle me in the slightest, that was odd.

"On top of making you look like your trying even harder? Yeah."

I rolled my eyes. "Fine, pull your shirt up over your nose while we make these jumps. We'll ditch it when we go down." I moved across the conjoined rooftops, making another field for us to jump, taking it and landing on the other side, watching as Herb followed, holding his hood to his head as he did so to keep it from flying off. We jumped a few more before I made a weak lift strip which we used to descend into an alley. Herb dumped his jacket in a dumpster as I took off my hood and mask, switching the color scheme and putting a red lion rampant across my now white back.

"Showoff," he commented, smiling as we stepped out on to the street.

* * *

Half an hour later, and asking several times for directions, only some of them correct, we were a few minutes from stepping out onto the Boardwalk a place full of sun, safety, and overpriced everything. While it was the gangs who kept it truly safe, this was only accurate for the boardwalk itself. The fact that I found myself staring down the barrel of a gun two blocks away from it served as a reminder of this truth. We had been so close to our destination that I'd stopped looking around for trouble, figuring we had long since left Merchant territory, when Herb and I turned down an alley and found ourselves looking at three more participants of the "gangsta chic" movement, these all sporting the red and yellow ABB symbol of the "Azn Bad Boys". "Can we not?" I asked the universe under my breath as I turned on my heel to go the other way.

"Where do ya think you're going, white boy?" The shirtless one with the tattoos asked, because they of _course_ had to be as stereotypical as possible. I gave a deep breath before turning back around.

"He's not white," Herb told them, "He's. . . Nordic."

"That, that counts as white," I told him before addressing the leader. "Nowhere good sir. We're just two, humble, travelers trying to find breakfast. Would you know of a good place around here?"

"Yes," my increasingly questionable best friend added. "So, for those of us who aren't from the eighteen-hundreds, speak a bit current if you don't mind."

The three of them started to approach, and I wasn't sure if they were amused or annoyed. I'd tried to be polite and _may_ have gone a bit overboard. "So, hi." I tried again. "We're new in town and don't know where everything is," _including gang territories_ I hoped they understood. "And we're looking for someplace to eat."

"Because bloody hell this is terrible," Herb added with one of the fakest British accents I ever heard. "Sugar, Sugar, tea and crumpets."

"Are you making fun of us?" the left thug asked.

Herb shook his head, "Oh nah, I'm making fun of him," he jerked his head towards me, "actually you know what? Yeah, sure, why not."

"Fuck you," responded the thug who didn't understand humor. "Pretending to be all English and shit. What next, gonna call us 'Orientals'. Fuck you, Oriental is a rug! I'm Asian and I'm a Bad Boy! Isn't that right Eiji?"

The leader rolled his eyes, "Sure Tetsu, let's get this over with."

Herb looked confusing, holding up a hand in a wait gesture. "You're Asian," he echoed. "And you're a bad boy?"

"It's the name of their gang," I supplied, hoping to head off whatever comment he would make that would lead to them trying to kill us.

"Bad boy," he repeated. "Soooo-"

"Please don't," I interrupted.

"Well no, I'm just trying to figure out why they ain't getting spanked by their mommies?" He finished.

The leader, who had had a look of annoyed lethargy went completely still. "What."

"I get spanked by _your_ mama!" the third one tried to trash talk. Emphasis on the tried, only succeeding in gaining everyone's attention.

I sighed. "That's probably not what you meant. You probably meant something like 'I spank your mama every night.' Mind you I just got here so I don't know your mama, and if that were to be pointed out I'd respond with 'What's her name, I'll check when she's blowin' me'. Wait," I said as I had once again gained the full attention of all three gang-bangers. "Why did I say that?"

"And if you're spanking my momma you're into necrophilia," thoughtfully added my friend. "And that means you need help."

By this point the leader had had enough, pulled out a pistol from the back of his pants and pointed it at my head. "Fuck this shit," he commanded. "Give me your fucking wallet round-eye!"

Herb sighed as he eyed the gun. "Not this shit again. We're in so much fucking trouble." Perking up he continued, "Oh shit, this is following those lines."

"What lines?" I asked, unable to help myself. I stared down the barrel of the gun, trying to layer my, for lack of a better term, Acceleration Zones, inside the barrel of the gun, pointing inwards. "Dear penthouse, I never thought it could happen to me?" I gave a mirthless chuckle.

"Nah, not dear penthouse." He disagreed. "If it was that sort of thing I'd have Purity pinned to the bed and-"

"What is it with you and that Neo-Nazi chick?" I asked as the goon pulled thumbed the safety on his gun off. I layered another five layers on the zone inside of the barrel as we talked. _Acceleration zone is mouthful, how about Speed Zone?_ "Actually, I think I got this," I told him as I added another speed zone to the gun.

Herb agreed. "Oh yeah, your thingie!" he agreed, causing the goons to look uncertain.

"You some kind of fucking cape!" the one on the left demanded, pulling out a knife.

"Me? Superpowers? No! No, no, no, no," I responded, lowering my tone each time, adding another layer with each no, the inside of his gun glowing a dark purple.

"What is with people against gays in this town?" Herb asked.

"Not gays, capes," I clarified, starting to layer another set of speed zones on the palm of my hand as I held it loosely by my side.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to accuse you of being homophobic." He apologized. His confusion-fu was finally broken as the leader shook his head as he turned the gun towards Herb, a single faint deep purple spark falling out, only visible because I knew to look for it.

"Stop fucking talking and just give us your fucking money!" the gunman demand. Having five layers on my left palm, and at least ten inside the gun I felt confident.

"What are you gonna do?" I drawled. "Shoot me?"

"You did not just fuckin' say that to me!" he yelled, gun pointing at my head again.

I turned to Herb, dismissing the leader with my body language. "He doesn't seem very perceptive, and imperceptive people make mistakes a lot."

Herb looked at me like I was crazy. "Yeah, but he's got a gun, he can probably shoot you. Using guns is a pretty simple process."

"Yeah," I dismissed, "But if you don't take care of them they can backfire, and that really sucks."

Herb's eyes were glued to the barrel, catching sight of another purple spark in the barrel as he turned away from the armed thug. "On the other hand, you're right," he conceded. "He's just a boy, he probably doesn't know how to pull the trigger. He probably doesn't even know how to pull his pud."

The leader incensed at our dismissal of him as a threat, nearly screamed "Fuck you!" and pulled the trigger. The sound of the gunshot was followed almost simultaneously with the gun exploding, the bullet reversing and flying out the back of the firearm, taking a bit of the goon's shoulder out as it flew.

"Now" I yelled, leaping forward, slamming my zoned hand into the chest of the knife thug, sending him flying into the wall as I was spun in the other direction from the recoil at far faster a speed than I was comfortable with. I panicked, throwing up my leg to try to lessen the impact against the opposite wall. Instead I spun too far, sinking an accidental kick into the third one at almost inhuman speed, feeling at least one rib snap under my shin as I arrested my momentum on his chest. Hearing the guy behind me swearing I slammed my hand on the wall at chest height, shooting backwards and spinning to elbow him in the ribs, as he stabbed me in the chest, feeling something snap where I hit him as well. Looking down I felt pressure, but the point of the knife appeared not to have cut through the leather of my jacket. Around me I saw all three of them down, moaning, with the leader bleeding from the hand and shoulder. As I looked down the alley I saw Herb peering back at me from the street. "What the hell man?" I asked as he walked back down, "You left me!"

"My bad," he looked chagrined. "I misunderstood. I thought 'Now' meant run, not kick the living shit out of these guys." He observed my handiwork. "Damn man, and you gave me crap for the big guy."

"Yeah," I said, dismissing the zone on my hand and what remained on the gun barrel, squatting down to pat down the gunman for his wallet. "Zone-fu is way more effective than I thought."

"Zone-fu?" Herb asked.

"Yeah, using the speed zones I can make to fight. How's the name?" I asked hesitantly.

He laughed. "Corny as fuck, but can't argue with results. Why did you fight them anyways? With your power we could have gotten away easily."

I looked at him, offended. "They tried to rob us, it's only right to rob them right back. It's the golden rule."

"You're a better criminal than I am," he chuckled, shaking his head.

"I'm not a criminal" I objected.

"We're gonna be so awesome as supervillains," he continued as if I hadn't said anything.

"You're not a supervillain if you steal from villains!"

He dragged out his answer of "Suuuure,"in a completely unconvincing manner.

"You don't sound sure."

"No, I'm totally sure that you're sure," he informed me. I chose not to argue as we tossed them for their cash, I grabbed one of their phones, and we walked out, glancing at the name of the coffee shop right next to us. "What's that for?" he asked.

"I probably didn't kill anyone, but I want to make sure." I dialed 911, receiving an attentive operator as I responded in a bad Indian accent. "I am calling to tell you that I saw three very rough looking young men in the alley between Rodeo & Dupont by the MaHotma Grindy, which is quite an offensive name to my culture. They looked to be in very bad shape, moaning on the ground and whatnot. One even appeared to be bleeding if you must know. I heard a gunshot and went to help, but they seemed to be allied with that dragon fellow, and I do not want to get his attention thank you very much."

"Please stay on the line a car will be there shortly." The operator instructed.

"Sorry, I can not do that, very busy, thank you come again." And with that I hung up on her, flipped the phone over, took the case off, and took out the battery and sim chip, dumping the entire assembly in a trash can as I walked.

Herb was covering his mouth trying not to laugh. "You are so racist," he giggled.

I sighed, "Dude, we are having so much bad luck I don't want to get a murder rap. Besides, with an accent that bad it's hard to tell my actual accent, so that helps. Think of how screwed up things are today, we've gotten jumped by thugs three times in broad daylight, and it isn't even ten. Things didn't get that bad in canon until after Leviathan paid this place a visit, and even then, not really. We both took Worst Day Ever when we made our characters, and I want to mitigate as much of that as I can. Also, who the hell names their chain of coffee shops MaHotma Grindy? That's like the definition of Cultural appropriation! Screw it, not my problem."

Finally reaching the boardwalk, we found a restaurant, though the only seating was on the boardwalk, sitting out and exposed. Herb ducked inside to use the bathroom, coming back a moment later. "Clogged," was his statement as he sat down. A few minutes later our breakfast, now closer to brunch, came, with water as they were out of coffee, cocoa, juice, tea, soda, & milk. My waffle was brunt, and his eggs were undercooked, both meals containing a not insignificant number of hairs. I got up, ready to make a complaint as Herb grabbed my hand, shaking his head before pointing at the large Russian man in the back who had been drinking the same cup of coffee as when we showed up half an hour ago. Looking at him he looked back at me, cocked an eyebrow, shuffling the newspapers in front of him, revealing a pistol for a second before covering it again.

I sat back down. "I could take him," I told Herb, trying to eat the non-burnt portions, dry, because apparently there was no syrup in the _entire restaurant_.

He patted my hand comfortingly, and a little condescendingly. "I know you could honey, but you just said this day was bad enough, let's not start more shit than necessary."

I growled and ate what was salvageable. Going to pay the for the meal, the cashier told me they only took credit, but for an extra twenty they'd take cash. I stared at the smiling old lady and almost balked. In the scheme of things, it was nothing, I made a few hundred off of the ABB goons alone, but it irked me. Settling the bill, I grabbed Herb and left, muttering about racketeering.

We walked down the boardwalk for a while, looking around, trying to get a feel for the town when my eyes unfocused for a moment, showing an inferno on the boardwalk. Looking closer I saw a great orange and steel grey flame, billowing off a large Asian man walking determinedly in our direction. In the flames lurked a huge dragon, eyes full of mad rage, looking for something, anything to fight. Grabbing Herb by the arm I took a right and dragged him to the nearest shop, another freaking MaHotma Grindy coffee.

Inside, I pushed him into the line at the back, trying to look nonchalant. "Dude," he said, "If you wanted coffee so bad you should have just said so. Actually!" he perked up, cutting off what I was going to tell him. "This place probably has a bathroom, I'll be right back!"

"Wait!" I called in panic as he disappeared, leaving me alone. Seeing the eyes of others on me I added "You didn't tell me your order!" People turned away, and then all I had to do was wait and see if what could only be Lung, leader of the ABB, showed up. Unfortunately, my power sight seemed to only work if I could see them _in person_ , so if I couldn't physically see him, I couldn't see his power. A few minutes passed with nothing, and I started to relax as I kept an eye on the door when my power flared and I saw the dragon. Walking in the door, the large man had to almost duck down, looking around for someone. I turned to look away to try not to attract attention from the villain.

"You, Red Lion!" he called at me. I froze. _Shit, I forgot to change my jacket_ I panicked as thought about it. The guys I took down must have called their boss. _But why would Lung care about a trio of low level bangers?_

"Yes?" I asked, staring at his chest, not sure if looking him in the eye would have been an insult or not. The bare chest that peeked out of the top of his dress shirt was dark with tattoos. _Definitely Yakuza, damn._ If I had any doubts as to who I was talking to, they were gone.

"You put my men in the hospital. You disrespect them, you disrespect me. That cannot be allowed," he rumbled, his deep voice reverberating around the café easily. Everyone around me quickly backed away, not wanting to get close, but wanting to see what happened, the cell-phone cameras coming out.

I flicked up my hood, physically raising the portion covering my mouth instead of willing it to do so. I added gloves to the what I was wearing leaving only my glowing eyes visible. Highly identifiable, but better than nothing. Maybe if I could be respectful enough I could defuse the situation. Maybe. "In my defense, they did try to rob me for no good reason, and then tried to shoot me in the head. That's not really respectful either. Your idea of honor seems a bit slanted if you're okay with that," I responded smoothly. There was a beat of stillness. _Dear god why did I say that!_ I screamed internally.

Lung blinked, glaring at me. "You think this is funny?" he asked, stalking towards me. the air around him starting to shimmer with heat.

I took a deep breath before responding, considering my options. If he transformed I could probably steal a copy of his power, but I could feel my own trying to do so, not able to get a handle on it. _Maybe he has to transform more? Oh god, if he has to go full dragon before it'll work I'll be long dead!_ I suppressed the urge to glance behind me, wondering where the hell Herb was. It'd only been a couple of minutes, but I needed him out here helping, or to lead him away. I considered using my speed zones to throw him to the side, and ride more of them out to run, but any large-scale use of it would automatically out me not only as a cape, but as having Skidmark's power, and every-time I read a story with power-copiers, the people with regular powers tended to hate them right off the bat. Probably a deeper psychological reason for that, but not something to worry about now as he was obviously waiting for a response. I looked up, "Sorry sir, I meant no disrespect, when I get scared I get sarcastic. It's a bad trait. I meant to say I am new and do not yet know these territories. I respectfully asked your men if they knew where I could find breakfast and they tried to take everything I owned. I only wished to walk away, but they tried to kill me. Self-defense is the basic right of all men. Sir."

He looked me in the eyes, which were probably easily seen to be glowing under my hood, but hopefully only to him. Hopefully he'd let me go with a warning and talk to his followers not to pick fights with people who obviously had superpowers. Demanding, he pseudo-asked "You said you were new, but you knew me on sight. Explain."

This was easy. "Before I travel to a new city I look up the major players: You, Kaiser, Armsmaster, Coil. I want to know who to not offend sir."

"Coil?" was the response.

 _Shit_ I thought. _He's pretending to be a minor player now. How the hell would I have heard of him?_ "My source said he had connections sir, that it wasn't his power or tinker tech that made him dangerous, but his connections."

He looked down at me, the air around him slowly oscillating between calm and shimmering, as if his power didn't know whether to activate or not. Looking closer at it I Knew it was a changer power at heart, not a brute, that had adapted to his psyche to turn him into his idea of an apex predator, a dragon, but the power had self-limited to conflict, though the nature of that conflict was up to Lung. Did this count as a conflict? It normally was hard to get truly mad when someone when they were honestly being helpful, but that wasn't an ironclad protection.

"They said you had a partner. Where is he?" he ground out. Was it good or bad that he wasn't addressing _any_ of my points?

"Um," I started, trying to figure out an answer that wouldn't get Herb ambushed with his pants down. Lung took a step forward, the air shimmering in a halo around him. I saw sweat start to bead on the skin of those hugging the walls, and on an intellectual level I felt it too, though it didn't bother me. "I was getting us both coffee, he should be here soon. He might have seen you and ran though. It would be the smart thing to do sir."

Lung smiled, more baring of his teeth then any friendly gesture. "Then he should be able to call for an ambulance when he finds you, like you did for my men. You will be in worse shape." He reached out with a hand for my neck. _Yeah, that's not gonna happen_ I thought as I jerked back, batting it away.

His eyes narrowed and he reached for me again, the nails on his hand lengthening and sharpening. _What to do?_ I thought. I still didn't want to out myself as a cape, trying to figure out what to do that would be subtle. I ducked under the hand, jerking my head back as his other hand came up, clawed and ready to rip. Taking a step forward he came at me with a hook. Which I dodged again, grabbing his arm and twisting it into a throw, shoving him into the glass counter which shattered, the insides promptly catching fire.

 _Must have been hotter than I thought_ I mused as he picked himself up. _Where the fuck are you Herb?_ The Baristas screamed as they fled to the back, one brave soul stopping at the doorway to continue filming me. Glancing around people had backed up towards the door, still watching. _Ugh, Yuppies_. Lung turned around, bit of flame starting to dance around and glared at me, bits of burning pastry stuck to his face. "For that, you die!" he declared, charging me. I dropped a speed zone behind me as he ran towards me, arms out. I dropped a smaller one an inch wide to the side and stepped on it, moving faster than he expected as I dodged, grabbing his arm to mime throwing him as his foot hit my seven-layered zone, accelerating him rapidly in an instant before being thrown into several tables ending his flight impacting the far wall, plaster cracking before it blackened as a wave of flame erupted from the downed form of Lung.

The inferno washed over his surroundings, lighting the couch, table, and chairs ablaze as Lung got up and reared back to bathe me in flame. I jumped forward, stepping on the zone and shot through the cleared path at speed as Lung unleashed a blaze from his increasingly distended jaws. Layering down a lift zone right in front of the bipedal dragon I weathered the torrent, stomping on it as I ducked down. Rising in time with my power, extending my body upwards in a jumping uppercut, I caught him directly in the jaw, dismissing my power in a flash of light as I lifted him off his scaly feet, sending him backwards into the wall again. I hit the ground, holding my throbbing hand, even though the gloves that _hurt!_

I turned my attention back to Lung, slumped against the wall, the fires around me dying down to mortal levels. Half the place was on fire but I didn't care, I was winning against Lung! I glanced at the entrance and the number of people had diminished, but a few were still filming. I gave them a thumbs up as something flickered in my vision and my feet were knocked out from under me by a round and hard appendage. I hit the ground on my back, oomphing with the impact as Lung came out of the flames, easily twelve feet tall, hunched down to fit in the ten-foot clearance of the café. I started to get up when a huge hand planted itself on my chest, talons pressing against the fabric but not piercing even the cloth of my hoodie.

Lung's draconic face leered out of the flames, skin replaced with steel scales and distended into a dragon's muzzle. I could see a large tail flickering out behind him, my power seizing on that, trying to grab his power, but not managing it. _Oh come on!_ I despaired. _Do I need the wings too before I can copy him?_ "Wha' are oo?" he demanded before shaking his head, flame flickering from around his jaws. "Don' Ca'e, Die!" he yelled, bringing his other hand up, talons ready and started to swing for my face. _Fuck, I hope Herb got away okay._ I thought as I struggled, trying and failing to dislodge the arm pinning me in place.

As the clawed hand descended another flashed into sight, this one reptilian as well, but a dark brown and closer to a crocodile skin then the layered scales of Lung's armor. This new hand and arm, the rest obscured by flame and smoke, followed a ballistic course before impacting the side of Lung's head at speed, the dragon looking confused for a frozen moment before he was propelled off of me and out the door, breaking the glass as he flew, the screams of the people on the boardwalk reaching my ears as I heard him impact the store across the way.

I blinked stupidly as I saw Herb run over to me, a woman's jacket wrapped around his head, leaving his eyes watering, wide, and uncovered. "What the hell man!" he yelled as he helped me up. We staggered out of the burning store, him holding me up as I limped out, getting my breath back and regaining my panicked thoughts. Across from us Lung, in _almost_ full dragon mode, staggered out of a burning restaurant, glaring at us.

Herb froze as I started to run, stumbling as I jerked my friend off his feet. He quickly started running next to me. Glancing, "Can you summon your thing yet?" I asked as we hauled ass.

He shook his head. "No, I almost had it but I had to save your stupid ass!" he yelled, glancing back as Lung started to gain on us, leaving flaming prints and he loped on all fours.

We both dodged around a lost looking muscular teenager who had been looking at the fire. _Shouldn't he be in school?_ I thought as I passed him, staring him in the eyes. Something about him seemed familiar, but I didn't have the time to stop and chat with strangers.

We needed to get away, but if our luck held we wouldn't be getting help from the Parahuman Response Teams. What was that phrase about cops? 'When seconds count, they're minutes away?' I could use my power, but that would only give us a little bit of a lead, and if I wasn't careful Lung would use it to catch up to us. _Where could I put a zone that Lung couldn't use it._ I thought as we ran for our lives. _My hand? But that would be awkward to balance on._ I slapped my head as I realized what I needed to do. "What?" Herb asked. "You have that 'I'm about to do something stupid' look. I know that look!"

"Jump!" I commanded.

"Wha-," he asked.

"JUST FUCKING JUMP!" I commanded, jumping and trying to drag him upwards as I did so. He leapt and as we left the ground I covered the bottoms of our shoes with zones pointing backwards. I ran into the problem of having to deal with backlash fighting the ABB as apparently whatever I applied the field to trying to move opposite the thing it was propelling. This way, we'd try to move the earth behind us, which wouldn't happen, but the backlash would move us forward instead. Hitting the ground, I was immediately jerked forward, as was Herb with an "ohshit!" right next to me. We were moving just as fast as we had been running, Lung still gaining, so I felt with my power, feeling the four active fields without seeing them. I applied another layer to all of them, jerking us forward again as we picked up speed. Herb held on to my arm for dear life, trying not to scream as we blasted past stores, leaving the angry dragon in our metaphorical dust.


	5. Conception 1-5

**Conception** **1.5**

We sped down the Boardwalk, skating on my power, only turning slightly to avoid people as we hit the edge of that part of the city. I dragged him into the road as we shot down the street, trying to avoid cars as we moved. Looking forward I saw we were headed for a T intersection, and I wasn't sure of our ability to turn. I tried to mentally reach out to the speed zones on the bottom of my feet to strip off the layers instead of dismissing entirely. I could feel the field, and the layers, but as I tried to strip a layer off my left foot there was a flash and the entire zone dissipated.

Sweating I held on to Herb as I started to slow, but not nearly enough. I pushed him, shifting his weight onto the foot on the other side of me. He looked at me as I tried stripping off a layer from his raised foot, dispelling that zone as well. _Shit._ I thought. We'd slowed to somewhere close to thirty miles per hour but that was still too damn fast. "We can't turn!" I yelled at him. "When I say jump, jump and we'll try to bleed off the speed. Keep running!" I commanded. He nodded and followed my command of "Jump!"

I dispelled the zones on our feet and we hit the ground running far too fast. It wasn't a good feeling, more like constantly stumbling forward in a mad attempt to keep your feet under you than some kind of superhuman experience. We hit the edge of the intersection right after we landed, doing well for a second before a truck bore down on us, horn blaring. Without thinking I swung my arm out, shoving Herb square in the chest, slowing him down. I looked back at him as he fell with a roll, stopping safely as I launched myself forward, almost clearing the truck. In a panic, I dropped a lift zone on the front of the truck's grill, catching me and giving me momentum in the direction the truck was going right before it hit me mid-leap, lessening the speed differential.

The impact didn't come with the crunch of breaking bone like I feared, the bruising force launching me over a parked car. I impacted the sidewalk, instinctually rolling and shoving myself upwards to minimize damage, launching myself up and through a plate glass window before landing on a table, which promptly collapsed, something hot splashing across my face.

"Owwww," I groaned, well over half of my body notifying me of their distress with my current life choices. I dismissed the field on the truck as I lay there, rallying myself to get up.

"Are you okay?" came a concerned man's voice. Looking over I saw a guy in a business suit sitting on a stool that was probably supposed to go with the table now underneath me. "Do I need to call an ambulance?"

I rolled to my feet, my side throbbing in pain from where I'd hip-checked a semi, back aching from the impact with the table. Looking at the glass I was amazed I hadn't been cut. I hurt, but it was manageable, and nothing on what I felt in that prismatic place. "I'm good," I groaned out, waving him off. "Thanks for asking." I grabbed my wallet and handed him a twenty, telling him "For your coffee," as I walked out the front door.

Limping back to the intersection, I saw Herb sitting soot stained, still wearing the canary yellow jacket wrapped around his head, staring dumbly at the trunk stopped a few feet in front of him. As I got closer my stride smoothed out a bit, feeling sore instead of lame. The trucker had gotten out and was yelling at me. "Holy shit are you oka-" He cut himself as he saw my glowing eyes "Fucking capes! What the fuck do you think you were doing boy! If I wanted a hood ornament I'd buy one!" He looked between the two of us. "You can't go runnin' around like you own the place. Why the fuck did you do something stupid like that?"

"Lung." Herb said in a shocked voice, staring at the truck that almost hit him. "We were running from Lung."

The trucker peered at him, then me. "Why the fuck did you piss of that scaly bastard?"

"Good question," my friend agreed, turning to look at me accusingly. "Why did we do that?"

"His guys tried to mug us. We objected. They tried to kill us. We strongly objected. Lung tried to kill us for strongly objecting, and we very strongly objected." I explained, walking over to help Herb up, putting one of his arms over my shoulder as we staggered away. "New Trigger, haven't got the hang of it yet, sorry."

He looked at us, at his undamaged truck, and the broken window. Following his gaze, I saw it was another MaHotma Grindy. _How many of those are in the city?_ I thought, carrying my friend towards an alley. Looking back at us the trucker winced. "Maybe you boys should go to the local PRT office," he advised, pointing to the south. "You boys need a ride? It'd be cramped but you don't look good."

 _Not a chance in hell. I know exactly how corrupt the Parahuman Response Teams are and I'm not going in there without an exit plan_. "That might be a good idea," I nodded, setting off in that direction. "This town's more dangerous than I thought, but we need a bit of a walk to cool down. 'Walk it off' like my coach says. Thanks for the offer."

He laughed as he got back into his truck. "It ain't that bad. Take care of yourselves!"

"You too!" I called back. _It is, you just can't see it_ I thought. This place wasn't quite a powder keg, more like a badly maintained grain silo, where if conditions were right, it would explode, every safety that should have stopped it hopelessly broken. Leviathan was definitely the spark that would mess this place up, and if I wanted to make things better, I needed time to stop and think.

"That sucked," groaned Herb as we staggered down the alley, coming around and pulling his arm back, rubbing his chest where I'd shoved him as he looked around, taking the jacket from around his head. He looked at me, shaking his head. "What the fuck were you thinking?" He asked, heat rising in his voice.

I blinked. "That as we were running we were both gonna get hit, but if I shoved you back you'd stop and I'd have enough momentum to clear the truck. It didn't quite work but-"

"Not that you fucktard! For fighting Lung! You didn't even have his power you dumbass!" He yelled, shoving me against the alley wall.

I cocked my head, more confused than anything. "You were in the bathroom, I needed to buy time for you to get out."

"And you never thought to, I don't know, knock on the bathroom door? I'd have gotten off the shitter in a hurry if you were like 'Yo, Fire breathing dragon comin' for us!' Instead I took my time until I smelled smoke, opened the door, and saw the goddamn building ON FIRE in time to see you uppercut God Damn LUNG!" he screamed, getting hysterical.

"Yeah, it was awesome." I laughed, continuing at his glare. "I shouldn't have looked away but I was doing pretty well up to that point. And hey, we got away, so it's fine." I defended. It was a bit touch and go but we got away. Lung would be on the lookout for someone with my eyes, but a pair of shades and I should be able to go under his radar. I was planning on grabbing a strength power, so the next time we clashed I could back it up, and I'd take a major step in solving the villain problem. I might even get his power, and wouldn't that be awesome?

Herb looked at me, then threw his hands up, screaming incoherently between clenched teeth. Stepping back, he took several deep breaths muttering under his breath. "Fucking dumbass, deals in fucking logic, use logic." He froze and turned back to me. "Why didn't you copy his power? If you did I wouldn't have needed to save your ass! I got a dose of it when I got close and I didn't get any of it from you."

"I would if I could, but the power wouldn't catch. I think he had to fully transform before it would take." I answered honestly. "I know we need to talk about this, but can we not do so right next to the place I got thrown through a window?"

He glared at me, looking down the way we came before nodding and following me out. We cut across another street before ducking down another alley. Down that one I shifted my jacket to a splotchy grey, the hoody a uniform grey just a bit lighter, trying to avoid anyone looking for a red lion. As I was doing this Herb spoke up again, "Please don't tell me you were fighting Lung just so you could take his power. _Indoors_!"

I bristled at the implications, "I told you I-"

"Were doing it to protect me, I know," he cut me off. "But there were other ways you could have fucking done it dumbass. Hell, why didn't you throw him out with your zones, hit the door 'till I got out, and we run out the back?"

"I was trying to avoid overt use of my powers, keep things low key," I told him, continuing past his strangled gasp of "Low key, you fought fucking LUNG!" to explain "I kept it small until he started fires, then pretended it was super strength, using the fire to cover the effects. Then he breathed fire, which I'm immune to, and I saw an opportunity to knock him down, and I took it, and it was awesome." I finished. "Hurt my hand, but worth it."

"And then what did you do?" he pressed.

"I waited to see if he got up."

"THAT! That is why I think you were trying to fucking bait him!" My friend exclaimed. "Lung's a regenerator, you knock him down and he gets back up even badder. If you were trying to take him down you should have followed him down and fucked him up. Taylor took out his fucking EYES and you just waited like a dumbass, and when he did what Lung ALWAYS DOES, he caught you by surprise and you were half a second from getting your fucking face ripped off."

I winced, going over the events in my mind. "I wasn't doing that. Was I?" I focused on what had been going on. Sighing and putting my face in my hands, realizing my mistake, "No, I wasn't baiting him, but I _was_ being a dumbass."

"Oh really?" he inquired. "Seems pretty fuckin' obvious to me."

"I was treating him like a human opponent. I didn't want to fight him, so I thought if I hit him hard enough he'd stay down, but he treats every confrontation like a pack alpha, constantly asserting his dominance. I'm not gonna say I didn't want his power," I added, cutting him off, "Just that that wasn't my main motivation. I treated him like a person, but he isn't really, and not just 'cause he's a cape. He turns into a dragon, or at least, what he thinks a dragon is, and that mimics the neurochemistry of his idea of dragons. They constantly fight for dominance, so he does, and the more he sinks into his power the worse it is. When he goes back to normal though that sticks around. Maybe if he didn't use his power for a bit he might even out, but he almost always is at a low level, so his anger doesn't tire him out because that part of his brain is constantly healed. God I'm such a dumbass. I should have done some obfuscation shit, ran, come back for you, and then we left, but I was winning, or at least not losing long enough I thought I had a chance with a direct confrontation. If you hadn't come in I would have died." I glanced at his mouth, as he got ready to respond, but his teeth were still normal. "Do you have a handle on your power yet?"

His expression, which was tending towards conciliatory hardened again. "No," he growled. "I thought I was getting somewhere but this overconfident dipshit needed my help so I partially had it, again, and lost hold of it." He reached his hand out to the side, making a fist as the air around him shimmered, a slight brown tint to it before it vanished into nothing. "I'm close, but I lost it when I saw what was happening." His expression softened again. "Just, just don't do anything stupid like that again." He sighed, amending, "Today. I know how you are."

I wanted to argue, but wasn't really sure how to start. I fucked up, hard. I knew Lung regenerated, but I didn't explicitly read it in his power so I forgot about it. Technically he didn't heal, he just was constantly trying to turn into a dragon, one that wasn't injured. It was slower when he wasn't explicitly fighting, but he was still trying to be one, just a fraction of one instead. However, I hadn't seen it in the express manifestation of his power, and forgot about anything other than what was explicitly there, looking at the surface of what he could do, not the depths that made the obvious parts work.

Instead I nodded, moving back towards the end of the alley, turning the corner and spotting an empty bus-stop I wandered over. "We've gotten distracted," I started, pointedly ignoring Herb's snort, "But we still have our mission. It's gotta be close to eleven, we take a bus to Winslow, pull her out, get her taken care of, and disappear until the heat dies down." I looked at the chart of lines. "Danny works at the docks, and it's easy for her to get there so she must be up here," I waved at the northwestern portion of the map. "That means we want bus number 8."

Herb nodded, taking a seat, letting out a deep breath, starting to attempt to manifest his power, before looking around and letting his arm drop. "So, when we did the thing online it was supposed to be fun," he started, "All jokey-jokey, wouldn't it be cool shit, but now that we're here, I don't have any powers!"

"Yes you do," I told him. "You're buff, you've got the ability to copy powers of anyone within five meters of you, and you've got the power to replicate yourself. I don't know how the last one works, and it looks like it's still recharging, but that's a thing. Also, you've got your projection power, if you can figure out how to bring that online."

"Yep," he seemingly agreed. "I've got no powers. No, ya know what? I've apparently got the power of running my ass off and not getting super tired."

I winced. "You've got practically superhuman endurance. Ladies love that shit."

"Yeah," he sighed, looking off into the distance.

Rolling my eyes, I continued. "It's probably because of the fact that it's such a powerful ability that it's taking so long to work."

He turned to me expression questioningly accusatory. "Your power is pretty broken too."

"Not at first," I disagreed. "Given time, hell yeah, but to start with it's pretty weaksauce. You not only have your projection, Stand, summon, thing, but it has powers of its own as well, all of which are the empowered second trigger versions. That may be why it's taking so long."

His brow furrowed. "It does? I know that it had shapeshifting but I don't remember what else it had. I-" he cut himself off, pointing at the coming bus. We got on, paid the fee, and sat at the empty back. "Course you'd make me sit at the back of the bus," he jibed.

"Shut up man, we need to talk about what we picked, since you don't remember." I sighed, running my hands through my hair. "I think I do, so I'll try to recap. We picked the Gestation start, obviously, so we're following canon. If I knew we were gonna be dropped in I would've gone for Golden Age instead, it would've given us more powers and dropped us off in the late eighties, but oh well. The rest," I concentrated. "We're both Abaddon shards, so we start strong and get ridiculous. I'm a Hero, because I'm saving the world, and you chose Cauldron, so you're the support from the shadows."

"Don't have that." Herb denied. "I'm pretty sure I'd notice if I did."

I waggled my hand in a so-so gesture. "I think you will get support, just not right away. It's probably all the drawbacks we took screwing with us. We both took two ranks of Worst Day Ever, the max was three ranks where the world itself is trying to kill you."

"Ya might not have noticed, but it kinda seems like it is. Lung?"

I waved around the bus, which only had a few people in it, an old woman with a small dog staring at us warily, a guy who looked three sheets to the wind, and a black girl, maybe fourteen, dressed trashily who kept sneaking glances at us. "Nothing's trying to kill us right this minute. That's what we get for two out of three. Then there's the issue of costumes."

"Yeah, what the hell. I ended up nekkid. Where's mine?" he squawked.

I sighed as all three of the other passengers looked at us. "Dude, keep it down. I think you'll get yours later. I think, I think I've already got mine."

He glanced at my hoodie. "Not much of one."

Rolling my eyes I explained, "Yeah, because it shifts. I picked the 'other' option like you, but you wanted a robot-suit combo, I wrote down 'dimensional cloak' because it sounded cool. I think this is what I got." I pulled the fabric of the hoody sleeve out of my jacket's sleeve, holding it taut as I pulled my arm back. "Use the knife you got from the Merchants and try to cut it." Shrugging he did so, taking out the blade to disapproving huff of the dog-lady. He tried sawing the knife on the cotton fabric, to no avail. "Now stab it." He did so, only serving to move the fabric with the force of the blow. He tried a couple more times, never piercing the fabric.

"Wicked." Called the black girl. My head snapped up to see her a few feet away, staring us. "Is that like some stab proof shit? Where can I get me some of that?" Looking closer at her I saw that she had almost aristocratic features that she would grow into, something that her horrible fashion distracted from. The juxtaposition seemed familiar, but I couldn't remember why.

"Parian." I told her, lies flowing easily as I tried to remember why she should seem familiar. "The Rogue that does clothing. Costs a bit, but damn fine work."

"That's cool as shit." She commented, looking out the window. "My stop, later losers." And with that she was out the door.

"Why does she look so fuckin' familiar," commented Herb.

"'cause I'm pretty sure that was Aisha Labron, also known as Imp when she gets powers after the Leviathan attack." I explained. "I got an option of one of six 'gifts', Perfect recall of the plot, with all the notes, seeing interludes in my dreams, a do over of power selections if I died, being dropped back home if I died, returning back home with powers if I win, or, the thing I went with, Plot Relevance. Narratively important shit's gonna happen around me all the time."

"Oh. That's. . . good?" He asked.

"It is what it is, right, so, other stuff. We both were drop-ins instead of inserts-"

"Literally!"

"Yeah, I don't think that it was supposed to be. But the two of us have no identities here, which is gonna make things harder, unlike. . . shit."

Herb looked around, trying to find the danger. "What? Are we gonna have to fight Kaiser or something."

"No, remember when we were. . . elsewhere, and that black and white thing passed by us laughing?"

He shivered. "Yeah, that was freaky."

"That was my father."

A deadpan look was his response. "What."

"He was an insert, so he wouldn't be physically dropped in, his soul would be, or maybe his mind, either way, I'm pretty sure that was him."

He just nodded. "Okay, so your old man's in here as well. Okay. Sure. Why not?"

I sighed. "So, back to us. We both bought skills, but I can't remember which ones. You picked up martial arts, while mine are learned. We both picked up parkour, which has been useful. I think we both have stealth, but that hasn't really been helping lately. I think we've picked up others, but I can't remember which. For positives, all three of us took plot convenience, which is a damn good thing."

"Why?"

"Because it means that until we upset the apple cart, our existence is already figured in with all the major player's plans. Contessa, the Simurgh, and anyone else with that level of ability to see the future won't freak out until we move and start messing up everything."

He looked at me before pointing straight up. "Um, hello, we met Ziz, shouldn't the power have stopped that shit?"

Shaking my head, I continued. "It doesn't stop them from seeing us, just from going 'oh god, I never counted on them being here, where did they come from, kill it with fire' just for being here. She knew we were coming so was probably around to take a look at us. Technically you. And that's it. Hopefully. That brings me to the next point, both my dad and I are Blindspots. We can't be seen by Precogs which will mean that as soon as either of us become major players it'll unsettle precogs as they can't read us, and the only others that they can't read are Scion and the Endbringers."

"I can see how they'd freak the fuck out over that shit."

"If I remember right, you'll get a lair while I'm a Noctis cape, so I don't sleep, and if I do I just remember things with perfect clarity."

"That's gotta suck." he responded solemnly.

"Why? Nevermind, the only other thing is that I picked up Negentropy."

"What the hell's that?" he asked.

I took a deep breath. "Okay, so the entities like Scion, they're doing this entire process of seeding worlds with powers, harvesting them, spawning and blowing up the world because they're trying to find something that will let them negate entropy and survive even the universe's end. Natural triggers from Scion? They've got a century or two of power use before it runs out. Eden triggers from Cauldron vials? They've got a century if they're careful, less if they have regularly use them. Constant hardcore use drops that to thirty to forty years, like Eidolon. Abaddon triggers like us though, we've got several centuries of Eidolon level use, but I think long-term, and I spent the points to make my shard give a middle finger to the heat-death of the universe, so it's truly eternal!" I finished with a grin.

Herb stared at me in stunned disbelief, finally informing me "You're a dumbass."

"What?" I started. "I know I could have handled the Lung thing better but-"

"No no no no," he held a hand up. "The Lung thing was like 'whups I added too much salt to my soup' levels of dumbass compared to this fuckup of, fuck, 'did I just pop the sun' levels of dumbassery. You copy powers, right?" I nodded, not following. "Which means you're going to want to copy Scion's right?"

"Yeah, I mean I kinda have to if I'm gonna go toe to toe with him," I agreed.

"Shush. Scion can feel people's shards, right? That's why he hated Eidolon."

"Yeah, I guess."

"Then what do you think he's gonna fucking do when he sees a shard, which has the one thing his entire species has killed I don't know how many to get just hangin' around? He's gonna go straight for that shit immediately!"

"Oh. Well. Shit. Damn. I. I didn't think about that." I admitted. "So no going near him until the endgame. I can manage that, sorta."

"What do you mean 'sorta'" he demanded.

"Well he stops the Leviathan fight, which both of us _have_ to fight in. So we need to do so then GTFO as fast as possible. It adds some complexity to the problem, but I can change it."

Herb sighed. "What else did you get, anything else that's gonna get Scion, who's apparently evil, on your ass or anything like that?"

"Um, no?" I hazarded. "We both should have Cauldron vials, but you might get both of ours when you get your costume. The disadvantages we both got, um," I stalled trying to remember. "We both got Worst Day Ever, two levels, we all had Rough Start, I got two levels, you got three, so soon, probably today, you're going to end up homeless, in debt, and a social pariah."

"Well, we ain't got no papers for being here legally, so we're already homeless. If they track us down we're gonna be on the hook for that shop you burned down-"

"That was Lung," I insisted.

He waved off my objections, "Like they'll try to collect from the dragon of Kyushu. Nah, they'll try and pin it on us since we won't burn their house down for trying." He looked thoughtful. "Though that would be a good way of scaring off debt collectors."

I sighed. "Don't burn down people's homes Herb, it wouldn't work out in the long term anyways. Lung gets Bird-caged, and as good as we are, escaping from that parahuman prison is not something I want to try anytime soon."

"No promises."

I sighed. "So, dad's power is that he can't be recorded on anything, astral projection, but most importantly he picked up Destiny Weaver. It's like a more limited Path to Victory where he sees a person's possible fate in twelve hours, picks one, and then knows what to do to make that happen, so when we have time to do some research, we need to look over the capes in town to find any new ones, since he never picked out a cape name. Lastly there's your projection."

"Yeah, what I was actually asking about."

"Sorry, got sidetracked. So it can turn into any animal, short of microbes, and-"

He cut me off, "What about mythical animals, 'cause that would be awesome. Lung vs an actual dragon!"

I shrugged. "No idea, our powers get better with time, so maybe, and if not maybe later? It'll also have upper tier vampirism, so it'll heal from hurting others, but also get stronger and faster the longer it fights. Kinda like Lung, but different underlying mechanics. It can jump super high, and double jump in the air once per jump. You made it immune to poisons, acid, heat, cold, radiation, and electricity, and also gave it the ability to fake its death."

"Holy shit, that's awesome!" he exclaimed, getting looks from the other dog lady, the drunk guy apparently having gotten off while we were talking.

"Yeah," I whispered. "That's why I think it's taking so long, you aren't activating one second tier power like me, you're activating six at once."

Herb sat back, considering that, smiling broadly. I looked around and noticed the apartment buildings we were passing, with houses in the distance. They looked nice, _really_ nice. That bugged me, but I couldn't figure out why. I got up and walked to the front of the bus, asking the driver. "Hi, how many more stops until the high school? My friend and I are supposed to meet someone who lives near there."

The driver gave me a questioning look. "It's the next stop." He answered carefully. "You're not gonna do anything bad are ya? No fighting?"

"What? No, of course not, we're just meeting some friends." I was confused by his statement for a second before realizing he wasn't looking me in the eye, he was staring at my eyes. "Don't worry, I'm not planning on doing anything illegal. Thanks for the help." With that I walked back, motioning Herb to follow me at the next stop as we got out. Turning around after we got out, the bus left, showing us a beautiful gated campus, the words Immaculata High emblazoned over the archway.


	6. Conception 1-6

**Conception 1.6**

We stared at the school that was the opposite of our intended destination in everything but grade level as I softly swore to myself. Herb walked over to the map before he started laughing. "What?" I snapped, my patience having long since worn thin.

"We got on the wrong bus." He laughed.

"No we didn't" I insisted, "We wanted bus number 8, we took bus 8, how are we here!"

He shook his head. "I forgot you're a country bumpkin. Busses run both ways. We took the wrong one, should have gone across the street and taken that one."

My face scrunched up in confusion. "But, that's silly. Why not have the bus have one number for one route and another for the opposite way. It's a digital sign, super easy to switch to avoid confusion! Goddamn it I hate cities."

He continued to laugh. "It makes sense if you pay attention, just our luck."

I groaned, burying my face in my hands. "So where _are_ we?"

He checked the map again. "Found it. Hmm, if Winslow is up here in the northwest part of Brockton Bay, we're in the southern part, on the other side of the city."

I groaned again. "And how far is it if we just fucking walked? With our luck if we get on a bus it'll take us to Boston, and stealing a car will probably get us caught immediately."

"It's a few miles that way," he pointed, "if we walk quickly we can probably make it in an hour and change. I'd get tired out long before but with these muscles it won't happen."

"Then let's move," I ordered, starting to walk. Herb caught up to me as we moved, covering the distance in ground-eating strides. "Do you remember how long she was in the locker?" I asked, trying to wrestle down my roiling irritation at getting constantly blocked from trying to do the right thing. All I wanted to do was save a tortured girl from severe psychological trauma, was that too much to ask?

He shook his head. "I remember it being hours, but that can't remember how many. She might already be out man."

I concentrated as we walked, moving swiftly, Herb having to jog a bit to keep up. "I'd say it's almost noon by now, if we make a bee-line for the school we should be there by one, one thirty at the latest. From there we either get her out, or she'll be out already and we'll see the cop cars and maybe an ambulance. If she's there you get within five meters and use her bug control to clear them from the area so she can calm down, and we stop by the hospital later to do the same thing to keep her out of the psych ward. If we see Emma, Sophia, or that other one-"

"I'm gonna punch her in the face." He interjected matter-of-factly.

I paused for a second before continuing, "Yes. No. Not then, first priority is Taylor, revenge later." We'd passed out of sight of the campus and were moving quickly through an industrial area, mostly clean but with bits of dirt here and there. "Wonder where we are exactly, a lot of white people."

"It's cause it's a nicer neighborhood," Herb explained.

I glanced at him. "Isn't that racist?"

He nodded, face full of honest agreement. "Yeah."

I looked at the clean streets and well-kept buildings. "But you're kinda right. Damnnit."

We continued powering through the streets, weaving back and forth to keep as close to a straight line as possible, turning a corner on a side street and stopping. In front of us, hanging out in front of a building were a bunch of young men, all of them white, several of them tattooed, and a couple with shaved heads. They stopped talking to each other as we turned the corner, looking towards us, several that were sitting down standing up. "Herb," I sighed, I did _not_ have time for this. "What are the three major gangs in Brockton bay?"

Herb glanced back the way we came, a couple more tattooed individuals ambling up the sidewalk, eyeing us. "Well, you've got the ABB, who are a bunch of little boys, it's right in the name. You've got the whacked-out druggies we ran into who call themselves the 'Merchants' which doesn't make any sense whatsoever."

"They sell drugs Herb," I explained.

"Well, that's stupid."

"They were also probably high when they came up with the name."

He nodded. " _That_ I can believe."

I waited for a moment, but he didn't continue. "What's the third gang Herb?"

He sighed. "Oh, that's the Empire Eighty-Eight, but. . ." he trailed off.

"The Neo Nazi White Supremacists?" I asked, looking to see about twelve in front of us, five behind us, and a few more down the street.

He nodded, turning to address the E88 thugs in front of us. "Hey guys, small thing." I sighed, not sure where this was going.

"What do ya want ya sand nigger!" one of them called back.

"What, he's not Arab, he's black you asshole!" I responded. "I know you hate minorities, but would it hurt to be able to recognize them?"

"And White," Herb interjected. "Black _and_ white. Heil Hitler." He gave a half-assed Nazi salute. I wasn't sure if it was supposed to be mocking or if he just didn't know what to do. "Suuuup? And Purity-"

"Dude, no." I tried to stop him.

"What?" he asked innocently.

"No. Whatever you're going to say, it's not going to help." I told him.

He waved his hands in negation. "No, no, what I'm saying is, dude, they all know she's hot!"

I quirked an eyebrow. _How was this going to go well?_ "The ex-wife of Kaiser, their leader? Yes, I would assume she's hot."

"Right! So, have you seen her? 'cause, I'd like to see her, and. . ." I brought my hands to my face again, groaning into them, laughing a little at how bad this day was going and how my _best friend_ kept. Making. Everything. Worse. "What?" he asked. "Is it wrong to want to see Purity?"

"You keep your dirty mongloid mitts off her you fucking moon cricket!" called one of the skinheads behind us. "No way we lettin' some Jackamammy son of a whore near her!"

Herb just laughed, "Yeah, I care what some morons who worship a failed artist think. Okay, _I'm_ the weird one here."

I groaned into my hands again, louder. "Why Herb, why must you torment me so. Have I done something to offend you lately?"

"No!" he protested. "I just want to know. I need to know why they want to worship a failed artist."

I was so just sick of this day I answered without giving a single fuck. "Why Herb? Because they're not particularly good at anything, and don't want to put in the effort to get good at anything, so these scrubs went 'Hey, let's try using Identity Politics to get what they want, _that never turns out badly!_ What have we all got? Well, other than our tiny dicks, tiny minds, and lack of ability we've all got white skin! I know let's focus on that because we have the intellectual understanding of a five-month-old baby so let's group things by color instead of shape or function and hey, white is associated with purity, and so that's us!' Ignoring the fact that white people are closer to beige, the most boring of _all_ colors, and damnnit why do I keep doing this?"

"I don't have a tiny dick!" shouted one of the thugs.

I looked at the guy, shorter than the others, with a bit more tattoos and muscles, and responded in the most condescending tone possible. "Oh, I'm sure it's totally _above average_." I glanced at the people around him. "Given your sample size."

Herb looked at me in awe for a second before adding. "It would explain why Purity left, 'cause none of you could satisfy her. Okay, I'm done, let's run!" he finished, taking off for the smaller group and barreling through them.

I followed him, just in time to see another group of Neo-Nazis turn the corner. _Oh you have got to be shitting me_ I thought as we closed on them. This group closed on Herb, knocking him back with numbers alone. He'd taken down one by the time I reached him, flipping up my hood and mask, falling into the melee with abandon.

Blows were taken and delivered, most of the thugs preferring fisticuffs to weapons, but that changed once the first dozen fell. I saw a flash of silver as one of the thugs whipped out a pistol and pointed it at Herb, shouting "Gun! Duck!" as I layered the barrel with zones, the gun exploding in the thug's hands when he fired, dropping the field in the explosion and taking the opportunity in the chaos to grab Herb and run.

We made it several more blocks, the industrial sections starting to taper off into a commercial district when another dozen skinheads jumped us, slowing us down for those behind us to catch up. As we fought I tried to move to fight those taking out knives, taking the slashes on my covered arms, little more than annoyances while my friend focused on doing damage. "Throw one to me!" he called as I disarmed a thug, more coming from who knows where. Shrugging I threw the de-knifed Nazi at him. He clotheslined him before jumping up and coming down on him yelling "Hulkster leg drop!" It looked like it didn't do that much damage, but more than the actual move it was pulled from. Honestly, as a martial artist, I felt embarrassed I knew the difference.

"Fucking wrestling." I muttered as I charged towards him, knocking down several guys who tried to stomp him as he got up. Seeing that he'd suffered a few light slashes and was bleeding slightly, I redoubled my attempts to get the blade users to focus on me when I saw a flicker of something as another thug flew towards him. He jumped up and rode the guy down yelling "RKO!" Again. "DDT!" and again. "People's Elbow!"

More thugs were coming, and by this time someone had noticed something was amiss. "Fucking capes!" one yelled, backing off. I turned to look at him, "Really?" with Herb looking around going "What? Where?" The thug pointed behind us as we all turned with the collected skinheads as another figure faded into view. It was a large man, eight feet tall, with skin a shade darker than Herb's, with the texture of crocodile hide. He was wearing a dark green shirt and black jeans, but his face drew the most attention. He smiled a predator's smile, his teeth all pointed, his canines oversized. His eyes were slitted, but with thin irises more akin to a lizard than a cat.

"What took you so long?" Herb asked the representation of his own will.

His projection practically rumbled as it smiled, all teeth. The Stand's lizard-like hiss deep enough that it sounded more a growl. _What the hell?_ I thought. _Is he making it talk, or is it taking cues from his subconscious or. . . doesn't matter, need to focus_. The Stand casually backhanded a nearby thug, sending him into a stop-sign which bent in half. A couple more thugs pulled out pistols and aimed at us, at the Stand mostly, and fired. I'd zone'd two of them in the time they took to draw and they exploded. Throwing an arm over my exposed face I felt several sharp, stinging impacts.

Glancing around I saw several flattened shells hit the ground in front of me. Herb's Stand had moved in front of him and the two of them charged the stunned gunmen. As they beat them bloody I saw the Stand's wounds healing, the bullets being pushed out. As Herb fought beside him, I could also see his own cuts healing, as well as both of them slowly picking up speed. I was confused for a second, taking down another gunman near me as I looked at them, then had to blink back tears as my Sight activated and I Knew them.

Herb's Stand was almost hard to look at, it was so bright, being both of power and having powers of its own. My own power reached out for it, wanting to sample it and take it for _my_ own, but I mentally pulled it back. Copying villains' powers just made sense, and heroes, well very few heroes around here truly deserved the title, but my best friend? No, that would be a line I wouldn't cross. I saw that he was copying his own Stand's power, healing as he fought and getting stronger and faster as he did so.

We started pulling back, more and more thugs were pouring in from god-knows where as we were forced southwest. Herb and his Stand were fighting side by side, both were shot, only to heal as they took down their attackers. Their speed and strength increased and I was having a harder and harder time keeping up, finally dropping zones on the bottom of my feet just to not fall behind, so great were my friend's joy in battle and having his power at long last as well. We ran and fought, I used my new speed to clothesline my opponents, exploding guns where I could. Some idiot brought out an Uzi which I promptly zoned, the explosion taking him out and the two thugs next to him. As we moved back we were being pushed closer and closer to an impressive looking skyscraper. Turning down the street it was located on I finally recognized it.

It was the Medhall building, the unofficial headquarters of the Empire Eighty-Eight as Max Anders, the CEO, was also Kaiser, leader of the E88 in Brockton Bay. Herb and his Stand raced down the street, Herb grinning while his Stand was laughing with feral glee, both moving inhumanly fast. I dropped a zone in front of me and landed on it, the zones on my feet being cancelled out by the stronger zone on the ground as it launched me forward in a flash of light, dismissing it behind me. I flew in front of them, dropping the zones on my feet as I broke my fall on a goon with a knife. "Wait!" I cried. "We need to go the other way!"

"Why?" Herb laughed, grin bloody, before glancing past me. "Oh."

I looked that way and saw the three figures striding out the front door in full costume. To the right was a man wearing only boots, loose pants, and a white tiger mask. To the left was a blonde woman in her twenties wearing a metal cage over her head, her body covered in scars. Front and center strode a man with an E88 tattooed on one arm, a wolf over a swastika on the other, a metal wolf mask covering his face. "Shit," I yelled. "It's Hickwolf, Stormtigger, and Crockett!" There was a moment of dead silence as the fighting stopped, several of the Neo-Nazis staring at me in horrified fascination. "Fuck, fuck, shit, I mean Hookwolf, Stormtiger, and. . . Cricket?" I tried to correct, but the damage had already been done.

"Wait, pause." Herb said. At this the Neo-Nazis charged us, though the three parahumans watched. The thug my friend had been fighting took a swing at him, but his Stand grabbed the offending hand and broke it before negligently tossing the thug away. "Cricket's hot," he commented, dodging a knife and punching his attacker in the ribs, the thug hitting the ground several feet away. "In her cut up awesomeness. Oh god," he shivered.

Cricket looked distinctly uncomfortable at Herb's lecherous gaze. "Don't tell me you have a thing for scars man." I pleaded, backfiring a gun, before being shot in the back, my costume taking the blow as I turned, grabbed his gun by the base, pushed the muzzle to his shoulder, and covering his hand with my own as I pulled the trigger.

Herb took two shots from a thug, one tearing his cheek open. His Stand took out his attacker as he turned and grabbed a knife wielding Neo-Nazi, quickly breaking his arms, his cheek healing as he did so. "Dude," he said, as if he hadn't just been shot. "I've got a thing for everything, and she'd probably love blood."

I grabbed the gun from the guy I'd just made shoot himself, turning and shooting another guy in the leg as he drew down on Herb. "Pan-sexual motherfucker. New rule, shouldn't have to be a rule, no dating white supremacists!"

"Oh come on," he whined. Several of the thugs now giving him and his Stand a wide berth. "You know I could break her!"

Cricket now looked furious, disgusted, and was maybe blushing a bit? It was hard to tell behind the cage. Stormtiger glared at Herb hatefully while Hookwolf looked to his right at his lieutenant. Cricket looked back at her boss, holding the bottom of one her kamas to her throat "I get the nigger," she buzzed electronically.

Herb winked at her. "Yes baby, yes you do." She howled incoherently as she charged him, his Stand meeting her halfway there. She dodged it blows, her kamas flashing out, the miniature scythes tearing at the flesh but not cutting deep enough to do serious damage even if he was human, but enough to bleed.

Stormtiger looked at me. "You shouldn't have come here nigger-lover." He growled. I Knew his power, Aerokinesis, and saw his white and flare as he waved his hand, pushing Herb one way as I dodged the other, three waves of compressed, cutting air flying where we had been, gouging out the concretes as they flew into the store behind us, another MaHotma Grindy coffee shop. _What is it with those places_? I thought, turning back in time to see Stormtiger flying at me, using his power to propel him into a superhuman long-jump. I Took his power for my own, wrenching a bit of his white and black fire into me, using it to help push me down as I ducked. He stopped in mid-air, hand coming down, extending more air-claws to rend me. I dropped a speed zone behind me, stepping on it and jerking it back. He turned from me to Herb, snarling "Just like an inferior race, needing another to do you fighting for you!" as he brought his hand down, sending blades at my friend.

He dodged, barely, as I came up. "That doesn't even make sense, they're both black!" I called, grabbing a dropped gun and emptying it at him. The bullets didn't touch him, careening to either side.

"You don't get to-" he started. I saw Herb's Stand closing from behind and dismissed my zone, the flash of light cutting him off as I blinked in time with the effect. Stormtiger took one step back and started to turn and, getting an arm up to block the Stand's punch. His block might have saved his life, as I heard the snap of bone and he was sent flying into the coffee shop. I blinked in shock before I heard a metallic roar and Hookwolf was on the Stand, ripping and tearing. It heaved and threw the villain after his lieutenant, turning to me and growling in a way I took to either mean 'Run, I've got this' or "Back off, he's mine!'

I nodded, either worked for me, and took off, putting zones on my feet to skate towards Herb who was 'fighting' Cricket. Neither of them were hitting the other, except a couple of thin lines, barely perceptible against his skin, on Herb's arms and legs. Herb looked past her at me as I rushed closer and dodged a blade, slipping to the side and spanking her ass with all his strength with one hand, the other I grabbed as I moved, pulling him behind me as I skated, seeing her, Knowing her, and Taking the green and white flame of her Acoustokinesis for my own. Dodging a blade as well, I smiled at her shriek of outrage as we sped out. Herb calling "That was fun, let's play again later!" as she screamed with frustrated bloodlust. He climbed up piggyback as I retreated. "That's a girl who needs to get laid," he informed me as we fled.


	7. Conception 1-7

**Conception 1.7**

We travelled north and east, once we were back in downtown I stopped, jumping, dismissing my power while layering a weaker set on my feet, using those to slow down until I could dismiss them enough to run to a stop down an alley. I stood there for a moment before looking over my shoulder at Herb, battered and bloody on my back. "Get. Off." I growled.

He laughed, letting go and wincing as he hit the ground. "Sorry, you're not my type," he quipped looking at himself and back at me. "Oh, that isn't fair," he complained as I took off my hood and mask. "I look like an axe murderer while you've just got a bit on your nose." I wiped my face with my spotless sleeve. "And now you don't even have that!" I looked as the blood was absorbed into my coat. It was. . . disturbing to watch. I looked up at him speculatively. "What? he asked.

Walking towards him I explained, "This might sound gay, but I need to wipe you down." Taking his blood-stained arm, I ran my gloved hand down his arm, leaving clean skin as I did so.

He watched as I continued to do so, "Oh yeah, work it bitch!" he lisped. I stopped and glared at him before he laughed, pointing out, "Wait, if you can make it longer, could you make it a lot longer? And maybe wider?"

I did so to my sleeve, confused and trying to avoid any of the subtext of that statement, until he grabbed it and started using it as a towel to 'dry' himself off. I turned away, as while intellectually I knew he needed remove the blood all over his body, I didn't want to know he was doing so with my sleeve, even if it seemed to be self-cleaning. After a few minutes, my sleeve went slack and I mentally ordered it to retrace, turning back to Herb. His shirt was cut and shot to hell, as were his pants, but he's managed to avoid crotch wounds, so he was at least semi-decent.

"Okay, now that that's over," I started. Herb opened his mouth and I continued, "And we shall never speak of it again. EVER. We need to get to fucking Winslow. Fuck, if we move we should get there as school gets out. That's probably too late to pull her out, but we might still be able to help her. We could get there faster with powers, but I think if we try to move openly with them, we'll end up in a fight with all four gangs in the city today, and I really don't feel like doing that right now."

"Four?" he asked. "I thought there were three."

I gave a bitter laugh as we started walking. "Nope. Four," I said counting them off on my fingers. "Merchants. Azn Bad Boyz. Empire Eighty-Eight. Parahuman Response Teams slash The Protectorate."

He winced. "That's kinda harsh."

If I wasn't so tired and frustrated I might have agreed, but my charitable impulse had called it a day after ambush number four. "Under any other director than Piggot or Tagg, yeah, maybe, but they run their organization just like the gangs. As soon as things even start to look bad it's all fear and intimidation. Also they're giant fucking hypocrites, claiming to be arbiters of Law and Order while breaking their own rules to cover their asses and keep their 'gang' from looking bad. Piggot violates not only the law, but the unwritten rules all the time. Hell, if Legend hadn't been there when Armsdick admitted to setting up villains to die during the Leviathan attack, he'd still be leading the Protectorate when the S9 showed up. Then she ordered a missile strike on the villains that she had agreed to a truce with against the S9, and it did more harm than good. Tagg, don't get me started. He takes over, I kill him, end of story. By that time I should have enough powers to do it without anyone knowing who did it. Alexandria might be a stone-cold bitch, but she doesn't deserve to die because she followed Tagg's dogmatic re-interpretation of facts without checking. Beaten into submission, sure. Given another scar her powers won't let her heal, sure. But she didn't deserve to die."

Herb had stopped. "Hold the fuck up, Alexandria dies? Who fucking kills her?"

I looked at him, "Who the fuck do you think? It's the Queen of Escalation herself! Alexandria needs to breathe, and your body is built to hack up water if you're drowning. You can't hack up bug, especially ones extruding silk. Now start moving, we need to make that girl's life not as fucked up so she can use her talents effectively without horrible mental damage."

He sped up to come even with me. "Holy fucking shit. What else happens?"

"You're going to meet Cauldron later to join their ranks, you want to know about them now, or later so you don't give yourself away in case Ms. Library is there. She can cold read people almost as well as Tattletale, but is only about three-fourths as effective, with enough power to compound any mistakes she makes." I snapped. I realized I was starting to lose my shit, but this day had already put itself up there on my worst days ever list.

"Dude, are you okay?" he asked.

I gave a chocked laugh. "Why yes, what would ever make you think otherwise. I've just been doing my level best to save a girl from an experience that scars her mentally and ends up putting her in a psych ward for a week. And I've been stopped at every. Single. Goddamn. Step." I growled and flung my hand at the alley wall, gouging out three deep rents in it with Stormtiger's power. "I'm going to fucking walk there and if Armsdick, or Miss 'I was just following orders' Militia, or any other Protectorate or PRT flunky try to stop me I'm going leave them a moaning pile on the floor. Today has sucked so tremendously bad that I just wish it were over, but I have a goddamn task and I'm going to goddamn do it. Okay!?"

"Jesus! Yes! Okay! Let's go!" he exclaimed, moving ahead of me. "Here I am, going to help her!"

I cringed as I strode up next to him. "I'm sorry," I said after a few minutes of walking. "The only people who are really white hats in this entire goddamn city are most of the Wards, who are too busy following the corrupt adults. Fuck it, maybe Dauntless and Velocity, were good, but they both bit it in the Leviathan attack, so who fucking knows. The Undersiders are good, if prickly, probably why they're instrumental in saving the goddamn world. Along with Taylor and Parian, they're the only capes worth giving a damn for in the city. The thing that really pisses me off is Hypocrites, and I can't stand corrupt authority figures." I realized I was winding myself up again and took a deep breath. "What the fuck happened to your Stand?"

Herb hesitated, looking like he was making sure I was done talking, venting, whatever the fuck I was doing, before he answered. "Hookwolf killed him, but he has the ability to fake his death and make it stick, so the tin-doggy probably thinks he killed a real person." We turned into another alley, Herb checking both ways before he held his hand out, his Stand coalescing, giving me a growling grin. My friend rolled his eyes before waving his hand, causing it to disappear.

"Does he have a name?" I asked. "And are you controlling it directly, or what?"

Herb thought for a while. "I'll call him Enter, and my villain name will be Break. We'll be B&E."

I considered the name. "But wouldn't the eight-foot-tall lizard man be Break?"

He laughed. "You'd think so, wouldn't you?"

Rolling my eyes I asked again, "So, how intelligent is Enter?"

He pondered it as we cut across another street, downtown giving way to middle class urban structures. Not quite suburbs, but not quite the heart of the city either. "It's," he started. "It's got an animal intelligence. I can kind of feel it in the back of my head, like a dog tugging at the leash, but the leash is my mind. I can control it kinda, give it orders, pull it back, but it feels like a mean son-of-a-bitch who'd rather kill an enemy than do a soft takedown."

"Ah," I mused. "Name makes more sense. You need to break before you enter, and you need to give the order before he'll go. Also, it's on your orders that he breaks, he's just the one that enters first."

He laughed. "Yeah, something like that."

* * *

We walked quietly the rest of the way, still taking large strides with a motion more robotic then I normally would use, but I wanted to get there without attracting attention and walking quickly tended to do so, doing so gracefully even more so, and I couldn't be bothered to put in the effort. We passed through the commercial district, on the eastern side this time, closer to ABB territory than E88. As we got closer to where Winslow should be I got increasingly more nervous. _What if the cops were there and had heard of our previous fights? How could they not? We'd fought fucking LUNG on the goddamn boardwalk this morning. The Merchant thing might have been kept under wraps, but there was no fucking way our E88 brawl went unnoticed. Enter had definitely killed people, Herb might have, not having experience with super-strength, and I was pretty sure I didn't shoot anyone lethally, but a clothesline just right at the speeds I was moving could snap the spine just as effectively as a trip to the gallows._

I glanced at my outfit, the same one I wore at the E88 fight and went to change the color scheme again before shaking my head. I had clothing that could be literally anything, why did I keep with the Alex Mercer cosplay? The leather jacket protecting against knives was obviously BS as the cloth of my hoodie did the same damn thing. When we ducked down another alley I re-absorbed the jacket leaving just a hoodie. _Should I go even stick with hoodies?_ I switched to a windbreaker with a hood, the fake vinyl looking as unassuming as the fake cotton had, giving it a geometric design like something from the 80's but with muted colors. It was odd enough it wouldn't draw attention, but once I had attention it would probably attract the eye enough I could ask a question and leave before they noticed my eyes weren't human.

I sighed as we walked on, looking up I thought I glimpsed a flagpole that probably marked the school. I was tired with a capital FU. In the long run, the points I'd gotten for taking two dips of Worst Day Ever would help a lot, may even be the deciding factor in the world's survival, but I was _paying_ for those fucking points. I had one task left: find Taylor and make her life a bit less of a living hell. Saving her was out of the question by this point. I stopped and asked a pedestrian for the time. He looked askance at me, my jacket really, before checking his smartphone, grasped tightly, probably so I didn't steal it so something, and told me it was three ten. I pulled a bill out of my wallet without looking at it, giving it to him and thanking him. He gasped and I saw that it was a twenty. With as much cash as I had, I didn't care.

"He's gonna remember that," Herb told me. "Even more than your shit fashion sense."

"He won't remember my eyes or your fucked-up clothing, and that's all I give a shit about. Let's see how badly we shit the bed on this." I realized I was speaking without intonation, something I only did when I was running on fumes. Fuck it, one more thing, then we rent a hotel room and crash. Shit, those required valid ID's. We'd find a motel, pay twice as much, hopefully use Taylor's power to shoo out the bugs, then crash. At least my Immunity meant I didn't have to worry about disease.

We turned the corner and saw the school, a run-down, graffiti-covered shithole. Looking around I could see a couple groups that were so stereotypically the makeup of the three 'criminal' gangs it was painful, but no cops, no ambulances, nothing. Reaching down into my eyes, I tried to replicate the prickling of my eyes that heralded the activation of my power sight. I got nothing for a moment before I felt a soft warmth blooming across them, the world a bit more saturated with colors, but nothing special. Panning my vision across I spotted something walking out the doors, it was a flame done in shades of greys they might as well be a study of black. _Hmmph, I would have guessed Taylor to be mottled grey shot through with wasp yellow. Oh well._

I started to walk that way when my eyes tracked down to Taylor, only instead of seeing the tall, gawky white teen I expected I saw a muscular black teenage girl striding confidently out towards two others, a tall, decently attractive ginger girl and a short brunette who was cute, but in a way that was more little girl than actually attractive. Looking back at the black girl's power I looked harder and Knew it, Partial Dimensional Travel, locked to one that ran to a sub-dimension of the one I was standing in, one where matter was only partially real, as was radiation, gravity, and a few other things, but electricity ran true. I was looking at Shadow Stalker, and in that moment, I wanted to hurt her so very badly. I looked around trying to find someone who wasn't gang related. After a moment, I saw a boy playing with his smartphone, sitting on a bench, his backpack between his legs, feet resting on one of the straps. _Smart kid_ I thought. I walked over to him and casually asked. "Hey kid," I gave a fake belch. "This is gonna sound weird, but I kinda went on a bender and, what day is it?"

He looked nervously up at me and said "Um, it's April Eighth."

I couldn't help but give a broken sounding laugh. "That late? Fuck. Thanks kid. You're not half bad." I stumbled back to Herb, only half faking it.

I glanced up and saw Herb staring at Shadow Stalker & co., glancing over as he saw me stumble over. "Shit man, what happened to you?"

I laughed a bit more, it just hurt too damn much. All the _running_ , all the _fighting_ , taking so many goddamn _risks,_ almost dying to _Lung_ for goddamn _NOTHING_. "You know, what day, it is?" I asked, laughing silently so hard I was starting to cry, hanging on to him for support.

He looked panic. "Um, I don't know, April, late March?"

I nodded, still laughing. I was feeling nauseous, but it was nothing to how I felt inside, and that statement made no sense, but all the sense in the world. "And remember what they did to Taylor, how it got so bad, how it was allowed to _fester_ for so goddamn _long_ without her finding out?" I whispered, barely able to breathe enough to talk.

Herb, looking panicked, tried to guide me to an empty bench but I refused to move from the spot, the goddamn spot I'd been trying to get to _all damn day_. He took a second. "It got that bad because they left it like that over. . ." he winced. "Over Christmas break. Shit, we're late, aren't we?"

"Only by about _four months._ Everything we did today? _FUCKING POINTLESS!_ " I hissed. He got it then, but didn't look nearly as pained as I felt, and part of me wanted to hurt him to make him feel that bad.

And with that, something in me snapped. Funny thing is, my will never was like other people's or at least how other people talked about willpower working. Most people had positive will, they wanted to do a thing, they spent the effort, and did it. Simple, clean, and easy to understand, like the points I spent to make this character. With it, they could be tempted to spend it on anything if you were convincing enough, even things they swore they'd never do. My will, I don't know why, or how, but I had negative will. It's not what I would do, but what I wouldn't do that mattered. When I focused on something, I did so with laser intensity. Because what I would not do is EVERYTHING but what I was doing, more or less. It also meant that unlike other people, I had lines I Would Not Cross.

One of the inviolate rules I lived by was to never hurt a friend unless it would help them, as sometimes was the case. Surgery was just stabbing and slicing to help after all, and you could do the same thing emotionally pretty easily. This urge, to hurt him so that he'd understand just because he wasn't displaying it? That wouldn't be hurting him to help _him_ it would be hurting to help _me_ and I Would Not Do That. So, once that thought hit and ran down the decision tree, triggering all of the relevant circuit breakers, my emotions cut off, I hit the ground on my knees in front of a storm drain, and very messily laughed at the ground, expelling heaving multicolored yawns until I had nothing more to give.

I staggered to my feet, wiped off my mouth, spit the last of the sick down the drain, and took a deep breath. I looked at my friend, concern writ large over his features and gave him as much of a smile as I could manage. "I'm good." At his disbelieving look I insisted quietly, seeing everyone around us pointed _not_ looking at us while staring at me, "No, really, I'm good until tonight at least. So, the story doesn't start at the trigger, but at the beginning of Skitter's career. Duh. I was so focused I forgot, just another part of my Worst Day Ever. If I hadn't already, I probably would have just triggered. So, let's find a place to crash, because Fuck This Day. It's Friday and she doesn't poke the dragon until Sunday night, Monday morning. Is there anything you want to do?"

Herb looked at me. "You're sure your fine?" I nodded. "Good, because I need to go do something," and with that he turned around and started walking right towards Shadow Stalker, Emma, and what's-her-face. I knew he was going to do something stupid, but to be honest, I couldn't bring myself to really care. He wouldn't kill them, and that was my limit concern, more for him then them.

He walked over, a big fake grin on his face and they looked at his torn-up shirt and pants warily, though I was pretty sure Stalker was checking him out. He was old enough to be her father, even if he didn't look like it anymore. _Ugh, no accounting for the violent psychopath's tastes_. "Are you Emma Barnes, the model?" he asked, voice veritably dripping with excited interest.

The Ginger was taken back for a moment, before grinning under the 'attention' she was receiving. Blushing as she glanced down at the holes and cuts in shirt to see his hard muscles, not spotting the lines of dried blood that Sophia was staring at. _Whores_ I thought, starting to quietly amble over, flipping my hood up, dragging up a mask to hide my face, everyone's attention on Herb. "You're a fan?" she asked. "Of course, what's your favorite piece?"

 _Piece?_ I thought. _You're a fashion model, not some artist's muse_. I knew Herb was going to do something stupid, embarrassing, and probably violent, but I just was all out of fucks to give. Herb put his finger to his lips, tapping it. "Honestly, I can't pick one, but I do know what you'd look good in."

She faltered for a moment, glancing at Sophia before rallying. "Oh, what is that?"

"Oh, a-" his fist flashed forward, striking her square in the face with a crunching sound, "Broken nose" he finished smugly.

Emma dropped to the ground, squealing, holding her face while the third one, Madalyn? Said "what the hell-" before a chop to the back of her neck knocked her out like a light.

Sophia's face contorted with rage, her hand going into her pocket and pulling out a knife "You're fucking dead you bastard!" she screamed, leaping for him before I caught her from behind. Holding her arms. She tried to turn the knife to stab me, the blade poking ineffectually at my windbreaker sleeve as she tried to bite my glove.

I looked down at this girl, whose very existence on the junior superhero team called the Wards, despite what she had done and _was still doing_ , typified everything I hated about the Protectorate, and I knew exactly what to say. I leaned down, pitching my voice oddly, willing the fabric to muffle it a bit further, and whispered in her ear. "Stop squirming girl, _Prey should know its place_."

With that she freaked out, kicking and screaming, before finally giving in and using her power, shifting to shadow to get away. With that, I Took her power, absorbing the angry, scared black flame, and she was so busy stumbling away as fast as possible that she missed Herb glancing over and seeing her, backhanding her as he only turned the back of his hand shadowy, knocking her into a lamp. She hit it, ground the current through her body, and seized up, going solid once more. I looked at Herb. "We're probably gonna regret this later, but I just don't care. Turn shadowy, I'll go down with you, then use her power to get us the fuck out of here." I clapped a hand on his shoulder as he turned to shadow, shifting me as well as we sank into the ground. He waved to the onlooking teenagers, several probably had their cell phone cameras out, so I didn't look and show my probably starkly glowing inhuman eyes.


	8. Conception 1-8

**Conception 1.8**

Once we were out of sight I turned on my copy of Shadow Stalker's Powers, extending them to cover him as I willed us down and through the earth, hopefully deep enough to avoid any power lines. After a few minutes, or a few dozen, it was hard to estimate time underground, I brought us up slowly, putting my hand in front of me as we rose. Feeling the hairs on the back of my neck raised, I lowered us, moved in a random direction horizontally and tried again and again until we finally broke the surface in someone's backyard. Taking a deep breath, I looked around, taking in our surroundings. I walked out to the sidewalk, looking in the house as I walked by it. It looked empty, but I didn't trust my luck to come out in front of the one thing I needed. I froze, _what if my dismissing the idea that it could be useful was the thing that would later lead to more problems, thus making the day worse_? Shaking my head as I started to think that's what the thing making my day the worst wanted me to think I ignored that infinity hole and just decided to move on, Herb following as we walked down the street.

I changed my windbreaker into a long-sleeved t-shirt and my pants to slacks, my shoes to boots, and got rid of my gloves, looking for all intents and purposes like a normal guy walking with his. . . underdressed companion. Okay, we needed to get out of sight either before someone saw Herb or before I could get him some new clothes. Looking around at the houses I saw one that had a for sale sign with a bit of spider-web on it, but not much. Taking it as an omen, I walked up to the door and saw the inside had some basic furniture, but it looked like it hadn't been cleaned for a bit, that combination of dirty and dusty that furniture gets even if there's no one actually living there.

A quick phase into shadow got me through the front door, looking around I saw there was a panel for a security system, but the display was blank. Flicking a couple light switches yielded no result as well. Lastly, I turned my hand to shadow and ran it back and forth through the door and frame, and didn't even get a tingle of electricity, which was perfect. Whoever owned this house they didn't want to even bother pay the base amount that all houses consume by sheer dint of having interior circuits for the power to run through. Flipping the deadbolt and the lock from the inside was something that wouldn't raise any alarms.

I opened the door and let him as he looked around saying. "Damn, with a power like that, you're going to be such a good supervillain it isn't even funny."

I shrugged. "It's more of an assassin power then the kind of mass control or large-scale ability a supervillain needs."

He looked at me as I closed the door. "Are you okay? Like, seriously? You should be doin' the entire 'no, I'm gonna be a hero even thought I kill people and steal things.' Thing."

I rolled my eyes. "From villains, not from civilians. It's different."

He put his hand out. "You didn't say anything about heroes there."

I sighed. "When I meet one other than me, I'll start including them in my vague absolutist statements. Are you still copying my Immunity power?"

He started, closing his eyes for a second. "I think so? I've been doing it all day so it's kinda automatic."

I laughed, genuinely. "You're borrowing my stuff without asking and now we're moving into a house together. We're the gayest pair of straight guys ever." I waved him off. "Go see if there's a first aid kit or something in the bathroom, as long as you borrow my power you're immune to disease, so you should be fine but a bit of wound cream won't hurt." I headed upstairs, finding both the master bedroom and guest bedroom furnished with beds, pillows, the works.

I poked around, finding nothing actually valuable, the house set up to show, but nothing worth taking. Walking downstairs I saw my friend applying cream to the lines on his arms. "This place looks good, but I'm hungry as fuck." I informed him, as the ache in my stomach burned. "This place has no gas or electricity so I'm gonna go hit up a big box store, pick up a camping stove, a pan, and some ingredients so I can come back here and make us some food."

He stopped what he was doing and gave me a 'you're being a dumbass' look. "Or you could not. You do all that, you'll get picked up by the PRT or something."

I sighed. "Okay, that might be a bit much. I don't even know where to find something like that. I saw a Chinese place down the street, how about I just pick up some food from there, I'll be back in like, fifteen, twenty minutes."

He nodded, "Now that's not stupid, it would be better if you could call."

"With what phone?" I chuckled. "I was so paranoid about being tracked I ditched the only one I picked up." I subconsciously reached in my pocket as I continued. "It's not like I have my. . . actual phone." I finished as I fished out my real phone, undamaged, from my pants pocket, it's weight so familiar I forgot it was there. "Holy shit." I murmured as I hit the button, the phone waking up from sleep mode with a full battery. "Fucking how?" I wondered. Even having it in sleep mode all day should have drained at least a quarter of the battery.

"The hell?" Herb asked, looking at the black rectangle in my hands. "How did that not break on. . . anything? Fucking re-entry at least?"

I shrugged. "No fuckin' clue." I opened the web-browser to find the name of the Chinese place, realizing that I didn't know my current address the same time I got the no-connection page. "Right." I laughed. "No signal, because it's meant for a different network." Rolling my eyes I slipped it back in my pocket. "So, ignoring that weirdness, what do you want to eat?"

"Um," he said dumbly, focusing back on me. "Sushi if they've got it, if not General Tso's. Do you need money or. . ." he trailed off, laughing. "Right, we're supervillains, we're good."

"For that, you're paying" I called as I walked out the front door, turning and walking down the street. Looking around I realized that the Chinese place was the next street over, walking the long way until I found it. Taking a step in I saw they did have sushi, and the place looked authentically Asian enough that it might even be good sushi. I thought about it for a second. I was immune to disease, and so was Herb if he was less than fifteen feet away from me, so it didn't really matter. I was waiting in line, looking around when a medium sized Asian man walked in, the very definition of unremarkable. That lasted until my Sight kicked in and I Knew him. Replicator, the replacements held form while the original degraded into ash, the replacements also capable of appearing a distance away from the original, though limited to line of sight if one was to make the replacement at range. I looked at Oni Lee, Lieutenant of the Azn Bad Boys for a second before stepping out of the way, eyes down. Seeing him tilt his head in inquiry I explained quietly. "Not sure what I want sir, please go ahead of me." He stared at me for long enough for me to sweat, wondering if I'd done the exact wrong thing and now would have to fight Oni Lee in my Civies, though I'd be in costume in a moment. Shit, everyone saw me walk in, I'd need some way to keep them from talking. Double shit, if it came down to it, I'd need to kill everyone in here. At least Stormtiger's power would make it easy. I really, really didn't want to do it, but if my hand was forced, I'd do what I needed to, no matter how much it sucked. As I was thinking all of this time passed. I almost jumped when Oni Lee nodded in thanks, mumbling the words robotically as he stepped in front of me and took my place in line.

I made a show of trying to decide what I wanted, letting someone else go in front of me before stepping back in line. Not relaxing until the cashier told him "Mr. Lee, your usual," handing him a bag from the counter, not asking payment as the supervillain nodded in thanks and walked out, pausing ever so slightly as he passed me before quietly walking out the front door. Ordering sushi and General Tso's (what Herb didn't eat I would), I waited for the order, took it and walked back to the house we were squatting back. I called "Hey Herb, I got your Sushi, you'll never guess who I-" I stopped as I saw a closing rectangle of white light in the kitchen, Herb visible on the other side of the portal as it closed.

* * *

I paced back and forth wondering what the hell to do. That was obviously one of Doormaker's portals, so Cauldron got off their collective assess to induct him into their ranks. I froze. Unless that is, something went wrong, on _The Worst Day Ever_. Goddamn it Herb, what if I needed to track him down and save his ass? I'd seen the portal, but I didn't think to take the power, and I needed to see the person to Know them. Besides, the power would be massively underpowered without Clairvoyant to point the way. Ugh, I needed something to do, something to plan with. I couldn't remember all the capes Cauldron had, just the major players. If I fought one of the big three, I was eighty percent screwed. Actually, more like forty percent. Alexandria, I could copy and fight, and Legend I could tangle with and live if I survived the first shot. Eidolon was pure bullshit space worm magic. His power to have whatever three powers he needed would be something I could never take, as like Herb's copying powers, it had no physical effect. The powers he pulled up I _might_ be able to copy, but I didn't get the skill like he did and I'd be in one long game of catchup. Contessa and Number Man had thinker powers, not external effect, so I was screwed there. I could probably handle the Custodian, my aerokinesis was suited for it, along with the ability to mimic her powers.

 _What the hell was I thinking_? Trying to fight _Cauldron_? At _this_ point? I took a deep breath and considered my options. I'd need a strong alpha strike if, _and only if_ , they tried something. Stormtiger's claws were strong, but anything that negated powers would dispel them. I needed something that was dangerous _without_ being dependent on a power for the dangerous bit. I took an inventory. Stormtiger's wasn't gonna help. Shadow Stalkers were useless here as well. Cricket's might let me get a quick handle on the area on the other side of the portal, but I had no practice in using it and didn't want to rely on it in case the portals did something to sound. I didn't see Hookwolf, Lung, or Oni Lee's powers in such a way as to copy them, and even if I did, the first two were useless and there was _NO_ way in hell I was ever using Oni Lee's, it was the quantum teleporter problem on steroids as I knew the original not only ceased to exist but fucking _died_ every time he used his power. That left me with Skidmark's power, my speed zones, and my brain kicked into high gear. I could apply the zones to body parts, even parts that weren't exactly flat, all I had to worry about was recoil when it hit me.

I was using them to move _me_ and repel _others_ , but what if I used it to move _something_ , just with _myself_ as the platform! It would have to be something small if I wanted any speed out of it without getting knocked down, but it was an idea. I opened the Chinese food bag, taking out a pair of chopsticks, breaking them apart as I took a stance to counter a forward push. Layering three layers of speed zones along the length of my right arm, I had an azure strip running from shoulder to wrist. I carefully moved my arm back and forth, but it didn't interfere with my movement in the slightest, only shoving me back slightly as I brushed a wall. I pushed my arm out, taking the Chopstick in my left hand I held it over my bicep, keeping my hand pointed down and out of the way. I felt a light tugging at my fingertips, but nothing else. Lowering my hand slightly jerked my hand forward, the arc of my shoulder swinging it out of the zone. I moved my hand back, waiting a second before dropping the chopstick and it shot off as if thrown, clattering against the far wall, never touching my arm.

Walking over and picking it up, I layered another zone down, the blue darkening as I did so. Pointing at the far wall the chopstick flew off even faster, snapping in two on impact. Nodding, I layered another zone, then one more for the hell of it, the blues shifting into light purples. I grabbed the other chopstick and dropped it. The crack was almost instantaneous. At first I thought it broke the sound barrier, but walking over I saw it had shattered into tiny pieces, the tip buried in the wall. I grabbed a plastic spoon and a kitchen knife from the counter, laying them next to me so I could grab them at a moment's notice. I sat there in the darkening kitchen, waiting for Herb to come back, for who knows how long, the only light in the room was the orange sunset punctuated with the glowing purple sparks from my arm, providing an almost malevolent ambiance more than actual lighting, but my enhanced eyes still saw everything fine.

Fishing out an eggroll with my left hand I munched as I waited, the only excitement from when I let my wrist turn, catching the table with the field and shoving me and my chair back several feet. Moving to my original position, I waited in the dark, watching the point the portal had opened. Finally, after who knows how long a white line shown empty space, widening into a glowing white doorway, a sterile white corridor resolving inside of it. A tall muscular figure wearing a dark suit, purple undershirt, gold tie walked towards the portal from the other side. Covering the figure's head was a shiny clear mask, the skin underneath covered in scales. He looked vaguely familiar, but the figure's face looked nothing like Herb's, it's hands covered in golden metal gloves that extended into gauntlets up its sleeves. Incongruously, it appeared to be wearing royal purple Adidas.

I grabbed my projectiles, arm out, spoon ready to drop as I called. "Stop! Who the fuck are you?"

The figure jumped, before stepping through the portal saying "Dude, it's me!" The clear mask moving unnaturally as he talked. "Look at this baller costume! And check this out! Adidas _Superstars!_ " he held up a foot to show off his sneakers. "I've always wanted a pair!" I heard someone call from the other side of the portal and the person who could only be Herb turned around. "What?" he called. "Oh right!" and a large metal suitcase came sailing out of the portal, edges fighting through the portal _exactly_. Herb caught it, stumbling to the side as I saw a flash of a green cape that had to be Eidolon on the other side.

I jumped and held firm onto the spoon with my pointer finger and thumb. The knife however, slipped from my middle and ring fingers, landing on the field and rushing forward in an instant. I saw the blurred knife fly past Herb's head and the green caped hero on the other side go down, the knife sticking out of his shoulder. "WHAT?" I heard a woman yell from the other side. "That wasn't supposed to happen!"

Another voice, this one weak and male answered, "There isn't anyone else in there just. . . Chinese?"

"Doormaker, close the damn door!" a harried older woman called, the portal quickly closing into nothing.

Herb stared at me, only his eyes easily visible but the mask making it hard to read his expression.

"Um. Oops?" I offered.

"Oops? You just shot a knife at Eidolon!" He volleyed back.

"Hey!" I defended. "I came back just as they took you. I was worried they'd decided to kidnap you and were coming for me too. My finger just, slipped."

"How did you-" he started staring at the glowing strip running down my arm. "No," he breathed.

I grinned. "Yeah. Turns out if you layer speed zones enough times like this. Bam! Instant railgun. As long as it's not too big the recoil isn't that bad. Also, close your eyes." I waited a second before dismissing it, the flash lighting up the room. "You have to be careful not to put your arm on a table or a wall or something, but it's pretty awesome."

"You're right," he agreed, "Skidmark's a fucking dumbass." He shook his head before reaching under the chin of his and audibly popping it off. With the mask off I could see the scales and the lines in the clear material that had shaped his face into unrecognizability. "Dude, you'll never believe what happened."

I sighed "I can guess. Man, the Chinese is almost cold and I didn't meet Oni Fucking Lee just to eat cold Chinese and warm Sushi. Let's eat, then go to fucking bed. I'm dead fucking tired and just want to go to sleep and this day to end. We can talk in the morning."

He sighed, grabbing a platter of Sushi. "This is really good!" he commented after the first few bites. "Oni Lee?"

I rolled my eyes. "What part of tomorrow didn't you understand? Short version, I met him in his civies and even if I can use his power, I'm _never_ using his power."

"Oh com' on!" he complained around a mouthful of fish. "Now I hafta know!"

"No," I told him. "Tomorrow." Taking part of the food with me I started walking away. "And for making me worry, I'm taking the Master bedroom. Try to get in and we'll see if your costume can stand up to Stormtiger's claws!"

As I went upstairs, I faintly heard "Why do I feel like I just got told to sleep on the couch?"


	9. Conception 1-x (Interlude: Medhu?)

**Conception 1.x (Interlude; Medhu?)**

Some mornings, you just wanted to roll back over in bed, knowing the day was going to be unpleasant. For Medhu Patel, this was not some vague omen, it was a certainty. Rolling out of bed, he tried not to disturb last night's entertainment. A leggy brunette named Betsy? Bianca? Bernise? He was sure the last one was a sauce. Regardless, trying not to disturb her he slipped out of bed and entered the bathroom for him morning ablutions. Being third of four children growing up in small apartment in Surat led to one getting up earlier if they wanted privacy, and getting up just before dawn was a habit Medhu found hard to break. Early to rise and so on as the Americans said.

He loved India, and still wished to return for time to time, but it was a distant ache, easily ignored. After his brother Dev gained his powers when he was 16, and gained an ego to match his name, he'd wanted to leave. As a Garama, a flashy cape, "Ajey" fought foes with impressive acrobatics, always managing to be where he needed to be. Glowing a golden light, he was hard to look at directly, much like Brockton Bay's Purity in retrospect Medhu laughed to himself. But it was hard to fight what you couldn't look directly at, and he'd used it to great effect. With that, he set an impossible standard that Medhu could never hope to approach, in the shadow of his brother's _glowing_ success.

After years in that shadow, he'd finally realized that no matter what he did, no matter what he achieved, he would, at most, come in a distant second to his older brother. His younger brother, Vadin, always would have a special place in their mother's heart, though part of him didn't realize how smothering that place was until he'd lost it. His older sister Hafiza, had his father's attention, which left Medhu ignored. With this despair, with this rudderless feeling of drowning in a dark ocean, left to the wayside by his family he's finally had gotten what he had wanted after so many years. He had triggered, in the worst way possible.

He hadn't gotten something flashy, something he could use to overshadow even his brother, something that would let him attract attention like his brother. Instead, he had gotten what the local government would call a "thinker" and "stranger" power. His brother could see the immediate future, doing just what needed to be done. He could see half a day away, pick the result he wanted, and let his power carry him to that destination. Dev had enhanced physical abilities, able to push his acrobatics to ludicrous degrees. He had gotten the ability to become a spirit as he dreamed, leaving his body to see the world beyond, invisible, intangible, and invincible, though his parent's overheard conversations hurt him even more than he thought they would. His brother was hard to grab, having a natural forcefield he used to escape harm, slick against his foes hands. He found that he had something entirely different, one that allowed him to escape any kind of recording, a power that meant that he would _never_ be a member of the Garama, as how could one stand for pictures, when the pictures showed nothing at all?

He'd considered joining the Thanda, the unofficial capes that _truly_ ran India, the ones that no one ever spoke of, but were expected to help the greater population regardless. His parents, while he had slept, had talked about if Dev had become one of those instead. How they wouldn't have the glory, but they would be much more wealthy for having one in the family. With that Medhu had thrown away his ideas of revealing what he could do, discarding his ideas of using his powers as 'Yojana", and started to plan, for even untouchables were _talked_ about. In this his powers were next to useless. He could plan perfectly, but only up to twelve hours in the future.

He had used that power at first, playing the markets to make enough money to set him up for life in a single day. He'd been so happy, so amazed at how _easy_ it had all been. The next day he'd gone to do it again, and seen, not another day of wealth and profit, but all paths but one leading to his death or imprisonment in the next twelve hours. That day had been an eye opener, a harsh course in humility, as following that path had led him to lose almost all the money he had gained, putting him at point only slightly better than when he started.

With this lesson in mind he had tried again, going for lesser victories, always seeing the overwhelming profits in his view, but realizing that they truly were overwhelming. As time passed he'd made enough, hiding it places others would not see, that by his eighteenth birthday he was ready to leave India, and his parents, for America, the land of opportunity where there was no Thanda constantly watching him. He would be leaving Dev, who had made sure to grind his superiority in Medhu's face every time they'd met, which had become mercifully rarer over the years. He'd heard that having powers made you more antagonistic, studying them online from college courses paid for by his trading, passing his interest off as him wanting to learn more about his brother, and he could see the truth in it, as Dev, while arrogant, had never been quite so _unpleasant_ about it before triggering. His powers though, so much more useful than his brothers, had never pushed him to prove his brother wrong. If it came down to the brute fighting that his brother so reveled in, Medhu knew he could win. He'd seen that path after all.

Coming to America, he'd chosen the moderately large city of Brockton Bay, warm enough to not be too large a shock to the system, but nothing on the heat of his home. He'd looked for something unassuming, something he could use his powers to negotiate deals for, something that where long-term plans weren't nearly as important as immediate actions, and had settled on coffee shops. For the name, he'd gone with something both intrinsically Indian, but also something his parents would not want to brag _too_ much about. He'd send enough money that they'd be obligated to talk about him, but in such a way that they wouldn't want to.

With that in mind he'd opened the MaHotma Grindy coffee shop, serving a drink that was a staple of the modern world, associated with a man that had romanticized the stone age. He'd loved the irony, and so very few got the joke. He'd grown them, opening them across the city, and beyond, using promotions to grow interest and profits, always keeping one step ahead of his competition.

At roughly the same time, he'd debuted his "Rogue" identity. Rogues were capes who used their profit for purely monetary game, it was eminently an American concept, and he loved it. He'd called himself "The Neutral Party", choosing an English name to further distance himself from his homeland. Using his power, he could, if it were possible, see two different parties coming to an agreement everyone was happy with in a single day, and simple do what was necessary to achieve it. Pushing the money through shell companies, he made himself an investor in his own growing coffee enterprises, along with half a dozen other startups. He was independently wealthy, had achieved a level of respect he never would have at home, and was, in many respects, happy at age twenty-six.

Preparing a small breakfast, he ate greeting the sun as it crested the horizon, lighting up the city of Brockton Bay, the city which partially ran on _his_ drinks. Sighing as he viewed possible futures he thought he caught a flicker of something on the horizon when he felt a force slam into his chest, burning his mind as he fell from his chair, paths slipping from his mind as he tried to find a way out of whatever was happening.

A few minutes later he clambered to his feet, mind swimming. Head filled with memories that not his own, fifty years as a white man in a world with no superheroes. This influx of memories as Jack Rycroft, a man who lived from a world without superpowers, settled into his head, permeating and coloring everything he knew, the extra years staining him until he was more Jack than Medhu.

Groaning he got to his feet, hearing a woman's voice calling "Are you okay?" responding without thinking with "I'm fine Susan," the name of his wife, Jack's wife.

"Whaaat?" came the shriek in response. "My name's Bella you jerk!" before he saw the flash of brown hair and a black dressed form before the sound of the penthouse door slamming reverberated.

Medhu, Jack, whoever he was just sat there, wearing his breakfast, for a few minutes before picking himself up and cleaning himself off. Plopping down on his couch, he reflexively used his power, looking at possible futures. As he gazed at them, mental images in his mind, rich with meaning, several of them flickered and distorting. Looking through Medhu's memories Jack saw this had never happened before, and wondering if it was Jack's own memories messing things up. The harder he tried to concentrate on it, the worse his burgeoning headache became.

Giving up on it, he searched through his memories and called up his assistant, cancelling his appointments for the day. His assistant sounded concerned, but he passed it off as a flu, trying to center himself.

* * *

Several hours later, having looked online for information, he was quietly freaking out. New memories had information of Brockton Bay, not as a place, but as a fictional location in a story his son had read bounced around, and wasn't that a thought. Medhu _didn't_ want kids, but Jack had two, the youngest just reaching adulthood, and he was okay with that. He wondered how much of him was Medhu, and how much was Jack, as he started to default to Jack in his mind, even if his body was Medhu. Considering this metaphysical tangle, he received another call. This one was to inform him that some people had been attacked outside one of his stores. The police were investigating it as a possible hate crime, as someone with a fake Indian accent had called 911 with one of the victim's phones.

Reaching out with his powers, even more of his possible futures weren't working correctly, anything taking him to the east part of town rendered non-viable. Taking a deep breath, he submerged himself in Medhu's memories, trying to find out what the heck was going on. An hour later he received another call. This time his panicked assistant informed him that this time his boardwalk store had been the scene of a cape fight. Someone had picked a fight with Lung in his store. The ensuing cape fight, while theoretically bad for business, would reap dividends in the long run from promotions alone. Luckily, he'd invested in cape insurance, a necessity in Brockton Bay, and that would pay for the damages on its own. Looking online, there had been a fight outside a corner store, covered by the bloggers his feed monitored, but his were the only stores that had been damaged that day.

Looking at his options, he started to stare at one option that glitched occasionally. Unable to look at it directly, it would still serve to give him insight into just what the hell was going on. Choosing that, his body went on autopilot, putting on his jacket and calling his driver, asking to be driven to his store in downtown.

Walking in, the Baristas saw and served him, settling him down. He sipped his coffee, checking his phone as he waited for whatever his power wanted him to do. Sitting there, he heard the sound of a horn blaring and looked up. A figure in white darted into sight outside the window just as his power shorted out, causing him to jerk backward as the figured rolled forward, launching itself through the plate glass window, falling onto the table he had been sitting at, which collapsing underneath the intruder, spilling Jack's coffee on his face.

Stunned, Jack could only stare as the figure looked up, glowing, swirling, multicolored eyes meeting his own for a moment. The figure stumbled to his feet murmured an apology, and stuck a twenty in Medhu's hands as he staggered out the door. Jack tried to find a path to do something, anything, but they all glitched into a horrible mess, except the one that had him just stay here and get another coffee, so that's what he did.

* * *

After making an incident report to the police, filing the insurance report, and finishing his new coffee he once again searched for the path to finding _what the hell was going on_. Searching the web, he found no record of any hero with luminous rainbow eyes, except maybe one of the Fallen, but those Endbringer cultists had no reason to be here. Something about the cape's voice tugged at his memory, but he couldn't be sure how. It almost felt familiar to Jack, but that was just silly, as Jack wasn't even _from_ this world. Following his new path, this one again taking him to find out what was going on, he had his driver take him down to the industrial district. Once again, he sat and waited.

This time though, he pulled up his power over and over again. The longer he waited, the more options glitched into unusability. Once it dropped to two: hide in the back or run, he had enough. Standing up, the only customer left in the store was himself, the contingent of professionals, all white, had left all at once after checking their devices, which was highly suspicious, and it was time to do something. Looking at the two baristas, both white, he walked over and told them "Leave. Now."

One of them, a blonde man with noticeable tattoos, looked offended. "Who are you to tell us to-"

The other, a slim brunette, elbowed him in the ribs. "That's the owner Eric!" she hissed before turning back to him. "Do we still get today's pay?" she asked sweetly.

As he looked at her, the run option started to glitch. "Yes. Go. NOW!" he nearly yelled. They looked at each other, bolting for the door. As soon as they opened it the sounds of screaming, gunfire, and a deep, growling laughter. They looked at him, fear on their faces. "Run or hide in the back, pick one now!" he commanded. The man took off, tearing off to the right while the girl ran back, starting to hide behind the bar where he opened the door to the back and waved her through. She ran as he stayed in the door, watching as a mass of Empire Eighty-Eight thugs ran by, some in fear, some firing as they did so.

A moment later their enemy ran into view. One of the figures seemingly flying in, crushing the chest of a thug as he landed, killing him instantly. The colors were different, but the costume was the same, and the glowing rainbow eyes of the villain were instantly identifiable. Rainbow eyes talked to two others, one an eight-foot-tall black man, the other had skin a shade lighter, and was only slightly shorter than Rainbow eyes. The shorter one looked familiar, not to Medhu, but again to _Jack_.

Words were exchanged before the fight started again, stopping after less than a minute, several more thugs dead, the two black men both having some sort of brute and regeneration power. At that point the white supremacists seemed to back off, only for one window of the shop to explode inward, the girl behind him crying out in fear as Jack saw three parallel lines dug out of the floor. Stormtiger's ability Medhu's memories explained. This shop was in E88 territory and as long as the employees were white, there wasn't a problem. Through the broken window he heard words exchanged, two of the voices tugging at his memories. A shout of "That doesn't even make sense, they're both black!" easily heard, pulled on them even harder. A moment later Stormtiger himself was sent flying through the now broken glass, rolling to a stop covered in cuts and splinters, which was as close as Medhu had ever seen to instant karma. After that though, he heard the metallic chainsaw-howl of Hookwolf, who was thrown in after Stormtiger, ripping up half his store. Looking out a flash of greys sped past the window far too fast to be natural, grabbing the smaller black man and disappearing. _This is why I pay for parahuman insurance_ he told himself as the metallic canine launched itself out, wet tearing and ripping sounds coming from beyond his line of sight. Staring out at his fourth disturbed shop today, the third one that would need serious repairs, he started to sigh, thinking that he'd have to pay his legal team far too much money to make sure the insurance company paid out, but that was the nature of the game. As he was considering this, he finally recognized the voice of the cape that had led, indirectly or directly, to the property damage today. That voice, was the voice of Jack's Son.


	10. Development 2-1

**Evaluation 2.1**

As the sun started to crest the horizon and the orange light of dawn started to shine on the drawn curtains of the bedroom I had claimed, I knew it was safe to get up. The previous evening, after stalking off, I'd eaten my food and listened with half an ear to Herb complaining about me for the better part of an hour before he'd gone quiet, likely asleep. I had laid down to go to sleep myself when I had a horrible thought: I was a Noctis Cape, I didn't need to sleep, and if I did I'd instead review my memories in perfect detail. That, combined with today still being the Worst Day Ever meant I'd probably see some seriously messed up things, maybe revisit all of my traumatic memories, or see enough of a half-forgotten memory that I'd re-interpret what had actually happened based on my new skewed 'recollection'. Either way, going to sleep was a _bad idea_ right now, so instead I laid there on the bed and planned, occasionally getting up to pace as I came up with and discarded new plans until I realized that since this was still the Worst Day Ever, any plan I came up with was probably going to be seriously flawed. With that I laid down and waited. Doing nothing. For _hours._

With the dawn of a new day, and one guaranteed to be better I finally left the room, grabbing a few pieces of leftover sushi from the kitchen when I heard Herb yelp in fright. Stepping lightly so as not to make a sound in-case there was trouble, I walked into the living room, seeing two Herbs in identical clothing on the couch, I froze.

One of them glanced at me while the other took a lazy look before rolling his eyes and slumping into the couch, closing his eyes. "Herb?" I asked, as the one who glanced at me looked back, keeping the other him in his line of sight.

"Yeah?"

"What happened?"

"I showed up," the relaxed Herb informed me, not bothering to open his eyes. "Been waitin' for a while." Switching to Power Sight I saw a purple and gold flame coming off of the twitchier Herb, the smaller flame coming from the relaxed Herb feeding back to the one who responded, the sleepy one possessing all of the alert Herb's powers, except for replication.

"Oh," I said, addressing the other Herb as it all clicked. "You must be the clone. Replicant. Whatever."

He opened one eye to glare at me, "Excuse me?" he asked, sleepily offended. "I'm Boojack."

"That's a yes," I told him, walking over to extend a hand. "Welcome to the team."

"That's a no," he insisted, the sleepiness vanishing. "I'm Boojack."

"Are you Herb?" I asked.

"No. I'm Boojack!" he insisted, talking as if I were a particularly retarded child.

I rolled my eyes. "That's what I was asking."

"Um. No. You called me a clone," he corrected.

I pointed at Herb, who looked like he wanted nothing to do with this conversation. "He literally has a power that replicates himself. You're the first replication. You're 'Boojack', because of course they'd all have their own names.

Boojack looked over at Herb. "You know, your friend's an asshole."

Herb looked disgusted. "No he's not! Shut up you fucking _replicant_."

I winced, turning to my friend. Or at least the original instance of him. "Don't make it a slur man, that isn't cool. This isn't Blade Runner."

"You're the one who called him that first," he defended.

"Yeah," I tried to explain. "But not like that. I called him a replicant because he's a replication of you."

"Nah," Boojack defended. "He used a great term. Blade Runner's the shit!"

"Blade runner isn't the shit!" Herb responded.

"It's pretty good," I chimed in. "Especially for its time, especially when you consider the amount of practical effects they used."

"It's boring as shit!"

"It's an old movie!" I retorted, mimicking his tone. "They move slower. The pacing can drag a bit but it's more atmospheric than a standard action movie."

"Nah, I'm sayin' it was boring back then." Herb pronounced. _I can't believe he's pulling the age card_ I thought.

"No it wasn't," Boojack protested. "It was a deep introspection on humanity and the idea of being human."

"See!" I proclaimed. "Boojack's got it right! . . . How does that work?" I finished, murmuring to myself. "So they're not exactly you?" I asked Herb. "They have your memories but different. . . perspectives?" I hazarded.

"Yeah," Boojack told me. "Yesterday sucked balls."

"And all that fighting?" I asked, hopefully I had a less blood-thirsty Herb to help balance out the original. "That sucked too, right?"

"What? No. The fighting was the best part, we got to show off how strong we were. It's all that running that sucked." _Or maybe not._

"So, you are your memories, so if you have them all you should be the same, unless there's some other force at work? Whatever, welcome to the team!" I finished, once more extending my hand.

He looked at it for a second before ignoring it with a shrug of "I was always here," before settling back and closing his eyes again. "It's just this dumbass was keeping me in."

I frowned, that statement sounded off. "I think his power has a timer."

"Yeah!" added Herb, "It's not like I couldn't have used help yesterday."

"Then you should've taken a few minutes and figured out how to use your Stand after you landed," he reasoned.

My friend looked thoughtful for a second, then angry. "Oooh," he said in a childish voice. "Intelligent!"

I looked at the uncharacteristic act from my friend in concern. "Is it bad that I'm siding with your replicant on this one?"

Herb looked at me in betrayal. "Dick."

Sometimes I really didn't understand my friend.

* * *

Herb and I ate the leftovers, discovering that while the place didn't have power, it had water, and re-used the soda bottles to have something to drink. Boojack had gone back to sleep as we talked. "I can't believe I punched a teenage girl," he opined.

"Yeah," I responded, not really seeing the problem. "Ya punched a fucking bitch, who deserved way more than that, what's the problem?"

He sighed. "Still a teenage girl. I, I can't believe I did that."

I raised an eyebrow. "I can. We've both read the book. You know what she's done!"

"I know, I know, I know," he waved off, trying to ignore my point.

"And what she continues to do!" I pressed, not letting him be guilty when there was nothing to feel guilty about.

"I get it," he said, in more of a 'shut up' way then an 'I agree' manner.

"And she never gets better," I continued. "Even through the end of the book she's a broken, hateful, monster who rejects anyone trying to help because she clings so hard to her 'predator/prey' bullshit. She never admits what she did was wrong, even when presented with overwhelming proof that even makes sense in the ideology she claims to believe!"

"It's not that though," Herb told me.

 _Finally, the real reason_ I thought. "What is it then?"

"It's the fact that I punched, not just a girl, but a teenage girl!" he reasoned. "You know just, how, wrong that is?"

"When the fuck have you given a shit about either of those things?" I demanded.

"When it's punching a fucking teenage girl!" he responded.

"It's not like punching a baby, man! Some teenagers are at least assholes, if not fucking monsters. Some grow past it, some don't!"

"Let me just feel bad about this?" he asked.

"No!" was my immediate response, "Because you punched someone once that deserves to be fuckin' beaten bloody for the shit they've done! I'm really not getting the problem here."

"Ya know what, let me feel bad about this while you go take a shower."

"Fine," I conceded. "But stop feeling bad about this when I get back!"

The shower was ice cold, but with my immunity to temperature it was more bracing than uncomfortable. I took off my clothes, admiring my new physique and pausing as I wondered exactly how my costume worked. I took it off, but when I activated my sight I still saw a thread of energy connecting it to my chest. Shrugging and taking a shower, though the soap was all floral scents, I got out and, purely by accident, summoned my costume to me, having it disappear from the rack and reappear on my body. "That's neat," I told myself as I walked out.

Herb still looked guilty so I opened with. "You still feel bad about punching that bitch?"

He perked up immediately. "Of course not!" he responded, all traces of guilt gone. _That was, weird_ I thought as I sat back down.

"I don't either, fuckin' teenagers!" Boojack called from the couch.

I quirked an eyebrow at Herb, who just shook his head.

"So, you met fucking Oni Lee, I bet that was cool!" He asked, changing the subject.

"Not really," I responded, shaking my head. "Dude's got, like, no emotion. It's probably from his fucking power. Do you know what his power is?"

He nodded, looking at me in confusion. "Duh, it's teleportation, but cooler."  
"Nope" I told him, shaking my head. "He's got exactly one power, replication. Thing is, every time he uses it the original _dies_. I didn't meet Oni Lee, I met the something thousandth clone of Oni Lee. Even if I get that power, I'm never using it, and I need you to promise me that you'll never use it if you get in range to copy it. _Okay?_ "

"But it's such a cool power," he whined.

" _Herb!_ " my voice was a whip-crack of command. " _Do Not Use That Power!_ I don't want you to fucking die, and you have no fucking clue how it'll interact with everything else? What if the only things keeping his clones together is his power, that means you get one teleport, _then you die_."

"Fine," he conceded. "Yes massa'"

"Honestly, I don't give a shit as long as you don't self-terminate through sheer stupidity. Don't copy powers that could kill you, and _will_ slowly erode away your personality until you've got nothing left. I want a partner, not a fucking slave." I waved toward the steel case that Herb had brought back from his meeting with Cauldron. "So, how did the meeting with the cape-illuminati go?"

"It went. . . fine," he told me, giving a furtive look to where he'd stepped out into the room from Doormaker's portal.

"Doesn't sound fine," I prodded.

"Let me show you what they gave me," he said, nearly jumping over to grab the case, before placing it on our table, pressing his thumb to the lock and stating, "Contessa's got no sense of humor" before it clicked open. "It's the password I set," he explained. "I think whatever set up our getting' here wanted to fuck with them."

That meant Abbaddon, the third entity. I didn't want to think about the implications as he moved to open it. "Remember the vials?" he asked.

"Yeah, the ones we picked out," I responded, starting to get a bit excited.

"Remember how you didn't get any of your vials?" he asked, grinning.

"Yes. Open the fucking case!" I demanded.

"Oh come on!" He teased, starting to open it slowly. "Bum bum-" he started to sing as Boojack yelled "Just open the fucking Case!"

Herb looked let down. "You guys have no appreciation of dramatics," he whined. "Just enjoy the: Bum bum- now it's just ruined." He pouted, plopping down on a seat.

I rolled my eyes, _he was such a child sometimes_. I turned the case and started to open it slowly going "Buuuuum Buuuuum Buuuuuuuuuuum Bum Buuuuuuum!"

"Uh huh," he responded indifferently. "Twenty first century fox? Really?"

"What? No. That's the theme from 2001: A space Odyssey!" I replied, offended. _Did I suck that much at singing?_

He considered for a second, nodding. "That works, I was going for Paramount."

"I could see that working," I conceded as Boojack yelled "JUST OPEN THE FUCKING CASE!"

"So what's in the case?" I asked, opening it up and moving next to my friend.

"Our vials!" he announced, motioning inside.

The case, which was foam lined, contained six metal vials, a computer, a keycard, a smartphone, and a small booklet. Looking at the Vials the tops were labelled 'Overwatch', 'Union', 'Storm', 'Lee', 'Cable', and 'Healer'. Each was metal with a glass strip showing the liquid inside, each a different color. "Holy Shit, that was my dad!" I exclaimed.

Herb looked at me, confused. "The vials were your dad?"

"What? No! That one," I pointed to the 'healer' vial, "is what my dad picked from the CYOA. If it's here then he must be too!" I blinked as pieces started to fall into place. "He was that other guy." Seeing Herb's blank look I explained. "In that prismatic hell where we were falling. The black and grey thing was him."

"The laughing thing?" Herb asked dubiously.

"When he's in a lot of pain he laughs," I said. "I do the same thing, but I've never been that badly hurt when you're around. Shit, shit, shit, who is he?" I asked.

"Wait, What?" Herb asked. "You just said that he was your dad."

"Yeah, but he chose to be inserted as an adult CEO, in the world. That means while he'll still be him, he won't look like him, and will already have an identity and everything."

"Well," he said, thinking about the problem. "You still look like you, right?"

"Yeah?"

"So even if you can't recognize him, he should still recognize you. You can still poke around a little, but let him find you. Way easier."

I sighed in agreement, turning my attention back to the case. We left the vials in their foam cradles as Herb took out the computer and tried to boot it up, but it was out of power. The phone wasn't, and unlocked at Herb's thumbprint, the opening screen showing us a map application, leading from our location to somewhere in the trainyard. Flipping through the booklet, the first page had "Entry Code: 68623762678537", the following pages being contact numbers for services with prices, for everything from body cleanup & new identities to a dog sitter and food delivery.

"This is gonna be useful," I commented, flipping through, taking pictures of the pages with my phone to add later. Looking over and seeing Herb trying to get away from the map app on the phone without success I posited "I think that's your secret base, and the phone won't let you do anything else until you get there."

"That sucks!" he responded, slipping it in a pocket inside his suit jacket.

"What happened when you met them?" I asked. While the booklet was interesting, the electronics seemed a bit. . . lacking.

"Oh, you know. Stuff."

I rolled my eyes, walking over to the living room. "Boojack, wake up, where going to someplace that hopefully has power."

He was up in an instant. "'bout time!" he said as he passed me out the door. "This place sucks."

I followed him out, helping Herb repack his case before walking out.

We walked at a moderate clip, starting to leave the subdivision when my sight activated, a girl with grey and yellow flames jogging down the other side of the street. I almost tripped, but kept on my feet as I tried to appear nonchalant, the girl giving the three of us a glance as she kept on moving, her power reaching out in every direction, but the connections were passive, not active, and my copying slid off of the tendrils of her power.

Herb waited until we were a few blocks away before asking "Was that?"

"Taylor?" I responded. "Yeah, she's got Telepathy Based Anthropod Control. That's it. It's limited to keep her from noticing things below a certain size, and would also probably work on worms, but there's nothing else. No secondary power for multitasking, or anything like that, it's just she can connect her mind to bugs, and the completeness of the connection is reliant on her." I reached down and picked up the ant that her power had connected to on my pant leg, tossing it onto someone's lawn. "She wasn't doing anything other than connecting to them, so I didn't pick it up though."

"But, she controls them independently!" Herb tried to point out. "No way that's not a power."

"Skill, probably born of need." I argued. "In the book she spent a week in the psych ward because her connections were wide open. She probably forced her brain to adapt, along with her power helping, before she drew it down. I could probably do it too if I did that once I got her power, but it explains why Grue couldn't do more than general commands when he borrowed it."

"Damn," Boojack chimed in behind us. "That's impressive."

"Yeah!" Herb agreed with himself. "She's so on my team!"

I cocked an eybrow. "You mean _our_ team."

He looked a bit guilty. "Yeah, sure, that."

"Herb. No poaching capes," I reprimanded. "I know we're going at this different ways but we're on the same team."

He rolled his eyes. "Fine, sure, _whatever_."

"Do I need to call dibs? Because I will if that's how we're playing it."

"Children," Boojack rumbled.

"Hey!" we responded in unison, before looking at each other and laughing.

"Okay," I said after we got our giggles under control, Boojack giving the occasional long-suffering sigh. "So, we're going to the railyard, which I think is right on the border of Merchant and ABB territory."

"Two groups who want to kick our asses. Thanks, Numberman," Herb commented.

"What did you do Herb?" I outright asked him, prompting Boojack to start laughing.

"Nothing happened." He told me, before turning to Boojack. "And don't tell him!"

The replicant waved him off. "It'll be funnier if he hears it from you, 'cause you'll fuck up telling him about it."

I quirked an eyebrow. "Not today!" he insisted. I shrugged, hoping that since today was better, it wasn't going to blow up in our faces. "So, between two groups that want to kill us."

"The ABB will only be after me. They won't know you were there," I corrected.

"I sucker punched Lung!" he argued.

"Lung's not gonna recognize you because it was my ass he was concentrating on fighting. He knows I had a friend, but won't connect it to villain you, just a black guy I was with."

"Just your ass?"

 _Of course that's what he would focus on._ "It was a really shitty fight"

"All he saw were your eyes," Boojack pointed out.

"They're distinctive eyes!" I retorted, to which BJ nodded.

"Besides," I reasoned. "With all the shit we stirred up yesterday, the PRT's gonna be out in force, which means they'll lay low for a couple of days. Well, until Lung gets captured, then all hell's gonna break loose." We walked for a few minutes considering what was going to happen, or at least I did.

"So," I started, addressing another issue to break up the monotony. "The Vials. We've got your three, my two, and the one dad picked out. They're all stupid strong as vials go."

Boojack hmm'd in agreement. "DM said they were from their special reserve, and we only got 'em 'cause Contessa picked them. You know what that means?"

"Yeah," I nodded. "They have a collection of vials they made at first before they learned how attenuate the negative effects to cut down on mutation. Between that and the freshness of the materials they'll probably kill you, but if they don't, holy shit. That's the run that created Hero and the Triumvirate. They don't use them because of the dangers, both if they don't use them, and if they do and can't control the result."

Herb looked at his case impressed. "And we know these work so. . . Holy shit. What happened when they used them at the end of the book when Scion wrecks everyone's shit?"

I snorted in disgust. "They don't. It's why I didn't go down that path, even though it would have made a more powerful character. They play things too close, relying on having so many contingencies they don't figure out what to do when shit gets _really_ bad, wiping out their base assumptions they made all their contingencies on in the first place. It's the reason that Taylor has to step in, even though what she has to become. . ." I shivered. Herb shot me a questioning look. "Don't ask. _Bad things_ happen when you start modifying the brain to increase power potency, and while I'll keep the Khepri option available, it's some last resort shit."

He took a moment to process that. "Fine, so, you know who you're gonna give your vials to?"

I perked up. I'd planned for this last night, and this was a great chance to see if my plans from then had been flawed. "I've got one: a minion master type with super high survivability that'll be great for Danny, but the other, I've got no idea."

Herb winced. "Yeeeah, Danny's not the best choice."

"But," I reasoned. "If he has powers than that means Taylor won't have to cut him out and have more of a support structure."

"Okay, here's the thing. . . The guy. . . He's a nice guy," I nodded. That was one of the reasons I was willing to give him powers in the first place. "But," Herb paused again. "He doesn't have the, wherewithal, to. . ."

"Do what needs to be done," I supplied, kinda seeing where he was going, even if I didn't agree.

"He's too idealistic," Herb agreed.

"You'd think working for the dockworker's union would have gotten rid of that," I tried to argue, even as my traitorous mind connected dots I hadn't realized existed, that Herb had read with a glance. "But-"

"But it didn't." he finished. "He doesn't want power, even when it would help him. He thinks he's being moral by doing things the hard way, takin' that shit on himself. It doesn't help anybody, but he feels better not takin' shortcuts, but with what we need to do, we need all the shortcuts we can get. And if he finds out Taylor has powers. . ." he trailed off, searching for the right phrasing. "When he finds out that Taylor's done some bad shit to get a lot of good shit done, he has a hard time accepting it. Even when he knows that's when she needed him most."

I sighed, nodding. "When he found out she was sneaking out, he locked her in, the kitchen I think? How does that work? Anyways, he locked his daughter, who not even six months previously had been locked in a space, albeit smaller, and had a psychotic episode, in without thinking about the fuck he was doing, because he was the parent, and had the authority, which he was losing, so he felt like he had to do _something_. Right. Damn. No vial for him. Now I need to find two people."

"Sorry," he offered.

I waved away the apology. "Nah, you're right. Damn, who do we give these two. These things are crazy, even more so than the standard vials. We're all like, hey there normal person! Have some superpowers! Have more powers _than me_."

Herb laughed. "We did make them damn powerful."

I nodded. "Nothing I couldn't defeat, though maybe more than you could. It's kinda interesting that as the story went on, the number of normal hero dropped to practically nothing? Isn't that, like, para-privilege or something?"

Herb waved away my concerns. "It's just they can't effect the plot, and are too used to getting their asses saved."

I nodded. "The Superman problem, verging to Jedi problem territories?"

Boojack piped up. "Superman I get, save people enough they get stupid 'cause they expect to get saved, then mad when they don't 'cause it makes 'em look stupid for bein' so weak, but Jedi?"

"Right, So," I started as we entered the central railyard, Herb pointing the way as he followed his phone. "You have the Jedi right, and anyone can potentially be one. They're superpowered, with the same base powers and different specializations, and their philosophy is kinda fucked after the Ruusan Reformations-" I saw that I was losing him. "Basically, they want to go around and help people, so the government lets them, but any resource the government doesn't have to use, it cannibalizes for some other department that's clamoring for the funding, even if they don't need it. There's also the brainwashing, and philosophical problems, but that's why it's not a full on Jedi problem. This government," I waved around indicating the city around us, "On a city, state, national, and even global scale has gotten so used to heroes fighting villains, and normal crime, that police forces and militaries have atrophied except for the occasionally paranoid group. They've adapted to endbringer attacks, but only so much as to evacuate or shelter, not fight, so even that is pushing the world towards collapse, which is why Cauldron wanted the Golden Morning, Scion's rampage, to happen sooner rather than later. But that also means that when shit goes down, and something that is to endbringers what endbringers are to capes starts wrecking shit, everything collapses, because everyone pushed it off on the capes, who aren't ready for shit that bad. When everything goes down everyone retreats to their enclaves and starts raiding each other in the chaos, all telling themselves they could handle the problem if it came for them, and not willing to weaken themselves in the slightest by helping someone else. It's a 'First they came for the protectorate, and I didn't help, because I was not protectorate' problem that ends with everyone dead if they aren't forced to."

"So Taylor," Herb started.

"No! We're not trying that unless everything completely goes to shit, and it won't because we're not fucking morons. Cauldron threaded that needle, and only managed to not make a problem almost as bad as the previous one because of the specific circumstances of her experiences. They _had_ to thread the needle, because they let the highway get blown up, the tunnels flooded, their planes wrecked, and their hallways demolished, leaving only the smallest of openings to pass through. While _maybe_ replicable, I'll be doing my damndest to make sure it never comes to pass." I commanded.

"Sheesh man, I was just asking," Herb placated. "Besides we're here."

All three of us looked at the abandoned warehouse in front of us, dilapidated to the point I felt like I was going to get tetanus just looking at it.

Boojack voiced what I was feeling, "Dude, Our base looks like shit."


	11. Development 2-2

**Development 2.2**

I had to give Cauldron credit, no one would ever think this was a Supervillain base. Herb checked his phone, which gave a beep and a picture popped up on its screen. Looking over his shoulder I saw a picture of the wall, with circled portions of rust labelled with numbers. While I puzzled over it Herb gave an "oh" of understanding and walked forward, tapping at the circled points. Having done so a mangled piece of wall, sharp rusted steel edges waiting to scratch someone, seamlessly parted revealing a keypad. I read off the numbers from the picture I'd taken with my phone, Herb typing them as Boojack watched. Code delivered, another section shifted revealing a rusted door, which popped open without any input on our part, the lights inside flickering on.

Herb looked hesitant so I went first, Shadow Stalker's power ready to get me the hell out of there if I had to. Inside was a classily upholstered interior, both functional and aesthetic, with an entryway leading to a receiving area, leather upholstered chairs around a table set up for meetings. Poking in doorways I say an entertainment room with a big-screen tv, living spaces for a dozen people, a kitchen, a work area in the back with ample floorspace along with shelves of tools and materials, and others.

"I was wrong, this place is the shit!" Boojack said from right behind me, laughing as I jumped and turned shadowy. "Keep your panties on, I'm gonna go watch some tv." He chuckled as he went to the TV room.

"Herb?" I called, getting a response from the computer room, where Herb had docked the laptop and was working on it, other monitors in the place turning on as he did so. "This is awesome!" he practically squeed in excitement, connecting to surveillance cameras across the city. "We've got a tap into the PRT, and there's so many things I could do from here!"

"Sounds awesome," I told him. "But first, we need identities. How much'll those run us?"

Herb spent a few minutes navigating menus before he found what I was looking for. "Found it, it's. . . Damn really? It's twenty-five k. Each. We don't have that kind of money."

I gave him a look. "You work for a shadow organization, you don't have a line of credit?"

"Lemme check. . . found it, I do, and. . . What the fuck! I'm already two hundred grand in debt? Asshole!" he swore.

 _Dear god, what happened when he was gone?_ I thought, trying to salvage the situation. "What's the limit?"

"five hundred thousand, and the account is registered to a, John Blackman. Really?" he told me.

"Good, we'll need three."

"For you, me, and Boo?" he asked.

"Close, for you, me, and your Stand." I corrected. "I'll need them for tomorrow when I register the team. First, I'm gonna want to get the full power-set before I present myself as Vejovis."

"Who's that?"

"An obscure Roman god of healing, slaves, and fighters refusing to lose. Also, a god of Deceivers," I smirked. "It fits." Ignoring Herb's rolling of his eyes I continued, "For that I'm gonna want to get three different power sets: the first is the flying brick package. I can get that from Glory Girl, she's easy-

"Blondes," he nodded sagely.

"Dude, I meant she flies around all the time, so I'll be able to copy her powers easily."

"Yeah," he agreed. "Blondes are easy to spot, so it'll be easy, but not as easy as redheads. What'd _you_ mean?"

I stared at him, wondering if he was bullshitting now, or had set up that verbal trap on purpose for a moment before continuing "I also want healing from Panacea, and have a plan for that, and Bug Control from Taylor, to make me more relatable and to help her out when possible. A flier can summon a swarm faster than she can."

Herb looked askance. "So, there's going to be two bug controllers?" he shuddered. "No bugs in the base!"

I glanced at the fly trying to escape the windows of our base tinted with age and grime, or maybe just mocked up to look that way. "There's already bugs in the base."

"No, you know what I mean, no bringin' in swarms."

"Your stand can turn into any insect ever, how is this different?"

He held his and wide "Do you see him doing that? No. And do you know why? Because I don't like BUGS especially where I SLEEP!"

"Fine man, calm the hell down. No bugs in the base, I'll keep them under it." I smirked, laughing at his outraged expression.

He took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. "Thank you. You said you had a plan for getting Panacea's Power?"

* * *

"So, Buddy, Pal, Wonderfulness," Herb started, Boojack watching the tv passively. "We need a really big favor from you."

"What d'ya need?" he asked.

"Blood, Pain, some injuries," Herb responded. _How is that supposed to convince anyone?_ I thought.

"Wait, what?" BJ asked, dragging his attention away from transsexual teenage midgets. "Why? Wha-What are you doing?" he asked, looking back and forth between us.

"It's for the betterment of, well, everyone," Herb reassured him, to the exact opposite effect.

"Yeah, um, No. I don't care about everyone," he said recalcitrantly.

I sighed, leave it to Herb to not be able to reason with his own clone. "Do you want to look like him for the rest of your life?" I asked, jerking a thumb at my unhelpful friend.

BJ snorted, "Fuck no, I'm not him, I'm my own me." He considered this for a second. "You got a way to change my face? Fine, what do I need to do to get rid of this ugly mug." He glanced down at his light brown arms. "And make me darker, I'm too fuckin' white."

"The plan is that you get hurt and have to go to the hospital, your injuries requiring Panacea to heal, and while she does so I copy her powers as she uses them on you. I'm in the room because I'm pretending to be your partner."

Boojack looked at Herb speculatively. "Do I get to fuck him up?" he asked. "It'd only be fair."

"Not until after I get the power to heal him, and even then, you can't do anything permanent," I responded without missing a beat.

"Wait wait wait wait wait wait wait, why?" Herb asked in a rush.

"I'll be able to heal you, it'll be cool. Besides, you wouldn't ask him to do something you wouldn't be willing to do yourself," I reasoned.

" . . . WHAT!?"

"We're doing this so I can get a healing power," I explained. _Honestly, he knows this already_ I thought. "So, if his price is smacking you around a bit, _after I have the power to heal you_ , then it's no big deal and problem solved, right?"

Herb looked at me pleadingly and got no help whatsoever. If Herb hadn't had clones, I would've volunteered to be the one injured for this plan so I couldn't understand the issue. Seeing no salvation with me, he turned to Boojack. "Boo, Boo, Boo baby," he implored. "Um, look. You, pain. Okay. You weren't there when we were there. There was pain, we got beat up, life _sucked_ that first day. You're taking a couple hours of slashing. Cutting. Stabbing. Think of it that way. We had a whole day of it, you'll have a couple hours, tops."

Sometimes, when one sees an opportunity, one has to take it. "But wait," I chimed in. "Doesn't he have all your memories? That means he went through it too."

Herb glared at me. "Shut up!" he commanded.

"I'm sorry," I apologized, obviously not feeling sorry in the slightest. "I'm just trying to follow the logic here."

"I had the logic!" he nearly shouted as Boojack countered with "I remember that day. That sucked. What's your point?"

"Look," Herb practically begged. "You don't have to. This isn't a thing you need to do!"

Boojack shook his head. "Oh no," he disagreed. "My Stand, Jackhammer, I need to learn how to use him."

"You have my memories!" He pleaded. "You know how to use it!"

"Yeah, but we're different in some ways," Boojack stated with the smug demeanor of someone arguing from a position of justified power. "I need to check."

"Come on, we can compromise!" Herb beseeched his other self. "How about one punch?"

Boojack snorted in disgust. "Fine, Seven."

Herb, now hopeful, tried to bargain. "Two."

His other self-looked at him disdainfully. "Are you really doing this? Eight."

Herb looked shocked. "That's not how this works! We're bartering! We're supposed to come to a compromise!"

BJ stared back impassively. "Nine."

My friend tried a different track. "Do you really want to hurt me? Do you really want to make me cry?"

His replicant looked back in disgust. "Yeah, now I do."

"Fine, but if you're gonna fuck me up, then I'm _really_ gonna cut you!"

I sighed, trying to intercede. "Look, if Herb dies, you do too. Also, while you do have his memories, this will help everyone differentiate between the two of you."

Boojack looked at me consideringly before finally nodding. "I want a pound of weed. . . and three punches."

I quickly agreed, "Done!"

"You're an ass!" Herb declared, looking at his alternate self.

"He's YOU!" I told my friend.

"You're pathetic," BJ chimed in. "So, we good? We both make sacrifices," he gave Herb a significant look, "so he can 'help us all'?"

Herb sighed, "So he can help us all."

"Yeah, I want to help. You're my friend. . . sss." I amended.

Boojack smirked at Herb, "See, I'm his friend too."

"Yeah," I explained, "You're technically the same person."

"Traitor," Herb shot back.

"Uggh!" I groaned. "You're the same person!"

Herb pointed at Boojack. "Does that look the same as. . . um, well."

"YES!" I told him. "You look exactly alike, that's one of the reasons we're getting this power!"

"Well," Herb rallied. "Does that sound like me?"

"If you were stoned? Yes."

"You're a dick," Herb conceited, knowing I was right, trying his luck with his clone. "Are you gonna at least recognize me as the guy giving the orders."

"As long as they're fun," he responded, adding, "And not too much work."

"Endbringers?" Herb questioned.

"Well that's just a given. I mean, saving people, I'm getting favors from that shit. Bitches, ya know."

I gave Boojack a hearty thumbs up when he commented on fighting endbringers, which got a bit less confident when he explained his rationale. "Yeah, bitches." I half-heartedly agreed. At least he'd be helping people, and that was the important thing.

"So when we doin' this?" the clone asked. "'cause if it isn't right now, there's some shit I want to watch if we're not doin' this right now."

I checked my phone, seeing that it was only a bit after eight. "Not yet, probably this afternoon. We want to get Panacea in the middle of her shift so she doesn't remember us."

Boojack turned towards the tv. "Good," he grunted, changing the channel. "Heh, fuck yeah, I love Maury. YOU ARE NOT THE FATHER!" he yelled before breaking up in laughter.

Herb and I left him to it, retreating to back to the computer room. "Maury?" I asked him. "Really?"

He looked disgusted. "No, I hate that stuff."

"But isn't he, you?"

Herb glanced out the open door where Boojack could be heard occasionally yelling at the tv. "Ya gotta understand, I don't watch Maury, or not as a thing that I do on purpose."

"I don't think anyone really does," I quipped.

Herb shook his head sadly, "You'd be amazed."

There was an awkward pause. "I'm gonna go out, get some food, see if I can spot Glory Girl or Purity flyin' about." I said, starting to walk out.

Herb started to say something when we both heard Boojack yell "Oh you lying ya dirty skank. No way he's the only dick you've been raw-doggin'!"

Wincing Herb said "I'll think I'll go with you. And maybe shop for soundproofing."

* * *

Getting a bus to downtown was fairly easy, even if Herb laughed the fourth time I double checked to make sure we were on the right side of the street, _which shouldn't be a thing_ , but fairly quickly we were in the heart of the city, relaxing in a café near a closed ferry station. This one was a Starbucks, and according to the barista was the only one in the city, go figure, but it had outdoor seating where we could sip coffee, eat those little overpriced sandwiches, shoot the shit, and I could keep an eye out for active capes. The place even had a view of the protectorate headquarters if you looked down the street.

As we talked I played with Cricket's Acoustokinesis, keeping our conversation from escaping our table while letting each of us hear each other easily over the sound of the city. While the day was young, the heroes seemed to be sleeping in, leading to our current topic of discussion.

"I know it'll be more complicated than 'Hey Undersiders, come work for us, your boss is super evil!' but we could. . ." I trailed off. "You have that, you're being a dumbass look. What is it this time?"

"Well, one, we don't have the money to keep 'em"

I winced. "Yeah, they do get several grand each, each month, and way more for jobs, and we're in debt. Stupid freakin' Numberman. Can you even hint at what you did?"

"Doesn't matter," he waved away, "and two, you're, well, _you_."

"And?" I asked, trying not to get offended.

"Ya gotta remember," he tried to soothe, "They're all in it for fun, or to get some things, but aren't that serious, they're just enjoying the villain life."

"Tattletale-" I started

"Is the exception" he finished. "And that girl, hoo boy, is not someone I want to meet if I'm not prepared."

I winced. "Right, no way I want to face her until I'm ready or everything'll go to hell. And yeah, it's not until the bank hei- no, Bakuda's rampage that they get pulled into the big leagues. Armsdick tells Taylor that he knows almost nothing about them when they meet in two days. And even then, they're okay until after Levi visits- no," I snapped my fingers, trying to remember. "It's the gala that gets them on center stage, and only because Tom's giving them so much money to do it, that everything goes wrong for them."

"Oh, damn, I'm gonna need to hold you back!" he realized.

"Whhhhyyy?" I asked. With our plans, by that point we'd either be invited to the Gala, or the Undersiders would've already been co-opted by us.

"When Taylor fights Lung, you're gonna want to save her!"

I scoffed. "She's got that." Thinking a bit more I added, "And if she doesn't I'll build something I can layer with my zones on to shoot lung with gravel at several times the speed of sound."

"No, I meant Armsmaster's pitch, we don't need to help her."

I scoffed harder. "This is Armsdick, I've got no worries, I'll talk to her later, and use his assholery to cement myself as the _actual_ hero I am. And as for Lung, we humiliated him and ran, he might go harder than he did in canon, hence the preparation."

Nodding, "Yeah. In that case we need to figure out our intros."

"Intros? To Taylor?" I clarified. "I was planning on doing it the next day, or that afternoon if it's past midnight."

Herb disagreed. "Nah, we gotta do it right then. She just saw two sides of the coin, we need to show her it isn't one."

My brain stalled for a second as I tried to decode his statement. "Oh, yeah, show her that her mode of thinking is that of a false binary, that's it's not Heroes vs Villains. I'll have to do the same thing with Panacea later, since her not-mom Brandish has been such a bitch about it. That soon? Yeah, better to disrupt the pattern as it's forming then have to break it after its been formed. Do you have a plan?"

He shrugged, an action that did not fill me with confidence. "Most of one."

I waited, but there was no more forthcoming. "Would you like to share with the class?"

"Not really."

I groaned. He was going to be a dick about this. That meant I'd make some plans and then wing it. I was good- okay I was ok at winging it. It was more just rapid creation of new plans then whatever the hell Herb did, but I got by. "So GG is just gonna fly around, like she does. We've got a plan for healing, and getting Bug Control is going to be super easy, she's not as subtle as she thinks and I know where she lives."

Herb gave me a deadpan look. "That sounded really creepy dude."

"I know," I responded, aware of my unfortunate phrasing.

"and the fact that everyone you're goin for are teenage girls makes it worse," he added.

"I know, but hey, if Purity flies by I need her power for my second identity."

"Second?" he asked. "You haven't even gotten a first one."

"I mean cape identity. Get this, I combine Skidmark's power, Shadow Stalker's, and Purity's. I'll wear a full body suit, and tell everyone that no, I'm not the lovechild of Purity and Skidmark, and Shadow Stalker isn't my half-sister so stop asking."

Herb guffawed in laughter. "Oh that's fucked up. I love it!"

I smiled back. "Thing is, I need a name. Mine tend to be fancy, allusions, tell too much, or sound kinda corporate. You're better at street sounding names, and this persona is gonna be a lot more villain than hero, for when I need to do things that are kinda questionable." I looked at his amused expression. "I know, I'm a horrible racist. What've you got?"

Herb thought for all of three seconds before declaring, "Boardwalk."

I blinked dumbly. "You're gonna have to explain that one."

"Well, Boardwalks are active when it's dark, and have lights, and people move on them," he elucidated.

It clicked far too well. "And this is why I asked, it's too perfect. Boardwalk it is." I said, giving him a half bow from my seat.

I grabbed us another pair of coffees and we relaxed and just watched the world go by.

* * *

"I wonder how they get to it? Is it flying cars?" Herb interrupted my people watching.

"Huh, what?" was my witty retort.

"The Protectorate," he indicated, waving an image at a PRT van with its purple and black coloring floating over the waves towards the government-sponsored cape's base.

"Forcefield," I told him, pointing out the slight discoloration against the tame waves. "They extend it to let people on or off if they're not flying."

"That's cool."

"Eh," I responded making a _kinda_ gesture. "Defense-wise, yeah, but it puts them at a distance and dehumanizes them, making people have to go to the downtown parahuman response team office instead of the main one if you want to get anything done quickly. It's a kind of pseudo-nobility thing where to even get into the _real_ office you have to get permission from the lower office. It's the kinda thing a good PR department would nix in an instant, but they probably got overruled."

We tracked the van until it was a dot against the water.

"Honestly, can we make _that_ our base?" Herb asked.

"Dude, we just got a cool base," I chastised. "And didn't you listen to what I just said? Right," I corrected myself. "What would hamstring a hero might be an asset to a villain. Still wouldn't work. Besides Leviathan wrecks it, takes it and slams it into the rest of the city. We're inland so we should be fine, but it gets wrecked."

"Yeah, I know," He responded defensively. "but then we take it for our own!"

"Did you miss the part of the book where they cannibalize it and integrate it into PRT headquarters?"

"Yeah, but what I'm sayin' is, we get to it first and use it for our own stuff!"

I looked at him skeptically. "Okaaay, how do you propose that without breaking the Enbringer Truce?

"Eeeeeeh, We still have to work under that bullshit?" He groaned, taking an exaggerated sip of his coffee.

I hated it when he whined like a petulant child. "Until we have a way to reliably kill the fuckers that ruin everything," I reasoned. "And that's some end-game shit, then yeah, we have to at least pretend to play nice. Your bosses can do the 'end justifies the means' BS because they're shadowy as shit. Stealing the rig? Not shadowy, like, the opposite of shadowy. That fucker glows." I sighed. "We don't pull that until we're ready to face the world. Technically the good guys aren't supposed to do that kind of thing either but, yeah, fuck Armsdick."

Herb crossed his arms, honest to god pouting. "I never get what I want."

I couldn't help myself. "Yeah, but if you try sometimes, you might find you get what you need!" At his look of extreme disappointment, I felt bad. "Sorry."

He shook his head, bad mood gone as fast as it appeared. I'd have worried it was his shard messing with his head, but he was always like this. "Channel it," he told me before looking thoughtful, "Do they even exist here?"

I shrugged. "No clue, they might get it from Earth Aleph."

"It's probably better there," he observed.

"You mean without the kaiju? Yeah, probably." A thought struck me. "Did you ever notice the complete lack of any named media in the book. Like, at all?"

"I think it's a publishing thing," he gestured towards the Starbucks. "'cause it exists, but product placement is a thing you have to be careful if you want to get your book sold."

After a bit more I saw a flicker of white and gold against the overcast grey of the sky and my Sight activated, turning the distant shape into a brilliant comet of white and gold, leaving a trail across the eye. I saw two powers, the first a Force Field, it was weakened by one good hit, but not actually dispersed, and was the source of her flight and strength instead of any muscular enhancement. The other was an Emotional Control Aura, togglable and adjustable, it acted to bring out emotions that would help the wielder, though the power couldn't precisely choose which one. My own power struck, like snake a mile long, and snatched off a bit of flame, pulling off a section and slamming it into my chest in an instant. This one felt like a stiff breeze blew through me, a new fire appearing in the metaphorical inferno that blazed in the back of my mind, a mental construct that I only now realized existed.

"That was fuckin' cool!" commented Herb, staring at me, and the area around me.

"What?" I panicked, looking around to see if I was manifesting anything new.

He gestured towards the flying heroine. "The thing with Glory Girl, I can't copy that audio-thing you're doin' but I've got your Power Sight and that was cool. What's the range on that thing?" he asked.

"Um, visual?" I guessed. "I lost my handle on Ziz's power when I lost sight of her, same for Lung. Not sure if it works with cameras."

"Pfft," he waved, "That's easy to check." He messed around with his new phone before bringing up an image of Alexandria fighting the Simurgh. "Try this!"

I watched the video as not-superman tried her best to take down the multi-winged angel to no avail for a minute before handing it back. "Sorry man, it's just a phone to my power. Would've been cool though."

He shrugged. "We tried." Turning back to me he commented. "It's always weird to see your fire when you do that."

I looked at myself, but my power didn't work on myself, so I couldn't see my own flame. "What is it?"

"It like, wraps around it and engulfs it, and you'd think it would overwhelm it a bit, and it looks like it does," he explained, using expansive arm movements. "But it doesn't it just kinda disappears into you, but when you use the power it flickers back and gets bigger. Like the sound thing is white and green right?" I nodded. "Yeah, it's been there the entire time, try droppin' it." I did, both of wincing as the world around us got a lot louder. He said something, but I couldn't hear him over the honking of mid-day traffic right in front of us.

Bringing back the bubble I asked him "What did you say, I couldn't hear you."

He nodded. "Didn't know you were doin' that much. I said when you dropped the sound, the fire disappeared, most goin' out but some goin' back into you."

"Makes sense," I agreed, standing up and gathering up our trash. "First tier of my power gives you as many uses as you see the power used. Second trigger is infinite use, so it saves it for later. I've got what I wanted, and if GG's patrolling her sister's probably on-shift. Let's get those 'buffalo wangs' Boojack wanted and head back."

"Why ya gotta say it like that?" Herb complained. "That sounds so ghetto."

"I'm just quoting him verbatim, he's _your_ replicant," I shot back, heading inside.


	12. Development 2-3

**Development 2.3**

We were walking back through the trainyard, Bag of 'wangs' in hand and Herb was still complaining, even if he had shifted topics. "Why couldn't we've seen Purity?" he opined.

I stopped, looking around. "It's overcast dude, she gets her power from bright light. Means she has to marshal her power on days like this. You're not gonna have the chance to see her _every_ day."

He gave a forlorn sigh. "You know what would help save _my_ world? Seeing her."

I just looked back, unamused. "What is it with you and fucking white supremacists man?"

"You know that, deep down, all those chicks love me."

I started walking again, the sooner we got home, the sooner we could moving forward with the plan. "She and Cricket were pretty clear. They hate you. Well, Purity hasn't met you, but still considers you to be of an inferior race."

"Again," he reasoned. "Her thinking I'm inferior will make it all the better when I get with her."

"Um, no," I corrected. "Her thinking you're inferior will mean you're not going to get there. Full stop."

He looked at me with the disappointment that I felt for this whole conversation. "Ya know, this defeatist attitude is not good for you. How are you gonna be a hero if you keep sayin' things are impossible."

I sighed deeply, this back and forth we were having made no sense whatsoever, and I was ninety percent sure he was enjoying the hell out of it. "Well, for starters, I'm not going to date a white supremacist, though if we're keeping things even, I wouldn't date a black supremacist either."

He shook his head, taking a tone that suggested _I_ was the one being thick in this situation. "No, what I'm sayin' is it seems like a challenge."

"'cause it is"

"Exactly," he stated with surety.

I amended, telling him "An impossible one."

"It's not an impossible one," he reasoned. "Improbable, not impossible."

"Ok, yes," I gave, trying to end this conversation. "It's improbably, highly improbable, and you're efforts are almost surely wasted-"

"-Until they're not!" He finished.

"What about her kids?" I asked, annoyed that I was even entertaining the concept.

He grinned broadly. "Then I'll be the dad they really need!"

I tried to place this on the timeline. "Before or after Kaiser gets offed, because there's no way he'd be fine with that."

"Oh, After, Obviously. No way he'd want a half-black man raising his kids, especially since I'd be better at it then he is." Ignoring my comment of "like that's a high bar," he continued, "Hell I might have to off him just because."

I winced at my friend's plans of murder over poontang, but nevertheless offered, "If you need help, I'll back you. Just, make sure she likes you first. And wait until the city has gone downhill, right now it'd draw way too much heat."

"Maybe we could stop that from happening?" he theorized. _Really?_ I thought. _This is makes him want to save the city?_ "But I don't have a lot to offer her right now," he mused. "And I need to do it before she goes back to him."

I couldn't help pointing out some missing details. "And do you know _when_ that happens?" At his look of realization, I trawled my memory, finally remembering the pertinent details. "She shows up with metalhead at the villain meeting to talk about Bakuda's rampage, so you've got like, two weeks, tops. I don't remember the exact day."

"Shit, I gotta work fast." He told himself as we reached the base.

I walked inside, calling to Boojack that we were back and we had his 'wangs'.

"Mauri's such a bitch here!" was his response. "He's got a stupid ass 'emotion detector' that shows how bad they feel, and keeps the fuckin' golddiggin' skanks from comin' on the fuckin' show! And they keep on talkin' about superheroes & shit!"

"My heart bleeds," I deadpanned. "You have Herb's memories right? Why does he want to have sex with Kaiser's ex-wife?"

"You want to bang Purity? You want to bang Purity. Why? Just, Why?" he asked disgustedly. "That'd be like puttin' you're dick in a blender."

"Made of light. And racism." I added.

"No," Herb explained, with the visage of someone describing nirvana. "The idea, that every time you sleep with her, knowing she might kill you the next day, just, damn."

"You need help." I told him, Boojack nodding in agreement. "Either way Boojack, eat your wings, then we can get this show on the road."

He looked down at the open container of wings then back at me. Not breaking eye contact. He brought one up and very, very slowly took a bite, slowly chewing it in exaggerated slowness. I gave him an unamused look. He took another one, and was starting to take a third when Herb walked over and stabbed him in the chest.

I shot to my feet in shock. "What the hell you ass!? We needed to get him there and _then_ hurt him!"

"He's the ass!" he explained, pointing at BJ laying on the floor, hand holding the wound. "Did you see how slow he was eating?"

I pinched the bridge of my nose as I helped the bleeding Boojack to his feet. "Manifest your Stand" I told him, a ram-horned figure appearing behind him, glaring at Herb, flat teeth grinding behind a shaggy beard. "Okay," I told BJ, handing him a knife. "Now stab Herb in the arm."

"What?" my forethought-less friend asked as his clone stabbed him, BJ's own wound healing as he did so. "Ow, what the hell!"

"No." I told Boojack as he moved to stab Herb again, before turning to the bleeding original and telling him "Now punch me." Taking the what I'm sure he thought as righteous blow on my arm, the bruising blow stopping the bleeding from his own stab wound, but not visibly healing it. "Stop!" I commanded as he reared back to hit me again. "Now BJ is uninjured so Panacea won't see any oddly healed wounds and you're not gonna bleed all over the place as you follow us. That was stupid, don't stab people outside of the plan. Shut up and let's go."

"But my wings!" Boojack bellowed, drowning out Herb's response.

"You _were_ being an ass, you can eat them when we get back." I informed him, pushing him out the door.

"It was in the plan!" Herb insisted as he followed. "Just a bit early!"

"We need to get picked up in the industrial sector, on the other side of the city from the fucking trainyard, and not leaving a blood trail to your secret fucking base. Now shut up and grab the car."

Herb facepalmed. "I did not think of that. Wait, what car?"

"You're base has a car," I told him, tossing him the keys. "The garage is on the other side of the workshop.

Boojack glared over at his shoulder at Herb. "I'm gonna enjoy punching you."

"Both of you shut up!" I commanded. "Dear god, you're worse than fucking teenagers!"

* * *

Herb brought the car around, a rust red Prius. After much complaining, and a bit of shoving as all three of us, none of us small men, wedged ourselves in, we were off, and a half an hour later were pulling into an area in the new industrial part of town without any peopl. Piling out I looked around, and didn't see anyone as we ducked into an alley.

"Okay," I told the two of them, Boojack standing a few feet away from Herb, "Let's do this."

"Do I have to?" Boojack asked.

"Yes!" Herb told him, lunging at him and stabbing him. Boojack shuddered as he took it, and more as Herb carefully stabbed him in places that would bleed, but wouldn't be life threatening, adding heavy punches and breaking a few ribs, careful not to puncture anything. It was, quite frankly, hard to watch even if I knew that Boojack was just a power-created clone of my best friend. By the end Boojack was a beaten, bleeding mess on the ground, staring hatefully up at his progenitor who was covered with his blood and bleeding heavily.

I used one of the burner phones I'd taken from the base to call 911, sounding terrified as I talked about how a bunch of skinheads held me down while they beat my boyfriend before they left, and please send someone I think he's going to die! I motioned for Herb to leave, who nodded and got in the car, peeling out. Well, as much as one can in a Prius.

The operator told me to stay on the line and I gave a panicked but inarticulate reply as I muted the phone. "You okay?" I called to Boojack walking over. At his look I amended. "Okay, stupid question. Ambulance should be here in a few minutes, you good for that?

"Can they come faster?" he winced. "Because, he stabbed me a few more times while you were talking, and I think one of them was a kidney shot."

"Got damnit Herb," I growled before unmuting my phone. "Oh god, there's so much blood!" I called out with a slight light to my voice. "Is there anything I can do?" I pleaded.

"Apply pressure to the wound," the man on the other side.

"Which one?" I cried, "There's so many!"

There was a pause on the other end of the line. "Whichever one is bleeding the most. Help should be there soon."

I gave another effeminate cry of terror as I calmly kneeled down and applied pressure to his side, holding the phone with my shoulder and cheek. After a minute or two I heard the distant sirens, and an ambulance pulled up, the paramedics jumping out and running towards us. One of them looked at the bloody scene and swore heavily, running back to get the stretcher. The other bent down, putting his hands on another injury, asking me if I was injured.

"Nothing more than maybe bruises." I told him earnestly. "They held me down while they, while they, oh god!" I fake broke down.

The other EMT came back, and the two loaded him up, taking the stretcher back to the Ambulance. "Can I come with him?" I asked looking around. "My hunny-bear doesn't look that good!"

The two glanced at each other before one told me to get in. Climbing in I took his hand, telling him. "It's okay honey, the EMT's are gonna make everything all right."

One had gone to say something to the driver while the other was l reaching back to get something, so neither saw Boojack open his eyes to look supremely uncomfortable. "Ya know what dear?" I told him, patting his hand before putting it down. "Rest, conserve your strength. I'll be here for you." Boojack nodded before closing his eyes as the paramedic turned around with a tube of something.

"I'm gonna need you to sit there," he told me. "I know you want to help, but we need to work fast ok?"

I nodded as the other EMT came running around, jumping inside and closing the door as the ambulance jerked into motion. As they worked frantically I felt a little bad, since they were working this hard to try to save someone who ultimately didn't need their help. I comforted myself as I told myself that their efforts would lead me to gaining healing powers, which would in turn let me heal a _lot_ more people.

They worked hard, Boojack's enhanced body keeping him alive as we got there. He was rushed into the room, where he was hooked up to IV's, the staff only noting my preference to tell me where to sit and to ask his blood type and allergies. After a few minutes Panacea walked in quickly, looking first at the unconscious Boojack then at me, asking "Can I heal him?" I nodded Seeing her, her power a bone white and blood red flame of not healing, but twinned Biological Understanding & Biokinesis. Her flame wasn't the blazing inferno of her sister, but a constrained campfire that barely extended past her form, though the intensity of it made my eyes water. The flesh sculptor put her hand on his arm looking shocked at the extent of his damages as she started to heal them. My power snaked out, meeting hers as it closed his wounds, taking some it for my own, her power a warm glow in my chest. Concentrating on it, trying to See the bit of her power inside me started to give me a headache, but I realized in a crushing bolt of despair that, like her sister, I only got half of the package. I could heal, and I could sculpt flesh, but I had no intrinsic understanding, nor could I diagnose problems I didn't know about. I might be able to knock people out with a touch, but unless I figured out _exactly_ what I was doing I was just as likely to shut off their heart. _Damn_ I thought as she finished up, trying to tearfully thank her as the doctor that came in with her hurried her off somewhere else, _there goes almost a full third of my plans_.

After she left Boojack looked over at me. "You get what you need?" he asked.

"I got enough," I responded. "Let's get home."

We checked out, paying six grand, the fact that I did so in cash raised an eyebrow but provoked no other comment. We took the bus back to base, Boojack not sayin' much, other than to ask once. "All that gay stuff. . ." he started, trailing off.

"Was to sell the character and make sure I was there when she healed you. I'm into chicks, and even if you were one, you're old enough to be my father, which is a bit much, even for me." I told him, looking out the window as the bus drove on. "Herb and I joke about it, but it's one of those funny 'cause it's never gonna happen things. It's why I stopped when I saw you getting uncomfortable."

"'kay. Thanks," He said. "So, when am I gonna get the weed?"

"I'll steal some from the Merchants tonight. I need some practice with my flying brick setup."

He nodded. "Good. Thanks."

"No prob," I told him. "If Herb couldn't replicate I was planning on having him injure me instead, having you around lessened the risk, as he could remake you if we screwed up."

There was silence for a minute before he asked. "Fuck, really?"

I glanced over to see him staring at me. "Yeah, I told Herb I wouldn't ask someone to do something I wouldn't do myself. I don't lie to my friends, you included."

"I'm not him," he huffed, looking away.

I snorted. "Try that to someone who can't see your soul."

His head snapped around so fast it almost looked painful. "What!?" he hissed.

I tapped my temple. "I can See powers and Know them, and I know people. Social niceties I have problems with. Didn't at first, but hey, both of our childhoods sucked, just in different ways. But who people are deep down? I figure that shit out fast, and hoo boy has that lost me a lot of friends. You know that. Either way, I see your power feeding into his and vice versa, and I've seen you act. You're still my friend, just a different aspect of him. You want to call yourself something different? That makes total sense with what I know of Herb. You're him, and you're not," I laughed. "Which is just the kind of koan level of shit he says all the time, but it's how you guys process things." I sighed, looking back out the window. "Herb is Herb, always has been, so an Herb that isn't Herb can't be Herb so he musn't be Herb, he must be something else, even if he isn't. No matter how you look at it though, Herb is my friend, no matter his name, or his perspective."

We rode in silence, him not saying anything else, the walk from the bus-stop to our base quiet. As I was about to put in the code for the door he put a hand up to stop me. "What you said. . . Thanks. You're my friend too."

"No prob Boojack," I told him, keying the code in. "Let's see what Herb made for dinner, then I'll see about getting your own face."

* * *

Herb hadn't made dinner, as he had gotten wrapped up in checking out the Parahuman Online Forums, trolling for information. He started putting something together as Boojack flopped down on one of the dining room chairs and I recounted the events of the day while grabbing one of the bases portable consoles and looking up information on melanin production and plastic surgery.

"So you've got Pamacea's power!" he crowed as I got to Boojack getting healed. "That's so ridiculous!"

"Nah dude, I've got half of it. I can do the Fleshsculpting, but I'm doing so blind. For instance, Boojack, give me your arm," I instructed. "He reluctantly handed it over and I grabbed a kitchen knife, slashing lightly at him with it. Holding onto his wrist as he tried to jerk it back. Reaching into my power I pulled on the Fleshsculpting and willed it to heal. The flesh knit itself back up, leaving his arm bloody and unmarked.

"What the hell!" he yelled, taking his arm back and rubbing the healed section.

"I need practice," I told him, "And a demonstration. I'd use it on myself, but that's the one thing the power can't do. Besides, you're borrowing my disease immunity so you don't need to even worry about that."

He didn't say anything for a moment then offered his arm again, Herb stopping as he was cutting up some carrots to look between us and shoot me a questioning glance. I gave a minute shake of the head and Herb shrugged before going back to meal prep. _He has a really low opinion of himself sometimes_ I thought. "So," I said, turning my attention to Boojack's arm, concentrating on what I had read about melanin formation and distribution, trying to reach into the skin on his arm to darken him like he asked. "I'm doing this blind, but I'm 90% sure can heal by forcing something to go back to the way it was," I told him. I tried feeling something for feedback purposes, but got nothing. Going over what I read I tried to imagine an increase in melanocytes, the various melanosomes to individual keratinocytes, and all of the other things that determined skin pigmentation.

A whispered "Holy Shit" caught my attention and I stopped, looking at the skin of the arm I was working on as it had turned to pure obsidian. Herb had stopped and Boojack was looking down at his own arm which he pulled free with a mixed expression of fear and awe. "I think ya overdid it," Herb commented, staring at his replicants pure black arm, with even the palms and the skin under the nails the color of pitch.

"Oh, shit!" I commented, looking at it. "I might have accidentally given you Melanism." Both of them looked at me in confusion. "It's like the opposite of albinism, I can probably tone it down if you want."

BJ shook his head. "Fuck no, this shit's fuckin' awesome. Can you do the rest?"

I shrugged, grabbing his arm and trying again, this time conceptualizing all of his skin as a single continuum, applying what I'd done to his arm to the rest of him, trying to apply a general healing effect to it as worked, hopefully catching any mistakes I'd made. Letting out a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding. I opened my eyes to see Herb & BJ, one with light brown skin, the other obsidian, but otherwise still identical.

With his skin done, I focused on his face. "Okay," I told him. "This is at the same time way more complicated, and way less. I can micromanage the shit out of this, but that's something I want to experiment with on someone who isn't my friend. And I wouldn't feel bad about messing up. Like a rapist pedophile or something. The way easier way would be to just describe what you want, and I try to make it work. Worst case scenario," I pointed to Herb. "I just use him as a template and reset you." _I think I can do that, but there's no need to mention that I might not have that capacity_.

Boojack looked at his new skin and nodded. "Yeah, I'll just tell ya what I want."

After another hour of tweaking, taking a break for dinner as Boojack got used to chewing with a different jaw, I'd finished. Boojack had had me tweaking his facial structure, hair line, and a handful of other things as I reached a happy medium between a young Nelson Mandela and some rapper named Shabba Ranks.

When I'd finished he'd looked at himself in a mirror I'd grabbed from the bathroom, checking out his new face. "You are one ugly asshole," commented Herb looking at his replicant.

BJ shot a considering look back at his creator. "Really?" he asked. Herb nodded emphatically, and Boojack smiled broadly, turning to look at me. "It's perfect!"


	13. Development 2-4

**Development 2.4**

I stretched, releasing the tension that had built up using a new power when I couldn't afford to screw it up. Even if I really had screwed the pooch, BJ would be back in a week, but we'd still be down an effective fighter if he was on Herb's level. "Okay, that's done I need to go out for a bit."

"What for?" Herb asked.

"Well, for starters, I've gotten two out of the three powers I need for Vejovis, and if I can get the third I can sign up first thing in the morning. That means taking a trip over to Taylor's place, as knowing her, she's doing some last-minute suit tweaking which'll hopefully let me snag her power."

Herb looked concerned. "Okay, but we need to talk about your habit of stalking teenage girls."

"What?" I responded, thoroughly confused. "What are you talking about?"

"Well, you spent the morning trying to see Victoria, then you hurt someone just to see Amy, and now you're trying to look in Taylor's windows. You've got a problem, and the first step is admitting it."

I sighed. "One, I was only doing that to get their powers. Two, we were also looking for Purity, who's older than I am, and three, I don't have a problem!"

He nodded sagely, "So you can't even take that first step. That's sad."

I threw my hands up in frustration, "Whatever man, I'm heading out." I paused. "Oh, and Boojack, I'm gonna go pick up your weed. Just make sure not to do anything life threatening to Herb in case it's a couple of hours 'fore I get back."

BJ chuckled as Herb shot me an accusatory look. "Asshole!" he declared.

"I learned it from watching you," I responded as I walked out the door.

* * *

Using a combination of Shadow Stalker's Shadowform and Glory Girls flight I became a dark spot against the black of the night, shooting across the sky like a dark comet. Circling around Merchant territory, it was only a matter of time before I found some dealers sitting on a street corner. After watching them for a few minutes peddling some drugs to some kids who were probably in their mid-teens, I waited until one went to relieve themselves down an alley. Sinking behind him, shifting my outfit to a dark cloak, leather armor, and a black mask while waiting for him to finish, I phased in, applying a chokehold that had him out in seconds as he struggled uselessly, scrabbling for a knife which pinged off my forcefield and armored costume uselessly, dropping to the ground as he lost consciousness.

Lifting him to a nearby rooftop I patted him down, relieving him of his wallet, a bag of pills, some white powder, and several small bags of weed. Looking at it, trying to get a feel for it, it was lighter than I thought it would be for its volume. I sighed as I pocketed it and his cash, dropping the powder and pills, realizing that if I was gonna do this, it would be way easier to follow them back to their base, but I was working on a time-limit. Looking over the passed-out Merchant I shrugged and reached down, pulling the costume off of my hand to get skin contact, calling on my Fleshsculpting to try to heal him up a bit, not doing anything specific but trying for a general healing. It took a minute, but the track-marks in his hands healing up and the bags under his eyes tightened. A couple lesions healed up, and the gauntness in his cheeks filled in a bit. He still looked like shit, but not quite so bad, and I considered my good deed of the day done as I took off in Shadowform once more.

Passing over the city, looking down on it with my power as I gazed upon the rows upon rows of houses, looking for Taylor's. Flying lower, but still above the homes, I drifted around, looking in through open windows for a light to focus on. After several false starts, and surprised by the sheer number of people who don't shut their curtains when engaged in _all_ sorts of activities, from the lewd to the illegal, I finally hit jackpot. Floating along and seeing another basement light I hesitantly drifted closer, ready for another suburban sex dungeon when instead I saw a room _covered_ in cobwebs, the window cracked open and a slow but steady trickle of bugs making their way inside. Sitting on a stool was a lanky girl, her back to the window, working at a table while a mass of spiders and other bugs covered her table. The conglomeration of insects worked on something that was a shifting pattern of greys and blacks, a bit of yellow at one end. I tried to use my Power Sight, but it wouldn't activate. It took me a few moments to realize that while I could see things in Shadowform, I couldn't see powers. Shifting out of it my eyes warmed as I saw the grey and hornet yellow flames pouring off of her form, tendrils of fire spreading out in an intricate web work connecting every single bug, directing them and controlling them in concert. My own power reached out, skimming some off of the bugs in front of me, and bringing it back.

I had to cut off a cry of pain as it connected to me and spread, a blood red and royal purple web of lines bursting out of me, crisscrossing with the grey and yellow one in front of me. The insects around me flickering into my consciousness as a sea of embers all around me, and Taylor a muted inferno before me. I Knew that I could sense her, or the shadow of her with this power, but I could not puppet her, just as she couldn't puppet me in return, though there might be some other effects possible. She gave a cry of surprise and fell off her stool, the bugs all around me starting to swarm and converge on me as she struggled to get up and see me.

Panicking, I took to the air, shifting to shadows once more, the connection with the bugs muted, but still present as I felt Taylor's shock and fear through them as several took off to follow me. Concentrating, I let go of her power, trying to force it to the back as Herb described seeing it. The power seemed to resist my attempts, but submitted, my connection to the insects below me and Taylor fading like smoke on the wind as I changed direction and headed back for Merchant territory.

Several dozen blocks later I took Taylor's power back out, feeling the insects below me in a living map, one that started giving me sense data. _Okay, got what I wanted, just not in the way I meant to_ I thought to myself as I drifted, the information I got muted somewhat by my Shadowform. _No way I can I can pretend I haven't met her next time_. From that brief contact I knew that if I ever met Taylor again, my power would recognize her, and vice versa, just like it let me recognize different types of insects and I did _not_ expect her to have _that_ many black widows. If her dad _ever_ walked into the basement, he was a dead man, and she needed to move them asap.

I drifted as I felt out the insects, getting a slight headache as I did so, pushing myself to concentrate on as many as I could and holding it there, looking through their eyes and feeling what they felt, though the senses didn't really match up. I started at five and slowly pushed myself more and more until I could handle five times that, before tacking a deep breath and checking my phone, letting the connection drop back to its passive level. I'd been out here for a bit over two hours, and I should probably be getting back to the base soon incase BJ did actually hurt Herb.

Drifting back in that general direction, I saw another pack of Merchants. Forcing a bug to land on one of them and hide in the folds of his too-large clothing was fairly easy, and I tracked them in the air as they walked. I tried to listen in as they talked about someone, and it took a few times to put it together but something about a bad boy slayer 8 posting a video? I gave up on it, as I wasn't going to risk flying into something listening to them talk about videogames, and just focused on trying to put together visual data while still paying attention to what I was seeing as I followed them.

It took another twenty minutes, and I only had to swerve to avoid a taller building twice, but I finally followed them back to a house at the edge of the railyards. They walked up, greeted someone at the door, and proceeded inside, the door being shut behind them. Four of them plopped down on a couch while the fourth went upstairs, giving the guy inside some money before getting passed some more drugs and heading down to sit with his friends. Drifting down I saw the window was blocked by heavy curtains, but the flies inside had a clear view. It took a few minutes to figure out what I was looking at, a good deal of which was spent figuring out they were looking upside down, as they had landed on the ceiling.

Inside were three guys, one sitting behind a desk watching internet videos, another dividing drugs into small bags from a _massive_ pile of weed while a third relaxed by the door, gun in one hand, phone in the other as he texted someone, waving away my fly when I tried to see what. The desk-guy finished his video finished, grabbed the money, and moved to a dark shape in corner, fiddling with it until it opened. _A safe_ I realized, getting ready to enter. Thinking for a moment I applied Speed Zones to my knuckles, adding power to my punches, before I phased in and hit the window fist first. I paused for a second as the push from my hands was countered by the structure of the window, but I flew harder and the glass broke, cutting through the shades and slicing into the gunman as he looked up from his phone. I followed in and punched him in the face, his head snapping back and hitting the wall behind him, knocking him out. Landing I spun and kicked the guy by the safe in the head before he could close it, hearing the third guy getting up, the fly on him tracking his movement as he closed. Turning I caught his wrist with a knife-hand, forcing him to drop his blade as my other hand came up, punching him in the gut and sending him flying upwards, impacting the ceiling before dropping to the floor, moaning on the ground. Checking the gunman, I saw that he was bleeding pretty heavily, so I revealed a fingertip and pressed it to his skin, stopping the bleeding, but nothing more than that, pulling my costume back as I heard shouts from below. I punched the three incandescents lighting the room, plunging it into darkness except for the faint moonlight filtering in through the slashed curtain, and the dark blue flickering glow on my knuckles. Holding my hands behind me, as I crouched down in a corner opposite the downed guard, enhanced eyes unblocked by the darkness. Glory Girl's forcefield could tank anything once before needing to recharge, and my own costume was bulletproof, so unless one of the guys downstairs was an unknown cape, I was going to be fine.

There was a hesitant knock on the door, and a voice calling for "Big Pat?" Looking around, I thought maybe they meant the guy who'd had the gun? They were all kinda normal sized. After a moment another voice called "Big P? We heard somethin' you okay?" After more silence a third said "We comin' in, okay?" A full minute passed before the door opened and a raggy looking white kid, maybe college aged stepped in, hand blindly reaching for the light switch, flicking it on and off to no effect. "What the fuck?" one of them asked as a few more edged their way in, all of them carrying some sort of weapon, the two I hadn't tagged quickly getting a gnat to track them with. All of them crowding around the doorway, they blocked out the light from the hall, but as they entered they saw the dropped form of the gunman. "Eddie!" one of them called, rushing over. _Guess that wasn't Pat_ I thought, tightening up.

As they turned to look at 'Eddie' I pushed my knuckles to the wall, launching me forward, using my flight to keep my going as I careened into one of the three holding pistols. I broke the momentum of my flight on his back, taking him down as I lashed out with both fists, negating my recoil with flight as the other two were sent flying in different directions. One of the gang swung out with an oversized knife, which I dodged, spinning around it to punch him in the face, sending him flying off into a wall. A few moments of frenzied fighting later and the last one was down. I'd taken two shots during the fighting, the shield taking the first one to the side, the other glancing off my armored arm, and everyone was down, either unconscious or moaning on the floor, curled up around their injuries.

Dusting my hands off theatrically, I walked over to the safe, pausing as I saw the bricks of cash stacked inside. Looking around, I grabbed two duffel bags, stepping over moaning Merchants. One tried to stab me in the leg as I walk around, but a quick shuffle step dodged it, landing on his hand and probably breaking at least one finger. "That wasn't nice," I chided as I stepped past the thug as he wrenched his hand back, holding it to his chest. Grabbing the stacks of cash and stuffing it into the bag, I'd only filled half of one, so I stepped over to the trash bags of weed, dumping out enough that I could fit them into the duffel bags, grabbing a third just for good measure. Looking around at everyone passed out I shrugged before walking over to one of the thugs and taking his phone, starting to dial 911 before pausing. _If I do this they'll get caught, but I haven't registered yet, and if an unknown cape takes down a drughouse, only for a new one to register in the morning, it's gonna look suspicious_. Clearing the number, I dropped the phone back on the thug. As I was walking to jump out the window one of the thugs, moaning in pain, asked "Who are you?"

I stopped thinking. _Should I go with Vejovis? No, they might have seen the Shadowform. Might as well start dropping hints of the second identity._ "Boardwalk," I told him, relaxing my throat to deepen my voice, before turning to shadow and jumping out the window, the reduced gravity of that form letting me land lightly below as I took off down the street.

* * *

After a few blocks I took to the air, flying back to base and landing lightly, my control much improved from when I left. I walked inside, dropping the bags and my mask on the kitchen counter as I poked around, trying to find Herb & BJ. I heard laughter from the workshop, Herb's full belly laugh and BJ's low chuckles. Ambling over I saw the two of them leaning on each other, both bruised and bloody, their stands both a dozen feet away and engaged in an arm wrestling contest. I ambled over, both of them turning to look at me, both grinning. "What happened?" I asked, healing up Herb who was worse, though not by much, before turning and doing the same to BJ, unblackening eyes, removing bruising, and giving them the general repair treatment.

Herb grinned. "We were bonding!" he declared.

Boojack gave a snort of laughter. "He was whining, so we fought. He's not as weak as he looks." I quirked an eyebrow at the Stands, who both dispersed. "The whiny bitch here said if we had them out, we could keep fighting 'cause of that heal if you hurt someone thing they have. Probably thought he could heal up by takin' me down." Boojack grinned. "Didn't, but he aint as bad off as he was."

I looked around them, and the broken and knocked over shelves that had held all sorts of material for building pretty much anything, the ground littered with bolts, screws, pieces of bent metal and broken wood. "Ugh," I moaned into my palm. "Okay, priority, setting up a sparring area so you two don't break something." My aggravation led me to, rather than tell them, show them my newly acquired power.

Herb screamed like a small girl as Boojack let out a low "Woooooaaahh" as hundreds of bugs streamed in from every direction to stop around me, coming up through the grates on the floor, crawling through the cracked windows, and scurrying in from every corner, carpeting the floor around me in an ever-growing mat of insects. Herb's squeals of terror rose in pitch as they slowly arrayed themselves closer to him. Boojack looked at his progenitor in morbid curiosity. "What the hell _is_ that sound?" he asked.

"I don't know," I quipped, amused at seeing the dynamic turned on Herb. "Though there are some dogs that might be able to identify it."

"You didn't have to take that power! You didn't have to take that power. You. Didn't. Have. To. Take. That. Power." Herb chanted as he retreated until his back hit the wall of the storage area.

I shrugged, trying to repress my smirk. "I needed something I could work on with Taylor, and besides: Bug control _is cool_. Creepy, but less so when I tell them what they do."

"Can you get rid of the bugs?" he pleaded, but I was too busy thinking about the possibilities.

"Oooh, and the power synergy. My range might be bigger but I don't have nearly the fine point control that she does, yet, maybe never will, but I can fly, so I can go around, grabbing swarms, then bring them back to her to use, then she takes over and BAM, she destroys the bad guys because we're both gonna be heroes!"

Boojack amusedly looked at Herb panicking, having noticed that the bugs made a small circle around him as their ranks crept closer to my friend.

"That's cool," Herb commented, going up on tiptoes. "Could ya' get rid of them now?" he asked, as thousands upon thousands of eyes stared at him.

Thinking about it I ordered the lot of them to face me, and _shit_ , that was creepy. "Any you want me to keep?" I asked. "I heard spiders were good for silk and stuff."

"You know what's really good?" Herb asked.

"What?"

"When they're not in the house. With. Me!"

I snorted. "They're already in the house, you just didn't see them."

"Yeah," Boojack weighed in. "But, like, out of sight, out of mind and shit."

I sighed. "Fine, gimme a sec." I ordered them all out, and they streamed in a dark tide to every exit, the swarm obscuring all sight for a moment

"Is that all of them?" Herb asked after the last few exited out the window.

"Well, there's-" I stopped myself as I saw his warning look. "Yes," I told him flatly. "Yes, there are no more bugs in the house."

"Good," Boojack said, ambling out. "I'm going to sleep."

"Wait," I called, stopping him at the doorway. "The bags on the counter have your weed. The money is ours, but I still need to count it." Boojack nodded and walked off.

"Money?" Herb asked.

"I hit a Merchant drug-supply house," I explained, looking around the room and trying to figure out how to put it back together. "Hit them, took their money, and grabbed a couple bags of weed."

Herb nodded as we both heard Boojack yell out "Holy Shit!" in happiness.

Wandering over we saw Boojack almost cuddling one of the duffel bags. "I thought you said a few bags?" he asked as we watched.

"Yeah," I told him, not getting his surprise. "A few duffel bags. The money only took up half of one, so I filled the rest of it up, and two more just to make sure. That's stuff's lighter than I thought it would be."

Herb looked at me, dumbfounded as Boojack stated. "If you guys need me for something else, I'm so fuckin there. I'm gonna get high as shit!"

"What?" I shrugged. "I didn't have a scale and didn't want to short him."

* * *

Boojack made good on his promise, and Herb went to bed, stating that he'd done enough today and wanted sleep, unlike some other dumbass. I pretended not to notice. I started to count the money and, after I was sure Herb was asleep, called in some beetles to start organizing the mess he'd made of the workroom, splitting my focus between counting and getting them to sort through, and gather up, like items. Adding more beetles as I could handle them, having kept a group on standby, helped give my power a workout and iron out the, well, bugs. Giving general commands was easy, but individualized ones were much more difficult, and if I hadn't had my power keeping my body in peak condition, I probably would have had a killer migraine. I started to get one as I reached my limit, but holding it there caused it to eventually fade, and a bit after that I increased it again until I had to stop. It had been a couple hours and I was up to 82 beetles when BooJack stumbled in. He stopped as an already counted bundle of cash, held together with a rubber band, was carried past him by several beetles working in concert to move it to my office.

"Didn't you say you were getting rid of the bugs?" he asked as he sat down at the kitchen table.

I quirked an eyebrow. "I did, but then he went to sleep and I need the practice. They'll be gone in the morning, and no way he's getting up before daybreak if he doesn't have to." I continued counting as I talked, though splitting the focus dragged it away from the workroom bugs who started to fly around until I gave them a general 'land and stay still' command. The group carrying the money had dropped it, so I stopped counting while I got them to pick it up and drop it off before joining their fellows.

"You don't care about a few beetles, do you?" I asked, bringing one and having it settle on my hand.

He looked at it suspiciously. "They're not gonna eat my weed, are they?"

I didn't think they would naturally, but by the red glassines of BJ's eyes he was extraordinarily high, so I had some fun with him. "You wouldn't do that, would you Barry?" I asked the beetle in my hand, making it shake its body back and forth in negation.

BJ looked at the beetle before nodding to it back. "Okay Barry, you tell your friends the weed is mine, and if they eat it I'll squash them like a. ."

"Bug?" I offered.

"Yeah a bug," he finished. I had Barry run behind my hand, poking his head out in fear.

"Do you have to be so mean?" I asked him, pretending to pet the beetle comfortingly. "He wouldn't eat your weed."

"I'm sorry Barry," he told the puppeted insect. "But I gotta set boundaries. You know how it is." He looked at me. "Beetles get territorial and stuff, right? He'd understand."

I nodded, having 'Barry' go join the rest. "He's gonna go tell the others. Why'd you come in? You hungry?"

He thought for a moment before nodding. I sighed, got up, and made us both some sandwiches, directing him to bed after he finished eating, before I sat back down to keep counting while the beetles continued to clean the workshop.

Taking a break around three, I tried to see if I could use Fleshsculpting on the beetles, like Panacea did for Taylor later. The good news is that I could, the bad news was that I had _no_ idea what I was doing, so it died pretty quick when I tried to make it stronger. The second one exploded when I tried to make it bigger, and the third one I gave a spike on its head, which was kinda cool, but then it couldn't fly, and died shortly after. Giving it up as a bad job I finished counting the proceeds, just over forty thousand, before I had to go try and fix the shelving. The beetles had separated out the mess, and the shelves were modular enough that I could rebuild them fairly easily, shifting them to make a sparring area near the door, the process going extraordinarily fast with one hundred and twenty-six little helpers. I stretched out and dismissed them back to the nest I was building in an abandoned box-car outside of the base as dawn bloomed.


	14. Development 2-5

**Development 2.5**

Making a quick breakfast, I started to get ready, picking up my mask before pausing. I looked at the mask I held, the mask which had been formed from my costume, but was now completely separate from the rest. Turning on Power Sight, I could see the threads of energy that ran through my costume, and one seemed to drift off in the direction of the mask before fading into nothing. At the mask what could only be the other end of the thread faded into sight, running through the length of the mask. Moving it moved the faded ends, the two ends always pointing at each other.

Now that I looked at the mask, it, too, was odd. Where I had assumed there were eyeholes, was nothing but blank, black material the same color as the mask. Putting it to my face, it was black until I put it on, where it lightened until I could see again. Walking to the bathroom I didn't see my own prismatic eyes, but instead just the black of the mask staring back. Concentrating on seeing my eyes the blackness faded until my eyes could be seen, but taking off the mask again showed not eyeholes, but clear sections for my eyes.

Thinking about it I reformed it into one of my first mask ideas, a white domino mask with red the color of arterial blood forming a border around it. Instead of eye-holes I had the white continue, covering the eyes completely. Putting it on, more pressing it to my face really, it stuck and I could see perfectly fine out of it. Looking in the mirror I saw just white where my eyes were, none of the telltale prismatic light shining through. Touching it lightly, I found that while the material had been soft when I handled it, the mask was now hard, resisting the pressure of my fingers easily, even, I hesitantly found out, on my eyes.

Reaching up to feel the edges, I found it flush with my skin, and couldn't find any point I could leverage to take it off. As I started to panic about being able to take it off, thinking _was it changeable until I settled on a superhero costume_ , it immediately peeled off in in my hands, feeling like a somewhat rubbery fabric. Taking a deep breath, I held it and put it on, sticking to my face, before willing it off again, catching it as it fell.

Finished with that, I turned my attention to my costume. Turning to a pristine white bodysuit with a matching red set of gloves, boots, belt with pouches, and a strip at my neck where the costume ended. I considered adding a cape, but all I could think of was Edna Mode's emphatic "No Capes!" Instead I emblazoned a red caduceus, tweaking the snakes a little to give them the subtle horns of the Entities' shards.

Smirking at the joke, I checked the network to see when the PRT opened for visitors, noting that my new identity had been made, a Lee Elric, from Iowa, a town that had been wrecked when a cape named Voidshadow with the ability to effect gravity had been killed, before or after setting off a micro-black hole, destroying half the town and killing most of the people who lived there. _Really,_ I thought, _Voidshadow? What was he, 14?_ I checked just in case, but she was twenty-seven, so I was secure in my snark instead thinking badly of a kid with problems. My official documentation would be arriving today, but I had a social security number, bank account with the minimum required to keep it open, A credit card with a couple thousand in debt, jerk, and everything else your average person would need. I had a college degree for liberal arts, and had been doing odd-jobs to make ends meet on my work history, along with a single ticket for speeding several years ago. Number man cost top-dollar, but the identity was surprisingly complete.

The PRT opened at seven, which meant if I left now, I'd probably get there right as it opened. Checking that both my friends were sound asleep I cleared out the last of the bugs, including a couple that had snuck in without my help, and left the base.

Flying just over the buildings until I left the trainyard, I took off and did a quick drift over the docks and boardwalk, seeing the people just starting work, opening up shops and milling about early on Sunday morning. As I flew I could feel the bugs below me, but my power worked in a sphere several hundred meters around me, allowing me to feel those below me, but not more than a block at a time at my height far above the city. I tried to control some floating below me, but I didn't breach the triple digits like I had in the base while I flew and tried to pay attention to those around me.

Floating onward I headed downtown, lazily floating past the skyscrapers, waving casually at the cleaning staff on one floor as I moved by them. Looking around, I finally spotted the PRT building, a decently tall building of stone instead of glass with barred windows, a Helipad on top, and two guards on it looking up at me as I descended keeping at least a hundred feet away, guns at the ready. I waved at them as I dropped to street level, pushing open the clear glass doors of the lobby, stepping in lightly pas the guards who watched me warily, what must be foam sprayers ready, but not pointed at me.

Behind the front desk was a middle-aged man, who was trying to look calm as I walked up to him, and mostly succeeding. _Should I hold up my hands to show I mean no harm?_ I thought. _No, that will make them think I could do harm, and treat me like an armed gunman instead of someone potentially dangerous._ I tapped into bugs around the base, and saw that in adjacent corridors soldiers were moving into position, as several analysts freaked out, a spider in the break room, along with the fly caught in its web showing me someone dropping their coffee as a sound went off and they started running. _This is a bit much_ , I thought. _They really should have had a 'New Hero? Click here!'_ _option on their website if they didn't want them just to walk in._ I pondered that obvious oversight for a second. _Then again, with powers pushing for conflict, they might not have that many takers instead of people jumping into fights and meeting the Protectorate on sight._

"Hello," I told the man cheerfully, like this was perfectly normal and I was coming in to register a new car or something. "I'm a new hero and I'd like to register, as well as register an independent team. What forms do I need to do that?"

The man looked at me as if I had asked for a baby chihuahua and a quarter pounder with cheese. "What?" he asked dumbly.

"I'm a new hero, and I figured that before I went hero-ing I should register with the Parahuman Response Teams, see if there's a do's and don'ts booklet or something like that, and register me and my partners as an independent team. They think this is kinda stupid," I only half-lied, "But hey, good communication is necessary to working together, and prior planning prevents piss poor performance and all of that!"

He looked down at his computer as a phone rang. He looked at me hesitantly but I shrugged. "Take your time," I told him. "I'm not in a hurry."

He took the phone, giving out several "Yes sirs", a couple "No sirs", and one where he glanced at me before going "This wasn't in the training sir". He finally looked up at me asking, "If it isn't too much, what is your power. . ."

I smiled. "I was thinking of going with Vejovis for a name, unless that's taken, and I have the Alexandria package, bug control, and a limited healing ability."

He stared. "How do those go together?"

"How do powers work in general?" I asked, shrugging.

"Bug control?"

I pointed at the spider making a web in the far corner of the room. "Is it okay if I use my power in here?" _No need to be rude_ I thought.

He looked taken aback before nodding hesitantly. Taking direct control ofthe spider, I had it abandon the web it was making and descend, scuttling across the floor before climbing onto the desk, stopping halfway between the two of us, the fingertip sized arachnid raising its forelegs in greeting. My power told me it was a funnel weaver, and that even if it did bite, it would be practically painless. As he watched I made it cartwheel across the table, falling on its back. I extended a finger and flipped it back over, making it bow in thanks before turning towards the man and standing at attention, one leg raised in a salute. "I'm still getting a handle on it," I told him. "General orders like 'come here' or 'go there' get a lot more, but I'm limited with fine control."

He looked at me. "Is it poisonous?"

"Even if it did bite you, you'd barely feel a thing, and it's not a threat to people," I told him, answering the question he meant to ask.

He nodded before going back to the phone, relaying what just happened while I had the spider do yoga, or as close to it as an arachnid could, pretending that I wasn't listening in on what he was saying. After a bit a woman in her early thirties walked in with some paperwork, wearing what looked like office wear, but she was a bit too muscular and moved a bit too smoothly to be the corporate drone she dressed as. Taking the paperwork, and producing my own pen, turning down her offer of one, I stood there and filled out the forms, occasionally making the spider look as if it was checking my spelling. I left the forms for personal identity, trigger circumstances, past actions, and other potentially incriminating fields blank, as I started to get the suspicion that I was being played.

"You need to fill those in," she told me.

I raised an eyebrow. "Oh, so, what was the worst day of your life mam, please don't shy away from graphic detail."

"What?" she asked starting to get offended.

"It's what you're asking for, so it's only polite to share." I told her, motioning towards the blank fields. "If this is what's actually required to register, I can now see why no-one ever does, and why my compatriots thought this was a fool's errand. For instance," I indicated the page I was currently working on, getting the spider to point to the relevant section. "You're asking for a blood sample. Not only is that incredible invasive, but with the amount of rogue tinkers out there, I'd rather not have to fight some cloned mutated version of myself in the future, let alone the possibility of powers that let you effect someone through their blood. I'll fill in the information I'm willing to give, and if that's not enough I'll leave."

"That's if you are allowed to," she said. _Hmm, I thought. Either security or management, maybe both. Mark this down as reason 8 why I'm never joining the Protectorate._

"You're holding me? On what charges?" I asked, watching the two guards shift uncertainly. _Good_ , she was undoubtedly taking a chance trying to goad the unknown parahuman who had demonstrated a low-level Master power, and was likely high on her own authority instead of following orders. At least her stupidity wasn't mandated, just probably encouraged. "I did make sure to hire a lawyer before I came here, and if you were to take the blood sample you wanted, I'm pretty sure that counts as illegal search and seizure." _Note to self, go hire a lawyer._

She just glared at me so I stopped filling in sections, flipping through the "registration" form, finding nothing else they really needed to know about me. Turning to the sweating desk-clerk I asked. "This should be enough. I expected to have to be careful of being tricked by villains, not the good guys. Is there a 'form' for independent teams or should I just give you the basics?"

The 'aide' bit out, "If you and your friends come for a full testing, they will receive a stipend in order to follow PRT Guidelines."

I didn't even look at her. God, I hated these people. "We have no need of that, I was coming here as a courtesy, now, would you like information on my team or should I leave?" I asked the man. The woman started to say something when the phone rang again. He picked it up, before handing it to the woman who listened, before angrily shoving it back to him snatching the papers I'd filled out and stomped out a side door. I watched her go before turning back to the guy, and I couldn't help but comment "Some security people really need PR training. Has anyone checked to make sure she's not secretly a para-human? I've heard that sometimes the powers make you a bit antagonistic towards other capes." Both completely true statements, but what they implied was completely unfounded as I would have Seen her power if she'd had any.

The man behind the desk looked pained, as if he wanted to say something but doing so would get him in trouble. "So, right, Independent Hero Team. I'll be setting up a PO box later today, so I'll just mail you guys a postcard or something. As for the name, we're called the Penumbral Protectors, and our members-" I was cut off as the phone rang again. "Do you want to just put them on speaker or something?"

The poor receptionist took the call telling me "I'm being told you can't call yourselves protectors because it's too close to the Protectorate, and I can't put him on speaker." The man looked scared. At least he understood the dangers of people with unknown powers.

I sighed, resting my face in my palm. "No, that makes sense. If I had some kind of 'hear my voice and be hypnotized' power keeping me here and contained would be ruined if I could talk to someone in charge." I looked up to see his panicked expression. "I don't have one of those, but you guys couldn't have known that. So, no protectors, it's not like they own the copywrite to the word, but okay," I mused as he calmed down. "Um. . . hmmmm. How about Penumbral Defenders?"

He listened in before nodding. "That's okay. Who else is on your team?"

"Right now it's myself and two brothers. One calls himself Break, the other is Enter. Both have strength and toughness that increases as they fight, kinda like Lung without the whole turning into a dragon thing, they heal as they fight, and Enter turns into dinosaurs."

He looked at me in disbelief. "Dinos?"

"Yeah," I nodded. "all kinds, he turned into a T-Rex once, and can do little ones as well. No idea how that fits, but it does. And either Enter turns invisible, or something else entirely, he didn't want to explain." The guy I was talking to looked around nervously as the guards by the door shifted again, sprayers pointed into the air where I wasn't standing. "I don't think he's here," I told him as I watched the rest of the base started to freak out through my bugs, going into full Master/Stranger protocols. I wasn't gonna mention that part, but the security chick had pissed me off. "I don't think he's here, probably. He's like seven feet tall. Either way it's just the three of us."

The PRT clerk looked at me. "A team with three members. That's small."

"Yeah," I responded a bit defensively. "We're starting small, then growing later. You know, 'started from the bottom now we're here'!"

He gave me a look of sheer disbelief before nodding. "You're actively recruiting?"

I nodded in return. "Yeah, but we're mostly settling in, getting a feel for the city, fighting crime, all that good stuff. Is that it?"

He listened to his boss before asking, "How long have you been a team?"

"Today. Right now, we just registered."

Again listening. "How long have you known them is what he meant."

"Oh! Break I've known for years, way before he got his powers. We used to play D&D together and chat online. His brother I've only known for a few days. He's kinda an ass, but follows Break's lead. If there's anything else I was planning on heading over to the hospital and see if I could help. Oh, and before I leave, do you want me to take the bugs out of your base? I can kinda feel them out there and around, so I could tell them to come here and just take them out, but it'd probably freak people out." I advised.

A few more moments of listening and he turned down my offer, wishing me a good day. I casually walked out, pausing by one of the guards who stiffened, but relaxed when I asked which way it was to the nearest hospital. He gave me the directions and I thanked him, leaving and taking flight from the sidewalk, heading to my next stop that day.

* * *

Landing outside the Brockton Central Hospital, I walked into the ER, seeing no one in line I approached the desk. Informing her that I was a healer who'd registered with the PRT (neglecting to mention I did so less than hour ago), and that I was here to help. A doctor was called in, looking annoyed at having to show up, and questioned me on my capabilities. Telling him I could heal, but only if I knew what was wrong seemed to actually make him happy for some strange reason, as well as the fact that my ability to generally heal things didn't work on anything more than a low-level problem. I was sent to a patient, an older man on a hospital bed, and told to wait there. The man was unconscious, and had a number of tubes connected to him, but otherwise the room was empty, quiet except for the occasional beeping.

After a few minutes the door opened and a girl walked in. Average height, with messy brown hair and freckles, it was the bags under her eyes I noticed first as she slowly walked in, like someone half asleep. If it wasn't for my Sight and her costume I wouldn't have recognized her. The hood of Panacea's white and robe put her face in shadow, hiding it, and the red scarf also served to distract, both emblazoned with pseudo-Caducei, the snakes having stars instead of heads, turning them into intertwined shooting stars below a first aid symbol instead of the winged staff on my chest. She started to walk over, her power a guttering candle to the campfire it had been yesterday. She stopped and looked at me for a second, light returning to her eyes as the flame stabilized. "Who are you?" she asked in the confused tone of someone not sure if they're dreaming.

"Vejovis, hero, independent team, new trigger and newly registered," I told her, holding out my gloved hand for her to shake numbly. "I asked the PRT for the nearest hospital to help at and they sent me here. I assume they want me to work with you because of your diagnostic power."

 _That_ got her attention. "What?" she asked, coming more awake. "How do you know about. . ."

I shrugged "I'm a healer, but I need to know what's wrong before I can heal them or I might miss something. From what I've heard you don't, so you obviously have some kind of thinker power that lets you diagnose things for you to heal, which is kinda awesome, so what's wrong with this guy?" I asked, jerking my thumb at the guy in the bed.

She glanced at me, muttering to herself, "Hero healer. That's what heroes do." Honestly I wouldn't have heard her if I wasn't cheating, and I got the feeling that if she were more awake, she'd never have said it. She started to ask, "Do I have. . ." before noticing he was out cold. She looked back at the doorway at a doctor who was waiting, looking bored and annoyed, and he nodded.

She touched the patient nodding to herself before shaking her head, looking at me. "He's got a broken pelvis, a weak heart, and a UTI from the catheter," she instructed. I walked over, miming manipulating something as I pulled off the index finger of my glove, putting it in my belt pouch as I touched the man's chest. "Okay, Pelvis is just reconnecting the bone, but I'm not sure about the heart or UTI, that's," I motioned towards his lap. "Right?"

She nodded, walking me through the steps of healing, feeling my progress as I worked. Happy with the progress, she turned to leave and I followed. The doctor looked unsure. "Where are you going?" he asked.

I motioned towards Panacea who didn't look nearly as tired, though she was still swaying slightly, watching us. "I follow her and she can walk me through healing someone while she heals someone else. It won't double the rate of healing, I'm not on her level, but it'll go a lot faster." She looked at me, brow furrowed in confusion to some part of my statement, though I wasn't sure which, it was all pretty self-evident.

When I looked back at her she turned to look somewhere else, the doctor thinking for a moment before saying "Yes, of course, I was just wondering why you were walking that way." I didn't point out that I had just followed Panacea, letting him officiously lead us to out next set of patients. From there we worked through room after room of sick and injured, Panacea diagnosing and walking me through the process while she healed someone else at the same time, my speed of Fleshsculpting drastically increasing in rate and precision under her expert instruction. I avoided my general 'get better' technique, since I wanted to run that by her somewhere that, if I was doing something wrong, wouldn't get me in trouble. There were some problems though.

"What? Why are you healing me? Why can't Panacea do it?" An older man with a clogged heart asked me indignantly.

"You have a clogged Circumflex Artery, and the others need to be cleaned, which is easy, she's curing cancer, which I'm still learning. Do you want the healing or not?" I asked, baffled that anyone would complain about painless life-saving healing with no long-term effects.

"I came here to be healed by Panacea, and I paid top dollar to do so!" He retorted angrily, puffing up his already ample chest.

By this time, we were attracting stares, and I was losing my patience, as every minute spent dealing this blowhard was another I could have spent healing some kid in bad shape. _Is this how she feels all the time?_ I thought, glancing over her as she sleepily moved onto another patient. _No wonder she pushes herself._ Taking another track, I looked at him in questioning disgust. "Sir, there is literally no difference between Panacea or I healing you, except she can do it faster or. . ." I trailed off. "Is it the fact that she's a teenage girl, and you want her to touch you. Because, that's not appropriate, in the slightest."

He sputtered as the stares all around us turned from curious to disgusted. "Just heal me," he commanded imperiously as I rolled my eyes, touched the top of his hand, and cleared the arteries in seconds.

We kept working, moving from room to room as the time slowly moved on. After a bit I recognized that we were, with two exceptions for critically wounded patients, moving in a giant circle. Several times I had a doctor or nurse try to direct me away from Panacea, telling me that I knew enough and that their diagnosis would be good enough. I pointed out that it was my first day, and that for every new thing I still needed her explanations, which made them upset for some stupid reason, but they had no convincing argument against it so gave up after a few tries and stomping away in disgust. After the first attempt, I started reading the patient's charts as Panacea diagnosed them, finding a handful where they had been mis-diagnosed, and if I had gone from the chart I would have, at best, done nothing to help them, and at worst possibly killed them as instead of joining together a break, I would have fused two separate bones together, or something like that.

By the time noon rolled around, my stomach was rumbling and I needed a break to relax. Heading over as she gave sight back to a heavily scarred young woman, I tapped Panacea on the shoulder as I had taken to doing when I needed an explanation on how to heal something. "Oh, something new?" she asked hopefully, eyes drooping as she half smiled. "What is it this time?"

"Lunch," I told her, motioning towards the clock on the wall.

"What?" she asked, processing the words slowly. "Oh, um, you go, I need to keep going."

I snorted. "I've been with you all morning and neither of us have eaten, or even taken a break. Come on, it'll be twenty minutes, then we can go back to healing the masses."

She shook her head, "No, I'm okay, I'll just keep going," she insisted, the woman looking around in amazement as Panacea healed her burn scars. As I gave her a disbelieving glance her stomach gave a growl like a corned lioness.

She blushed as I asked. "When's the last time you had something to eat. I had some breakfast six hours ago, when did you?"

"Um," she said, not meeting my eyes. "I had something yesterday." She admitted, letting go of her now healed patient.

Rolling my eyes, I stepped beside her and put a hand on her back, pushing her towards the door calling to the rest of the room "We're gonna grab a quick lunch, then we should be back!"

A couple of the people inside cried out in anger, but I ignored them as we left and I started to head towards the cafeteria we'd passed a few rooms ago. The doctor that had been 'helping us' looked up from his phone as we passed, fiddling with it before running after us. "Where are you going?" he demanded, "You still have patients to see!"

"It's noon," I explained slowly, not stopping. "We haven't had a break all morning, we're going to get some food."

He ran in front of us, barring the way. "You can eat when you're done," he commanded, as if he were in a position to dictate terms to us. "Heroes wouldn't stop while people still need them," he added, almost vindictively, eliciting a wince from my companion, who made an attempt to turn back around, but gave up when I provided a bit of token resistance with my hand.

I stopped, looking at him. "Yeah, no. I'm taking a break and," I looked over at Panacea, who was leaning into my hand, struggling to stay awake. "Panacea, how long have you been working and how many breaks have you taken."

She looked sleepily back. "I started last night, and I haven't, people need me." My look of shocked disbelief prompted her to add. "They do, and I couldn't sleep anyways."

I looked back at the doctor. "She's been working all night? Why haven't you made her take a break, I'm pretty sure that, by law, you have to."

His look of indifference spoke volumes. "I started this morning, it's not my fault she didn't take any breaks. Can't she just make herself not tired, or is that beyond her capabilities?"

"Panacea, can you heal your own tiredness, or make yourself not hungry?" I asked calmly, looking at this dumbass and wondering how he finished medical school.

"Huh? No, can't heal myself. Don't do brains, it's wrong." She murmured, leaning more on me for support.

I looked at him with finality. "There you go. We're taking a break."

"You can if you want to, she still has work to do," he answered dismissively, reaching out to grab her shoulder, looking offended when I blocked his hand.

"Okay asshat, here's what's going to happen," I spoke calmly, reaching out for every insect in range. "You're gonna step out of the way, or I'm gonna do the hospital a favor and make all the insects in it leave." He looked unsure. "And I'm gonna do so, by making them all follow you for the rest of the day," I threatened as I started to pull them out of nearby rooms, the amount small at first, but starting to group together around him.

He shrieked and ran off, with the bugs starting to follow him, but going back to where they came after he turned the corner. Pushing Panacea forward as she muttered about not being nice, we entered the cafeteria as I responded that no, he wasn't. I moved her along as we got food, putting it all on a tray that I carried as people stared. Getting to the end the cashier blinked at us, before giving us the price.

"We're healers," I told her. "Take it out of what the hospital is paying us."

"Um," she glanced between the two of us nervously, checking her screen. "I don't have an account for Panacea or you Mr. . ?"

"Vejovis," I told her. "Today's my first day here. I've probably done over a hundred thousand dollars' worth of healing for the hospital this morning, I'm not sure how much they're paying me, but I'm sure it'll cover my lunch, and Panacea's even better at it than I am." The girl looked between the two of us, unsure. "And of course Panacea has an account, she's been doing this for a while, right?" I added.

The cashier nodded slowly. "She's been here for months, she must," she responded thoughtfully, "You might not be in the system yet. I'll go get my boss, go ahead and eat."

I brought our food over, directing her to a chair, commenting as I ate my burger. "That was weird, did you have that problem last time you ate here? How much are they paying you?"

She munched on her fries, eyes almost closed. "Never ate here, too busy, need to heal, be a hero, heroes don't ask for money." She looked almost zombie-like. No wonder, if she had been here since yesterday. I remembered how in the book, Amy had been running herself ragged healing trying to prove herself as a hero to her adopted mother, Brandish, who was always looking for evidence that she was a villain because Amy's dad was the villain Marquis. _That_ was a messed-up family dynamic that I'd need to take steps to fix, let alone the entire 'sins of the father' thing that was pretty un-Christian. Normally, especially for teenagers, _especially_ for teenage girls, someone would have stepped in to help, but if the doctor's attitude, and the fact that she didn't even have an account in the cafeteria were an indication, something was rotten in the state of Denmark. Or the halls of the hospital. The metaphor still worked.

A call of "You!" broke me out of my thoughts. I saw an older man in a suit coming over, Dr. Texts-a-lot behind him along with two orderlies that wouldn't look out of place as gang muscle. I glanced over at Panacea who had fallen asleep as I pondered the situation, and stood up to meet them.

"Can I help you?" I asked politely, aware of the other people in the cafeteria, two of which had pointed their phones at me.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" the man demanded.

"Well," I responded in a carrying voice. "Panacea and I had been healing patients all morning, and took a quick break to eat some lunch before going back to work. Is there a problem?"

"You bet your ass there's a problem! You still have people to see and you attacked my doctor!" he yelled.

I looked at him, adopting a confused body posture. _Is this guy an idiot?_ I thought _Or just so sure of his own power he thinks I should just bow._ "I'm sorry, I must have misheard you." I asked him in a confused tone. "I've been working for four hours, and Panacea twelve without a break. Also, I never touched the man."

"You sicced your bugs on him!" he accused, ignoring my point. _Like Lung, is that a thing here? Is this why Herb hates New Hampshire?_

"One," I started slowly, "So you agree that we had been working hours without a break and two, no I didn't. I suggested, that since he was so busy that he was trying to physically drag the teenage girl who was on the verge of passing out back to work, I could get the insects that have nested in the hospital to follow him out, so he could help while we got food. He turned down my offer. Neither I nor any insect I controlled touched him."

"And the food!" The man continued. "I've been informed that you didn't pay for it. As the Administrator of this hospital I could call the cops and have you arrested for stealing!" _Dear god, is it like a disability or something? And he's the Administrator? Oh, no._ I realized. _I know what this is. He's either making things up or taking them out of context to make his point, and instead of admitting he's wrong he's just jumping to the next thing. I've met people like him before. This is not a person I can have an honest dialog with, time to change tactics._

I straightened up and looked him in the eye. "Are you telling me," I asked calmly, but letting the offense into my voice, giving it the qualities that would carry straight to several phones I saw recording. "That we've been working at your hospital, performing services for which I'm sure that you've charged hundreds of thousands of dollars for, today, and not only are you not paying us a thing, you aren't even supplying us food and demand that your volunteers not leave, acting the same as _kidnappers_? I've been here less than a day I'm sure that the local news would love to hear how this hospital, despite having a nigh-magical healer was paying her nothing, denying her breaks, and was giving her no support whatsoever. On top of that, when said hospital gained the service of a _second_ super-powered healer they managed to alienate him in. A. Single. Morning!"

The director looked like he wanted to punch me, but doubled down on his high horse, settling for. "You are no longer welcome in this hospital, leave and never return, but first pay for the food you stole!"

I looked at him for a second, before I had to laugh. "Fine, whatever, you'll never see me in Brockton Bay Memorial Hospital again." I reached into my belt, the orderlies tensing as I took out my wallet, grabbing a fifty and leaving it on the table. Stowing it I turned back to Panacea. "Wake up Panacea, we're apparently not wanted."

"Not her!" he said. "Just you. We'll take care of her. Leave or you will be forced to leave!"

Again, I looked at him for a moment. _What is wrong with this guy?_ I thought, before it clicked. _Powers, most people have one, maybe two. He hasn't been informed I have an Alexandria Package_. _He's underestimating bugs and thinks that I can only heal, like Panacea claims._ _If I obviously use my biologically themed powers to attack people who are physically attacking me, he can try and play victim and fearmonger, but if I drop them with fisticuffs, he can't use that angle._ "Yeah. No." I said. "This girl's been run ragged, call her emergency contact and I'll leave when I know she's not with people that work her to exhaustion."

"I will do no such thing!" He yelled, motioning for the orderlies to do something. I looked at them with an eyebrow raised.

"Yeah, you are not police officers, and if you put your hands on me, I will defend myself from your assault." They glanced back at the Administrator, who motioned them forward. I waited until one of them grabbed me before taking his arm, pulling it off my shoulder and shoving him backwards into the space between tables. He skidded several feet, looking surprised. "Right, I also have an Alexandria Package. I'm not moving until I'm sure she's safe, as apparently this hospital likes to assault people, or someone with actual authority shows up. Call. Her. Contact."

"I don't negotiate with criminals!" The blowhard stated, arms crossed, having now spotted the cameras.

"Then you shouldn't talk to yourself, since you've technically committed conspiracy to commit battery, and have all but admitted to false imprisonment. If you won't call her contact, I'll borrow her phone to do so." I told them, walking over to her robe and reaching a hand in her pocket to get her phone."

"He's molesting her, get him!" the idiot yelled, trying to play to the crowd. Leaning over to get the phone, one hand in her pocket I was in an awkward position, but still had no problem swinging out with my other hand slamming it into the chest of the other orderly who tried to tackle me, sending him into a table as a few people screamed.

Standing back up I looked at her phone, accessing her emergency contact, which was her adopted sister, Victoria, A.K.A. Glory Girl. "Are you high on painkillers or something?" I asked as I waited for her to pick up. "I told you exactly what I was doing. Throw incitement of violence on that list of reasons why you're a criminal."

"Hey Ames, What's up?" A teenage voice answered from the phone.

"Hello, this is Vejovis, new hero, healer, I'm at cafeteria at Brockton Bay Memorial Hospital. I was working with your sister when she collapsed from exhaustion, and the hospital staff refused to call you, attacking me when I tried. I'm guarding her until you can get here."

"What the fuck!?" she cried, and I could hear a quick "Sitch at the hospital Ames is in trouble, got to go Dean" Before the sound of wind picked up. "Stay right there!" and the phone disconnected.

Looking up I saw the Orderlies trying to take phones from the people that had been recording. "Put it in an e-mail and send it to yourself," I told them. "Then the file isn't just on your phone."

"You!" The administrator raged futilely. "Do you know what you've done? You'll never work in another hospital again!"

"Oh no, I'll never work for free without breaks in a place where I get yelled at if I try to leave and attacked if I try to help my coworkers? Whatever will I do with myself? Oh wait, I'll stay here until Glory Girl shows up." I drolled, glancing at the Orderly moaning on the remains of a table. "I want to say I'm sorry, but you did try to attack me when I was distracted, so I wasn't able to be as nice."

I stood there, waiting as several more Orderlies showed up and tried to force people to leave. Several near me who hadn't stopped recording moved around me to keep doing so, and when the orderlies tried to shove past me I shook my head at them, indicating the injured one who they carried away before backing off.

I heard someone shout "wait!" and felt a feeling of artificial awe a half second before Glory Girl flew through the door, the sounds of footsteps coming behind her as an unpleasant looking man ran in behind her. She took one look at the cafeteria, myself standing between her sister and a squad of orderlies, and the people filming it all behind me before demanding, "They say you kidnapped her. What the hell is going on?"


	15. Development 2-6

**Development 2.6**

"I'm not," I told her, "but first, what does your master power do exactly?"

She looked confused as she floated closer, probably believing that she was the greater threat in close quarters combat. "What? Why?"

I stepped away from her sister. "Humor me, please."

"Well," she said getting between Panacea and I, "Um, it makes people think I'm awesome, and criminals scared why?"

I gestured towards the Administrator, the person who followed her, the Doctor, and the orderlies, who were all backing away, several of them trying to hide behind each other, and then the people behind me, who were filming, and looked like this had made their day.

"Okay, seriously, like what the fuck is going on?" Glory Girl demanded.

I shrugged. "It's like I said on the phone. I'm Vejovis, a new healer, who came here to heal people and learn how to do so from Panacea. She looked tired, but I didn't think much about it until lunch time rolled around and the doctor over there," I indicated Dr. Texts-a-lot, "Told us we couldn't stop for lunch or a break, he tried to physically drag her back so I pressed the issue and he ran to his boss while we got lunch. Turns out that they don't pay her anything, and won't even handle her meals, and told me to pay for the food I 'stole'" I explained, using air-quotes. "And to leave, while they'd 'take care of her'. I asked they call her contact because she obviously needed to go home and get some rest, since she fell asleep while eating, they refused to, and attacked me when I told them I was getting her phone to call you. I'm assuming they lied to you when you got here, to try to get you mad and attack me for them."

The Superheroine blinked dumbly. "Okay, what the hell?" she glanced at her sister, the administrator, and the doctor before looking back at me. "She's worked herself hard before, but they're never that bad when I'm here."

"You mean when you have a mind control aura that makes them not want to make you mad? Gee, I wonder why." I answered sarcastically. _Did she forget about her own power?_

She blushed in embarrassment, getting defensive. "It's not a Master ability, it's a Shaker."

"That just means it's area of effect instead of making minions," I shot back before dragging myself back to the topic at hand. "But without you here, they apparently are totally okay playing off her desire to be a hero to manipulate her into working her like a slave." I saw her start to get more upset, and cut off her response before we could get more sidetracked than we already were. "Get your sister, the two of us have been told we're not wanted here again ever."

"Not her, just you!" the administrator tremulously called.

I rolled my eyes. "My bad, I've been told that I'm not wanted here because I can't be manipulated into working more than a slave. People still feed their slaves." _Why am I getting so testy?_ I thought as Glory Girl nodded before turning around and picking up her sister and floating towards the door, the feeling of awe diminishing slightly as she moved away. _Ah, that_. I thought as I followed and the feeling increased. I _hate_ being manipulated, and feeling emotions that had no apparent cause _irked_ me.

I followed her out, shaking my head at the administrator as I walked, the few people still recording following after, one orderly making a grab for a phone that missed as the woman recording ducked and followed after me faster. "So," I said, coming up even with Glory Girl, walking quickly to keep up. "Panacea said she had been working since yesterday. Does your mother know?"

She shook her head. "Probably not. Ames does this sometimes, even with me telling her it isn't good."

I feigned shocked concern, despite expecting the answer. "Does this happen often?

She winced. "Not really, but sometimes on weekends I check on her if she's working." I snorted, she got defensive. "What?"

"Work suggests she's getting paid." I told her. "Apparently she wasn't, which might have been how they told themselves it was ok to take advantage of her. There's laws regarding employees, but volunteers aren't protected. Lawmakers probably assume that if things get bad, volunteers'll just leave."

We walked out the front doors, Glory Girl coming to face me. "I better bring her home, thanks for calling me. You're okay."

I quirked an eyebrow. "Do you want me to head back and talk to Brandish about what happened? I figure since she's Panacea's mom she ought to know."

Glory Girl wouldn't meet my eye. "I'll tell her, it'll be fine. Besides, I can't carry both of you."

I levitated using my copy of her power. "You don't need to, I can fly." She looked shocked. "Sorry, didn't get to do the full intro in there. My name is Vejovis, I'm a new trigger and a newly registered independent hero, head of the Penumbral Defenders, a new independent team. My powers are bug control, healing, but not diagnosing like your sister, and an Alexandria package. I'd offer to shake your hand, but they're full." I joked.

"Okay," she said, starting to lift up in the air watching as I kept pace. "That's weird. Bug Control?"

I shrugged. "Yeah, no idea where that comes from. Makes about as much sense and strength, flight, durability, and an emotional inspiration field. Powers, right?"

She nodded. "Okay. Icky, but okay."

I laughed as we flew over the city. "They're less gross when I control what they do, but it's limited to bugs, so rats still gross me out."

We flew for a bit before she asked. "You said you didn't diagnose? What d'ya mean?"

"You know how Panacea can touch you and knows what's wrong with you?" Glory Girl nodded. "I can't do that. Surface level stuff that I can see are easy, but anything underneath the skin I need a picture of, and steps on how to fix it. She was helping me understand how to heal different things as I worked. Panacea's pretty amazing with that stuff."

She nodded, before tilting her head in question. "Why do you keep calling Ames Panacea?"

"Professional Courtesy, Glory Girl" I responded immediately. "Her identity might be known, but until she gives me permission to call her by real name I won't use it. Like how you call someone Mr. or Mrs. and use their last name until they say 'call me, whatever'."

She looked thoughtful about this as we flew in what I realized was almost a parabolic arc towards her parent's house, finally stating "You were surprised when I said mom didn't know Ames was wor- at the hospital."

I mentally praised my acting as I took on a serious expression. "I've finished college, but if I were working in high school, she's in high-school, right?" I asked, continuing at her nod. "If I were in high school my mom would want me to call her if I was working late, and if I didn't come home she'd call me to make sure I was alright. I was just surprised that she didn't. I meant it as a rhetorical question, that's why I was surprised when the answer was no. I'll have to ask her why she didn't know where her teenage daughter was when I talk to her."

"Yeah, you might not wanna do that," she advised as we descended in front of a nice-looking house. She tried to move to get to her belt, but was having trouble with her hands full of healer. I motioned towards the doorbell and pressed it when she nodded.

A minute later a severe looking blonde answered the door, glancing at Glory Girl before glaring at me. "Who are you?" she demanded.

"Mom, he's a hero," Glory Girl told her moving forward and angling past the woman to take Panacea inside.

"My name is Vejovis Mam. I'm a newly registered hero on a new team. I presume you are Brandish?" I asked, holding out my hand, which she ignored.

"What were you doing with my daughter?" she asked instead. _Okay, someone's having an off day_ I thought.

"One of my powers is healing, though I'm not nearly as good as Panacea. I was working at Brockton Bay Memorial Hospital with her as she taught me to use my power more effectively." I waited a beat to emphasize my extended hand before slowly retracting it.

Her glare didn't lessen. "What did you do?"

I looked at her for a moment, controlling my emotions completely and stomping down my first response, which would be to meet her aggression with my own. For some reason she reminded me of one of my exes, who would want to get upset with a person, even if they didn't really deserve it, but would wait for something to react to as an excuse, even if her response was in no way proportional. I would thus, deny her the chance by acting perfectly professional. "When your daughter collapsed from overexertion, given that she has been working at the hospital since yesterday without a break, Mam, I wished to call her emergency contact. The hospital did not wish that to happen, likely due to the fact that she had not been allowed to have a break by the hospital staff, as they kept telling her that if she was a hero, she wouldn't stop, and they didn't want this fact to come to light Mam. It was a both simplistic and dirty manipulation that worked very well on your daughter, Mam, and was likely why she pushed herself past her limits in the first place. The Administrator told me to leave when I took a break, and had his orderlies attempt to restrain me when I informed them I wouldn't leave until someone came for your daughter, Mam, as she had fallen asleep a minute after sitting down. I used your daughter's phone to call your _other_ daughter, who arrived and carried her back here, Mam. One of my other powers is flight, which I used to follow her so I could tell you what happened in person. Mam."

As I talked Brandish seemed to get more upset, probably because I wasn't giving her anything to lash out at me for. She hadn't made much of an appearance in the book, but what I had seen wasn't good. "And why did you stay if they ordered you out?" she asked.

"Why did I stay and not leave her with the people who had worked a teenage girl until she passed out, and then refused to call her parents when she was unconscious? Really Mam?" I asked in return, voice almost devoid of emotion.

She narrowed her eyes, her hand starting to glow. "Don't take that tone of voice with me young man!" she practically hissed. _Ah,_ I thought, repressing my feelings harder and keeping my face emotionless. _The last bastion of the harridan, lie about the other person's 'tone' while simultaneously pretending you have done nothing wrong, standing on your age and gender to presume you have the moral high ground. Brandish, you are bitch, and the faster I get your daughters to notice, the better off they'll be._

I started to open my mouth to respond but was cut off by Glory Girl saying "You're still out there? Geez mom, he's cool, let him come inside!"

Brandish glared at me even harder, "He was just leaving."

"What, really?" she asked, coming back and squeezing past her mom. "Thanks for calling me, you helped Ames out, and I'm glad you did!"

I returned her smile with one of my own, physically turning to look at her and ignoring Brandish completely. "It's the least I could do for another hero, let alone one that was teaching me how to use my power." I reached into a belt pouch and pulled out one of the cards I'd printed that morning. "Here's my contact details, please give it to Panacea when she wakes up. I enjoyed working with her and would like to do so again."

As I handed over the card Brandish reached out and snatched it out of my hand. Glory Girl looked at her mom in surprise. "I'll take that," the sad excuse for a mother said.

I looked back at Glory Girl and rolled my eyes. "My number is 1 777 835 6487. It's 1 777 Vejovis essentially. Thanks for your help too, have a nice day Glory Girl."

And with that I turned my back on Brandish and took off, using my sound control to listen as Brandish told her daughter "He's dangerous, stay away from him," only for her daughter to respond "What the hell mom? He was being nice!"

* * *

I entered the trainyard and flew low to avoid detection, landing at the base a little before one. "Lucy, I'm home!" I called, feeling a little let down when I got no response. Poking around I found BJ in the kitchen, making a gigantic plate of sandwiches, giggling as he did so.

"Boojack?" I asked him. He waved me off, so I left, looking around for Herb. I saw the light was on in Herb's room. Poking my head in I saw him in his bathroom, studying his reflection in the mirror, lips pulled back. "What are you doing?" I asked causing him to jump.

"Dude!" he told me excitedly. "I've got Vampire teeth!"

"It's been two days, you just realized this?" I asked incredulously.

"I forgot," he defended, fingering them. "I know I was gonna get them, but these are hardcore. I was expecting, like, Buffy teeth."

"You're a Case 53," I told him, walking in. "They need to be obviously inhuman features. 'Buffy teeth' could just be unusually large."

"Yeah, but these are like Bella Lugosi long. I like it!" he commented, going back to looking at them in the mirror. "Yeah, Buffy teeth are so short!"

"I think they had that game-face demonic visage thing they had was supposed to balance that out."

He nodded. "Yeah, at least I don't sparkle."

"Dude, I don't think you'd be able to make it as a supervillain if you sparkled," I laughed. "Not without murdering enough people to get a kill-order on your head."

Herb thought about it. "It would be a challenge, but maybe too much of one."

"No, it would just suck," I disagreed.

"Yeah!" Boojack yelled from another room. "It'd suck, you gay-ass bitch!"

I sighed. "Thank you Boojack for your helpful contribution."

"You're welcome!" he called back without a hint of remorse.

"God he's a dick," I commented to Herb. "Is that what you could really be like if you took a different path?"

"Yes," he answered honestly.

"Thank you for not being like that."

"Oh, I thank myself all the time," he answered without missing a beat.

"Nevermind," I sighed, to his amusement. "I met Brandish," I told him, testing to see if it was all the older white woman he was interested in, or just the white supremacist ones.

He looked up at me in confusion. "Why? She's a cunt!"

Apparently not. "I registered at the PRT, our team name is the Penumbral Defenders."

"Penumbral. . ." he trailed off, thinking. "I like it, we're the police department, since the Protectorate ain't doin' shit!"

"What?" I asked. "No, I figure since we're going to be a team of heroes, villains, and rogues when I track down my father that some sort of shadow theme name would work. My first Idea was Twilight Crusaders but Crusader is already an E88 cape so that was out."

"Yeah," Herb agreed. "Plus the whole Christian thing, and it's gay as shit, we'd get called Twinkles or something like that."

"What's wrong with Christian thing, the word isn't inherently religious." He gave me a look. "Fine, but why the police? We're. . . Oh, I get it. Our initials would be PD, like Police Department. Okay, yeah, I can see it now. Wasn't intentional."

"Still awesome," he added. "And we'll be the cops people can like, instead of just shooting black kids!"

"Statistically speaking white people are. . . you know what, it doesn't matter. Either way," I said, dragging the conversation back on topic. "It's our official name. So after registering I went to go help out healing with Panacea-"

"Dude, you've got a problem," he interrupted.

"I will hurt you, and I won't even feel that bad, because I can heal you now." I promised. "So, I worked with her, getting practice healing and she taught me a lot about healing things I can't see. Thing is, she'd been working since yesterday double shift at least, maybe a triple shift with no breaks at all and was dead on her feet. When we stopped for lunch, which I had to fucking threaten the doctor who was 'helping' us with bugs just to get, the hospital admin comes and tries to chew me out. Oh, and get this, not only were they paying us nothing while charging the patients, they wouldn't even cover lunch, and accused me of 'stealing' when the cashier chick said we should be good and went to go check."

"Damn," he said. "That's fucked up, what'd ya do?"

"I was ready to split, but Panacea had fallen asleep, and they wouldn't even call her contact to come pick her up. Dude had his goons try to jump me and throw me out, didn't know I had strength, dumbass, and they attacked me after I said I was going to use her phone to call her emergency contact. So I put them on their ass, called her, and Glory Girl showed up. You know that mind control power she has?"

"The fear/awe aura thing?"

"Yeah, turns out that even with them lying to her that I'd been 'holding her sister hostage' when she showed up and they nearly shit themselves, well it was pretty damning fucking evidence they did something wrong. So, she picked up Panacea, and we flew back to her house, where I got the 4th degree from Brandish despite doing nothing wrong!" I exclaimed. "She was looking for anything to get mad at, so I was polite and professional, which just pissed her off more since she couldn't find anything to get mad at!"

Herb winced. "Um, dude, that was the wrong thing to do?"

"What?" I asked. "I was being professional, what the hell's wrong with that?"

"Okay," he prefaced. "So, Brandish's a total bitch, but remember she has a massive hate-on for Marquis, who was always professional, who reminded her of her kidnapper, who was too. The one that made her trigger. By bein' all 'professional'," he said with air quotes, "All you did was remind her of both of the dudes she fuckin' hates."

"Oh. _Shit_ , you're right." I replied, sighing. "Fuck it, I never was gonna get her on my side to begin with, and she's too stuck in her paradigm _and_ her power is too limited for her to be worth helping. I'd rather have Panacea on my team anyways. My being perfectly professional to her bitchiness will just distance them from her faster, since god knows she'll never deign to explain herself to her kids, and it'll make he look like the irrational harpy she is." I stretched. "You ready for tonight?" I asked.

"Yeah," he grinned, before looking at me seriously. "But you can't help, she's gotta fight this on her own."

I nodded. "Yeah, _if_ it goes like cannon. We did piss off Lung in a way that didn't happen in cannon though, so if it starts to get really bad, I'm stepping in."

He nodded, "So when do we head out?"

"Nightfall." I responded. "But before that, I'm building a Railgun!"

"Wait, _What_!?"


	16. Development 2-7

**Development 2.7**

I finished my project with an hour and change to spare. It would have gone faster, but I'd promised Herb I wasn't going to bring in bugs, and I wasn't going to now that I wasn't cleaning up _his_ mess. Having built and tested my device, I folded it up and left it by the door, going to make everyone dinner.

After a descent chicken-alfredo baked penne, Herb and I got into costume, ready to take the next step on our Path to Victory, and I secured my weapon to the back of my costume, willing it to stick in place to hold it there, threads reaching out and securing it.

The sun had set an hour ago, and twilight was shifting into darkness as we got ready to leave. Standing outside Herb looked at me expectantly. "How we gonna do this?" he asked. "You can fly, but I can't copy your copied powers, so should I have Enter turn into a giant bird or something?"

I shook my head. "I can just carry you, besides, I registered him as turning into Dinos, so stick to them unless shit gets really bad. A princess carry'll have to do," I told him, holding out my arms.

"Ahh, are you my prince?" he asked as he jumped into my arms.

"Dude, you guys are so fucking gay." Boojack commented from inside the doorway.

Herb hopped out of my arms and took off his mask as he ran over to BJ, grabbing his replicant by the head, declaring "Boojack! I love you soooo much!" before kissing him straight on the mouth.

Running back, he jumped into my arms as I declared "Ambiguously Gay Duo, away!" and took off into the night sky, the both of us laughing.

We flew around for a while, I shifted us into Shadowform once we reached a hundred feet, flying around the docks looking for Taylor. I hesitantly felt with my bug sense, ready to disconnect it if I go to close. With my extended range I'd detect her before she detected me, but if I tipped her off that I was in the area, the fight might go much differently. After a bit we landed to give my arms a break, Herb copying my Power Sight to improve his own vision as he looked around. "Anything?" I asked stretching out.

"Nah, just some thugs," he told me, pointing them out.

I got ready to pick him up again when I stopped and thought. Glory Girls' Alexandria package was really just one power, not three. Her forcefield blocked damage, enhanced her own strikes, and moved her, but the first two needed recharging. Actually, it was the moving that I thought about, since she could still feel things, breathe, all that fun stuff, that meant that the field was malleable. "Give me your hand," I told Herb. Grabbing it I concentrated on her power, specifically on extending it past me to cover him as well, levitating myself and trying to levitate him as well. He watched, interested, as I tried it for a few times with no result until I mentally thought of cupping him with my forcefield, like a metaphorical bowl that lifted him rather than a full forcefield that locked him in. He squeaked as he lifted up with me, and moved as I moved my arm, maneuvering him around as if he were weightless.

"Holy shit, you really are Superman!" he cheered before thinking. "Does this make me Lois Lane?"

"You get into enough trouble," I commented as he had the gall to look offended. "But no, there's not a good Superman analogy. Try letting go," I advised, moving him a few feet over the ground. He did so, and fell to the ground with a yelp, taking the fall into a roll before looking down at himself in surprise. I hmmm'd before nodding. "Okay, I can extend it to move people, but I need skin contact. Actually, wait a sec." I told him floating down into an alley and grabbing an empty bottle. I came back up holding it by the neck and floating, extending my field over it. "Try grabbing it now."

He did, but didn't float. When I pictured the forcefield extending past the bottle to lift him, there was a crack as the glass deformed and crushed into itself, leaving only dust. "Holy shit," Herb commented as I grabbed another bottle.

"Okay, I can extend it, but not through two things. Different experiment." This time I covered it with my forcefield, trying to cover it, not cup it like I had Herb. Leaning down I swung it against the ground in a motion that should have broken it. Instead I felt the strength of my forcefield diminish as it gave a loud thunk, cracking the cement we stood on. "Okay, that might be useful," I murmured, reaching for Herb's hand again with my free one. This time I focused on covering both weapon and cupping Herb, lifting slowly, bringing both up with me without a problem, and moving us over a few buildings in case anyone investigated the disturbance I made.

Nodding to myself I stuck the bottle to my back just in case, grabbed my friend by the forearm and waited until he did the same, then extended the forcefield and took off, phasing out as we started to cover the docks in a less intimate position.

* * *

After another few hours of searching, with both of us silent as we looked for a disturbance, I felt a pull on the bugs at the edge of my range. I oriented us that way, tracking the direction of the pull as it slowly moved before turning off that power and taking us in that direction, murmuring to Herb "Found her," as I wrapped us in a bubble of silence, making sure that any noise we made wouldn't be heard.

"You're not using the bug power?" he asked as we flew. I glanced at him. "The web faded, which looked fucking cool but _holy shit_ there are a lot of bugs out there."

I nodded. "I don't want her to feel me through the power and get distracted."

He nodded back, pointing out the darkly mottled shape of Taylor creeping along, the grey and yellow flame that shone once I focused on her highlighting her in her own web of power as she pulled and controlled thousands of insects at once. He was right, it was impressive. I flew several hundred feet above her and kept pace as she flitted from shadow to shadow in the docks, moving bugs to scout ahead as she moved. After following her for close to an hour, I saw a group of people gathered together, one familiar figure standing head and shoulders above the rest, the grey and orange flames of his power reaching up into a dragon that paced as it flickered. Looking at her path, I saw her stiffen, before heading for a nearby fire-escape and I knew it was time to get set up. Herb pointed at nearby building but I shook my head, heading to one farther away and higher. We set down, and only our enhanced sight let us see Taylor as she finished the climb, creeping to get into position, her insects starting to swarm.

"Dude, we're too far away to help if she needs it," He said. "Not that she does, but you said-"

"We're well within range," I interrupted, taking out the device behind my back and setting it up, Extending the tripod and folding out the trough.

"Oh shit, is this the railgun?" he asked looking over the device. "It looks kinda, basic."

The railgun, as it was right now, was the bottom half of a length of pipe mounted on a tripod, with sights, and small set of rails perpendicular to the pipe which ended at the back of the pipe and a single handle attached to the bottom of the pipe. "It's 'cause it is," I responded. "I only had a few hours to build it."

"But aren't, don't those things have magnets and shit to shoot things? Where's the battery?"

I laughed. "You're looking at him." I grinned. "Instead of a magnetic field, I'm using something better." With the base secure, and the feet extended, I started laying speed zones down the length of the pipe, each layer turning it darker and darker, until it was hard to see against the dark of the night, the sparks it gave off an eggplant purple, a slight breeze picking up from it as air molecules hit the zone and accelerated. I grabbed a bolt and slid it along the track, moving it into a divot I'd cut to hold it in place before it would drop into the trough and be accelerated, probably to five times the speed of sound if I'd done my calculations correctly. Instantly lethal to an unarmored opponent, enough to knock Lung flat on his ass and take him out of the fight. Probably. Hopefully. It would make a hell of a noise, so no test firing, but the arc would only have an inch of drop at this range and speed at most, and I adjusted my sights accordingly.

Looking down them I could see Taylor crouched on the rooftop, directing her bugs below, the sounds of gunfire and the burst of flame from Lung showing her attack had begun. We stood there, tense, as the battle played out like canon, with the thugs running and the light from Lung's fire becoming more intense as he transformed. Then. . . there! Taylor started to leave, not knowing that as Lung's transformation progressed, he gained what he believed were a dragon's senses. By the movement of the light and shadows, Lung was climbing the building as Taylor rummaged around her backpack, taking out two things, hard to see at this distance. "What's she got?" Herb asked, either of me or himself as she advanced on the dragon as it started to crest the top of the building. Instead of scoring a shoulder shot the first time, she hit him square in the eyes, Lung covering his eyes as he bellowed in pain with his free hand, still clinging to the ledge with his other. Taylor darted forward, what looked like a baton in her other hand, striking at his free hand. Lung started to let go, but grabbed the ledge again, shooting a stream of flame at Taylor, probably guessing her position from the impact of her weapon. She twisted away, falling prone as the fires barely missing her, and scrabbled backwards, frantically crab-walking away from the scaled menace, summoning her bugs to help.

"This is different," I commented coldly, sighting on Lung and preparing to fire. "She gets burned I'm taking this fucker down, or if he gets a good hit in. I can stabilize her, and Panacea can heal her, but I'm not taking more of a chance than that."

"Agreed," he responded, all joviality gone as we watched the confrontation.

They swarmed him, going for his eyes again, blinding him as he let out gouts of flame, Taylor taking shelter behind a vent as Lung struck out blindly. Hitting nothing, and doing very little other than scorching the rooftop. Taylor had her baton, but with the villain's wild swings, she was playing it safe, trying to distract him with what few stings she could get in before her swarms perished. Smart girl, but I already knew that. Lung continued to shift, the fire around him intensifying as he started to move towards Taylor. "Bitch's coming." Herb commented as I was about to take the asshole down, finger on the bolt.

Sure enough, a large shape launched itself from a nearby rooftop, the monster body slamming into the dragon, claws scrabbling uselessly on the iron scales, but it's imparted momentum taking both of them off the side, a whining howl mixed with a surprised roar that cut off after a moment, the firelight dying down quickly. "Good," I commented, moving the bolt off of the firing line and pocketing it. "I'm gonna drop the field, be right back," I told him, carefully taking the tripod and flying to the alley behind us. Looking away and closing my eyes as I tried to strip off the fields one at a time, but the collapse of one triggered the rest, flashing my vision red through my closed lids. Quickly collapsing the structure and sticking it to my back, I flew up to see Herb looking in my direction.

"That was really fuckin' bright!" he told me as I grabbed his hand, shifting us to shadow and taking off, seeing Taylor and the Undersiders all looking in our direction, but without enhanced vision of their own they shouldn't be able to see anything that mattered.

"Stronger it is, the brighter it is," I apologized. "Maybe if I could strip off the layers one at a time it would be better, but I've been kinda pressed for time." He nodded as we rose high above, watching Taylor talk to the villains, before they climbed on what must be Bitch's dogs and riding off. Grue was right there, constantly leaking darkness, but to see it I'd have to shift back into full visibility, and I wasn't doing that anywhere near Tattletale if I didn't have to.

Armsmaster arrived a moment later, shooting Lung with his specialty tranquilizer before Batman-ing up to the rooftop Taylor stood on with a grappling hook. I didn't need to hear them to tell that he talked her into letting him take credit, the douche, and sent her on her way before anyone else could show up and realize that Armsdick hadn't performed a solo takedown. We watched her descend the fire escape, and start to head back home. Looking at her path, I saw she planned to take cut through an alley a couple of blocks away that would be perfect. Stopping on the rooftop to phase in, I kept a hold on Herb as we dropped over the ledge and dropped down, slowing our fall right before we touched down.

Looking at her, I saw that she'd already taken off her mask and was staring at us, eyes wide behind her glasses. The insects around us started to swarm as she visible panicked, probably thinking she'd just outed herself. Bringing my own, more powerful bug control online I took hold of the swarms around us and grounded the lot of them. She gave a shriek of terror as she fumbled for her baton, dropping it before catching it and holding it out in front of her unsteadily. Herb took the lead.

"Woah, woah, slow down, slow down," he said motioning with his hands as we calmly walked towards the panicking girl. "It's not what you think, but it's not what you don't."

She glanced at him, still keeping most of her attention on me, confusion vying for fear across her face. I looked at him stating, "Wow, that was such a clear statement," before turning my attention back on her as she tried to grab control of the insects around us.

"The world is never _that_ clear," he reasoned, projecting an aura of calm relaxation.

I glanced back. "No, sometimes it really is."

"Taylor, darling-" He started.

"Don't say darling dude, that's creepy," I interjected. _Why did I let him take the lead on this?_

"Taylor, darling" he reiterated. "I know you're gonna try this whole superhero thing. "

I felt compelled to add "That's not a bad thing,"

"It's not," he amended, "But it's also not the right thing."

"Yes it is," I retorted, folding my arms, flexing my power to keep her bugs calm, despite her continuous attempts to take control. "'Not the right thing,' says the villain. Hero here, doing the right thing is the right thing. That's why it's _called_ the right thing!" I sighed. "we're getting sidetracked again aren't we."

"Yeah," he ruefully agreed, as if hadn't started it with his inscrutable bullshit.

Taylor, thoroughly off balance by this point, tried going on the offensive "Who are you? How do you know my name? What are you? You're a hero, but he's a villain? What's going on!?" she demanded.

"Listen," Herb started carefully. "That, I could tell you but. . . Well, you wouldn't believe me anyway."

"Sorry," I added "You really wouldn't."

Herb redirected the conversation. "Can we just stick to the fact that you really don't want to be a hero."

Taylor and I responded at the same time with "Yes I do/ Yes she does." I continued as she stared at me, curiosity overcoming her fear. I Explained to both of them, for different reasons, "Armsmaster isn't a hero, he's a power-hungry corporate climber with tunnel-vision so bad he doesn't understand anything not directly related to his goal, and willing to sacrifice almost anything to get it."

Rolling his eyes, he clarified, "You don't want to be one of _those_ heroes-"

"Exactly!" I interrupted, clamping back down on the bugs that were swarming behind us. "Independent teams are the way to go!" I selected a few beetles and used them to float my card over to her, which she took, before I released control over those six, letting her puppet them around for a second as a show of good faith. She turned her attention back on us as they landed in her hair, disappearing.

Herb waited for that little show to finish before adding, "You don't want to be New Wave either."

"Yeah, that's not what I meant by independent teams." I sighed, "They've got some serious problems, but those are more psychological and sociological than anything inherent to being an independent team."

"Thing is," Herb told her, "the Undersiders are going to be something amazing for you, and you're gonna mess with it, by trying to be a hero. You're not gonna mean to do it, but you are."

I weighed in. "They're generally good people, for definitions of good, but their boss is, ugh." I gave a theatrical shutter.

He tried to drag the conversation back on topic, "Look darling, I have future sight, trust me."

"Annoying is what it is," I chimed in. "It also doesn't function how you think, and it makes planning things a pain."

She seized on that lead and ran with it. "Is that how you know who I am? I tell you in the future, so you know now? Is that how you knew where I was?"

"In a way," I agreed. "As far as I can tell, our view of the future doesn't set off Time Paradoxes, so we're free to act on it. We didn't mean to catch you with your mask off," I told her truthfully. "But we knew who you were anyways."

"So, here's the thing darling," he tried again, and I think I could hear the frustration in his tone as we got on a tangent he _didn't_ control. "I want to offer you- we want to offer you," he corrected at my look, ignoring my thumbs up, "a better option."

"Saving people without dealing with large amounts of bureaucratic BS!" I explained. "And not being commanded by the government to do blatantly illegal things because 'shut up I'm in charge, do what I say or I'll break the law even further to punish you because _that's_ how the law is supposed to work' or things like that," She looked at me in mild confusion. "Which is the Protectorate and the PRT, and what they'll become later in Brockton Bay. Don't believe me? Wait a few days and call Armsd-master," I advised, almost slipping. "Talk to him about possibly infiltrating the Undersiders, but know that he's gonna rip you a new one because of a fuck up that _he_ made that he's gonna blame _you_ for."

"What?" she asked. "What did he do, does Lung escape?"

I shook my head. "He does later, but that's not what I'm talking about. Armsmaster took sole credit for taking down Lung, dick move by the way, the rep for taking down the Dragon of Kyushu would make the local villains respect you and be wary of you, not make you a target."

Herb added, "You took down a serious threat, one that normally takes a team of capes to beat. People would be going 'Oh my god, you did this really awesome thing, please join our Wards team, and then you could negotiate for almost anything you wanted. School transfer? Done. Investigation into your bullying? Done. New ballin' bugs that aren't native to here? Done and Doner."

I nodded, "But that's not going to happen now because Armsmaster already called in his _solo_ takedown of Lung, isn't he _amazing_? But what did he actually do in the fight?" At her look of dawning horror I repressed a smile, this was too easy. "Yeah, thing is, Tranquilizers? Anesthesia in general? It's a lot finicky-er than movies, tv, and books make them out to be." Herb nodded in agreement sagely. "He said his tranqs were configured to take down brutes like Lung? That means they'd be meant to work to fight his healing factor, a healing factor which is busy fighting off the venom you pumped him full of. Nice job on that!" I told her approvingly, slowly releasing my hold on the bugs around her, causing her to jump in surprise before looking back at me warily, moving them into position to swarm us, but holding back, as if they were waiting for an excuse. "It's honestly the best thing you could have done, and if you'd bought yourself a bit more time you wouldn't have needed the Undersider's help _at all_. However, that means that his healing factor has to decide between stopping the necrosis at the bite sites, or fight off the tranquilizers which will _shut down his brain_. The things your bugs bit? They're gonna rot."

Looking at the now sickened girl turning green, her minions buzzing in agitation, I waved at her to calm down. "Don't worry, Lung's power means it'll grow back. Hell, you could dig out his eyes and he'd only be blind for a fortnight." Ignoring Herb's cough, I plowed forward. "Thing is, _you told him this_. Not about the drug interaction, but that you'd filled him full of venom. Anyone who _uses_ drugs to fight is responsible for _what_ those drugs do, that's why you brought EpiPens after all, and you told him _everything_ he needed to know. However, he wasn't focused on apprehending the _dangerous mass murdering gang leader supervillain_ , he was focused on the glory it would get him, and how to get as much as possible, even if it meant screwing over a new independent hero. It's too late to warn him, the damage has already been done, but now instead of a flawless solo capture he's gonna look like a slightly out-of-control tinker who performed a vicious PR-unfriendly takedown. A true hero wouldn't have done it in the first place, an honest man would come clean about his deception and try to make it right. The leader of the local Protectorate? He's gonna blame you, and if, no, _when_ he has the opportunity? He's going to screw you over, hard, possibly _fatally_ if he can get away with it, for the crime of daring to _make him look bad_ , when he was the one breaking his own rules and you were just trying to save what you thought were some kids from a horrific death. _That's_ why if you want to be a hero, and you know in your heart you do, or let's be honest, Emma, Sophia, and Madison's houses would have a serious bug problem. _Don't join the Protectorate_ , team with us instead."

Herb nodded. "That way, you'll be doing the right things for the right reasons, not what you think are the right reasons."

She blinked at him in confusion, still a bit overwhelmed from my appeal, as I quirked an eyebrow. "Okay dude, you're gonna need to explain that one."

He sighed. "Here's the thing. You're young, so young. You think you're gonna do the right things for the right reasons, and this is the only way you've got to do things, but honestly? It's because assholes keep pushing you in that wrong direction."

I pondered that for a second before nodding with a "Yeah, pretty much." Seeing her blank expression, I elucidated. "Taylor, and I'm calling you by your real name because you don't have a cape name yet, and the ones you do end up with aren't yours by choice, but things people give you, and they're _all_ villainous, even when you're a hero working with the Protectorate." She gave a start at that, looking to Herb who nodded.

"What my villainously inclined friend means is that you're fairly reactive as a person, that you only tend to do things in response to other people's actions, which narrows your own options as you're always fighting them on a battlefield of their choosing." She opened her mouth to retort but I held up a hand, at this point, and especially unmasked, her reaction to social confrontations was to listen, and stew if attacked until she exploded. Her earlier outburst was because Herb had baited me into a Tattletale like 'I know something you don't know' kind of behavior. Her current reaction set would let me hit her with hard truths, but then explain them so that she was forced to listen in a way that her father never would. "The things you do, are going to do, are _damn impressive_ , but they're always a direct escalation of the situation. Someone threatens you, you find a way to take them down and remove the threat. You think someone's hiding something, you pour your efforts into finding it out yourself so they can't hide it. You think you need something, you find a way to get it no matter what. It's an admirable trait, and one I have a bit of myself, but it leads to limiting yourself in a number of ways. Thing is, even with the Undersiders, your strength of character and drive, and yes, you have both in spades, leads to you co-opting the team as the new leader in all but name, but that also means that you never truly _talk_ to anyone about your plans or views on what's going on, so you don't get different perspectives. We'd offer those perspectives, and help you when you need it, not only if _maybe_ you ask in exactly the right way to not offend us or trigger our personal hang-ups, like most capes."

Herb nodded. "We'll support you. We'll not always be there one hundred percent because we both got shit that we need to do, but we'd expect the same from you, and we'll back you if you need it."

"Yeah, like the whole going undercover, gathering information, then turning them over to Armsmaster thing?" I asked. "Do you think he'd really honor any promises you, or even _he_ made, to them or _you_? Or do you think he'd lie about it, like he lied, lies, and will lie about Lung, possibly claiming you were just a villain who helped him for leniency. That he'd lie that you've already given him your statement, so there's no need to talk to you, get you thrown in jail for being one of them, and _take the glory of their capture for himself_? All the while he'd tell himself he was doing the right thing by getting a troubled girl out of harm's way. By imprisoning her. You really want to know what he's like when he doesn't think he can get something from you? When he can't use you? Call him."

"Or offer to meet him somewhere he doesn't control." Herb suggested. "We'll be there, not doing anything, unless you need us to."

I gave a laugh, "That would actually work better, then you could get a read on him in person and he couldn't claim some BS like 'that wasn't me, I never said that, it must have been your friends who were manipulating you because they're all super evil and I am the sole paragon of law and goodness as long as you don't actually pay attention to anything I do!'" I finished in a fake voice.

She looked between the two of us. "Did you plan this?"

I shook my head. "Nah, our future knowledge gave us broad strokes with a focus on critical people and critical events. One of them is you. Another is the Undersiders. Another is their sociopathic boss, and there are more."

He nodded. "So, if you set up a meeting, tell us when and where, we're good but not that good, yet." He took out a card of his own, walking over and handing it to her "My card, for if you don't want to be hampered by all those pesky 'rules'"

"Says the villain," I retorted.

He rolled his eyes again. "I'll support you for the tough things."

"You're saying that like I won't," I commented.

"I'm saying it so I get first shot," he responded.

Rolling my eyes this time, I clarified. "If you want to be a hero, give me a call, a villain, him, but if you want to do the right things and help people, call either of us. We're both on the same team for a reason."


	17. Development 2-x (Interlude: Chuck)

**Development 2.x (Interlude: Chuck)**

 **Trigger Warning: Extreme Racism. No one is the good guy here.**

Charlie, Chuck to, well, everyone, wasn't sure if this was a dream, or if he was just really high. Wandering through the streets of the city that he wasn't sure was real, he hadn't thought that he'd taken anything, but he couldn't think of any other reason why he'd be here. His phone had no service, and it was early morning, so he figured he'd walk around and get his bearings. This city, apparently named 'Brockton Bay', had seen better days, and the name seemed familiar, but only enough that he felt like he was on the edge of a full on holy shit, brain expanding, déjà vu moment instead it actually giving him anything to work with.

He wandered toward the smell of the sea, since if there was anything interesting to see, it would probably be the place to be. The city woke up around him as he walked, the hustle and bustle of the people giving his surroundings a feeling of business they hadn't had when he'd arrived, stepping out of an alley with no memory of how he'd gotten there. He'd checked the alley twice, and all he'd found was a bad smell and more questions.

Reaching the shore, he sighed and looked along the boardwalk. Whelp, it was a boardwalk. Grabbing a newspaper someone had left on a table and moving to a café down the street he got some food, dipping into his reserve funds since he was pretty sure they wouldn't take his college cafeteria card. Reading it he was still not sure if he was high or dreaming, but he realized why this place sounded familiar. As he perused stories about superheroes, and the three gangs that were active in this city, he remembered his older brother talking about a story he'd wanted him to read. Something called Wyrm, though there was only, like, one dragon, and he wasn't the main character either. Thinking about it, he was leaning towards dream. He'd fallen asleep reading stuff and dreamed up plotlines before, like that time he'd been reading Animal Farm and the pigs had been overthrown by the two dogs they'd "educated" and turned the farm into an actual socialist Utopia. Man, he'd failed that book report _hard_.

A few hours later, some delicious waffles down, and with the waitress giving him hints that he should leave, he was definitely leaning towards dream, as he didn't think drug trips were supposed to last this long. Well, he thought they didn't, he hadn't actually ever done drugs, other than alcohol, which didn't really count. The paper had been cool though, and if the story was even half as cool as he'd dreamed it, he should probably read it. As he walked down the street, he figured that he could bargain with his brother that he'd read the story if his brother played the newest season of the Walking Dead, since none of his friends played it and he wanted someone to talk about it with.

Wandering around, he heard screams and looked down the Boardwalk to see that one of the shops was apparently on fire. _Yeah, not my problem_ he decided, turning on his heel and walking away. He'd made it out of sight when he heard distant screaming, but a different kind of screaming, with what sounded like the T-Rex from Jurassic Park. Looking behind him, he saw two guys, both jacked, running full tilt down the Boardwalk, one was black with a bright yellow jacket wrapped around his head, the other. . . he couldn't really tell. He was covered head to toe, a hood and mask obscuring everything but glowing rainbow eyes. _God those look gay,_ he thought. Behind them an honest to god _Dragon_ , slate grey and on fire, which ran on all fours to catch them, wingless, but with a long tail swinging back and forth that looked freaking _lethal_. The runners passed him on both sides, the covered one's eyes meeting his and opening in shock for a moment. The dragon charged straight for him, or at him, and he leaped to the side, somehow pulling himself into some kind of roll that cleared him of the monster as it pursued its prey, the heat from the flames like he'd stuck his head in an oven for a moment. Watching it chase those two, he shook his head. _Better them than me_.

* * *

Having wandered away from the dragon, he'd taken a few turns towards what looked like downtown, really, away from the dragon and the cops that would eventually show up is all he wanted, and was now just meandering. He'd started down an alley, of the non-stinky variety, and there were three Asian guys hanging out in it. He'd given them a nod and passed by, stopping when he heard a ringing click down the corridor. Slowly turning around, he saw that one of them had an honest to god submachine gun that he'd pulled from. . . somewhere. "You, Gaijin, give me you money fool!" the guy with the gun demanded.

"Um, why?" he asked, not really sure how he should respond in this situation.

"Are you high round eye?" the mugger asked, walking up to him and pointing the gun at his head. "Because I'll fill you pasty head full of lead if you don't."

He stared at the guy in disbelief, finally noticing that all three of the them were wearing the same color scheme. _The Asian themed gang?_ He thought. _But it's broad fucking daylight! Who mugs people in the middle of the day when there's cops and shit everywhere?_ _Yeah, this is a dream, which means worst case, I'll just wake up_. He'd had lucid dreams before, though they were rare. They were always really fun though, since he could do whatever he wanted and it didn't matter, since none of it was real. It was like video games on crack, and he remembered them fondly. Well, kinda, in that half-memory thing that dreams did. If he was just in an unfamiliar city, sure, it might be real, but one with glowy-eyed people and dragons? Definitely a dream. He started giggling, which descended into full guffaws, this was gonna be _awesome_.

One of the other gang members shifted uncomfortably, looking at the guy they were mugging laughing uproariously with a gun pointed at his head. "Is he high or something?"

The other thug glared at the laughing teen. "Maybe he's a Merchant, they're always fucking high. Hey Bai Tou, give us your money and your drugs, then get your ass back to Archer's Bridge!"

He stopped laughing, petering out quickly, looking down in thought. _I don't even know what that meant but it sounded racist. How does that work? And Merchants? Wait, if there's drugs in this dream, I should take them!_ "Hey big nose!" the SMG wielding thug yelled, poking him in the face with the barrel of his weapon. "Pay attention to me when I've got a weapon in your face, or I'll blow it off!"

 _Again with the racism?_ He mused. _Actually, fuck it, if racism is the way you want to go, let's play!_ Calming himself down, but unable to repress a smirk, he made a show of looking at the gun. "Hmm, that's a big gun," he started, pausing for a second for the thug to start to say something gloating before adding, "compensating for something, eh?"

The thug looked flabbergasted before his face turned into a snarl as he started to shout "For that y-" obviously about to pull the trigger.

The gunman never got the chance as Chuck brought his hand up, knocking the SMG to the side right before it was shot, the quick burst of bullets going wild, hitting the wall to the left, one hitting a trash can as he took a step inside the thug's firing arc, yelling "Golden Rule Yellow Man! I'm mugging you now!" as he punched the gangbanger straight in the face, nose crunching viscerally under the impact. One down in a spurt of blood, the other two froze before one whipped out a knife and slashed at him. He took a step back, slapping the knife out of the thug's hand, stepping forward and rising in an uppercut, using his full six foot five inch frame to lift the smaller man off his feet, letting his height compensate for honestly sub-par strength, pairing it with a taunt of "Where's your Sun Tzu now, Bitch!"

"Fuck? You a cape?" the last one asked, fumbling for a pistol.

Chuck spun with a hammer fist to the last one's temple, downing him as well. "No," he said to the now unconscious gangbangers. "I just know kung fu!" Looking around he realized that no one in the alley could hear his awesome one-liner. "Dammnit!"

He relieved the thugs of their weapons and money, after all, on top of being a great taunt, he was just following the golden rule, and these thugs obviously wanted to be robbed because of their skin color. Looking at them though, it didn't seem like enough. He walked out of the alley, the street had only a few people on it, all glancing at him before hurrying on their way. Striding confidently over to a corner store, he bought a permanent marker and returned to the racist thugs, the cashier oddly jumpy. He stripped them, tying their clothing together in a rope which he used to bind them all to each other, and to a dumpster. With the sharpie, he considered what would be appropriately racist before shrugging and just writing on them every horrible thing he could think of like "I don't know Kung-fu", "Slanting eyes slant my aim", and "Both my weapons are 9mm" which he was pretty sure wasn't physically possible. Looking at what he'd done he had to laugh. This was such a hate crime it shouldn't even be funny, but fuck it, they were racist assholes and this was a dream, so none of it mattered anyways.

Using one of their phones he took a few pictures, creating an email account to send the pictures to, taking the address "BadBoySlayer888". He'd thought of 666, but that was way too edgy teen, 777 was kinda angelic, and what he was doing wasn't, so 888 it was. Dropping their phones and wallets next to them, without their cash, he wasn't going to be a complete jerk and make them get new licenses and stuff, he took off, asking a food-cart vendor where "Archer's Bridge" was as he ordered lunch.

* * *

Several hours later he headed back downtown, having jumped two groups of "Merchants", and almost jumped some drug addicts who weren't bothering anyone, who'd forgiven him when he'd given them some free drugs he'd taken from the first group, which was only fair. He was looking for a nice hotel to crash at and check out his new purchases. It had surprised him how easy the gang members were to beat up, he'd sparred with his brother, who was way better than he was, but now all the moves and advice just clicked, and the idiots he'd taken down were moving so slow. He figured it was just the dream helping, since he wanted to be a better fighter, so he was. Wanting to fly and shoot lasers from his eyes had, sadly, not helped at all. So, wearing a backpack containing his new pre-paid phone, laptop, and mp3 player, several "confiscated" weapons, and a _whole_ lotta of drugs, he looked for a swanky place to crash. Two places had turned him away at the door, though given the fact that his clothing was bit bloodstained, even if none of it was his own, he couldn't really blame them.

The third place however, the doorman actually looked approving and let him in. The guy at the desk didn't even bat an eye, only asking how long he wanted to stay. A thousand dollars for a night seemed like a lot, but hey, it was fancy, and the way the guy was specific about no violence _on_ the hotel's grounds was a bit odd, but he didn't really care. Apparently, there were services that were available for free, or a bit more money with a list in each room, which might explain the cost.

Once he'd settled in, having an artisanal pizza sent up for him to eat while he unpacked, he got the laptop online and set it up. If he was in a dream world, then that should mean if he signed into Steam, he should be able to play dream games as well, which would be awesome. The pizza arrived and he finished the setup, immediately searching for Valve's gaming service. To his shock and horror, it didn't seem to exist, neither did GOG or even Humble. The only one he could find, was Origin. "I thought this was a dream!" he yelled dramatically to the sky, knowing he was being ridiculous, "But it's a nightmare!"

He tried finding some to download directly, only to come to the conclusion that most of his favorite games didn't exist. CK2? Nope. Hotline Miami? It was a band, and not a good one. Shrouded Isle? The search engine directed him to the game Myst. He flopped down on his bed in childish despair, before looking over at the pile of weapons and drugs he'd unpacked. _Hmm_ he thought. _If I couldn't play the game, why not live it_? This dream was a bit more resistant to manipulation than the other lucid dreams he'd had before, but maybe it was because he was in an established setting already? Either way, he was gonna have some _fun_.

Mind made up he uploaded the photos he'd taken on a photo sharing website with an account of the same name, giving the photos names like "Worst part of beating up ABB, you're bloodthirsty again in an hour" and "Made in China, Beat in America". It was so over the top and offensively racist, he had to laugh. The best part about dreams is that you got to be someone completely different from who you were, like acting in a play or playing a roleplaying game. That done he loaded the appropriate music on his MP3 player, grabbed his wallet, phone, and a revolver, took two handfuls of shrooms and pills, consuming one of them right there, and headed out into the night. He shopped for the appropriate gear, appreciating how the colors of everything slipped and blurred into each other, the night bright and exciting in a way it'd never be in real life, and while he couldn't find the exact one he wanted, he acquired a white and red letterman jacket, along with a rooster mask from one of those year-round Halloween stores. From there it was a matter of time to wander around the slums and near the Boardwalk until he found some ABB thugs.

Jumping them was easy, and a bit of enhanced interrogation got the location of their nearest operation, a combo drug den/brothel, along with the password. It only took threatening to blow off the thug's fingers to get the actual password as well, "may-oo", whatever that meant, though wasn't that a white thing? Good password though, he'd never have guessed it. So, after knocking them out and taking their money, he left them with only minor flesh wounds, everything fairly intact, though that one guy he'd stuffed in a trash can would be feeling it when he came to.

Popping back to the costume supply store he picked up a panda mask and a compliment on the 'realistic' bloodstains, along with a couple of duffel bags. Walking calmly to the location of the brothel, he adjusted his cell phone in his breast pocket, setting the camera so it would record what he did, and took a deep breathe before he knocked and gave the password. The guy who opened the door was armed, and had a look of shocked surprise seeing a man in a bloodstained letterman jacket and panda mask, but quickly raised his gun to fire. The door guard was knocked inside as Chuck kicked him in the chest, following him and taking him out with a double tap to the head and heart as he yelled "Who's endangered now bitch!"

Inside another thug sat, watching dumbly before bringing up a shotgun. He got a two-shot combo as well as his killer informed him "Ling-Ling says hello!" Taking a moment to check if more were coming, he reloaded his revolver, pocketing the brass, and taking the pistol and shotgun from the two dead thugs. _Damn my imagination is vivid_ he told himself as he stripped the two dead bodies of their valuables, a bit shocked at how life-like the bodies looked, getting a little queasy as he looked at the shredded remains of what once was a face, though that might have been the drugs. _Screw it, this is a dream,_ he told himself, looking away, psyching himself up, _it doesn't really matter_ , _'cause it's not real!_

With that, he grabbed some more drugs, chowed down, and set the mp3 player to blast the most racist song he could find, "Love me long time" by some rapper named Dizaster on repeat. He stood there, listening and couldn't help but laugh as it played, the world pulsing a bit in time. It was so over the top racist that he felt bad just listening to it, but it fit what he was doing so well. With that in mind, he opened the next door, giggling to himself, and proceeded inside to kill every motherfucker in there.

* * *

Walking back, masks stuffed in his now full duffle bags, he grinned, flush with victory, adrenalin, and soooooo many drugs. That had gone better than he'd thought. There'd been quite a few gangbangers inside, but he'd caught them with their pants down. He chuckled, _literally_ in some cases. Sweeping through like an endangered specter of death he'd scythed through them with almost no problem. That one guy had known kung-fu, and had started kicking his ass, but the revolver in his pocket had stunned the fighter long enough for him to use one of his pilfered pistols to take him down. If you weren't supposed to bring a knife to a gun fight, this moron hadn't even done that! What was black and white and red all over? Him! Laughing he shook his head, he wished he'd thought of that one while he was doing the run. The laughter trailed off. He was sad he had to kill that one whore though. Most of them were happy to escape, some running immediately once they realized the guards were dead, a few stripping the bodies of their rapists before leaving, which he couldn't blame. One bitch though had started yelling at him in Chinese, or Japanese, or maybe Korean. He didn't speak. . . what was the super racist way of talking about Asian languages? He couldn't remember. Either way, she was yelling at him in a language he didn't know and had rushed him with a knife so he'd shot her. He hadn't meant to kill her, just wing her, but she tried to dodge his shoulder shot, and took it in the chest instead. Heart, if he had to guess, from when he'd tried to give her first aid, but she was already dead. Either way, there was no need for her to be nasty about it.

His job done he'd found one of their computers, which hadn't even been locked, and uploaded his video before sending all the documents he could find to the cops. The combo to the safe had been on the computer, so he'd opened that sucker up, filled it with cash, and left. A few ABB idiots had tried to jump him on his way out, so those fuckers were dead, though he was so surprised he hadn't thought of any dope one-liners, so it wasn't an A+ victory, maybe like A-. Or B+. Definitely better than a C.

He wandered back to the hotel, the front desk guy, not batting an eye at his appearance. The. . . Concierge! That was it. That guy pointed out he was bleeding, which he hadn't even noticed, and said he'd send up the hotel Doctor. Sure enough, a few minutes after he'd reached his room, there was a knock and an elderly black man with a doctor's bag came in.

The doctor tsk'd as he viewed the damage. "Busy Night?"

Chuck shrugged, feeling no pain. "Kinda, sometimes you have to make your own fun, ya'know?"

The man directed him to sit on the bed, before kneeling down and examining the knife and gunshot wounds. "None of these look life threatening, luckily. Have you taken anything today and when?"

He gestured towards the drugs. "A handful of drugs and pills, maybe three hours ago? Then another, maybe an hour ago?"

The Doctor looked over, poking the hodge-podge pile. "Depending on the mix it's either no wonder you're still on your feet, or a wonder you made it out the door. I'll give an addiction suppressor and some antibiotics after I'm done," The doctor responded, getting to work suturing wounds, extracting bullets, and doing everything doctors did. It was interesting to watch when you didn't really feel anything. Pulling out a couple of syringes the Doctor gave him a stern glare. "This will make you feel worse in the morning, but stop any new addictions from forming. Do you want it?" Chuck shrugged. It wouldn't really matter, since he was going to wake up back home after he "Went to sleep", so he didn't see why not.

When the Doctor finished, advising that he see someone in a few days to repack the wounds, Chuck tipped him an extra thousand, which was greatly appreciated. Lying down he couldn't help but think _Good dream Chuck, back to classes when I wake up but it was nice to blow off steam where I didn't have to ask everyone their freakin' pronouns_ as he fell asleep.

* * *

He awoke in agony, fire lacing through his guts. He rolled over to get out of his dorm bed, only for his legs to hit more bed, quaking in spasms of pain. Opening his eyes against the too-bright sun he saw he was in a very nice room, drugs and guns piled up, along with three duffle bags of cash in the corner. _What the hell?_ He thought as he looked around, seeing the painkillers the doctor had left and using the glass of water next to them to take them. _Why haven't I woken up yet?_ _And why does it hurt? Dreams don't hurt!_

He staggered over to the desk, legs barely able to support him as he turned on the computer, the browser automatically opening to a news site, detailing an attack by Lung on the E88 and a retaliatory strike on an ABB safehouse that looked very familiar. _Wait._ He thought, dread surging in his gut, twisting his wounds in shapes of suffering, the pain unlike anything he'd ever felt before. _What if this isn't a dream. What if I'm, I don't know, in an alternate dimension or something? That would mean I. Mean I!_

He ran for the bathroom, stumbling, falling, and made it in time to be sick, whether it be from the pain, the drugs, what he had said, what he had done, that he'd fucking _KILLED PEOPLE_ , or some combination of all that, vomiting until there was nothing left, then vomited some more. After an hour he struggled to his feet, feeling only marginally better, though whether that was from drugs or from vomiting he wasn't sure. Shakily, he returned to his bed and laid down, trying not to aggravate his injuries as he considered his situation.

 _So, the Merchants might want to kill me for mugging them, the ABB definitely wants to kill me for sooo many reasons, that means I need to stay out of their territory_. Looking online he saw that Downtown, while not really any gang's territory, had all of them pass through from time to time. _Okay, that means I need to go somewhere they won't go that means. . . shit I'm going to have to head towards the fucking Neo-Nazis. I hate those assholes_. He didn't want to, but it was his only choice. He'd get a place there and lie low until he could find out what the hell was going on. Those assholes were just like Pikmin; dumb, easily lead, and cared way too much about skin color, but they'd serve to keep his ass from becoming dragon-chow.

Destination in mind he gathered up his spoils, grabbed some new clothing from the closet, putting the letterman jacket in his backpack along with the masks, since they definitely would be evidence, and got the hell out of there. Checking out, he heading for what the map had called "South Imperial", deep in the Neo Nazi Territory.


	18. Blueprint 3-1

**Blueprint 3.1**

We left Taylor in the dark alley, swarm curling around her protectively, both of us flying off as I kept a hand on Herb's collar. "Well, that went well," I commented as we soared through the night.

"Yeah," He nodded, thoughtful, bombastic persona turned down now that it was just us. "Any other plans?"

I shook my head. "Not really. I want to work a bit on my air control, I think it might help with flight control, or maybe help divert bullets like Stormtiger can, but I need fine enough control that I can make it subtle enough to not register as a power if people see, and I need to look over what our base has. Have you read the manual?"

"There's a manual?" he asked, shocked.

"Yeah," I responded, confused. Was there a quick guide he'd been using instead? "it's the word document on the desktop of the base computer that says 'Read This First'!"

"Oh, that, yeah, it's like over a thousand pages long! You can't expect me to read that!" he complained.

I considered dropping him, just for a moment. "You can't be bothered to read the manual for your _secret villain base_? Are you serious?"

"You'll read it, that's good enough," he waved at me.

"Ha. Ha. No." I flatly responded. "I'm not telling you what's inside, you can read it for yourself. We don't have anything to do until she calls us, or the bank heist in three days." I landed, and strode forward. He fumbled for his phone, trying to look up the code, while I commanded "Vejovis, Unlock." The voice lock and facial scan recognized me and opened, letting us in.

"Wait, you can do that?" he asked, impressed.

"Yeah, it's _in the manual_." I retorted.

He tried to give me puppy dog eyes, but they didn't really work coming from a jacked six foot tall black man. "Oh come on, can-"

He was cut off as a pure black fist punched him straight in the face. "That's for making me gay asshole! I don't kiss guys! I'm gonna go punch some people!" Boojack announced, stomping out.

"Merchants are near the docks, they probably have weed!" I called out after him, laughing as I reached down and picked Herb up, healing his broken nose.

"He hit me!" Herb informed me, shocked.

"You did kiss him," I reminded, still laughing. "And he doesn't think the pretending to be gay thing is nearly as funny as you do."

He sputtered. "But, but, he's me, kinda."

Rolling my eyes, I headed to my room to drop off my railgun prototype. "Oh, _now_ he's you. Read the manual, I'm gonna go practice."

* * *

Starting with thrown stones and working my way up, I spent the night alternating between practicing my Aerokinesis and working on the base manual, having downloaded a copy to the smartphone I got from the base. The air claws that I'd seen him used were fixed in my memory, a mental prompt that said 'press this to claw!' but they gave only straight use, not the skill behind it, nor did it allow me to modify them, making them larger, weaker, on anything else. I knew the underlying concepts, but it was like having a grounding in physics and being asked to build a car. Any other use of the power I had to build from scratch, including the claws if I wanted to do more than ape Stormtiger. Moving breezes was easy enough, but it took a bit more to move objects. Doing do without blasting wind everywhere was even harder, but after a few hours I got the hang of it. From there, tossing rocks and altering their flight path was the next step in difficulty. I was making progress, but it was slow, and not nearly as straightforward as reading the manual. I figured out how to turn on the security cameras and a few other features around the base, running them through my new phone which, like my old one, was still at 100% charge when I took it out of my pocket, recharging whenever I put it back. Trying to find a connection for my old phone was proving difficult, as the exact micro-usb connection it used didn't match anything I could find online.

Boojack stomped back in a few hours later, bloody with a few scratches. He borrowed my Disease Immunity, and I closed up his cuts before making him something to eat and sending him off to bed, animosity forgotten.

It was another few hours before the sun rose, and I could start working on my other plans. First thing I needed was a lawyer, and fast if I was going to keep ahead of those that would use the law against me. Growing up I considered being a Lawyer, thinking that they were bastions of Law and Fairness, given that they had law right in the name. I found out instead they were that jerk who only bothered to remember the rules when it helped them, and would let blatant violations of the law go without a word if it would advance their desires. That, combined with the fact that most judges were previously lawyers themselves turned me off of the profession entirely. However, just like you needed a security guard to fend off vandals who might be similarly armed, I needed one to assist me. With the emails sent off to various firms, and a hot breakfast waiting for Herb when he came out of the shower, I turned towards tracking down my errant father.

I knew he was a rogue in the city, which made finding him trivially easy. In canon there was exactly one rogue, a cape who didn't join in the massive game of cops and robbers that most played at while they destroyed people's lives. That was Parian, who had cloth control, or something else that seemed like it since the author had been oddly cagey about it. That meant when I checked online and there were two rogues in Brockton Bay, it was stunningly obvious who my father was. He had apparently become "The Neutral Party", a thinker who specialized in negotiations and had been checked several times for mind control powers, all tests turning up negative.

I frowned as I looked at the screen. I didn't remember exactly what dad's powers were, but I was pretty sure that "Super Negotiation" wasn't one of them. I typed up an e-mail, as Vejovis, taking an hour to phrase it so the first letter on each line spelled out my name as a clue, and sent it to his official e-mail. He had no listed phone number or address, or really anything to tell you where he was. While that was frustrating on my end, I could kinda see why, as having a master negotiator working for you would be the type of thing the E88 would love, let alone some of the major players from other cities, like Accord in Boston, the Thinker specializing in planning.

I considered setting up a meeting with Parian to get Taylor a better-looking costume, but decided to hold off on doing it until she officially joined the team, and went back to play with projectiles while reading the manual. After an hour of diminishing returns I tried to take a different track to see how my technique was progressing so started filming the rocks with my phone and reviewing after every third attempt. After a bit I nearly smacked myself in the head in frustrated realization. We were going to go meet Armsdick later today, and part of his intimidation shtick was the whole "I'm recording this" thing, with which, to be honest, probably highly selective editing. What we needed to do was have equipment to film things, so that when, not if, things went bad, we had video proof that it was the heroes being the aggressors! Mind made up, I headed out to add even more debt to our account as I left in my civvies to go pick up some easy to place cameras.

Stepping out the door, the phone I'd set up with my Vejovis phone rang, picking it up I didn't recognize the number so started with "Vejovis of the Penumbral Defenders speaking, how may I save your day today?" Okay, saying it out loud, it wasn't nearly as cool as it had been in my head.

"This is Amy?" came the reply, more question than statement. "Vicky gave me your number."

"Amy?" I asked confused. Who the hell was Amy? Oh! "Hello Panacea, you sound better. Did your mother tell you what happened?" I inquired, voice warming.

"No, but Vicky did," she responded quickly. "And I saw the video."

Once again, I had a moment of confusion. "What video?" I asked after a moment, walking back inside and pulling open a computer.

"The video of what happened in the cafeteria. You didn't post it?"

Opening up a browser on one of the base's laptops and hitting the bookmark labelled 'News' I was brought to page detailing several stories, one with a picture of me in profile in the hospital cafeteria. "Oh, right, the people who were taping the thing at the hospital. I kinda forgot about them to be honest, I was more concerned with getting you home."

There was silence on the other end of the line before she came back with "But you said you were going to go to the news!"

"Just to get him to back off. I had plans that evening and it slipped my mind," I explained. "Probably should have done it though," I mused. "A quote from me would have made the entire thing much more damning."

"That's not very heroic," she responded, sounding hurt.

"What?" I retorted. "You mean your family never gives public statements? 'cause I'm pretty sure they do."

"But not to hurt anyone! You would have been doing it out of spite, that's different!" she tried.

I laughed. "Ha, yeah, no. Doing something out of spite assumes I care, and I really don't about that hospital. What they were doing was blatantly illegal, and I'd just be giving a report on what happened when I interceded in what was obviously a crime." I heard her take a breath to retort and realized what I was doing. _Shards push people to conflict Lee, you can't respond in kind when capes get combative or it'll turn into a feedback loop._ "Panacea, what they were doing was not okay," I told her softly, cutting her off before she could defend the people that wronged her because of her warped ideas of heroism. "Think about it this way, you know how the hospital uses machines like X-rays and MRI's?" I waited for her response, a terse mm-hmm. "Do they use them constantly, over and over again with no time for cooling down or maintenance? Or do they use them in a way that will let the machine continue running for as long as it can? They weren't allowing you to even take breaks, using you over and over again with no care for how you were holding up. There were other issues there, but let's just focus on that one, because it's enough. They weren't treating you with as much care as they treat _inanimate objects_ , and if other people exposed what they did, then good on them."

I sighed, might as well attack this from a different angle. "Think about it this way Panacea, what if Glory Girl was out doing patrols with the Wards and the Protectorate, but after each patrol they'd switch out the team and tell her that if she was a _real hero_ , she wouldn't stop while there might be people out there that could use her help, that might get hurt if she selfishly takes a break. And so she goes on another patrol, then another, then another. The sun sets, she's _still_ going, _still_ trying to save everyone, and as the Protectorate teams switch out, each new one pushes her to keep going, to the point where she's finding it hard to fly straight but they keep telling her _there are people who need her_ so she does it anyways. And then she's paired up with a new team after the sun rises and say, Battery notices how she's flagging, only to realize that she's been doing this for over twelve hours straight, and when Glory Girl falls asleep in the meeting room and Battery rightly goes 'What the hell? someone call her contact, she needs to go home!' Director Piggot says, 'No, leave her here, and if you say anything we're kicking you out!' Battery then goes 'Screw this, I'm doing it anyways!' Would you say that's unheroic behavior on Battery's part, or would you look at all those who either forced her to keep going on patrol, or saw it happen and did nothing, and look at _them_ and go ' _What you are doing is not ok!_ '"

Again, silence. "But Vicky would just tell them she doesn't answer to them, and the Protectorate wouldn't do that anyways!" was her eventual repost.

I sighed again, repressing a growl of frustration. This wasn't ignorance, this was willful blindness of the truth, to the point of pointless martyrdom. "I know that, but we're talking hypotheticals. You say that my amusement at the hospital's horrible treatment of you coming to light is unheroic, I'd say their treatment of you is downright _villainous_. And not the semi-harmless Uber and L33t kind, the ongoing, systematic, screw you up horribly E88 or ABB kind. The fact that they were helping people while hurting you by treating you badly doesn't excuse their behavior, anymore than Kaiser helping out his community at the cost of persecuting minorities excuses his. Part of being a Hero is helping other people, and if you have to inconvenience yourself to do so, well that makes the sacrifice worth it, but after a certain point you get diminishing returns. Do other doctors regularly pull over twelve hour shifts without breaks, only to be expected to pull another one immediately afterwards? The Doctor assigned to help us spent most of his time texting his girlfriend when _he_ could have been working to save lives, and _he_ was getting paid to do it. Your power makes it easier to help a lot more people, but he had the power and training to help people as well, even if not as effectively, was getting paid to do it, and wasn't. What does that make _him_?"

I waited for a response, but only received silence. I had the distinct feeling this conversation would have gone more smoothly if I could've seen her face to read her reactions. "I'm not saying don't help people Panacea, I'm a Hero, I'm all about that. I'm saying don't assume those around you are always as good as you are. A lot aren't, and treating them as if they are will get you in trouble. I learned a lot about how to use my power to heal more than just cuts and bruises from you, even if you were dead tired, and the next time you go to help heal people I'd like to be able to help you _and_ learn from you. Just, don't go somewhere where they'll treat you badly. Seeing a fellow hero be abused by those with evil in their hearts, even if they're not capes, is one of my pet peeves. I'm still new in town, and new to this hero-ing thing in general, so would it be okay if I called you later if I need help?" I finished.

"Um," was her erudite reply. "I'm. Yes, if you need help, you can call. I might be busy, I'm still in school." She finished, almost apologetically. _Ugh_ I thought. _Get off the cross honey, someone needs the wood._

"Are you calling me from your cell phone?" I asked gently, trying not to set off another bit of self-doubt.

"Yes," she rallied. "Yes, this is my cell phone, and Vicky's number-"

"I don't need her number" I told her, cutting her off. "If I need help, you're the one I want to call."

"Oh, um. Okay? Are you sure? It's just that-" she tried, obviously off-balance.

"I'm sure. Have a good day Panacea." I told her, hanging up after her response of "You too."

I walked out, a spring in my step and my plans in motion. Now I needed to get my hands on some cameras.

It was almost 2:30 in the afternoon when I finally got a call from Taylor. "This Is Vejovis of the Penumbral Defenders, what needs saving?" Nope, that didn't work either.

"Um, this is, um Taylor?" she half asked. "You and the other guy asked me to tell you about the meeting."

"Right Taylor, still working on the phone thing. When, where, how do you want us to play this, and how visible do you want us to be?" There was silence on the other end of the line. "Taylor?"

"Um, right, sorry, didn't expect you to ask me that," she responded. "You seemed you like you had a plan yesterday. Well, some of one."

"This is your Op, where just there to make sure you're okay," I informed her confidently. "If you want to go with the 'I've got a team backing me up now' thing we can be right there with you. If you want him to think you're being scouted we can be barely visible, and if you want him to treat you as the lone hero you were when you first met we can be out of sight, but ready to respond if things go bad."

"Wow, okay," was her response, a moment later finishing with "the last one. If he's as bad as you say, and he sounded angry on the phone, he might be different if you're there." _Might?_ I thought, but held my tongue.

She gave me an address near where the southern docks turned into downtown, and promised me she'd be there at least 20 minutes early, accepting my suggestion to meet somewhere other than where she was meeting Armsmaster in case he was setting up a trap, though she was pretty sure he wouldn't do that.

Rousing Herb form his surfing, or whatever he was doing on the computer, and suiting up, the two of us flew, or to be more specific I carried us, to the secondary meeting sight, cameras taking up half of my belt pouches. I had purchased ones with low EM emissions, so his gear hopefully wouldn't spot them against the low-level interference of the city. Meeting Taylor, she was pacing up and down an alley, obviously nervous as the sound of bugs were a constant low-level buzz in the background.

"My dear, so good to see you!" Herb called magnanimously, causing her to jump. As she turned around I realized my bug powers weren't online, so she hadn't been able to sense me. Bringing it up and feeling the bugs she'd accrued in the alley I raised an eyebrow, about to comment when she beat me to it.

"How do you do that?" she asked, just short of demanding. "It's like you didn't exist until you did!"

I gave a Gaelic shrug. "I have ways of relaxing my control on my powers that you apparently don't."

"Could I learn?" she asked hopefully. Her desire to learn new ways of using her power was so blatant and earnest it was almost painful, and I was glad she'd met us, instead of someone who'd take advantage of that. "It's just, sometimes I see things I don't really want to."

Herb shook his head. "I understand why you would wish that my dear, but the more you use your power the more it will grow. You don't have my friend's other gifts, so you need to develop yours to the fullest."

I nodded. "Pretty sure it wouldn't work for you, since you only have the one power."

"How do you know I don't- right. Future knowledge."

I didn't bother correcting her. "So, you're going to go and talk to Mini-Man and sell the entire infiltrating the Undersiders thing, while we hang back and play support." I reached into my belt pouch, taking the comm units I'd found in the base, tossing one to Herb while passing another to Taylor before putting the third in my ear. "This'll keep us in touch."

"Mini-Man?" Herb asked, taking off his mask to put in the earbud, missing Taylor's surprised glance at his casual unmasking.

"He's a tinker specializing in miniaturization of tech, it fits." I defended, my domino mask letting me put mine in without a problem.

He laughed. "So the halberd, you think he's compensating for something?"

Taylor made a disgusted face as she put her mask back on. "That's gross," she commented, her voice coming in through the comms.

I rolled my eyes as I shrugged. "I don't know, nor do I want to. Now where's your meeting place?"

She led us down a few alleys to a deserted lot far away from the mid-afternoon traffic. "Here, it's out of the way enough we shouldn't be seen."

Herb visibly winced as I started setting up cameras. "What?" she asked. "And what are those?"

"Not being seen, means more likely not to get caught doing something bad darling," Herb informed her. "Armsmaster's more likely to start shit where people can't see him and ruin his image."

"And I'm making sure we have video proof," I added, putting a camera in a pile of non-bio trash and moving it to hide it while keeping the view. "So that it's not established hero's word vs. unknown creepy bug girl's. It's established hero's word vs _video evidence_."

"Wait, you think?" she asked, trailing off.

"That he'd lie?" Herb asked. "Undoubtable."

"No, well yes, but that I'm creepy?" she asked, looking down at her costume, self-consciousness screaming from her posture. Well, as much as her body language ever showed anything when she was masked. I really needed to help her work with that. Once we got her to be consciously expressive, it wasn't that hard to learn how to physically express things you didn't feel to throw people off.

"Us? No," I reassured her, Herb nodding in agreement. "But someone seeking to discredit you, who didn't know you? Yeah, your current costume is a bit off-putting. It's secretive and stealthy, great for ops, but intimidating, which might have been the point, but there's things that can be done to offset that."

Herb nodded sagely. "Definitely girl, we got plans."

Her body language, muted as it was, spoke of confusion, so I told her. "Cameras are set, well be the next street over. You've got this, but if you need help, just call. If your comm goes dark we'll assume he's done something and jump in." She nodded back to us as Herb gave her a thumbs up and we retreated to a nearby alley to listen in, moving the trash cans to better hid us from the street as we laid in wait.


	19. Blueprint 3-2

**Blueprint 3.2**

Armsdick was almost five minutes late, of course, and we were safely sequestered in a nearby alley as his motorcycle pulled into the empty lot. I'd tapped into a few beetles and placed them to get a better, if still blurry, view of what was going on.

"Damn, I wish we could see this. It's gonna be good." Herb laughed.

I shook my head. "Can't risk him spotting them if they're broadcasting. Listening to Taylor will have to do. Also, Taylor, don't respond to us. He might be able to pick up your responses."

I saw her start to nod before catching herself, luckily it looked like Armsdick had turned his back so he didn't notice.

He strode over, halberd in hand, stopping a good ten feet away from her. "You said you wanted to meet and talk. Talk," he commanded, voice thick with annoyance, sounding like he was doing her a favor she didn't deserve.

"He's not gonna tell her he's recording this?" Herb asked.

"No, makes more of a psychological impact to tell them after they've been talking so they have to go back and make sure they haven't said anything damning. It's one of those good one-off tactics that completely poisons any further interaction for a win in the moment. Classic Armsmaster." I responded. Taylor stiffened at this, "You need to respond to his question," I told her, as Armsmaster said "Well?" impatiently.

"I've," she started, finding her feet. "The Undersiders sent me a message. They want to talk, and I think they want to recruit me. I was thinking that I could join them, find out about them, then turn the info over to the Protectorate." I winced. If she'd said turn it over to him he might've gone with it but now. "They've men-"

"Absolutely not," he responded gruffly. "You're irresponsibility has been proven, and you couldn't be trusted with something as difficult as-"

"Wait, what irresponsibility?" she interrupted, outraged, her voice a little saddened. I felt for her, it was one thing to be told your heroes weren't, but it was entire different thing to see it for yourself. "I took down Lung with just a little help!"

"Don't interrupt!" he admonished.

"Didn't he interrupt her first?" Herb asked, smiling.

"Yeah, but he's both an _adult_ and _knows better_ ," I responded, "the hypocrite." I listened to hear what Armsdick was telling her, my bugs seeing he'd taken a few steps closer, looming over her. _Real mature_ I thought, _physically intimidate the girl who asked for help. God I hate the Protectorate._

"Your reckless use of your powers nearly killed Lung, if I hadn't gotten him medical help you could have killed him, and there'd be an order out for your arrest!" He told her, betraying nothing of the whopper of a lie he'd just dropped. Not necessarily a lie as some would understand, it, but a willful misinterpretation of the truth. If I hadn't told Taylor, she'd probably be on the back foot, but we'd nixed that play already.

"Why did that happen?" Taylor asked, knowing why but laying a trap to see if he'd hang himself, given enough rope, "He was fine when you got to him!" The hurt in her voice could have easily been worry, and Mini-Man obliged.

"Are you trained in parahuman toxicology?" He asked, like he was, and like that even mattered to the argument, though the response of 'no' would have given him an opening, which Taylor didn't take, forcing him to press with an "Are you?"

"Are you?" Taylor shot back. Herb high-fived me as we listened.

"You are responsible for the effects of your powers, even if they look 'fine'!" He retorted, getting more upset, trying to take the position of the superior rightfully stripping down one of his charges. Mind you, he wasn't doing anything else that a superior officer was supposed to do, just the things he

Herb frowned. "He ducked the fucking question, right?"

"Yep, and he's pretending like he didn't do anything either, probably hoping she'll forget about the tranq," I responded.

Taylor gave a start, probably having done just that. "Wait, what about the tranquilizer you gave him, maybe it was that?"

He crossed his arms, and if the tilt of his head was correct, he was literally looking down his nose at her. "My tranquilizer was specially designed for his biology and checked by experts. Your venom is what rotted his flesh." Like that was it, the infallible word of god.

Taylor though, was all over that. "So it was designed for him healthy? I told you I had my spiders bite him, you knew he was poisoned! You knew that would've thrown it off if you're an expert on parahuman toxicology!" she finished, throwing his assumed title back in his face.

"Point, Taylor," I grinned, looking over at Herb, who was shaking his head. "What? She's Right!"

"Nah, she backed him down," he told both of us, Break manifesting behind him, a vicious smile on its crocodile face, at odds to Herb's worried expression. "He's gettin' ready to fight!"

"If it wasn't for your reckless use of powers that wouldn't have been a problem!" He practically roared.

She flinched backwards, swarm massing behind her. I tapped into my bug control and tried to send her feelings of support and confidence, not sure if it helped. "He said he was gonna kill kids!" She shot back, just as heated, but controlled in volume.

Armsdick snorted, contempt dripping from his tone. "He was going after villains, and now you want to run off and join them. Tell yourself that you're doing it to help people, but that's not going to happen. I have software in my helmet that tells me when people lie. I should arrest you right now, assuming the people you poisoned last night haven't died, then it might be the Birdcage."

I could feel her emotions, the self-doubt, the panic, the overwhelming fear as she stood her ground, not speaking, but not running like she felt like she should with every fiber of her being. _Yes_ , I thought. _This strength, this is why I'm recruiting her._ "He's lying," Herb said. "Fucktard!"

"Worse, he's making unrelated misleadingly-true statements," I overruled. "He has software that does that, but it's not perfect, especially with you, and he can't be held accountable for any future predictions. He's leaving out all the context to make even a selfless and heroic act sound cowardly, it's not that hard a game, and one easily uncovered if you know what he's talking about. Taylor, he's trying to make you scared. He wants you to panic so he can take you down, so he can hurt you, and then make up a stupid story to tell the authorities, who like him, so they'll believe him over some nobody they don't care about without a second thought, without checking to see if it's true, just punishing people because he said so, _just like Emma_." I finished, practically hissing the last part in anger as the connections were made in my mind, flowing forth like tumblers falling into place, unlocking terrible understanding. _How had I not seen the parallels before? He's popular, and in authority, using it for petty ends. For him it's making the world a better place, he's stopping people he's deemed villains before they can hurt anyone, even if he breaks the rules he himself hides behind. For Ms. Barnes it was trying to get Taylor to lash out, she's trying to get her to prove herself strong like Emma did before Sophia would bother to save her, even if it means torturing someone she called a friend. For both of them though, it's perverted its original purpose, moving from misguided help to vicious self-aggrandizement. I swear to god if I didn't know he had a chance of being redeemed I'd kill him myself!_

Herb looked at me in concern, my intentions probably written across my face. 'You good?' he mouthed. I nodded back sharply, mouthing 'get ready to move', jerking my head in the direction of the confrontation. He nodded, still looking at me in concern, as Taylor's voice came over the comms, seething with the rage I felt. " _You_. You asshole!" she bit out. "I tried to save _kids_ , and now you're threatening me with the _Birdcage_? I checked the laws, I was in the right! I-"

"Like someone your age knows the laws," he scoffed, so full of prideful dismissal, so sure that he had complete control of the situation. He was wrong, and if, no, when he stepped over the line, as he would when he didn't _'win',_ he'd pay for his arrogance. "I have access to them right now and I-"

" _Are Lying!_ " She spat, the swarm agitating around her. "Arclight, 94. He fought the Red-Gaters when he thought they'd taken a school bus hostage, and a couple of them died. He was cleared of charges because they'd said they were going to kill their hostages, even though it was a bluff! I'm trying to be a _Hero_ and-"

"You are too dangerous to be allowed to go free, you obviously can't control your powers and are a danger to those around you," His tone of voice was odd, his haughtiness and twisted anger mostly suppressed, almost clinical. The Disconnect confused us all for a second. It was like he wasn't talking to her anymore. Like he was speaking to a camera almost.

"Taylor, run!" Herb shouted into the comms, figuring it out moments before I did. "He's gonna-" but the man who claimed the title of hero had already taken something from his belt and tossed it at her, the bugs I had watching him blinded by a white light as the crackle of lightning sounded from the empty lot, the comms capturing her cry of pain, as the presence of the swarm around her vanished in a moment of shock and twitching death. A cold wash of panic flooded me as I felt Taylor's power dim like an ill-snuffed flame.

Herb was off like a shot, Enter right behind him. I flew up to come in from above. As I crested the roof I saw Enter barrel into Armsmaster who was turning to face him in surprise, Taylor prone and unmoving, the ground dark around her, hopefully with insects, not blood. The Stand dodged around the halberd's blade, planting a haymaker across the "hero's" face. Herb followed his Stand as Armsmaster stumbled backwards, slamming his fist into Armsmaster's breastplate, sending his foe backwards as Herb pulled his hand back in pain, the broken finger quickly righted as his Stand's copied power healed him slightly.

Swooping towards Taylor I pulled the costume off of my finger to heal her if I needed to. Coming down kneeling next to her, I smelled burnt hair and fried insects, but not the distinct metallic scent of blood. The ground crunched under me as I picked her up, checking her for injuries. There was electrical scoring on the chitin plates, but the grey silk that made up the majority of her suit was unblemished. _Right_ I thought, _spider silk, like at the Gala._

Her hair was frazzled, and bit of her ends were burnt, but I couldn't find any more obvious injuries. As I held her she started moaning in pain, her presence in my bug sense brightening as she woke up. I reached with my uncovered hand and pressed my finger to her scalp, willing my healing power to do the general "Get Better" package, hopefully healing the damage I couldn't see. "What?" she asked, starting to struggle, weakly at first but gaining strength.

"Break and Enter are taking care of Armsmaster, you okay?" I asked, standing and letting her up.

"Yeah, what was-" she asked, cut off by the sound of electricity. Both our heads snapped over to see Armsmaster throw a ball at Enter, similar to the one that had fallen next to Taylor, Lightning striking out from it like tesla coil. Enter caught the baseball sized device, arcs playing over the Stand's body to no effect as it gave the Tinker a saurian smile, it's second trigger Immunity power negating the electricity. It crushed the device as bolts scored the cement dozens of feet away, tossing the sparking device negligently back at its creator, Armsmaster rolling away as it exploded. Enter pursued him through the explosion, Herb running to the side to cut off his escape.

Taylor started to form a swarm, but I stopped her from sending the gathering to help, pulling them back. Her head whipped around to look at me, shocked expression probably on her face. "Let Break and Enter take care of this," I told her, watching the fight. "You getting involved will let him claim that you 'attacked him', whereas this is us defending someone who was attacked for no legal reason." She wasn't happy, bristling over the Bug Control sense we shared, but kept quiet as we watched the fight.

Armsmaster had done something and the blade of his halberd had shifted ninety degrees and started spinning like a demented circular saw, the disk blade warding off Herb. Taking two steps back he shifted his grip and the blade righted itself, launching outwards to plant itself in the wall of a nearby building, pulling himself up and away as Herb charged, grasping hand missing the tinker by inches. Enter leaped upwards, form molding and shifting into the leathery wings of a Pteranodon as it gave a single powerful flap, accelerating towards Armsmaster in a dark blur.

The Tinker reached the top, using his weapon to leverage himself up to the rooftop in a smooth, practiced jump, armor cracked and blackened but still intact. His leap however sent him on a parabolic arc which Enter arrowed in on, shifting back as he reached his target, momentum conserved as the Stand flew above the escaping cape, fist impacting the back of Armsmaster's helmet, sending his head to impact the ledge and to fall the forty feet back to earth. The armored figure impacted the ground, back first, with a metallic crunch, frantically reaching for his halberd as Enter descended, aiming to impact Armsmaster. His halberd grasped, he twisted something in the handle and pointed it straight up.

The halberd gave the whine of something powering up and the blade glowed with a crackle of plasma, before the it was launched at high speed, catching Enter straight in the head, bisecting it into a burned bloody mess as the body impacted Armsmaster, the murderous Tinker giving an 'oof' on impact.

Taylor gave a shout of fright, and tried to send the swarms down at him, only to be pulled back by me again. "Don't you care!" she yelled. "He just killed your teammate!"

"Did he?" I asked, as Enter, reformed, ran in from an alley, catching up to Herb as they ran towards Armsmaster, who had pushed the corpse off of himself and was struggling to his feet. They both reared back and kicked him in the chest, lifting him up as they knocked him back, Herb grabbing and tossing the halberd away as Enter landed on his chest, pounding away at Armsmaster's head. He struggled under the blows, electricity arcing up over Enter, doing nothing, followed by several darts, and a burst of fire, all useless. The blows rained down as his struggles got weaker and weaker, stopping entirely.

"Enough" I called, striding forward. Enter gave one more punch before standing up, spitting on his killer as he ambled away. I walked over to his downed form, using the bugs with me to swarm him, getting a sense of his armor in three dimensions. Motioning Enter over, I had him help me pry the armor apart, the Stand growing claws to help him pry open the crushed metal.

His armor opened like a high-tech can and we pulled him out in his under-suit, dragging him over so I could put my unarmored hand on him, giving him the "Get Better" treatment enough to stop his bleeding, no more. No sense to have him die on us when we meant to humiliate the Vigilante with good PR.

Enter moved past me with Herb, the two grabbing his motorcycle and dragging it across the empty lot. Dropping it next to the broken armor, Herb shot his Stand a look, who morphed into something large and armored, slamming its clubbed tail into the bike over and over again, various defenses going off and doing absolutely nothing as the high precision vehicle powered by tinkertech was reduced to a heaping pile of scrap, as well as the remains of the armor. Turning over the pile, Enter smashed that as well, repeating the process several more times, the pile seeming to grow in size each time, which made no sense. Fucking Tinkers.

I walked over to Herb glancing at Taylor before glaring at the downed Protectorate Leader. I shot Enter a look. "He's being thorough," I commented dryly.

"Fucker tried to kill Enter!" he responded hotly. "Hero my ass!"

I shrugged, using the collected bugs to retrieve my cameras, stopping the recordings and storing them. "Luckily for us, Enter's hard to kill." The Stand snorted in agreement.

We looked down at the bloody body of the leader of the Protectorate and I Knew him. Primary power was the mess of locked knowledge that indicated a Tinker, specializing in the Miniaturization of other tech, with a barrier to the integration of Tinker-made Tech. Secondary Power, Spatial Warping, with a range limit, subconsciously controlled, and limited to non-biological material in the warped space. I had no qualms as my power reached out and took that, adding it to my roster.

Looking down at his unconscious form Herb said "You know, I'm gonna need to recycle this, because it's wrong to litter trash all over the place. Don't worry, _we'll clean up your mess_." Enter rolled the wreckage over to an alley, stuffing it in the cans. "We'll call an ambulance for you, maybe."

With that Herb turned on his heel and walked off, the three of us following him, indifferent to the piece of trash we left behind.


	20. Blueprint 3-3

**Blueprint** **3.3**

Following Herb through the streets, Enter dissipated in the third alleyway we cut through, causing Taylor to jump in surprise. "He'll be back when he's needed," Herb told her, smiling mysteriously. "It's his way."

I rolled my eyes. "I think we're far enough away. We need to talk," I stated, turning to face Taylor, who took a step back, suddenly nervous. I stopped seeing her reaction. "No, calm down Taylor, not that way. Shut up Herb." I groused at my friend, who was trying to suppress giggles.

"I'm sorry, but," the rest was lost in giggles.

I rolled my eyes. "Right. On point, Taylor, we need you to make a decision. Do you want to join our team, or not? If you want to be a hero, we need to get you registered with the PRT before Armsdick regains consciousness and sets up things against you. Right now, we can walk right in and get you registered, if we wait too long, they'd probably try to arrest you for 'questioning', where you'd end up conscripted in the wards, or sent to jail."

"But not the Birdcage?" she asked fearfully.

"What?" I asked, confused, things clicking together as I thought about her question.

"Honey, he wasn't gonna actually do it," Herb told her, having stopped laughing. "That was just to rustle your feathers. 'sides, even if he somehow did, you'd never get there. We'd break you out on the way! And if you somehow got there, we'd break you out!"

"But," she asked in tones of disbelief, "No one's broken out of there."

Herb countered easily, "Only 'cause we haven't had a reason to do it yet."

"Either way, it's nothing to worry about," I told her, focusing on the pressing issue. "So, do you want to sign up as a Hero of the Penumbral Defenders?"

"Buuuuuut," Herb interjected. "If you don't there's a great group of Undersiders who are looking for a teammate. You and them would work really well together, and I'm always gonna be that shadow that's there for you." _Damnit Herb, can't you even let her answer?_ I thought, annoyed. _I could work with a no!_

I smacked him in the arm. "I'd help her too dumbass, even if she didn't sign up with us officially. Don't make it sound like you're the only one that would."

"Of course you would," he shrugged. "But you still gotta be the Hero, which means you might not be able to help."

"Hero-ish," I corrected. "My definition, not theirs. Hero, of an In-De-Pen-Dent Team!" I stressed.

He rolled his eyes before smacking me back with a loose wrist and pronounced lisp. "Fine, he-ro."

"Dude, please don't be gay, like right now. I'm trying to be serious," I asked, likely fruitlessly.

"He-roooo," he repeated, sounding like a geisha. I looked at him pleadingly as he turned to our hopefully new recruit, _all_ seriousness gone from the moment. "Taylor shouldn't care," he said, glancing as he also addressed her, a hint of a lisp still in his voice. "'cause she's gonna learn that _true_ masculinity is a show of self-confidence in yourself." He reached over and started stroking my arm. "That means even if you act gay-"

"Please stop petting me," I requested, knowing that getting upset would only make him worse.

"I know I want the pootangy," he continued as if I hadn't said anything, "I don't _need_ the pole."

"Really?" I asked, "Do you have to be so vulgar in front of the fifteen-year-old girl?"

"Sorry," he said unrepentantly, all accent gone. "I would like the _vagina_ over the _penis_."

"Somehow that's worse. Complaint retracted."

"Thank you," he replied magnanimously.

"So, right, the point of what we were talking about," I redirected, trying to salvage the momentum of the moment. "I can get you on my independent hero team, _or_ you can join the Undersiders. Hell, I might be able to get you on after you join them, but it would be an order of magnitude harder to pull off."

"Again, the Undersiders, they kinda need you," Herb argued. "They need you more than the heroes do, in every way, shape and form."

I just looked at him. "Why you gotta be like that man?" I asked. "You're not _wrong_ , but why you gotta be like that?"

"Because," he answered smugly. "I'm an emotional person, I may do some fucked up shit, and money is fun to mess with, but it's all about the emotions for me."

"Not logic apparently," I retorted.

He waved away my point. "Logic is relative."

"No it isn't!" I protested. "That's the point of logic! It's _objective_!

"To _you_ ," he snorted as I couldn't help but sigh, Taylor looking between the two of us like following a tennis match. "I'm from 'murica, and you know what I care about? Well, we're in New Hampshire, so probably not much, just sayin', But I know that I care about Taylor, her wellbeing, her future self's wellbeing-"

"Can ya stop suggesting that I don't?" I asked, getting a little annoyed. "I mean, I don't really give a shit about most of the Undersiders to be honest."

"I do though," He sighed, knowing our goals diverged here.

"Why?" Came the question from Taylor, stopping us both in the tracks. "Why do you care about me so much? I'm. . . I'm not worth it."

At this both of us stopped and sighed in unison. I walked further down the alley, motioning them to follow, cranking up my Acoustokinesis to check for anyone hiding. Getting nothing more than the heartbeats of a few rats, I wrapped the sound around us so no-one else could hear. I looked to Herb, asking with my eyes if I could take this one, to which he nodded. "Taylor, take off your mask for a sec," I requested.

"Why?"

"Because I'm going to as well and it's only polite," I told her, which was one reason. The other is that without the mask, Taylor was much more likely to take what I said to heart, and what I said would make a much greater impression.

She went utterly still for a moment, muttering to herself "They already know who you are." Words that I wouldn't have caught had I not been using my power, before reaching up and taking off her mask, fishing a pair of glasses from a belt pouch.

I put my hand to my domino mask, willing it off and catching it, holding it in my hand as I looked at her straight in the eye. As her green eyes met my prismatic ones, she gave a start and diverted her gaze, taking a step back, her agitation thrumming through her bugs. I was confused for a second before I realized why she was treating me like Medusa. "It's not a master power," I told her, exasperated. "The only one I have that falls under that classification is bug control, like you. Do you remember hearing about case 53's?" I asked.

"The monster capes?" She asked, still not looking at me. "The ones who don't have memories? You seem to still have yours!" she responded accusatorily.

I rolled my eyes as Herb just watched, amused. "Yeah, they're the extreme examples. Sometimes powers change you a little bit. I got these eyes, Herb got Vampire teeth." She looked at him, as he took off his mask, smiling. She stared, a combination of scared and intrigued, before looking me in the eye once more, rallying herself.

"You were going to tell me why you cared?" she asked, trying to go on the offensive.

I held her gaze as I told her with honest sincerity. "Because I know you Taylor Anne Hebert, just as I know a handful of others in this city. I know who you are, who you were, and who you could become. I know the things that you hate about yourself, that you think you hide from everyone; your secret hopes and fears. I know your strengths, and I know your weaknesses, and I accept them all. You are worthy of care, not because of your age, your gender, your race, or even your powers, but because you are _you_. I may disagree with you, may even work at odds to you, but I will never abandon you, even if you fall, for you are worth saving. Do you understand?"

She gave me a terrified, deer in the headlights look that my moments of pure honesty sometimes inspired, finally letting at a tenuous "No?" I closed my eyes sighing, this had been a mistake. I started to turn away as Herb laughed, his humor at my failure salt in the wound. "Wait," she called. "Maybe? It's just. . . a lot." She looked over at Herb, "What's funny."

"It's just doing that is so. . . him," He chuckled. "You've got to work up to that shit, but he just goes and says it. He totally means it too," he told her seriously. "He hates lying to people he respects."

"But I,-" she started.

"Have earned his respect," he interrupted. "From me too. Fuck, at your age I would have fucked those bitches up hard, especially if I'd had _your_ powers. They'd have woken up covered in 'em every single morning."

"But, I'd have been arrested," she started, stopping at my snort. "I would have been!"

"That's what you told yourself," I said, looking her in the eye again. "But you're intelligent and creative, a devastating combination. A swarm would get you caught, but something as simple as lice? You know how that can spread among friends, and would it be that unlikely they'd 'spread' them to each other?" I asked using air quotes. "They might spread to a few other girls, but those are the bitches that support the terrible trio, so why should you care? Or you could give their homes roaches, along with a few random other houses so as not to attract suspicion. Have a single wasp go after one of them, that happens sometimes. You could just strip out the beneficial bugs from their house, or have a bee chew a hole into the attic and set up a hive. Hell, if you really got vindictive you could give them crabs. You didn't do it because you'd get arrested Taylor, you did it because you're a good person and you want to be a hero." I saw her look of dawning comprehension and pressed on. "You believe that using your powers for personal vengeance would sully them, and sully you, so instead you took another several months of bullying and abuse rather than use your powers for that. That, and things like that, are why we're here to help."

Herb nodded, "He's right, even if he's being too fuckin' long winded. It's why we believe in you, and the fact that you question yourself is your best and worst trait, because it keeps you honest"

"I," she started. "I don't,"

"Don't worry about it," I told her, putting my mask back on. "I might've overdid it on the frank truths." I ignored Herb's snort of "you're like an emotional sledgehammer to the face", "But you asked a question, and I gave you my honest answer. All you need to worry about now is a name."

"Nova," Herb declared. "It just sounds great. Hopi for chasing butterflies, but it doesn't give away your powers. They expect explosions, then you hit them with bugs!"

"Or," I retorted. "You could go with 'The Lady, Bug'. Sounds regal, bit of a pun, and makes you sound mature, like Lady Photon."

She looked down at herself, her costume a study in greys and blacks. "I don't look much like a Nova or a Lady."

"In your stealth costume? Not really," I observed, getting her attention. "But your formal costume? Definitely."

"We gonna hook you up girl!" Herb crowed, putting his mask back on. "We gonna get you set up with a cape designer and you are gonna look fan-tab-u-lous!" The last word accompanied by finger snaps.

"Then, I think I'm gonna go with 'The Lady, Bug'," she decided, ducking her head down to put on her mask. As she did so I shot Herb a questioning look about my efforts, and he nodded back, smiling broadly.

"So, Registered Hero or Undercover Hero?" I asked. _Two could play the false dichotomy game. Besides, she was going to be a hero no matter what_.

"You'll be a good hero," Herb told her, "You _are_ a hero, but the Undersiders need you the most."

It was subtle, but Herb's proclamation that she _was_ a hero, especially coming from a self-professed villain, seemed to take her aback. I pushed the point home, "Don't doubt you're a hero Taylor, you fought fucking _Lung_ , someone you believed to be way above your weight class, the leader of one of the cities gangs on your first night out. You didn't do it because you wanted to test yourself, or you thought you could take him, or any of that bullshit. You did it because you thought that he was going to kill kids, and you had to stop that from happening, even scared shitless, even thinking you might die! You fought someone you believed was so far above your weight class it wasn't even funny.

Herb chimed in, "If anything, you're above _him_. You don't know how kinda awesome you are, and by kinda I mean really." He waved me to go on.

"Right, you fought him just because it was the _right_ thing to do." I jerked a thumb in the direction of the scene of our fight against the overbearing tinker. "Armsdick back there? If he wasn't sure he could take Lung down with his first strike, he would've left them to die, even if it hadn't been the Undersiders, but actually fucking kids. He would've called in support, and twiddled his thumbs until he could get a team to lead in with overwhelming force, so chances would be he wouldn't be hurt in the slightest. Some twelve-year olds are burned to death? Whelp, he was just _following procedure_. No one could _blame_ him for that. Mind you, nothing in procedure said he was supposed to, or even _allowed_ to try to take you down, but he only cares about that when it helps him _avoid responsibility_ as a hero, hiding behind rules to cover his own _cowardice_." I took a deep breath, calming myself. "Authority figures who reap the benefits of their position while neglecting their duties are the reason I don't work for the Protectorate, nor would I ask you to. Independent teams though, that's a whole 'nother ball game."

"Ah-men!" Herb chimed in with a southern accent. "He is quite the smart dude, and a bit more preachy. I'm just more fun." _I'm not preachy!_ I thought, shooting him a glance. _Why is he being such a dick and undercutting the points we agree on?_

She considered the problem looking like she might end up choosing Herb's option. I could give her fame, recognition, and help her do the right thing, but he was offering her _friends_. Not only that, but friends that _needed her_. With how she was right now, the chance she'd choose straight hero-ing was a coin-flip _at best_. My mind scrabbled for a few seconds before I found a possible work-around. "Best of both worlds," I told them, startling them both, though only Taylor really showed it. "I sign you up as 'probationary' member of my team, if you get caught doing a bunch of really hinky shit, _please don't get caught doing a bunch of really hinky shit_ , I can be all 'I'm reconsidering her probationary status'," I said in a bad posh british accent. "'And am considering her versatility and utility in my organization as opposed to the difficulties involved in possible rehabilitation, if you have evidence that it really is her that is,' and other shit like that until you can either redeem them, find enough evidence to put them away if they're irredeemable, as well as their boss who's a freaking sociopath, or decide to quit their team and go legit. As long as you don't do anything worth getting Birdcaged over, and don't get successfully framed by villains _or_ 'heroes' for that level of stuff either, you should be good." I finished.

Herb nodded, clapping a hand on my shoulder. "See!" he proclaimed. "I told you, he's the smartest. He knows how to work the system."

I shrugged, uncomfortable with the praise. "I fucking hate the system and would tear it down if I thought it wouldn't do more harm than good, but yeah. I can kinda do the dance of perception management."

"Like I said, he knows how to work it. Me," he told her, putting a hand to his chest, "not so good at that." I snorted in response. When it came to people, he was naturally better than I was by a country mile.

"So," I said, starting to walk out of the alley. "If we're going to do this we need to get moving before he gets conscious. Do you want to go with our probationary hero plan?" I asked. Taylor looked between the two of us before slowly nodding, her control of her bugs thrumming with nervous apprehension. "Okay then," I smiled, holding out a hand. "We need to get there in a hurry. Would you like to fly?"

Taylor nodded again, this time a bit more confident as she reached out and tentatively took my hand. I used the forcefield I'd copied from Glory Girl and extended it past me to surround Taylor as well, who gave a strangled shriek as we both smoothly lifted up several inches. "Basic Superman rules apply," I told her. She stared at me for a second before cocking her head to the side in confusion. "Right, Earth Aleph thing. I can make you fly by touching you, so don't let go. I can catch you, but it won't be nearly as fun as flying." I turned us both in the air to face Herb. "You want to come with or do you want to ride your brother home."

Herb blinked, nonplussed at my phrasing before shaking his head. "We'll just walk home," he stated, manifesting his Stand to walk beside him as he started to leave the alley.

"Was he there the entire time?" asked Taylor nervously.

"Yes and no," I responded. At her look I explained, slowly levitating us. "It's his power, you want to know the specifics about the mechanics, ask him. Functionally, just know that wherever Break is, Enter is probably somewhere nearby." She started to nod, immediately realizing how high she was and started to let go in surprise. I held on as she immediately realized what she was doing and grabbed on with both hands, a swarm of flies, wasps, beetles, and other flying insects swarming up toward us. Reaching out with my own power, I pushed all of them but a few back down.

She turned her head to look at me in what I assumed was an accusatory fashion as I drew her up and away, starting to move over the city. "We're going to PRT HQ," I told her. "Bringing an army of insects to do so sends the wrong message. Also, I get how you like the full helmet, it's good protection, hides your identity, except your hair, and looks intimidating, but unless you're going for the inhuman terrifying persona of a really good villain, you need to be more expressive. I can't tell if you're glaring at me, want an answer, or are gazing at me lovingly behind that thing.

 _That_ got a reaction. "What?! No, I was, I mean, I wanted to know about the bugs. I wasn't, you wouldn't, wait, inhuman?" she demanded in a rush, shock forcing her into a stream of consciousness.

I nodded, dropping the acustokinetic bubble, causing her to jump as the sound of the city came back, keeping a direct connection so we could still hear each other. "You're always concentrating on the bugs, and your. . . experiences tamped down your body language as a defense mechanism, so people would have to listen to you talk or see your face to pick up your emotions. If you don't talk and cover your face, it gets a lot harder for normal people to pick them up, and you are expressing your emotions through your insects, so you seem emotionless, and without a visible face, inhuman." I tapped my domino mask. "It's why most heroes try to leave at least part of their face exposed, even if they don't have brute powers. The public relations and interpersonal gains are worth the lack of protection."

We flew over the city as I slowly dispersed all the bugs flying around us, leaving the ones on Taylor alone. "What are you thinking?" I prodded.

"My helmet, it's not a hero's, is it?" She asked softly, sounding depressed.

I looked over at her, concentrating on her, feeling a sense of _mistake, failure, defeat,_ from my sense of her through my borrowed bug control. I shrugged, getting her attention. "It could be, the color scheme is kinda villain-y, but as an armored stealth suit for missions it's pretty good. With the helmet, you need to learn to, damn it I can't remember the word. You need to show your emotions more."

"Expressive?" she offered, trying to help.

"Maybe, I can't remember," I responded, slowing down as we landed in front of the entrance, the guards inside putting their hands on their foam sprayers, but doing nothing else. "You need to show your emotions more. There's some tricks I can teach you which are really effective uses of your power, but they'll exacerbate the problem if you aren't already vocally expressive."

Walking inside I saw the guard who had given me directions to the hospital on-duty inside the lobby. "Hey, you!" I called with good cheer. "It didn't work out, but thanks for the directions!" He looked distinctly uncomfortable, but I was just being nice, so whatever. Walking over to the front desk, Taylor in tow I smiled at the receptionist, a younger woman this time. "Hello, my name is Vejovis, leader of the independent hero team, the Penumbral Defenders, and I'm here to register our new probationary member; The Lady, Bug. Is there a form to fill out for this, or are we going to have to go through that entire hassle again?" I tried to keep my tone jovial, but my annoyance must have crept in as her answering smile got a little forced.

"I," she started, drawing out the sound, stalling for time. "I don't believe we do. What information are you willing to share about Ladybug?"

"Can I have a piece of paper?" I asked, getting one after a moment. "To start with her name is The Lady, Bug, or Lady Bug, like Lady Photon," I told her, writing it down. "Not Ladybug, minor but important difference. Obviously female, Caucasian, and her power is insect control, like mine, less range but greater finesse."

I felt Taylor's agitation behind me as I casually told them her power. I made a subtle 'calm down' motion with my hand as I tried to send feelings of _confidence_ back to her as the woman behind the desk asked, "What is her range?" causing the feelings from her to spike as I responded, "A block and a half, about four-hundred fifty, five hundred feet," the agitation calming into confusion and interest. "It shifts a bit, we're not sure why yet." I continued, titling the page "Probationary member, Penumbral Defenders", listing her powers and details, understating everything as I did so.

"Is there anything else you need to know?" I asked as the phone rang. _Took you long enough_ I thought, reaching through the bugs to look inside, finding less then there were yesterday, but still enough to serve as spies. People were moving around quickly, though less panicked then last time, which was progress, I supposed.

Looking around, I couldn't find Piggot, the director. _Guess she's on the Rig_ , I mused. _Wouldn't have guessed she'd work right next to the capes, given her position on 'em, but it's a better tactical position, and she's distinctly militantly minded_. The receptionist took the call, asking me "The Director-" before wincing as the person on the other end snapped something loud enough for the act to be heard by us, though not the content. "My boss," she amended. "Wants to know how you found Lady Bug."

"We ran into each other on patrol," I replied easily. "She was independent, and, well, you know the survivability of new independent heroes, so I offered her a probationary position on my team."

What could only have been Piggot relayed another question. I was tempted to use Acoustokinesis to listen in, but if I heard something before it was relayed, my expression might give me away, and I wanted to avoid that if possible, so waited for the question to be relayed. "Where did you meet her?" was the next one.

I smiled, showing a bit of teeth. "I'm afraid I won't relay information that may result in the unmasking of my team members. Next question please."

Another relay. "Sh- My boss says you need to answer the question."

"I really don't. This is a courtesy, and I have committed no crimes. Have a nice day." I turned on my heel and started to walk away, the guards moving to hold their sprayers, but not point them at us.

A could here Piggot yelling something. "Last question!" The woman called. "What do you mean probationary?"

I didn't break stride. "Break and Enter have my full trust, everyone else has to earn it!"

Stepping outside I offered Taylor an arm, which she hooked hers through, and we took off, leaving the nervous guards behind.

Flying through the air, I turned to Taylor, "Where and when are you meeting the Undersiders?"

"What, um, where I fought Lung, and at 4, so, what time is it?" she asked.

For a girl who could multitask like a supercomputer, she seemed oddly distracted. "What's up Lady Bug?".

"Nothing. Nothing's up," she responded quickly. I sighed, and then stared at her, slowing down slightly. "It's just, you said everyone had to earn your trust, and-"

I sighed harder, pinching the bridge of my nose with my free hand as I slowed us to a stop, hanging mid-air. "Lady Bug, while I don't lie to people that I respect. Do you really think I respect people who demand answers from someone coming in as a curtesy, let alone all the other shit the PRT pulls?"

I got the distinct impression that if I could see her face, she would be red as my connection to her thrummed with embarrassment. "No," she finally replied, when it was obvious I was waiting for an answer.

"That part wasn't a lie, but don't take everything I tell other people at face value. Those who would be our enemies peddle in false-hoods and double talk, so I only see it fair that I reply in kind. I don't trust people who haven't earned it, but you have already, so calm down. So," I continued, looking away as she felt even more embarrassed for some reason, fishing my phone out of a pouch. "We have twenty minutes, there's some things you need to know about the group you're going to go get recruited by," I commented, starting to move again.

"I know at least one of the Undersiders isn't there by choice, and you need to see if the rest are working for Coil through threat of force, dangling the thing they need in front of them and making them believe he's the only way to get it, or because they have no-where else to go," I explained.

"They're forced to be villains?" she asked, aghast.

I shook my head. "Don't be naïve Lady Bug, you've heard of people being forced into gangs at school. If you don't have a combat oriented power, what protection would a person have against doing the same thing? Their boss, Coil, you probably won't meet him, but you need to make sure you're _never_ alone with him okay?"

Her grip on my arm tightened. "Why, is he a Master?"

I shook my head just once, looking her in the eye, or at least eye-plate, once more. "No, he's just a sociopathic sadist whose power lets him indulge in his tastes without consequence. The blonde, Tattletale, has super-intuition, so I can't tell you everything until your undercover stint is over. Sorry," I shrugged to her feelings of betrayal. "So, powers, they sometimes effect how your brain works to optimize your powers," I threw out, distracting her.

"Wait, did that happen to me?" she asked, concerned, issue forgotten, or at least put on the backburner.

"A little, if I had to guess it's was more your brain's own plasticity adapting to better handle your power," I told her. "You're multitasking has gotten unreal, but is natural as far as I can tell, and will only improve with time and use. You're way better than me, and Break isn't in even close. I'm mentioning this because their heavy hitter, Bitch, is an extreme example of that."

"The one with the monster dogs?" She asked, looking down at the city as we lazily flew above it while still obviously paying attention to everything I said.

"Like most things, sorta," I explained, slipping into teacher mode. "She can incase dogs in a larger meat-suit they control for a bit, but they are still regular dogs in the center, and she can't control them like you can your bugs. Instead she her brain got shifted so she has a near supernatural ability to understand and train them. Unfortunately, when it was programming in canine social systems it overwrote a lot of the human ones she has, and she was from an abusive foster-home so that wasn't a lot to begin with. She intellectually knows about human social patterns, but hasn't really studied them in depth to fake normality, as dogs aren't big on book learning. To her, too much talking registers as excessive barking, smiling is just baring your teeth, and _every_ group works like a pack. Regardless of what the others want, she'll probably try to establish dominance. Don't let her, or she'll never respect you."

"What?!" Taylor cried, shocked and a little scared. "How?"

I shrugged, "That's for you to handle. None of them are really a threat to you."

She looked at me, and her tone indicated she doubted my sanity. "They're an entire team of supervillains, how are they not a threat?"

"Bug control, it's battlefield control on a ridiculous scale. Grue, the guy in leather and a skull mask, creates darkness that acts like impenetrable smoke to everyone but him. It stops all light, and mutes sound, heat, and radiation. It doesn't stop your connection to your bugs. Tag him with a few to keep track of him, and swarm him if you have to. Regent can take over a person's nervous system and puppet them, but it takes hours of sustained effort to really pull it off, and normally he can just make you trip, but too much has a feedback effect on him. Doesn't affect your swarm, so swarm him. Bitch has dogs. Swarm them hard, blocking airways if you have to, but know it'll kill them and make her your enemy for life. Tattletale claims to be psychic, but like I said has super-intuition. She'll immediately read that you know their powers from little things like word choice, intonation, body language, so on, and will try to de-escalate the situation now the element of surprise is gone. Might even read info about me, but again that's why Break and I haven't told you that much yet, and can't tell you certain things until she's joined up, has left the city, or is dead."

"Dead?" Taylor asked, fear creeping into her tone.

"Won't be from our hands," I reassured her. "The options are in order of preference. If she won't join I'll get her into a safehouse somewhere people that would hunt her down and enslave her for her thinker power wouldn't find her, but that she'd hopefully be happy in."

I landed in the docks, a few blocks away from the meeting place. "You're smart, resourceful, and tough. You can do this. You have our cards if you want to hang out, get some training, vent, need help, or are about to do something really stupid."

"Don't you realize something stupid after you do it?" she asked, hurt by the implication that she'd do something stupid in the first place. I considered bringing up her location for the Armsmaster meet, but she'd take it the wrong way. Natural triggers were so damn touchy.

I visibly winced. "Bad phrasing. If everyone _else_ is going to do something really stupid, like robbing a bank in broad daylight, and you're going to have to go with them, call us with the when and where and we'll be there to cover you and keep things from getting too bad. Hell, depending on what you're doing, we might just straight up help. At the very least I'll be able to spin it to make any 'heroes' who cross the line look villainous, and you to look downright heroic with your restraint.

She gave me a nod as she let go of my arm, looking in the direction of her next confrontation. I dropped into the alley and flew off, staying low so I didn't get spotted by Tattletale.

 _Good_ I thought, _I didn't fuck that one up. One down, two to go._


	21. Blueprint 3-4

**Blueprint 3.4**

Landing back at Base, I walked in to rap blasting, Herb singing tonelessly along with it. Striding over to the computers I turned it off right as he hit a high note, and I feared for the safety of the glassware in the kitchen. Turning around he asked, "What the hell man?"

"Dude," I shot back, "That's way too loud. This is supposed to be an _abandoned_ train depot."

"It's my base, I do what I want!" he sassed, before getting serious. "How did it go?"

"Good, we got her registered, and dropped off with a warning about Tattletale and Bitch, along with a quick rundown of their powers. She's got this," I reassured him.

"Won't telling her that change how thing play out?" He asked, concerned.

I shook my head. "Nah man, that was gonna happen no matter what. She's still got the marks on her armor from that Tesla sphere, which Lisa will pick up instantly. Taylor's also got us supporting her, so that'll change how she acts anyways. Speaking of support, what the hell was that with Taylor? She needs to be on our team so we can help her, why were you trying to convince her not to be?"

He shook his head. "You got it all wrong. Taylor isn't a hero, she just thinks she is. I'm just giving her options to find her true self."

I looked at my friend in disbelief. "Are you high? Of course she is, every time she's given power she uses it to help other people! That's, like, the definition of hero!"

"The heroes keep fuckin' her over, so she obviously isn't" he retorted.

I growled, frustration percolating deep in my throat. "I don't give a shit what the government stooges think. I know what a Hero is, I know _I_ am one, _Taylor_ is, and _you_ are, even if you're convinced your not, but if you want to label yourself as a villain as that's the roll you're playing, I haven't been commenting on it. You are an intrinsically good person, and trying to make the world a good place. You want a Villain, look at Boojack. He doesn't have that innate need to help that we do, and if he declared himself a villain, I'd believe it." I paused for breath, quickly pressing on before Herb could get his stupid, illogical rebuttal in. "Boojack isn't a Supervillain, but he'd be on call for one, and would only answer like half the time. You, you're different, and I'm respecting your self-delusion, but don't spread that shit to Taylor. She's still figuring herself out, and doesn't need you messing with her head that way. The Undersiders? Villains all, but I'd still try to recruit Grue and Tattletail. The rest can hang for all I care, but those two are villains that can be redeemed! I know you're trying to help, but for once I've got a better read on the situation than you do here so _back off on the villain shit. Okay?_ "

His expression had gotten increasingly apprehensive. "Jesus Christ man, fine, I'll stop talking about her being a villain! What's your problem?"

The honest confusion ground my anger like a lightning rod. "Dude," I sighed, "You might not remember but at the start of the book? She'd in a pretty delicate headspace. You joking and shit with _Weaver_? Confuse the hell out of her, but she'd adapt and the two of you would get along decently, both villains trying to do the right thing. Thing is, she isn't even _Skitter_ yet, and with luck _never_ will be. I won't hamstring her like the PRT would, and I'm giving her a different, better option. You've got that Villains are cool shit goin' on, and understand implicitly how that and bein' good aren't mutually exclusive by the common linguistic conventions, but she's, she's like I used to be. Burned so many times by people her feelings told her were okay she tends to go by overt communication, what they say, instead of implicit shit, what they really mean. Your words say Villain, but you mean Rebel, but that's not what other people mean, hell, it's not what most mean, and the type of 'villain' you represent is the exception not the rule. You convince her to be a 'villain' and she'll be what she thinks a villain is, not what you actually mean. She'd learn in time, but I don't want her to go through all the shit that I went through to be able to understand you, and we don't have time to teach her the right way. You're normally all up in this shit that I thought you were doing it on purpose. Sorry," I finished lamely.

"Fuuuck," Herb replied in realization. "She is isn't she. Yeah, I'll cut back on that shit, but I'm still trash talkin' the Protectorate,' he warned me.

I snorted "Pffft, go ahead, _they_ deserve it. I'll help." I grabbed a laptop and headed for my room, turning the music back on, but turning it down. "Thanks man, good talk," I told him as I left. He nodded, back to singing about drifting on memory bliss, whatever that meant.

* * *

Killing time I went over the responses I'd gotten from my Lawyer search, looking up the positive responders online. I finished up going with Eldington, Raul, & Calle, lawyers specializing in dealing with capes, though they had positive reviews from both heroes and villains. I faxed them the contract, forwarded their retainer, and asked how soon they were ready to start. A few minutes later I got a response of "As soon as you need us."

With that heartening reply I wrote up an edited description of what happened, leaving out everyone's names and the specifics of our powers, but enough for them to work with. Attached to that were the video files all eight of my cameras recorded, along with the audio file from our comms, cutting out our use of names with a beep, only then realizing I'd never asked back from Taylor, just turned them off.

Shrugging I sent it all, with the request that they present what happened to Director Piggot, minus the portion about going undercover, since Armsmastor's actions did not seem befitting as the head of a branch of the Protectorate, using what appeared to be untested Tinkertech, but not to release it to the media, just to use the threat of which to keep her from trying anything too hasty. Leaning back and stretching, I considered my current power set. I'd gotten better with the Aerokinesis, but I needed to work on something else as I was getting a bit bored with it, and the next step would have involved someone throwing things at me. I didn't trust Herb, or god forbid Boojack, to do it consistently without fucking with me, couldn't let Taylor know I had four powers, as some online research showed that the hard maximum anyone had found a cape to have was three, and _that_ would have raised too many questions, and I honestly didn't feel like building something to do it.

As my mind wandered I turned my focus to Armsmaster's secondary power I'd snatched. Turning anything into a bag of holding sounded nifty, but he'd not been using it consciously, so I didn't have a repertoire of pre-developed tricks to work with like Stormtiger or Glory Girl. Playing around with it for a few hours was seriously disappointing, which I should've expected from Armsdick. I wasn't exempt from the "No Biological matter" limitation like I thought I might be, so it was less 'bag of holding' and more 'complex machinery that massed a fraction of what it should'. If I could've taken his miniaturization Tinkerness it would have had ridiculous synergy, and the fact that he went with a set of low-tier power armor, a single weapon, and a bike he never used in combat cemented my contempt. He was useless as a hero, and even as someone with super-powers he was an utter failure, in the same tier as Skidmark in terms of utilizing his capability.

I mean, he was good friends with Dragon, or as much as that AI had friends, who **_SPECIALIZED_** in mech suits. If he could get over himself and collaborate? They did a bit in canon, but with a bit more creativity, he might be able to go toe to toe with an Endbringer that _wasn't_ just playing with it's food. Fully outfitted, he might be able to bloody Scion's nose! I sighed, visions of miniaturized railguns better suited to naval battleships which used the kinetic recoil to power energy weapons dancing in my mind, along with dozens of other concepts. If I could trust Armsmaster, I could quite easily give him all the fame and respect he wanted with a few suggestions, but then again, if I could trust Armsmaster, the plot would have been _much_ different. I gave a mirthless chuckle. _It's the hallmark of good vs. evil; evil might be more powerful individually, but good can cooperate without reservation, which carries the day._ As I mused philosophical my phone rang.

Not recognizing the number, I asked "Vejovis of the Penumbral Defenders, do you need a Hero?" _That works_ better I thought _._

It was Taylor, who promptly yelled "I'M NOT JOINING THESE ASSHOLES!"

* * *

Herb and I met her a couple blocks away from Fugly Bob's because honestly, it was the only restaurant that I actually knew about that she would as well, that also served comfort food. Herb and I landed in front of Taylor, still suited up like I'd asked, literally buzzing with irritation.

"I'm not go-" she started angrily, only to be cut off by my upraised hand and my command of "Stop! Have you eaten since I dropped you off?"

"What?" she asked, confused. "No, but-"

"Then we're not going to talk about this until we get something to eat!" I told her. "We have-" Herb looked away uncomfortably. "I haven't either, and I can get a bit irritable if I'm hungry, so we're gonna get some food, eat it, and only _then_ are we going to talk about the difficulties a hero would have being sounded out by a team of teenage villains. I _will_ listen to what you say, and if by the end you still don't want to, I _won't_ press you to go back, but we're going to eat first. Now, can you eat in your helmet or do you need to take it off?"

I could practically taste her stubbornness and desire to tell me off, but her grumbling stomach, along with my own grumbling stomach, which I _may_ have made a teensy bit louder than was natural, gave her enough time to reply instead of instinctually responding, even if it was just a mulish shake of her head.

Walking into the restaurant, leaving her swarm in the alley, all eyes immediately turned to us and the conversation died. An older waitress approached us, trying to put on a brave front as the younger waitstaff froze like spooked rabbits. "Party of 3?" she asked hopefully.

I smiled and waved her off. "Actually, I was wondering if we could get our order to go." Looking over I saw someone, probably thinking they were subtle, film us with a phone camera. I loved them so much, they made for free publicity for _actual_ Heroes. "We're the Penumbral Defenders. We're new in Brockton Bay and we heard Fugly Bob's was practically an institution, so I thought we'd get some food from here for a team meeting. Would that be okay?"

The waitress blinked, nonplussed for a moment, before nodding and grabbing three menus for us. I heard Taylor's intake of breath as she moved to wave off the menu, probably to give her order and smoothly pushed it into her hands, talking over her. "Lady Bug," I admonished kindly, making sure to put a pause between the two words. "I know you're trying to watch your figure but please at least _look at the menu, before you make a decision_. I know this wasn't your first choice, but humor me." Feeling her confusion, I opened it for her and put it right in front of her, so it at least looked like she was looking at it behind her one-way lenses.

Turning to Herb I asked. "Break, any idea what Enter would want?"

He considered the menu for a second before responding. "Knowing him, a Challenger. Shit, I'll have one too."

I nodded, "Sounds good to me as well."

The waitress looked at us. "Um, they're only free if you eat them here."

I laughed kindly, getting a look from Herb and turning down the good humor before I went full Alex Louis Armstrong. "We'll pay the full price. We're capes, so we burn more energy than normal. The challenge wouldn't be fair and we have the money."

"I'll have a cheeseburger and a coke," Taylor added, handing back the menu.

"It'll be a few minutes," she told us, making her retreat.

I smiled at her retreating form, motioning for the three of us to stand off to the side to let people walk in and out. The sense of confusion and curiosity from Taylor was like a beacon, so I turned, presenting my back to the cameras and moved my head next to hers, whispering in her ear "If you don't need to look at the menu, that means you've been here before, and I'm trying to obscure your possible identity."

Her confusion changed to shock, realization, and a little bit of fear, none of it expressed in her body language as she kept still. "But, I could have looked it up online, or figured that this place would serve cheeseburgers. What _you_ said meant you could've been here," she replied, trying to find a way to excuse her almost-mistake.

I shook my head, keeping the sounds of our conversation from leaving a bubble around us. "But that's not what people would think. Managing perception is not about what could be, but what probably is. I led with hearing about this place, and The Challenger is on their marketing. Also, by ordering one to go, I can come here and as long as I don't order one, it obviously isn't me. After all," I laughed quietly. "I payed full price for the Challenger without blinking, suggesting that I could eat it in one sitting easily. A regular burger would be a snack in comparison for someone like that. Now, we're being filmed, so pretend to laugh quietly and nod your head when I step away." I gave her a second to process before stepping back, smiling broadly as I turned to face the restaurant, dropping the bubble as she chuckled and nodded. Herb gave me questioning look as I waved a hand at him. "I'll tell you the joke when we get back," causing him to nod.

"You're jokes aren't that funny man, not like mine!" he declared. _And this is why we work so well together_ I thought _._

"Pffft," I waved him off, "Lady Bug thinks my jokes are funny, don't you?" I asked turning to her.

"Umm," she responded, not sure how to respond. "Kinda?"

I put a hand to my chest in mock hurt. "But you laughed? Were you just humoring me? Alas, such is my lot in life!" turning my back to the two of them, smiling as I huffed.

"No, wait, Um, they were funny!" she tried, obviously confused.

"No, no, it's too late, you've made your thoughts clear!" I turned back to the two of them, Herb repressing his laughter at Taylor's struggling to keep up with what was going on. "Just kidding Lady, I know _you_ think I'm funny."

She looked between the two of us before crossing her arms. "That wasn't funny." She told us, the feelings of betrayal and hurt coming from her strongly over the bug control.

I patted her on the shoulder, sending back feelings of apology and feeling bad for something done wrong accidentally, "Lady, it's just joking around. Maybe in poor taste, but relax."

Herb nodded, "Oh my darling, please relax, life's too short!"

She glanced between us, probably glaring, but I couldn't tell with her helmet. "Fine. Where's our food."

A few minutes later, I payed our order with a pilfered hundred from the Merchants, telling her to keep the change, handed the bag to Herb, and the three of us walked out, thanking the waitress as we left. Outside there was a group of people, watching and filming us. _Ah, the paparazzi_ I thought as I offered my arm to Herb and Taylor, waiting for both of them to link theirs through mine before taking off and heading southeast towards the commercial sector. Alighting on the rooftop of an office building, I blanketed the top with insects for a minute, feeling out the two security cameras and obscuring them, buzzing slightly to mess with sound while I wrapped us all in the acoustic bubble I was quickly becoming proficient with. I motioned for everyone to sit and handed out the food, looking at the frankly massive burgers Herb and I had gotten. Shrugging I got started only to be interrupted by Taylor's indignant question of "What was that about?" From the tone she'd been stewing on it the entire flight here.

I finished my bite. "You're gonna have to be more specific." I looked up, seeing her mask still on. "I've blocked the security cameras, you'll be fine."

"You, with that plans, and then you're joking and making fun of me. What was going on?" she demanded as she took off her mask, her eyes oddly bright.

Herb looked at me. "This is all you," he unhelpfully told me before taking another bite as he reclined against an air vent. "Damn this is good."

I looked at her and repressed an instinct to go give her a hug. She looked like she needed one, and given she'd probably had two serious fights already, she was probably drained, and not up for the back and forth yet. _Yep_ I thought. _Too much too fast, she's not used to dealing with the concept of personality masks and all that shit_.

I motioned for her to take a bite, and waited for her to do so before continuing. "I plan, it's what I do, and growing up I . . . had problems with people. Understanding them, relating to them, the whole deal. So, I started studying them, and it took me the better part of two decades, but I've broken down interactions to what they are, and like any science, once you understand it you can work with it."

"Sounds like a freakin' supervillain when he explains it, doesn't he?" Herb asked between bites, getting a tenuous nod from Taylor.

I sighed, putting down my burger as I pinched the bridge of my nose. "Damnit Herb, you do the same thing, you just picked up the skills naturally. Most people do to some extent, but psychological trauma retards that process, stopping it completely sometimes, but like anything the use of intelligent thought can overcome those problems. It might not work in the same manner, but it has the same results. I was explaining to Taylor that if she ordered without looking at the menu, it made her look like a regular, which would hint at her identity as a native, as well as my rationale for having us all order Challengers, letting us come back later without suspicion as long as we didn't order those. Isn't that why you did that?" I asked.

He laughed. "Nah, I just wanted to see if I could eat that big-ass burger, but that works too!" He looked at her, "But he's right about lookin' at the menu. Leave no signals. And as for the joking around, didn't mean anything by it. Darlin', you've really got to maintain."

"But it sounded like. . ." she responded, looking down at her food, trailing off as I felt the emotional hurt from her.

"Like something the bitches that tormented you might do?" I asked gently. She didn't look up, just nodded. "I won't go into it right now, but there's nothing intrinsically wrong with social manipulation. I thought that for a bit and lost _all_ my friends, not realizing that everyone does it all the time without realizing. It, like all things, is flavored by the intent, but again, not the point," I stated.

"And he doesn't do it to his friends," Herb added. "We just get the bad jokes."

"What?" I asked confused. "Duh! Well, I'm honest about it. It's only common courtesy. They're honest with me and trust me so how could I be anything but the same in return? That's-" I cut myself off with a facepalm, my own stupidity slapping me in the face like an errant trout. "Right, emotional damage due to betrayal not healed, compounded by the falling of an idol and the death of a dream, finding new friends, and probably two separate combat encounters, one without backup, on top of the normal feminine conditioning package. I'm a fucking moron."

I stood up and walked over to her, gently taking her food and putting it off to the side before sitting down next to her and putting an arm around her shoulder, letting her lean against me. "I won't betray you, nor will Herb, and if he does I'll kick his ass. I'm. . . not exactly normal." I glanced at Herb waiting for the joke, but it never came. "I know that, but when I don't have to put up a performance for those that would mean us ill, and I'll do my best to be as clear as possible. I know this has been a hell of a day, and while most of them won't be this bad, some of them will be. You'll get stronger from this though, to the point that you can press on and be there. Think of it like jogging. Today you ran a marathon, having to do the occasional sprints at school because of your tormentors, but otherwise not that much. There are days that will be this bad, hell, I can't promise some of them won't be worse, but you'll be stronger, and you won't be doing it alone. We'll be there for you, okay? We have goals we can't tell you yet, and things we can't tell you either, but that's because of your current mission. It's the best way to save the Undersiders, but again, if by the end of tonight you don't want to, Herb and I'll figure out another way to do it."

I sighed, carefully not paying attention to her face, not paying attention to her feelings through the connection, not wanting to intrude while she was vulnerable. "I will do my damndest to never lie to you, and any manipulations will be to help. Seeing your friend isn't feeling good, so you talk to them and distract them from whatever's bugging them? That's a manipulation, but one done from kindness, not malignance. Herb and I both have problems because we use words in the way that we've come to understand them, not necessarily the popular conception, though we both try not to do so around people that don't understand. So, I manipulate people, so does everyone, but I would never do so to hurt you, and if you were to ever ask why I was doing something, I'll tell you, or at least tell you why I can't tell you. I promise, and I do my damndest not break promises I give my friends."

"He doesn't," my friend added, watching us both with a smirk for some reason. "Even if it sounds fuckin' stupid."

"Thank you Herb," I responded rolling my eyes. "So, you okay?" I felt her nod. "Do you want me to let go?" A shake no this time. "Okay, let's eat, calm down, and you can tell us about your meeting the villain. It sounds like it might've gone worse than I thought, but let's discuss it after we've clogged our arteries and give our enhanced physiology a run for it's money." That earned a choked laugh and I considered it a win.

I had Herb pass me my burger and worked on it one handed, getting three-fourths of the way through it before putting it down. Putting myself in a food coma when my teammate needed me wouldn't be ok.

I waited for her to finish and pull away from me, rubbing at her face before I went to talk, interrupted by an impressive belch from my friend. Looking over at him I couldn't help to ask "Dear lord man, did you actually eat the whole thing?"

He shrugged, smiling and unrepentant. "Sooo fuckin' good man, but I'm full."

"Wait, when you were talking about parahumans needing more energy, that was true?" Taylor asked, eyes wide.

I wiggled my hand in a 'kinda' gesture. "Have you seen any fat capes that weren't fat _because_ of their powers? When you get your powers, you get a tune-up, healing terminal conditions, fixing you up, so on. Part of that seems to be a higher energy consumption, so you might still be able to get fat, but not without concerted effort."

"But. . .?" she asked, hand touching her glasses self-consciously.

I shrugged. "Not sure why it doesn't fix that. Maybe because you don't need to see to use your powers? Who knows, I've got a plan to fix that, but not for at least a month," I replied offhandedly.

"Wait what?" she asked, shocked.

"Dude, enough!" Herb groaned from behind me. "Let her talk or we'll be here forever!" He turned to address her. "Taylor darling, we've a lot of plans to help you, maybe other people, but why am I here to meet you. Other than that delicious Burger," he added as an afterthought.

"Sorry," I replied chagrined. "So, you met the Undersiders, which, despite their various hang-ups, are good people. Honestly if it wasn't for Herb's desire to take this subtly, I'd've gone for a straight recruitment pitch. I don't trust them like I do you or Herb, but we could do good work together."

"Nah man," my friend told us, "not right now, they're too loyal."

I looked at him confused. "Really?"

He nodded to himself, explaining, "I think the only one who isn't loyal, is Tattletale." After a moment of thought I nodded in agreement as Taylor cast a questioning glance that looked confused as I had first felt.

"They don't seem that loyal to anyone," she informed him.

"Grue is loyal because of Aisha," He explained.

"Who?" She asked, glaring at us tiredly as we both laughed. "What? What's so funny?"

"You'll get the joke when she triggers," I explained. "But I see your point, Regent wants to keep a low profile because of the villain looking for him, who, just saying, I'm gonna snipe him." Taylor looked horrified, but I just shook my head. "Not gonna say who, because you might give it away, but the only reason he doesn't have a Kill Order on his head is the chaos it would cause, the damage of which would be less than he's doing long term, but hey, governments, no one wants to take responsibility when they can kick the can down the street. Or roll the snowball down the hill for a more apt metaphor."

Herb nodded. "Hell yeah, no way I'm getting close to him." He turned to Taylor. "How did things go with Bitch?"

"Um," she started nervously. "I think I established dominance?"

"How? Herb inquired.

"Well," she started, shrinking in on herself.

"You kicked her ass, didn't you?" He grinned evilly.

Taylor blinked, looking between the two of us. "You knew that would happen?" she asked, trying to get upset, but only managing moderate annoyance.

"Are you injured?" I asked, dodging the question.

"Uh, no? Should I be?"

"Original timeline? Yeah," I responded guilelessly. "But we're here now, so the ripple effects have started. Even if you had been, I could've healed you up easily. What happened?"

"Well, I kept what you said in mind," she started, looking down. "So, when the dogs came in and attacked me I hit them in the face, muzzle, with my Baton, and did again when they got up and went for me, and then asked Bitch what she was doing, and smiled, like you told me, with teeth, and she tried to hit me for hurting her dogs when they fucking attacked me!" She was getting incensed, anger burning away tiredness as she clenched her fists, while I kept the insects over the cameras instead of the mindless rage she was trying to spur them into unconsciously. "So I hit _her_ in the face with my baton, and then she tried to call her dogs on me so I hit her _again_ , and then the dogs come on anyways and who _does that_ when they're trying to recruit someone, and then Grue did that darkness, thanks for the heads up, and then I decided fuck _that_ because even if _you_ said they're good," She shot us an accusing glare, "I'd never normally hang out with people that _attack strangers_ but it all sorta worked out and she apologized and we might be okay?" she finished weakly, her torrent of words trickling down, as her energy crashed, leaving her more wrung out looking than she had before. "Are you sure these are good people?"

"For measures of good," I hedged. "They're honorable, and loyal if you do right by them, and at worst they deserve juvenile detention and some serious counseling." She looked incredulous. "No really, the only villains in town that are worth turning to the side of the angels are the Undersiders, Faultline's Crew, and they barely count as villains, Purity, Night, Fog, Rune and maybe Othala.

"Ah, Purity," Herb mumbled into his fries, not able to help himself as he ate a bit more.

"Of them, the Undersiders are the surest for turning good," I continued, ignoring my partner and regaining her attention. "as they did turn good, will do so, might do so, future tenses are weird."

Taylor slowly turned her gaze to Herb. "Aren't some of them E88? Wouldn't having them join with Herb be. . . bad?"

"Oh, so bad, but such a challenge," Herb reassured her to little effect.

"Purity left E88, though she's still a racist it's more of a worldview, one that's reinforced by dealing with the ABB instead of a full-on religion. Night & Fog are heavily brainwashed to be living weapons, which is both fucked up and means we might be able to help them. Rune became a Neo-Nazi after her parents, who escaped E88, left her to rot in juvenile detention where she was put in solitary confinement so long she triggered, which is illegal by the way. She suffered a slow torture to your few hours of bio-hell. Either way her parents abandoned her, so she joined the group they hated, which is such classic teenage rebellion that it hurts, but that shit makes for a weak foundation. Othala, I don't know that much about, but I'd like to meet her once just to get a feel for her."

"What about Cricket?" Herb asked. "You forgot her."

I rolled my eyes. "No Herb, I didn't, she's not gonna join willingly." I ignored both his hmmph of "defeatist," and her horrified expression to continue. I mentally thanked Herb for breaking the building tension, one I hadn't realized had been present until it was gone. "That's for the villains. We can discuss the rest when you've had more rest." I looked her in the eye. "The Undersiders are rough around the edges, but they're worth saving. If you don't want to, we'll find another way to do it. I'm not gonna pull that 'well I gave you a choice and you made your decision' bullshit about this. I trust you to think about it and be honest, and I'll respect that. For tomorrow at least, can you keep going with your undercover op? It's harder than you thought, but we're here to support you."

She took a deep breath before nodding. "I can," she stated, turning around to get her mask, murmuring to herself, my sound control kicking in automatically to hear her tell herself "Was gonna do it on my own, I just have fr- teammates now." I wanted to correct her, but that would result in me outing my power, so I let the comment pass, thinking about the implications.

"So Herb," I addressed him instead. "You okay with me dropping you off near the docks while I take Taylor home before her dad gets home?"

He nodded slyly, laughing to himself. "I'll be fine, fly the girl home."

I rolled my eyes as I offered my arm to her, taking off into the night sky.

* * *

I left Herb as we sped towards her house. "It's. . ." she started, before turning to look at me. "It's this way. Do you know where I live?" she tiredly asked me, sounding miffed. I rolled my eyes. "Yes Taylor, I know your dad's name and have access to the white pages and a map. I know where you live."

"White pages?"

"It's like the yellow pages for people. You didn't know what it was? Really?" I shot a look back at her.

"How old are you?" she asked. "I think you're younger than Herb, but. . .?"

"I'm in my mid-twenties."

"Oh. Okay." Was all the response I got.

I wanted to press her on that, but the last thing I needed was for her to be so surprised and tired that she let go and fell. Looking down at what I thought was her house I saw a car pulling into the driveway. "Um, Taylor, is that your dad?" I queried with trepidation.

She looked down as well, stiffening. "Oh no," she breathed. "I'm in so much trouble."

I looked at the situation and weighed it, calling the risk as acceptable I told her. "I've got a way to get you in, but I need you to close your eyes, and don't open them until two seconds after you hit your bed. Okay?"

She looked at me, interest warring with tiredness. "Do you have a fourth power? No one has four."

"Can't tell you because of Tattletale," I stated. "Decision time, yay or nay?"

"Yes," she said, "eyes closed do it."

With that I poured on the speed, shifting to Shadowform as I barreled through the sky, skimming low over rooftops. She stiffened as the world faded, but said nothing, not reacting as I took us straight through the window into her room. I turned and dropped her, her body shifting from the full color she was when I took her with me to the desaturated view of the rest of the world as I passed back out the window, flicking out with Aerokinesis to ring the doorbell, the sound of it hopefully covering the impact of Taylor hitting her bed. I flew up and out as a man answered the door, looking around before closing it, shaking his head. Drop-off complete I headed back out, happy with how things had turned out.


	22. Blueprint 3-5

**Blueprint** **3.5**

Walking into the base I nodded to Boojack, who was munching down on the extra Challenger. "Thanks man! You're the best, I was getting the munchies hardcore!" I laughed and gave him a thumbs up as I walked over to the computer room to grab a laptop to work on.

"So, walk your girlfriend home?" Herb asked, not looking up from his computer as he worked on something.

"Okay, one, not my girlfriend. She's like, 15, I think. Well past the acceptable limits of the creepy rule of dating. Two, yeah, we got there right as her dad was getting home," ignoring his snort of laughter, "but I managed to drop her off while distracting Danny by ding, dong, ditching him." I defended. "Only thing on the docket right now is the bank heist, and that's not for a couple of days at the very least, maybe a week. I can't remember. You have any plans?"

"Fuck bitches, get money!" was his immediate reply.

I just stared at him. "That sounds like a reference, but I don't get it. Any _actual_ goals?"

He shrugged. "Not really. Ya' need me for anything?"

"Not really, but if something comes up I'll call you. I'm planning on meeting our lawyers, setting up PR, doing some patrols, and maybe hitting up a gang business to make some money to pay off our debt. You know, team upkeep things."

"Yeah, that's why you're the lead." He said, looking over at me. "I don't want to deal with any of that shit."

Nodding I told him. "Thanks for helping me there. I didn't realize how we were piling up everything on her like that."

"No big, she's more like you than me, but she ain't used to this shit. She didn't choose the cape life, the cape life chose her, but she needs time. Also- nevermind."

"What?"

He thought, obviously choosing his words carefully. "You're kinda. . . intense. I'm used to it, so's Boo 'cause he's made from me, just, be careful, 'kay?"

"Um, okay?" I replied, not really knowing what the hell he was referring to.

"You'll figure it out," he waved me off, turning back to. . . was that porn? _Nope, not gonna ask_ I thought as I turned around and left, laptop in hand as I looked up on how to make a low tech pitching machine, putting it together outside so I could call on my insectile handymen to help.

After a few hours of power practice I wandered inside, grabbing my leftovers and noting that everyone had long since gone to sleep. I considered joining them. I didn't need to sleep, but it _had_ been a while. Shaking my head, I went back out and continued deflecting projectiles, maybe later.

* * *

It took nearly eight straight hours, pushing through boredom and distraction, but I was able to finally get a handle on Stormtiger's projectile deflection to the point I could use it automatically, like a muscle I could stretch, a bit distracting to keep going, but something that would do better with time. By the end I'd built something to fire a gun I'd pulled from some Merchants, and used it to fire bullets at me, deflecting them wildly at first, but making the margin closer and closer as I worked, using Glory Girl's shield to tank the shots I didn't quite deflect. All of this was while I wrapped in an acoustic bubble to keep the sound from gathering attention. Finishing up, I was collecting the small hill of spent brass when I had an idea. Taking the gun, focusing on it, I wrapped it in a sound bubble, and pointed it at the wall I'd pock-marked with hundreds of bullets. Picking a part that made a pattern, I concentrated on the gun and fired, nudging the bullet mid flight to hit my target. I was a bit off, but could get the sense of feedback, which caused me to smile, the only sound from attempt being the sound of the impact. This, I decided, was something to work on later.

Making breakfast for the crew, leaving the pancakes in the warming drawer and a note on the table, I left for my lawyer's office, which was set to open pretty soon. Flying over, stopping an early morning mugging, and saving an actual cat from a tree (apparently a thing that actually happened), I made it right at the time on the website listed, walking in to be greeted by an elderly man behind a desk. A few minutes later I was seated in a meeting room with a cup of coffee, one of the senior partners on the way. I shrugged and pulled out my phone, seeing that I still hadn't received a response from the Rogue that was probably my father, I sent another, this one making oblique references to his origin, and computer support, his job before we were all dragged to this place. Sending it off the door opened and a man walked in with the bearing of a professional. Mid-30's, dark hair, Latino, what struck me immediately was the thin burn scar across half his face.

"You!" I called, pointing at him as I finally realized why this law firm sounded so familiar. _This_ was the guy who tried to help Taylor when she turned herself in!

The man in question froze, just for a second. "Me?" he asked, walking further in and setting down his briefcase. "Have we met before?" If he was nervous, he didn't show it.

Shaking my head, I apologized. "Sorry, I just remembered why this law firm sounded familiar. I don't actually remember your name, sorry, but I've heard good things."

He nodded in response. "I'm glad we have that reputation. My name is Quinn Calle, of Eldington, Raul, & Calle, and I assume you're the hero that dropped that bomb on us yesterday? Vejovis?"

I smiled in return. "Yeah, I was planning on doing it myself, but I don't know parahuman law, or how to deal with the PRT in a, in that way so I figured I might as well contact professionals. Did you enjoy the videos?"

"The multiple camera angles were a nice touch," he acceded. "Though if you had been the one to instigate violence, it would have spoken of pre-meditation. Who was the person in black, if you don't mind me asking?"

"The Lady, Bug." I told him, "She's a probationary member of the team for- Do we have lawyer client privilege?" I broke off, double checking.

He smiled. "Yes we do, and thank you for asking."

"Good," I wrapped us a sound bubble. "As I was saying she's currently going forward with her plan to infiltrate the Undersiders, a teenage villain team, with us for support. Their boss has an agent in the PRT and I'd rather not clue him in. She'd survive, but it wouldn't be pleasant. We know enough that we could probably strike once we locate his base, but we're trying to flip the lower level villains first."

He let out a breath. "That's interesting. I was going to tell you that you might not need our firm's services directly, but it appears I was in error. Anything else you think I need to know?" he asked with a grin.

Never one to miss a straight line, I didn't miss a beat. "I'm a healer, and managed to get kicked out of Brockton Memorial for the temerity of assuming they'd at least pay for my lunch when I healed close to a hundred patients for free. The video is out there somewhere of the confrontation, and if you think you have a case to sue them, by all means go ahead. Of note is that I'm in contact with a paranoid precog who occasionally gives me information on where to go or warns of upcoming danger, but never in a way that's actually helpful in stopping it. Something about time paradoxes and the rending of space-time. Only thing I have right now is that you probably shouldn't go anywhere near ABB territory for a couple of weeks, starting in a few days. No idea why, other than 'It'll get suddenly weird, repeatedly'."

I smiled at the look on his face. "Well," he responded, voice neutral. "All right then. You seem like the kind of client that will make my firm a good deal of money. You do have enough money to pay for the hours we will undoubtable accrue, correct?"

I shrugged. "If I don't, the Merchants, ABB, & E88 will. Though my healing ability will help there, as I was planning to use that in a manner similar to a Rogue. Basic trauma I can handle, but I need Panacea to double check my work for anything internal as she has diagnostic capabilities I lack. Ironically though, I've discovered that my abilities for minor plastic surgery are quite strong. Do you mind if I demonstrate?"

I saw a glimmer of hope in his eyes, quickly restrained as he appeared to think about it before giving a single, professional nod. Pulling off my glove, I looked at the side of his face which was unblemished, fixing it in my mind. I could have just touched his hand, but I couldn't help but go for the flare of the dramatic as I drolly told him, "There's something on your face, let me get that for you." Reaching up I made a brushing motion, trying to do it in stages, but it all changed at once. Nevertheless I finished the motion before taking my hand back stating, "That's better," as I put my glove back on.

He smoothly took out his phone, turning on the camera, a slight quiver in his hand the only thing betraying his state of mind. Turning it on he stilled, before turning his head back and forth, raising one hand to brush his new, unblemished cheek. "How long will this last?" he asked carefully.

I shrugged. "As long as skin would normally last, I copied the design of your other cheek and mirrored it. It's less healing and more bio-kinesis, which is why I'm careful with injuries. Sealing the skin and an infection within could kill someone if I'm not careful, and the nightmarish things I could do if I didn't care about human life would, well, the Slaughterhouse 9 may consider recruitment. Hence I call it healing, for PR reasons."

He looked up at me. "Is Panacea like you?"

I gave him a cool stare. "No, she's _much_ better, but a _healer_ , nothing more, and someone I would quite dislike being slandered with any untoward accusations, understood?" I smiled, with teeth.

"Of course. And you wish for us to arrange this. . . Healing?" he smiled back, his friendly.

I nodded. "I'm free most nights, though may need to cancel. If I do, I'll probably give you a warning to lay low. If I tell you to leave the city, get your family and do so. Trust me, sometimes I only get a few hours warning, but you'd not want to be stuck somewhere like Canberra."

"You mean you,-" he started.

"Wasn't there, but my contact should be able to predict things of that magnitude, though not reliably." I cut him off. "But, and this is important, you can get you and yours out, but do not tell others. You are, no offence, a minor enough player that it won't change that much, but if your actions from my warning disrupt the future enough, people will die, and that will be the _last_ warning you get. I'm sorry I have to be like this, but I'm taking a risk giving you even that."

He leaned back, letting out a deep sigh. "Can I tell the other partners?"

"Will they tell 'just a few more' people, or actually stop it there?" I shot back.

He nodded. "Just Raul then. Damn." He shook his head. "Thank you, you are being most helpful. Unusually helpful." He mused. "I must say, if this a recruitment pitch, I'm going to have to turn you down."

I laughed. "Of course, it's not, you're already working with me, and I wouldn't be so silly as to try any of those 'offer you can't refuse' traps with a lawyer. You're trained to wriggle out of contracts, and make them wriggle proof. You're the one who'd draft contracts others would sign, it would be the height of stupidity to try to abuse you." I stood up, extending my gloved hand to shake. "I hope this is the beginning of a profitable endeavor, please e-mail me when you have clients ready. I trust you'll do right by me, and I will return the favor."

Shaking my hand, he responded. "Yes, I think it will be." He paused, mulling something over. "Forgive me if this offends, but you do actually seem like some of my regular clients."

I considered the statement, understanding that it was not meant with malice, merely as an observation and question of intent. "That might be true," I finally told him. "But villains don't save the world."

* * *

I left the office behind, with a request for them to look into a PR agency I could use. As I flew around downtown, relaxing as I made my way back towards base in an ambling manner I spotted a flash of white around where the northern ferry station was located, moving in closer I saw something that almost hurt to look at. A woman, outlined in white. My Sight kicked in and I saw what could only be Purity, her light dampening as the fire of her power bloomed to the point that I could see her face, which was less attractive than I thought, and twisted in rage. Her power collected and concentrated light, shifting her in a manner similar to Shadow Stalker, only tuned differently. However, the shift somehow cost light from an internal reservoir itself to manifest, as did pulling matter from that dimension, which she was using to attack the gangbangers below her, shooting up at her.

It was hard to keep a bead on her as she flew back and forth, dodging and weaving around the buildings, but a bird's eye view let me track her as I copied her power. It burned in my chest, wanting to activate, but I clamped down on it, as it would have been _way_ too obvious. Instead I flew down to ground level, following her trail of destruction, stopping at a few of the more injured gang members to stop them from bleeding out. She darted over me, sending a blast downwards, my Power Sight the only thing giving me warning, the fire collecting around her hands and flaring as she let the projectile go, double helix trails passing right by my head.

Tossing the thug who had been coughing up blood to the side, I ascended, nudging the second projectile out of the way as I rolled past it, coming up to her level, though several dozen feet away, my hands in the air. "Pax!" I called. "Peace! I don't want to fight!"

"Then what were you doing?" she countered, thankfully willing to use words. _Is it 'cause I'm white, or because I'm wearing white?_ My inner comic snarked.

"Making sure the scum didn't die," I responded honestly. "You were going at it pretty hard."

Her face had a moment of worry, and it was apparent that she hadn't realized how hard she was going at it, but more than that, the open honesty of her face told me she wasn't used to dealing with people reading her expression. If that was a personal habit that carried over into her normal life, no wonder Kaiser could play her. "And if they did die, so what? They're barbarians." She defended hotly. I laughed, raising her hackles. "What? They are!"

I held up a hand. "Sorry, it's just, that's what _they_ call _us_ , like, all the time. I appreciate the irony. Also, I hate bringing race into it, but I thought you quit the E88?"

Her power pulsed with her anger. "I have!"

"Then why do you only go after the Asians?" I asked, pointing out the obvious.

"As opposed to who, the Empire? They know who I am, I can't exactly go against them!" she shot back with the speed of practice of someone who had been asked that question, if only by themselves.

"I'm sorry, I hadn't realized you were a part of the Merchants as well," I replied, voice thick with sarcasm. The shocked look on her face was priceless. "Hit them occasionally, and you can throw it in the face of anyone who cries racism." I advised. "So, is this a random patrol, or do you have a lead? And if so, can I help?"

"I," she started, looking at me, and my exposed face, _probably my white skin_. "I don't have anything. Do you? Who are you anyways?"

I grabbed a couple of beetles from below, bringing them up and using them to carry over my card. "I'm Vejovis, of the Penumbral Defenders, new hero team, and looking for new members, though this isn't a recruitment pitch."

"Is it because I used to be part of the Empire?" she demanded. "Don't want to taint yourself?"

I reeled back as if struck "Dear god woman calm down! No, it's because you seem kinda upset and I don't like doing the whole 'an offer you can't refuse', 'once you've joined I own you' BS. I was gonna say if you wanted help or wanted to join, call me later once you've had time to think. I don't give a shit even if you were a major part of that gesundheit group back in Germany, if you want to join, be a hero, and not screw us over, then you'd probably be welcome!"

I flew a bit closer, trusting in my shield to tank the first shot if she attacked. "Have you had any support since you left E88? Because if you've been doing this alone, that must've been bad."

She looked at me suspiciously. "You said you weren't recruiting."

I threw my hands in the air. "I'm not, I just have empathy! You _look_ like you need some help, and, overenthusiastic patrols aside, you don't _seem_ like a horrible person, so I was trying to help."

"I look. . ." she echoed, eyes suddenly going wide. "You can see my face!" she exclaimed, backing away.

"Yes, and?" I responded. "I'm not gonna unmask you or anything, I'm not a villain!" But I was talking to air as she took off, faster than I could follow with my standard flight. "Dammnit!" I swore at the empty air.

* * *

Landing back at base, I walked back in the door only to see him step out of a glowing rectangle, dirty and blood splattered. "Oh, hey man!" he greeted me. "Cauldron needed some shit done, so yeah. How's your day been?"

I walked up to him, the doorway snapping shut behind him as a voice called "You said it was empty!"

I looked at him questioningly. "Contessa can't see you," he laughed. "So, some of what she said was off. It was pretty funny."

"Are you injured?" I asked, checking him over.

"Nah, I nabbed Enter's power and healed by bustin' some Russians up!" he practically cheered. "And I got paid! I'm now only kinda in absolutely crippling debt if I didn't have powers."

I rolled my eyes. "Sounds like fun, I met with our lawyers. You know the one that defended Taylor from Tagg? It's him, so I fixed his face." I shrugged, "He deserved it."

Herb whistled. "Damn, so, he's gonna like you."

I nodded. "Yeah, I think we went well. Wanna know who else I met?" I asked, grinning.

"Don't keep me in suspense man!" he called, as I activated Purity's power, the world around me lighting up, seeming to oversaturate, the inverse of my Shadowform.

Herb staggering backwards, shielding his eyes! "What the mother pickle fucking Farquhar is going on with . . . You motherfucker! You met Purity without me!" He groused.

I stood there, grinning, "You snooze you loose man, besides, I only talked with her for minute 'fore she ran away."

"You-" He cut himself off, tone serious. "Dude, stop with the light, it's getting annoying."

"Use my Power Sight to look at me," I told him.

"I can't, you're too. Oh." He said looking at me. "I've still only got your powers, but I can see you. Why?"

I shrugged. "No clue, just a quirk of the power. I gave her my card, but may have let slip that I could see her face and she bugged out."

"Dude, why did you do that?" he asked, confused.

"It was a mistake," I acknowledged. "I was kind of doing the entire 'I'm not recruiting you, but I'm giving you all the reasons why you should join, but not actually asking you to join so when you do you're more likely to stick with it' thing, while trash talking Kaiser's methods. I made a comment about how she looked like she was having a tough time, and then she asked if I could see her, so I said I could, 'cause I could, and started to explain how that wasn't a big deal, but she flew the coop before I could finish."

Herb groaned, placing his face in his palm. "That shit only works if they're willing to listen." He told me. "Let me handle her next time."

I grimaced. "Hate to break it to you, but I think she was only willing to give me the time of day because I'm white."

He waved away my response as he headed for his room. Stripping off his dirty costume. "That just makes it more fun!"

I rolled my eyes as I played around with Purity's power, glowing and levitating, not blasting anything because I liked this base. Combining my Light and Shadowform made for an interesting combination, as radiance and darkness played across my body. I tried to put my hand on a table and it went through, but when I tried to bring it back up, my hand thunked into it. Hard. Concentrating on it I realized I could move the light around my body, and only the lit portions were tangible. It took some time, figuring out how to move the lit portions, forming patters and changing setups. Filing that away, I heard my phone ringing, an odd, distorted sound.

Dropping both powers, the sound cleared up, and I answered the phone, for Taylor to answer. "Hi," she asked. "Could we meet?"

"We can be there in a couple minutes. Where, and formal or casual?" I asked. Getting a response and turning to get Herb, I saw that he'd pulled up a chair at the table and had been watching me. "Um," I told him eruditely. "Taylor. . . how long have you been sitting there?"

"Like five minutes," he shrugged. "You've been at it for hours dude, I was gonna say something, but you looked like you're having fun playing with yourself. That Boardwalk?"

"If you add Speed Zones, yeah. It's kinda overkill, with three high mobility powers, but I'm still going with it," I responded absently. "Hours, really?"

"Yeah, you looked super into it, so we didn't bug you." He told me. "Where we going?"

Looking at the clock it wasn't one in the afternoon like I thought, but almost five o'clock in the evening. Something seemed just _off_ about that, but that was something to worry about later. Taylor needed us, and I'd probably lost track of time playing around with a new power. I shook myself, turning a grin to my best friend. "We're going to Panera!"

"Yay?" he inquired, enthusiasm fading, "Panera ain't that great." I gave him a shocked look. "White people," he muttered, rolling his eyes. "Sandwiches. Yay."


	23. Blueprint 3-6

**Blueprint** **3.6**

Giving him a lift we made it there in a few minutes, walking out an alley in civilian gear. Herb was in cargo shorts and a grey hoodie, while I had had my costume set to look like I was wearing jeans and an unbuttoned red dress shirt, the black t-shirt underneath stating 'This t-shirt was tested on animals. It didn't fit,' and shades to hide my eyes. I could feel Taylor or the street, so leading Herb we met here and headed inside. After getting our food and heading back into the quiet room that these places always seem to happen, I wrapped us in a sound bubble before nodding to her. "We won't be overheard, what's up?"

"Yeah, how was your day at school, my little Chiquita?" Herb asked with exaggerated interest.

She looked down in embarrassment. "I. I didn't go." She said, sounding ashamed. "I spent it with the Undersiders instead." She looked up at me, as if waiting for a response, and afraid of it at the same time.

"Um. Okay?" I shrugged, not seeing the problem. "How did it go?"

She narrowed her eyes in confusion. "You're not mad?"

I matched her confusion with my own. "Should I be? It's not like you were learning anything _that_ important. When things calm down I could tutor you and you could get your GED in, like, a month. Less if you want to cheat."

Herb looked at me. "Dude, you're a teacher, shouldn't you be wanting her to go to school?"

I gazed back. "Do _you_ want her to go back to Winslow?"

"Fuck no," was his immediate response, "I just thought. . ."

I waved away his comment, half formed as it was. "If she went to Arcadia then yeah, maybe she should go, but she goes to _Winslow_. The only reason for her to stick around in _that_ hellhole would be if she had friends in there, and she doesn't. After the tsunami of suck that's gonna hit this town passes I'll want her to get it, just to avoid truancy officers accidentally discovering her identity or something silly like that, but with her abilities, a high-school diploma's not gonna mean that much."

"Wait, what's gonna happen?" Taylor asked intently.

I shook my head. "Sorry. Tattletale."

"Right, her." She frowned. "She knew about you, but she didn't." she told us. At my confused look she elucidated, "She knew I'd been contacted by another team, and when I told them I was just using you, sorry!" she apologized as I waved for her to continue, not worried in the slightest. "She knew a bit about you Herb, but. . . Wait, what's your name?" she asked, shocked.

"Um, what?" I asked.

"You've never told me your name! How come I didn't realize that?" she said to herself before turning to face me with an almost laser-focus. "What is it?"

I smiled as I took off my glasses. "Sorry, I was busy and forgot to introduce myself. I'm going by Lee Elric here, but my actual Name is Lee Rycroft, it is a pleasure to formally meet you Taylor Hebert."

I smirked at her expression until Herb smacked me in the arm. "What?"

"Taking girls home and they don't even know your name. For shame man, for shame," he lamented.

Rolling my eyes, I got her back on topic. "So, Lisa was having trouble with me? Good. Means I haven't let enough slip for her to get a read."

"Yeah, _Lee_ ," she stressed, still a bit miffed, "She got a bunch of things wrong, like your age, but got that you were Vejovis, which pissed them off, but then Lisa told them a bit about the fight with Armsmaster, and then we were cool. How did she know about that?"

"Super Intuition." I replied. "I told you this. If you can see the details it's not that hard to figure out, she just is really, _really_ good but on a subconscious level."

"But how?" she asked. "I didn't tell her anything about it and she just knew!"

I leaned back, steepling my fingers as I thought about it. "Your armor had electrical scoring coming from a central point from where Armsdick tossed his lightning generator at you. There aren't any electrical capes in the city, as far as I know, so damage from pure electricity like that had to be Tinkertech, and, unless you got in a fight with the Merchants, which would have resulted in a lot more blunt force trauma and broken armor panels, that meant you fought the Wards or the Protectorate. You were unsure about the entire hero/villain thing the last time she saw you, so there's no reason why you should have met Kid Win, which just leaves Armsmaster, who they know you met with as they probably saw you talk to him as they escaped. The electrical damage would have fried your bugs, and she may or may not have figured out the reason you aren't in custody right now was your spider-silk insulated jumpsuit, us, or a combination of both. Either way, you weren't acting like someone out on the edge without any help, ergo, you have someone backing you up. The problem with her power is that it's really scattershot, and can give her incorrect information with just as much surety as it does hidden truths, but she can use the reactions to bad guesses to make better ones, provided she has someone to work with. Either way, you got in a fight with Armsmaster, and got out okay, but still don't hold yourself with the confidence such a feat would engender if done alone, so, once again, you had to have had help. I've already made news in this town with my confrontation at the hospital, so I'm known, and if she could read you to know that a hero helped her, that meant either the Protectorate, which wouldn't protect you from their leader, New Wave, who wouldn't have stepped in against the PRT for anyone who isn't one of them, or some third option, which right now is just me. She guesses, you respond, even slightly, and she sees you respond to her guess, thus confirming it. _This_ is why there's some things we can't tell you yet."

". . . Yep, supervillain!" Herb declared, breaking my air of calm intelligence as Taylor just stared.

"What, it just makes sense!" I defended. "Besides, I'm working backwards because I know what actually happened. It's a lot harder guessing correctly, which is why she doesn't half the time." Taylor's stare did not lessen. "Enough about her, what about the rest?"

"They're," she paused thinking. "They're not as bad as I thought. They really didn't know that Rachel was gonna do that," she acknowledged. "Brian's nice."

"Hunky, isn't he?" Herb asked with a over the top conspiratorial leer.

"What? I. No!" Tayler stammered. "He's just. . ."

"He's a good Lieutenant, and good backup, but not a leader." I informed her. "Impressive physique aside-Shut up Herb, she knows we're both straight-he can't keep his teammates on task. He's good to have in a fight, and can respond quickly, but he's not someone you can rely on for plans or ideas of any inventiveness or complexity. Also, the guy's got no confidence in his own people. There's a _lot_ of reasons you ended up taking over, even when you desperately didn't want to. He'll be useful if we can flip him to our side, and he'll be happier for it, but I don't have any plans that _depend_ on him for _several_ reasons."

She nodded sadly as Herb shot me an indecipherable look. "Recruiting them. . . Not Bitch, but him, I can kinda understand. Last night." She hesitated. "Last night you said you wanted to recruit heroes too, that it wouldn't just be villains. Who?"

I looked back at her, "Heroes joining the team. . . sorry if I gave the impression if it was going to just be reformed villains. Also, sorry, about laying all that stuff on you last night, I sometimes get caught up in the moment." I looked at Herb for a second as I dredged up my mental list, "I can probably convince Parian and this Neutral Party guy to work with us, or at least for us if we pay them for their services. For heroes that are actually deserving of the title? There's you for one, obviously." I pretended not to notice the pleased embarrassment I felt from her over the bug control. "Panacea, Vista, Clockblocker, though he needs a bit of work, and Gallant definitely. Probably Battery. What little I saw of her didn't disgust me."

Taylor looked at me in silence, before finally asking. "And?"

"And what?" I replied.

"Think she's expecting more," Herb supplied.

I snorted. "Well Armsdick's a nope, for what I _hope_ are obvious reasons, 'I was just following orders' didn't work for the Nazis and it doesn't work for Miss Militia, Triumph's a coward, and Assault is the biggest fucking Hypocrite of the bunch. Dude used to be a villain named Madcap that intercepted vans bringing villains to the Birdcage because he thought it was wrong. I mean he was right, and it's so illegal on so many levels it isn't even funny, I mean at least Guantanamo bay isn't on American Soil, but-."

"Wait, what?" asked Taylor, cutting me off. "What's that."

I stopped, mentally facepalming. I started to relax and forgot I had to keep secrets. "Another different universe thing," I tried to pass off casually.

Unfortunately, that last hint was enough. "You're, you're, it's not that you're talking about things from other dimensions, fuck _you're_ not from this dimension, are you!?" she demanded, jumping back and knocking over her chair and sending her empty drink spilling over the side of the table, scattering ice everywhere.

I sighed putting my head in my hands as Herb shook his head at the situation. "Can't go one goddamned day without fucking up, can I." I looked at Tayler, gesturing for her to sit down. She hesitated, and I sighed, entreating, "Taylor, we're not a threat, and if we were, running wouldn't help, and neither would attacking us, and doing so would unmask you. Please, just have a seat."

She picked up her chair but just put it down between us, my sense of her overflowing with betrayal, anger, and hurt, tightly controlled. "Talk," she demanded.

"Before you do your thing, can you choose your words a _little_ better please?" Herb asked, looking at me in sad concern, before indicating Taylor. "This sweet young thing is just tryin' to do the best she can, and is feelin' a bit out of place."

I looked at him. There was obviously _some_ kind of subtext there, but I'd be damned if I got it. Leaning back, running my hand through my hair I tried to do as he asked. "Let's just put this on the list of things I can't fully explain right now for good reason. Yes, we're _probably_ from another dimension. No, I don't know the specifics. No, we don't want to do anything evil. Shut up Herb. We've seen one possible future for this place, it sucks giant sweaty donkey balls, and we were unexpectedly given the chance to save it. Trust me, when it won't screw you over, I'll tell you how the original timeline went. A _LOT_ of people died. Does that make what we're doing any less real? No. Does it make us Aliens? Only so much as someone from Earth Aleph, or one of the others, are and there are dozens of them running around, most of whom just want to go home. Is there any reason whatsoever to be afraid of us? Maybe, I don't know, but if there is _that's_ not it." I blew out a long breath. " _Fuck_ I suck at keeping secrets."

Herb laughed, "Only from people that you trust." That shocked Taylor out of whatever she was going to say. She debated internally for a few seconds before she retook her seat and made a "go on" gesture, the negative feelings lessened, but still dominant.

I gave a groan before burying my face in my hands. "Okay, our earth, let's call it Earth Omega. There are no capes, it's several years in the future, and terrorism is a thing, New York got hit. The president at the time set up a detainment camp in Cuba that's nine kinds of illegal, but everyone was so scared of terrorist attacks that they went along with it. It's like the Birdcage, without the underlying racism in its creation, and way more military. I really wish I could tell you everything Taylor, I really do, but I _can't._ " I looked up at her pleading, and her anger died down enough for her to give me a single nod. Taking it as, well, I wasn't sure what, I continued. "Back to my _original point,_ Assault, then Madcap, hit the Birdcage transports because what they were doing was so illegal the people who passed the legislation could actually be charged with treason for violating the constitution itself, obstruction of justice, and a whole host of other things with a good chance of conviction. He got caught and joined the Protectorate, where he's done jack all to try and reform the system from the inside. Also, after his wife dies to a villain so bad they have a standing _kill_ order, he takes out his anger on the Undersiders, and _you_ in particular. He can't control his emotions so takes them out on people who did nothing to deserve it. The fact that for him it's anger, while for people advocating Birdcaging it's primarily fear doesn't really mean that much to me. It's the exact same thought process he railed against, but when _he's_ the aggrieved party that makes it okay. It's just a different flavor of Armsdick with the law."

"Okay," Taylor said, obviously following my thought process, but not agreeing or disagreeing. "The rest of the Wards?"

"Aegis and Browbeat weren't featured that heavily in the future we got to see, so I'm withholding judgement until I see more of them,"

She noticed I was leaving one person out. "But what Kid Win?"

"Really?" I asked deadpan. "Hey fellow Wards?" I asked in a cheery, high pitched voice like a demented children's show host. "Wanna what's the bestest of best ideas? Let's take this new untested, unapproved of _laser cannon,_ " I stressed, dropping my voice to normal for emphasis, "And use it in a _hostage situation against unknown foes_ I'm sure I won't accidently _murder someone_ with its somehow explosive beam, rip them to shreds with explosions of flying glass, or bring the entire building down, squashing them smaller than my ability to think past my own selfish desires to show off my new tech! That totally makes me a hero!" I gave the disturbed teen a level look. "Most tinkers are _shit_ heroes because of what their power does to their minds. There are exceptions, like Dragon and Hero, but they _are_ exceptions in a very small field. There's a reason the Protectorate has to check and certify _all_ Tinkertech before it's deployed, and that bullshit is exactly why. If that beam had hit anyone without a Brute rating or some unusually effective armor, there's a good chance they might have died. And remember, this is in a god-damned _hostage_ situation. The public would have reacted badly if anyone had, because while Masters and Strangers terrify them the most, unstable Tinkers are a close third, and just like that Kid Win gets Birdcaged because he couldn't stop thinking with his techno-dick."

She made a face. "Techno-dick, really?"

"That is a little x-rated man," Herb reprimanded.

"Yeah, you don't get to talk about obscene," I shot back at him. "And do you have a better metaphor?" I asked her. "It's somewhat uncontrollable, effects their thought process, and can result in at best a slight mess, at worst a lifetime of problems if not handled correctly."

"I was giving you shit before," Herb said, "But that's actually getting messed up."

"But am I wrong?" I pressed.

He winced. "Nooooo?" he gave. "Not really, it's just."

"You didn't think when I called him Armsdick, I meant it literally?" I asked with a grin. I hadn't but it made the name apropos.

"He does love to handle his pole. . . arm." He responded, collapsing into giggles. "It's so true though!"

Taylor, by this time, was turning bright red. "Oh, god," she muttered to himself, negative feelings dispelled. "I'll never be able to look a Tinker in the eye. Oh, god, is that why all the female tinkers have a guy they work for, so they can handle their. . . ewwwwww!"

Herb started to laugh so hard he was having trouble sitting up as I waved to get her attention. "Don't think about it too hard," which sent him off into paroxysms of laughter, falling to the ground as he gasped out "HARD!" only to start laughing again. I sighed. "Right, phrasing. Just focus on the. . . Practically speaking this means that while Tinkers can be useful, and the tech they create pivotal in battle, they're not someone you want on the front lines without a handle-. . . Without someone to keep a. . . without oversight." I finished lamely. "Never as leaders. Brutes have the same thing happen to a lesser extent if they're not careful. Aegis is a good hero, but not the leader material he thinks he is as he forgets how squishy everyone else is. Gallant or Vista would be the best leaders for the Wards. Whether the fact that I think the thirteen-year-old would be a good choice of leader says good things about her, or bad things about the rest of them is up to you and _god damnit Herb shut up it's not that funny!_ "

* * *

We cleaned up, heading out and started to part ways, when I remembered something. "Taylor!" I called, jogging back over to her as she turned around. "This is for you," I stated, slipping one of the Base phones out of a pocket and handing it to her. "It's secure, and will let you contact us without having to search for a payphone."

She looked at the cell phone in her outstretched hand, indecision on her face. "I've never had one. I-" she glanced up, seeing my pained expression. "What?"

"Do you want me to be nice or blunt?" I asked.

She thought about it, visibly preparing herself. "Blunt." She told me.

I covered the hand holding the cell phone my own. "It wasn't a cell-phone that killed your mother, anymore than it was the car she was driving. It was inattentiveness, and an overestimation of her ability to multitask," I informed her flatly, ignoring the "Jesus!" of Herb behind me. I tipped my glasses down to lock eyes with her, the hurt visible, but also the glimmer of terrible understanding. "Neither of which are your problem. Yours is that you've been burned so often, you're afraid to lean on others, dreading that their support is just an illusion of your own desperate self-delusion. Remember this Taylor, we're there for you, and honestly, if given the chance to head back to our dimension right now, I'd pass it up. There's too many people who need us here for us to leave."

Stepping back, I pushed my glasses back, turning on my heel and heading towards an alley calling over my shoulder. "Get a good night's sleep my friend, trust me, you'll need it soon enough!" Feeling suitably badass and that the situation had been rectified. I could have sworn that one of the options we all got was to keep anyone from finding out this was a fictional universe. _Then again,_ I mused. _When have the rules truly applied to Taylor. Besides, alternate dimension isn't the same as fictional world, so technically it's still working_.

Herb said something to Taylor before catching up to me, saying "Ya know, just wait bro, we've gotta talk."

I shot him a questioning look, but at the shake of his head just shrugged, assuming it was mission planning. We flew back in relative quiet, enjoying the bird's eye view of the city before swooping low, making it to our base undetected.

Once inside and in the kitchen, which was becoming our de-facto meeting room, despite having an _actual_ meeting room down the hall, I turned to him. "So, what's up?"

He didn't say anything as he pulled some kind of pastry out from the fridge. "So?" I asked again. "What's up?"

He sighed. "I get you my friend, I get you, I really do. I love you to death for it," _It?_ "But, ya, ya gotta be that shotgun to the face, you can't be that trauma to the heart especially when it comes to young girls."

I sighed in return, having slowly come to the conclusion that the bit at the end might have been a bit much, but it was a necessary evil. "Dude, I asked if she wanted the blunt truth. She's strong enough to take it, and we only have so much time to do so much. I mean, she barely survived in canon, and I'm not sure how things'll go, so she needs to be able to get ahold of us quickly. She's not like most teenage girls, and, let's be honest, if she was, we wouldn't recruit her."

He looked at me for a moment, expression once again indecipherable, before taking a bit out of his pastry, consider both me and it. "You're right, she isn't," he admitted. "but you can send her down the slide instead of pushing her off a cliff."

"Not if I need her to fly, and am there to catch her if she falls. Things are getting so bad they break lesser heroes, and she can't afford to be one." I responded, seeing his point, even if I disagreed with it.

"But does she, does she break?" he asked. "She never does, which is why we're recruiting her first."

At first glance it sounded like he was completely agreeing with me, but his tone was all wrong for that. Thinking it over, as he left me to do so while consuming his pastry. It took a couple passes but I thought I got it. "So. What you're saying is I don't need to worry about her doing ok, because she was okay in the books? But, we weren't in the books man, you can't know that!"

He gave me a look that just seemed to scream 'don't I'?

I groaned, walking over and taking one of his pastries, so I'd get _something_ positive from this. "Fine," I grumbled. "I'll go easier on her. She has the phone now, so if she needs our help she can get it." Unspoken was that just because I was going to go easier on _Taylor_ I wouldn't on the others who needed my help.

He smirked, smug in his victory. "Look, one thing she never had in the book was seriously dependable friends. That's all," before turning and walking off to his room.

After he left, I ate the pastry, which was apparently filled with apple pieces & raisins, which worked for some reason. I wanted to work on my Bug Control, but for some reason my heart wasn't really in it, so I settled for trying to merge my Light and Shadowforms, with limited success, dawn of the next day coming _far_ too early.


	24. Blueprint 3-7

**Blueprint 3.7**

"Lee, you knew this was going to happen!" Were the first words I heard when I answered Taylor's call.

"And a good afternoon to you Taylor, I assume that Lisa has informed you of her boss' plans? Did she call you out for knowing about it ahead of time?"

"Everyone was pretty freaked out, I don't think she noticed," she dismissed, focusing on what she obviously thought was important. "Lee. Did you know?"

"That the Undersiders were going to hit Bay Central at 3 in the afternoon? With how Herb and I have been making waves, I downgraded it to highly probable. As for Lisa, the chance that she missed something _bottoms out_ at 50 percent, but the fact she didn't say anything bodes well." I replied smoothly.

"It's at 1, not 3," was her only retort.

"Noted. Did they give you a rundown on the Wards?" I asked

"Yes, _He_ made sure to tell me what I should expect!"

I rolled my eyes. "And _he's_ not running a delicate operation with his people in contact with ingenue Sherlock Holmes. Besides, his plan is a hot mess that would have failed if you weren't there." I rebuked.

"He obviously was planning on having me there to help!" she shot back.

"Which one of us has seen the future?" I asked. "Also, look up the Halo Effect, it'll explain why you think the hunky beefcake is a paragon of strategic planning because of his muscles."

"Like you have room to talk!" She exclaimed.

I took a deep breath. _Scion's_ _Shards push conflict, let it go._ "I'll have you know that despite how muscular Herb is, _I_ know he sucks at planning. Definitely more a seat of his pants kind of guy, even if he sometimes gets his ass kicked for it. Now, was there anything you wanted to know that I _might_ be able to tell you?"

I could practically hear the bugs buzzing on the other end of the line. "Is there anything _else_ I should know?"

I honestly couldn't help myself. "Don't drop a spider on anyone with freckles."

"What the hell does _that_ mean!" she exploded.

I suppressed my laughter. "I'll tell you when you're not getting read like an open book every day Taylor, and I do appreciate you doing this for us. I'll be there to help, in my way, as will Herb. All of you will get away, and we'll stop the heroes from doing anything stupid. The original raid was a dumpster-fire of fail, a complete pyrrhic victory in the long run. This one'll go a lot better, and not screw over everyone involved. Okay?"

"Okay," she grumbled. "Thanks."

"Anytime teammate, I need to start the ball rolling, see you tomorrow? I'll be suppressing my bug control, so you don't give it away by accident if Lisa glances your way at the wrong moment and messes it up. And don't worry, you got this."

I thought she might have hung up, before I heard her mumbled "See you," and the click of the call ending. Checking my contacts, I called up Panacea, getting her voice mail. "Hi, Panacea? This is Vejovis. You're probably in school but when you get out, I was wondering if you could help me with something. I wanted to open a bank account at Bay Central, but I have no idea how to do so for my cape identity, and was wondering if you could help me with that this afternoon. Thanks!"

Hopefully with that I could get an account, and come in tomorrow come back with questions in time to be there for the raid. I had a couple plans on how to handle it, depending on how everything played out. I gave a snort of disdain as I thought of Grue's _plan_. You never had just _one_ plan after all, and his escape method was just 'run like hell'.

Walking over to Herb's room I roused him as he blearily answered the door. "What is it?" he sleepily asked. "It's. . . noon?" he commented, looking back at his clock. "Okay," he conceded. "I'll get ready."

A few minutes later he emerged, suited up and raring to go "Okay, what are we doing? Messin' up the Merchants? Asskickin' the Azn Bad Boys? Explodin' the Empire?"

I looked up from my bagel and lox. "Um, no? We're just gonna talk about what we're doing tomorrow."

He looked quite disappointed about the fact that we weren't going to be enacting violence today, demanding "Then why are you all dressed?"

Looking down I realized I was still in my Vejovis costume, having not changed out of it. "Because it's comfortable?" I remarked, mentally shifting it to civilian clothing. "We can do something today if you want to, my schedule's pretty clear."

"Whatever," he grumbled, raiding the fridge. "So, what's up?"

"Coil's paying the Undersiders to hit Bay Central Bank tomorrow, and we're gonna go make sure that the everything goes off better than canon. What?" I asked at his disbelieving stare.

"How the fuck do you think you're a Hero if you're _robbin' a fuckin' bank!"_ he exclaimed.

"Well, obviously I'm going to try to stop it, but sadly due to the irresponsible interference of the Wards and Glory Girl I'll be too busy trying to save the hostages to stop them." I replied guilelessly.

"Fuckin' Supervillain," he muttered. "So, you got a plan, right?"

I nodded, thinking about them. "I've got a couple. Current idea is to go the bank today with Panacea and set up an account as Vejovis, only to come back the next day at 12:40 with some questions, happening to just be on site when everything goes down, hopefully keeping Amy out of it so It's just the Wards. When Kid Win unveils his laser cannon you and Enter jump him for not caring about friendly fire. The Wards fight back, as they're not going to be thinking and just assume you're with the Undersiders, despite your obvious age, and after that you defend yourself while I secure the hostages and the villains get away. I come out and take them to task, and in their confusion, we leave. You have any suggestions?"

Herb held up his hands. "I'm gonna defer to you on this. I do things subtle, and nothing about this is gonna be subtle. I'm not Boojack."

"Fuckin' Right!" came Boojack's voice through the doorway. Apparently, he was listening in.

"Hey Boojack?" I called back. "Wanna punch some Nazis in the face?"

A loud thump was heard as he ran down the hall, skidding in front of the doorway. "You're gonna let me fight? Fuck yeah, what'ya want? I'm bored as shit!"

"Herb and I are gonna go fuck up the fuck up of a bank Robbery, and this is the perfect time to establish you as your own cape, and divert some heroes. At 1 tomorrow I want you to start some shit in E88 territory. Don't kill anyone who hasn't tried to kill you first-"

"Or Purity! Or Cricket!" Herb added.

"Or Rune or Othala," I amended, "But feel fry to take down the dudes." I paused. "Damn that's sexist, but we have reasons. Anyways, just try to avoid killing any Neo-Nazis unless you have to, beating them until they need their super-powered healer to avoid a several month-long hospital stay is totally ok and ties up their resources. Either way, keep going until you need to run, or it's been half an hour. If the heroes show, fight, but don't maim or kill, and retreat. Sound good?"

He snorted. "Ah fuck, restrictions. Eh, it'll let me show those bitch-ass motherfuckers how much stronger I am!"

"Hell Yeah!" Herb agreed, high fiving his replicant.

I turned back to Herb. "Okay, so, I need to get a pair of blackout shades to cover my eyes enough that I can wear my mask underneath it, and some clothes to wear over my costume." Herb gave me the 'you're an idiot' look. "What?"

"Your costume can take any shape, right?" he asked.

"Yeah." We'd been over this. It's what let me make my costume turn into clothes."

"And it can turn into regular clothes?" he asked again, trying to use the Socratic method and failing horribly.

"Yeah, it's how I made this," I told him, tugging on red and gold t-shirt I was currently wearing. What was his point?

He looked at me as if I was a colossal moron who'd just told him that huffing paint was a great hobby, you couldn't get a girl pregnant if she was on top, or that professional wrestling was all real.

" _Use your costume to make both!"_ he almost yelled.

But that wouldn't work because. . . I facepalmed as I changed my outfit to what I needed, Boojack laughing as he left to go back to getting high.

* * *

Happy with my progress replicating with Stormtiger's deflection from the ground up, I focused on Glory Girl's shields. Working with it was. . . slippery. It was present, and I could feel the strength of the shield, but the lack of any visual feedback made everything more difficult. Coating an item with my power let me use it as a weapon, but trying it with a knife just made it a baton, since the field appeared to be curved slightly. Interestingly, the more I worked on it the more I could control how much a blow took out of the shield, the more I put into the blow, the harder it hit.

 _Is this why Glory Girl was having control problems with her strength_ , I pondered. _Is she pulling a Midoirya and putting her all in every punch?_ Working with it, the feeling was hard to quantify, similar to pointing Speed Zones in any direction but parallel to the ground. As I worked, depleting and refilling my shield, I realized that my reserves were, ever so slowly, increasing. Testing a theory, I set up my rock throwing machine up and pelted myself with them. A solid hit still drained it entirely, but as I worked through the day, the threshold that trigged a drain slowly rose, rendering glancing blows inert without drain. It was hours later when a call of "Dude! What're ya doin'?" broke my focus. Looking over I saw that it was later than I thought, probably early evening, the sun low in the sky, highlighting the trainyard, turning the rusting steel to brilliant bronze. "Dude!" came the call again, and I turned to see Herb standing there in his plainclothes, waving at me.

"What?" I responded, dropping the sound bubble and using aerokinesis to stop the machine from slinging more rocks from the reservoir.

"Dude, it's been all day, what've you been doing?" he asked, ambling over. I gave him a look that said 'Isn't it obvious?' as I gestured to the machine.

"I'm getting stoned!" I responded, smiling as he groaned. "I'm training my powers. Get this, throw rocks at me!" I told him, gesturing to the gravel which covered the ground.

"You sure?" he asked, grabbing a golf ball sized rock. I nodded, pulling on my air control to deflect projectiles. He shrugged before pitching it at my chest, on for it to veer off and fly under my arm. He narrowed his eyes, grabbing a couple more and throwing them at me as hard as he could. Each one missed without fail. "Okay, you can't get stoned, knew that already ya square, but they aren't throwing rocks, they're shooting bullets!"

I smirked. "Really? I asked, pulling the pistol from the back of my costume.

His eyes went wide. "Dude, I'm not gonna shoot you!" he said, backing up.

I rolled my eyes. "Just do it one at a time. If you do hit me, my shield can tank it, and we'll have to wait for it to reload, which takes like 10 seconds."

He still looked unsure, so I took the gun, silenced it, and shot my hand with it. The kickback was more than I thought, and it took longer for my shield to recharge than it normally took for a pistol shot. Frowning, ignoring Herb's call of "Holy Shit Man!", I tossed him the flattened bullet I'd caught and checked the gun, unloading it and opening the slide, only to find one of my Speed Zones sitting innocuously in the barrel. _Right_ I thought. I'd added it to my gun to give it a bit extra kick and promptly forgotten about it. _That could have gone badly._ Tapping into Skidmark's power, I now felt the presence of the zone, but it was a faint thing, the inch-long strip's profile was barely at the edge of perception. Dismissing it, I reloaded the gun and tossed it at him, safety on of course.

He swore as he caught it, trying not to drop it as he looked at me in concern. "Dude, I fuckin' believed you, you didn't need to shoot yourself!"

I shrugged. "I'd never tell you to do something I wouldn't be willing to do myself," I blithely commented. "So, one at a time, but go for it."

He looked trepidations, but lifted the gun anyways, his stance all wrong. _At least it isn't sideways. Is that racist?_ Either way, he closed his eyes and pulled the trigger, the bullet needing no nudging to pass several feet to my left and hitting the rusted train car behind me. "Dude, open your eyes and look down the iron sights. One shot isn't going to hurt me," I admonished.

He winced, opening his eyes and moved the barrel to actually point at me. Wincing as he jerked the trigger, he was still on target enough to hit me. Barely. A little nudge and it missed, pinging again off the train behind me.

He shook his head, lowering the gun. "I'm sorry man, I can't do this," he admitted, sounding ashamed.

"No!" I contested. "That one was going to hit me before I deflected it. I can show you how to shoot properly later, but you've got the basics. We're at point blank range, even someone who doesn't have any training has a chance of hitting!"

Looking back at me in confusion, he shook his head, muttering "Fuckin' white people, what's wrong with you?"

"I'm someone who wants to train with their powers?" I contended. "I mean, haven't you been training with yours?"

"Doin' what?" Herb shot back, verbally. "My body's somethin' I already know, I can't exactly control my cloning, I already know how to summon Enter, and I can't exactly practice copying when no one around me has powers I can practice copying can I?" he practically yelled.

I cocked my head in confusion. "Yes, you can!" I challenged. "You really didn't notice?"

"Notice what?" he exclaimed. "BJ has all my powers already, and I can't copy your copied powers, just that I can copy others, which I lose the second you get out of range!" I rolled my eyes, ignoring his "What!?"

Apparently, he'd been getting more frustrated about this than I thought. I walked over to my projectile machine, unhooking the pistol from the assembly and loading a bullet into it. Turning around I commanded "Summon Enter." He looked at me, summoning his Stand, who smiled at me. I got the distinct feeling that Enter knew what I was doing, even if Herb didn't. That was. . . odd. I nodded to it, and it promptly turned into the thing that crushed Armsdick's cycle, an Ankylosaurus, having researched it when we'd gotten home. Herb jumped, looking at his summon in confusion before looking back to me, a question in his face.

"I'm going to shoot you," I informed him. "And unless you turn into that, it'll hit you as a human, and it's gonna hurt like a bitch until I heal it, which I won't until you can transform." I smiled evilly, selling it. Mind you, I'd nudge the bullet to just graze him, but _he_ didn't know that.

"Woah, woah dude, let's not be too hasty about this, I'll just, um, it's kinda hard to concentrate when you're doing that so could you just, like, put the gun down, please?" he asked, the last bit a squeak as I raised the pistol and pointed it right between his eyes.

"You have until the count of three," I informed him. Bringing over three brightly colored beetles to hang in the air right in front of him. "One," the first dropped to the ground.

"Dude, I get you're trying to help, but can't we just talk about this normally."

"You're the one who says I'm too long winded, I'm just following your advice. Two," the second one followed suit as his eyes grew wide.

"I didn't mean it like that man, you know that!" he practically whimpered. Closing his eyes and muttering under his breathe. "I don't wanna get shot! Change. Change. Change. Change!"

"Three," I said, dropping the third one, pulling the trigger as it hit the ground, but Herb's form was already a swarm of color as he changed into another Ankylosaur, I nudged the bullet up and to the left to impact at an oblique angle off one of his head plates. The shocked dinosaur, and that was something I never thought I'd see, stood there looking at me in disbelief before turning back to his base, Enter staying in his form, smugness radiating from every scale.

"You fuckin' shot me!" he yelled. "I can't believe you fuckin' shot me! We're friends, then you goin' all evil and fuckin' shoot me you goddamn supervillain fuck!" Herb reiterated, not believing it.

I tossed the empty pistol back towards my machine, striding over. "Don't be such a baby."

"I'll be one if you shoot me. You don't shoot babies, wouldn't you?" he asked, suddenly unsure.

I shrugged, "Depends on the baby, but generally no, now turn back dumbass."

Nodding, he threw out: "Might be safer, bein' armored if you're goin' around shooting people, mindin' their own business," before turning back.

Walking up to him, I put a finger on where I'd shot him. "Now turn back" I instructed. He shifted back to human. It was interesting that the shift pivoted on where his head was, the majority of his body shrinking backwards around that point.

Herb, human again, looked at where I'd kept my finger in place, a couple inches to the left of his head, over his shoulder. He looked back at me, equal parts impressed and pissed. "Motherfucker." He shook his head. "You weren't actually gonna shoot me, where you?"

I looked back at him as if he were crazy. "Not without damn good reason," I told him. "Besides, you needed to get out of your comfort zone to think outside the box. That did it." I waved to his Stand. "You've got someone with their own powers you can copy at any time. Hell, dude can go nearly microscopic if need be. Just have him turn into a water bear and have him hitch a ride. He'll be hanging on to you and always be in range, so you could have all his powers to copy at any time."

"Water bear?" Herb asked, only for Enter to launch himself in a way I'm pretty sure that breed of dinosaur never could, jumping above us, and disappearing as Herb gave a terrified shriek and the sun was blotted out by Enter's shadow. Herb looked around, before turning his attention back to me. "I can feel his powers, but where the hell is he?"

Using Power Sight, I followed the tendril of Herb's power that connected him to his Stand, following it to his collar. Looking down I couldn't see it, merely where the power went to. Pointing at the point I said "There, somewhere, you'll probably need a microscope to see it. If I remember right the second trigger animal form let's you do everything but micro-organisms, which water bears are just above in classification, but still almost impossible to see."

"That's so goddamn broken," Herb murmured, mind filling with possibilities.

"That's the _point_ ," I reminded him. "I can leave a sound bubble up here if you want to practice, but if you're doin' anything destructive, go to the Boat Graveyard, it's practically tradition."

He nodded, practically vibrating with happiness, before hugging me, turning into a velociraptor, and darting off into the sunset. Shaking my head, I headed inside to get something to eat before my patrol.

* * *

Night had fallen as I tracked a group of Merchants in my Boardwalk persona, getting practice using Speed Zones to travel roof to roof, and dismissing the Zones slowly, causing them to glow instead of flash as they dissipated. I'd been spotted half a dozen times by civilians looking up at the flash when I started, but had gotten the hang of it. If I tried to fly I needed to have at least one part of myself glowing at full blast, which kinda negated the entire "stealth" thing I was going for, so I held my Lightform in reserve.

 _This_ group I'd been tracking for the better part of two hours and my patience was running low. Following them back to their base of operations would make a raid do far more damage, and net me more in return, but letting them lead me around the same four blocks like this was just so boring! The threesome chatted, guys whose only commonality was their poor hygiene and obvious drug use. They talked about the price of smack, one of their colleagues overdosing _which wasn't that surprising_ , a video the E88 had made when they busted up an ABB whorehouse, and how their boss was pissed that no-one had found the pair of "Gay Ass Buttsniffers" who'd crashed his party. I assumed the last one was us, but I couldn't find myself to care. I'd already taken Skidmark's power, I couldn't take Squealer's, and you couldn't pay me to take Mush's, so they had nothing left for me other than to take them down. Maybe when Herb decided to be an _actual_ villain and started taking territory I'd help there, but that didn't look like it was going to happen anytime soon. As I watched them sell some weed to yet _more_ high-schoolers I pondered taking them down and just beating the information out of them, but they'd probably just lie about it. I lazily made and dismissed another Speed Zone, the glow not reaching past the ledge I leaned against.

I reflexively went full shadow as a frankly terrifying roar echoed across the city, coming from the boat graveyard. The Merchants below looked at each other, one saying "Uh, Derek, I think we've sold enough for tonight, yeah?"

The leader, probably Spanish, nodded, responding. "Yeah, let's go chill somewhere else. Big Pat's?"

The first one shook his head "Nah Man, Big P got hit by some new guy, called himself Boardwalk." _Yes! Brand recognition!_ "Looked like Shadow Stalkers big brother, nearly killed Ed with some broken glass. Let's head to Khan's, no one'd mess with him!"

 _Khan_? I thought. _Either Genghis, or this druggie's a trekkie._ I smirked as I followed them roof to roof, _that would be amusing_. A flicker of motion caught my eye as I followed, a streak passing by a couple of streets over, my eyes catching it before my brain could. Planar Shift: Time Dilation, flickered across my consciousness, a flicker of bright red flame burning far too quickly that dissipated in an instant. The sound of his running no louder than a person jogging, just run together in a way that, while distinct, was not _that_ noticeable. I searched my memory for who that could have been. _Velocity_ I decided, disappointed that I hadn't had time to grab his power before he left. _That_ would have been a nice power to have. Shrugging I turned my attention back to the idiots I was tailing, who hadn't noticed a thing. _Where they high? Probably_ I decided as I followed them down to what looked to be a pizza place. They took the back entrance, the bugs I'd tagged them with showing a staircase to the apartments above, an actual armed guard on the third floor, who looked them over before they entered, nodding and opening the door. This place, I saw, looking through the eyes of the bugs, was cleaner and better put together. Just as the first time, all but one of them sat down in the lounge with a bunch of others while the leader went on ahead. Unlike last time, the place was packed. I counted at least twenty in the lounge, with a couple asleep, and a few in the safe room. The door to that space had been barred, and the windows as well.

 _Like that's gonna stop me_ I thought, considering the problem. Taking time and coming out into the real world, I sat, meditating on the rooftop across the building. Tapping into the network of life that represented the invertebrate population in the area, I narrowed my focus on the building in front of me, tapping into their senses, a few at a time, to build a picture of the structure. Feel was the easiest to understand, the sense of touch and relative distance building a framework that I used their eyes to fill in. Translating from compound to single lens input was difficult, but I took my time, putting together a picture. The basement was accessible through the restaurant, and had freezers, as well as quite a few bugs. To their credit, there were no cockroaches, so _go them_ I guess. The pizza place was the first level, the kitchen extending backwards, exiting into the lower stairwell that led to the alley. The second floor was an apartment, currently uninhabited, probably where the owners of the pizza place lived. The third and final floor had the guard outside, watching him carefully, he was nervous, shifting places every so often, a submachine gun sitting uncomfortable in his pocket, poking him in the gut. Inside was the lounge, bathroom, and a heavy door leading to what was probably two bedrooms. One still was, but the other had been reinforced into the more secure room. Inside the barred door was a decently furnished room, what looked to be like mail cabinets set up with individual bags of drugs in each cubbyhole. The windows were barred, both vertically _and_ horizontally, the bars drilled into the frame securely. In this room was another guard, and what I assumed was Khan, sitting at a desk playing some kind of first person shooter, wearing headphones and talking. It took a full twenty minutes to hook into all of them individually, getting their perspectives and building a mental map of my target.

Standing up I double checked my costume. I was covered head to toe in black studded leather, fake coat-tails obscuring my belt pouches, a hood covering my head, a mask over my face, not a single inch of skin visible, my eyes safely hidden away. Taking a step on a Speed Zone I launched myself across the way, the reduces gravity of my Shadowform allowing me to touch down silently. I considered my problem. I could take all of them directly, and as long as I kept most of my body in shadow, bullets would pass right through me, my shield allowing me to take an occasional round on whatever part was tangible. However, this persona was all about fear and darkness, and casually walking in and taking them on was just too, too _Vejovis_. He was the flying brick, I was more a knife in the dark, a glowing knife mind you, but that just made you feel worse when you got stabbed by it.

What I _really_ would have liked was Grue's power, which I could have said was part of my Shadowform, but sadly getting close to him would mean getting close to Tattletale and _fuck that_. As I stood there I facepalmed. I had bugs _everywhere_ , which included the _power breakers_. Gathering the ones in the basement together, I opened it up, seeing all the switches. Getting ready I partially shifted into Light, my hands and feet glowing a brilliant white as I sharply rose, off balance for a second as Purity's flying mechanic was _very_ different from Glory Girl's when used for more than levitating, but that was something to practice later. Someone in the lounge had noticed the light.

Rather than take them out one at a time, I slammed the basement bugs into _all_ the switches, turning them all off as I reached out into the light, grabbing _something_ like I'd seen Purity do, body moving on autopilot as I sent it spiraling downwards into the roof right above the unoccupied bathroom. The bug inside saw no breach, so I slammed it again and again until the bug died as the roof caved in, letting go of the light on my feet and dropping down, I slammed a blast point blank into the door, blasting it off its hinges and catching one thug in the process, taking him down with a solid _thump_ not a worrying _crunch_. I jumped in, keeping the light on my knuckles, but letting it play across the rest of my body, the harsh white radiance shifting into a riot of colors as I launched myself across the room, slamming a punch into the temple of one thug, letting another's punch pass harmlessly through my gut before stepping through him, feeling a slight shock from something, probably his phone, before slamming him in the back of the head with a hammerfist.

My Sight let me see clearly as everyone else scrambled for cover, shots going wild as most of them weren't even aiming at me. The big-screen television died for the crime of reflecting my light, distracting one idiot with a shotgun. He was next, a flying knee catching him in the jaw, the speed zone that propelled me dismissed in a flash, drawing fire. The "front" door burst open and the guard looked in, pulling his Uzi out and firing it in an arc across the room, apparently not giving a shit if he hit his friends. For _that_ , he was going to visit the _hospital_ I decided, using the air to nudge the bullets up to hit the walls and ceiling instead of the cowering Merchants. Taking a step back and bouncing off a speed zone on the wall, I launched myself at him like a psychedelic missile, breaking my momentum on his chest, breaking his _ribs_ as I grabbed his gun arm, shifting my weight around and down throwing him into the lounge, but keeping a hold of his wrist, shattering it with a sickening _Crack_. The Merchants, realizing that I was out from among them, opened fire, and I was harshly forced to come to terms with the fact that blocking bullets from one source was _far_ easier than a proverbial hail of them. Shifting fast, most of the bullets passing through me, but one that would have hit me in the head caught on my shield, another catching me in the arm right after. _That's gonna bruise_ I thought as the pain flared and I dropped on a Zone, flying back into the room where the possibility of friendly fire would temper their shots. The rest of the fight was a messy mayhem of melee and gunfire, my shield and costume taking blows that might have seriously injured me.

The last one, Derek, went down as he made a run for it. I didn't save him for last, it's just he wasn't actively shooting at me, so I used a chokehold to put him down gently. Through the entire fight the guard and Khan had stood ready in their secure room, the leader behind his desk with a bulky pistol while the guard stood in a corner, what felt like an automatic Shotgun at the ready, a flashlight pointed towards the door the only light in the room. _I'd say it's overkill, but it's not gonna help_ I thought, considering the problem. I could just blast down the door, but it lacked that _screw you_ style and subtly sideways thinking Boardwalk was meant to display. Well, as subtle as a guy could get with explosions. I could go to the outside windows and blast my way in, but in their defensive positioning both targets were right next to a window, and I hadn't played around with the one-setting light blasts I had enough to know just how deadly they could be, especially if used as breaching charges against metal bars. I sighed, grabbing and tossing unconscious and moaning thugs out of the way. There was obviously only _one_ way to do it.

With a clear area, I lined up on the most likely unarmored wall as both my hands glowed, fingers instinctually grasping on the slippery not-vapor energy that existed in the light dimension Purity slipped into. Tagging the barrels of both my foe's guns with bugs to keep track of them, I reached out with my hands simultaneously, letting loose with both barrels, blasts instantly crossing the space in double-helixed spirals to blow apart the wall, the pressure from the destruction knocking my targets over. Flying in I was on the guard, knocking him out with a strong cross, letting just a little of my strength into the blow, sending him down senseless. Khan slid out from behind his plaster-covered desk, gun at the ready and opened fire. The pistol, apparently automatic, spat a torrent of bullets as I ducked in front of the guard, only having to deflect a couple shots as his aim went wide before running out with a pronounced _click_. I smoothly stood as he struggled with an extra magazine, taking a swinging step to kick the gun, breaking his fingers, before coming back and kicking him in the side of the head, dropping him. After checking that he was still breathing, I turned to the room, spotting the safe in the corner. Looking at it, electronic in construction, I considered it before realizing that it probably wasn't _all_ electric. Turning my arm to shadow and reaching straight through the top, pulling out the money inside as I did so. I filled up the duffel bags I'd brought for that exact purpose, though they had a few new bullet holes.

After taking all the money from the safe, all the ammo, and a bag full of weed to bribe Boojack with eventually, I groped around the safe and found a few thumb drives. Grabbing a baggie and dumping out the pills, I bagged the drives to take with me as well. Before leaving I had a thought, and carefully tried to reach and grab just a little bit of the power needed to fire those light explosives, trying to tease it out in a tiny trickle instead of a handful sized blast. It wasn't anything close to an even flow, but aiming it I created a low-level concussive beam. Moving to the mostly undamaged far wall, I tried my hand at sprucing up the place, writing **_BOARDWALK_** with it before nodding to myself at the effect. It was crude, and uneven, but the irregular bursts of explosive light gave it an odd style all its own. Walking out, I spotted someone playing possum, but when I visibly turned my back on him, and he relaxed instead of attacking, I mentally shrugged. _If he doesn't want to fight me, I'll return the favor_ I thought, heading for the bathroom, back up, and out.

As I lifted up, hands and feet alight I spotted a figure in full plate on a rooftop across from me, watching me, glove aglow with blue light. Lighting up my own with a readied beam, I waved at them, watching their confused reaction as the armored person waved back. Dismissing the readied attack, but keeping my hands aglow. I slowly flew over, landing a few meters away, spotting a cloaked figure which stood out oddly to my eyes, the black of their cloak not desaturated like everything else I saw. They crouched on an adjacent rooftop, holding what looked like a hand crossbow cocked and pointed at me, though the person's face, covered with a hockey mask, was pointed away.

 _Sophia_ I thought, keeping my reaction from seeing her out of my voice as I addressed the figure. "Sup?" I asked, internally wincing at the slang. "You Gallant?" I asked, keeping my voice deep and relaxed, forcing myself to relax in turn.

He nodded as he inquired "I am, you are?"

I gave that odd chin-thrust that I'd seen black kids do when they wanted to look tough. "Names Boardwalk. New. We gonna have a problem if I hit a Merchant drug den?" I asked, pointing a thumb back at the place I came from, the lights flickering on as someone from the restaurant reset the breakers, the shattered windows in the lounge showing the place littered with bodies, one guy getting up. He looked out, and seeing me seeing him, he dropped back to the ground, feigning unconsciousness, causing me to laugh. _Seriously dude?_ I thought. _I left, just fucking run. I'm not gonna chase you._

"Are any of them dead?" Gallant asked cautiously, peering into the room.

I shrugged. "If they are, ain't from me. One asshat tried to spray'n'pray with an Uzi, didn't hit me, but he might've 'accidentally' broken his wrist and ribs. Heard recoil's nasty on those." I mused, pissed that he'd ignored the lives of the damn people he'd been tasked to protect. I hadn't killed him, but I'd been tempted to.

Gallant nodded understandingly. "And the bags?" he asked pointing to the several duffle bags I'd slung across my back.

"Loot, got it more legally than they did," I asserted, not sure where he was going with this. I'd checked the laws, and goods claimed in the process of busting up criminals was a legal grey zone where the heroes got all they could carry, but it wasn't exactly _officially_ endorsed.

"Most heroes don't bring bags," he calmly pointed out, hands careful held at his hands.

Another shrug. "Most heroes are dumbasses," was my poignant reply. "Oh!" I added, reaching into a belt pouch and digging out the thumb drives, mildly surprised he didn't try something when I reached into my belt. "Found these in the safe, you might like'em, not sure what I'd do with them." I remarked, tossing it to him underhand. _There, good deed for the day done. Gallant seems pretty cool, I hope he doesn't die this time, but I'm gonna have my hands full keeping my own team alive._ I turned to leave, and saw Sophia Hess, _Shadow Stalker_ lying prone, weapon pointed in my general direction, and face turned away. _I wonder why she's doing that?_ I thought, before getting an idea. An awful idea. A wonderful awful idea.

I got ready to fly, preparing for a full burst pushing me off to the west towards Winslow, and waved to her, calling out "Hi Soph, see you later!" before blasting off like a rocket, her loosed bolt missing me by a mile, her terrified cry of "What The _FUCK_!" sweet nectar to my ears.


	25. Blueprint 3-8

**Blueprint 3.8**

Landing home I was still giggling about what I'd done. The bitch had messed with Taylor's head for years, see how she liked it. Checking my phone, I still hadn't gotten a call back from Panacea. _Should I call again, or would that seem needy_ I worried. _Is this one of those, I don't want to talk to you so I'm just not going to return you calls instead of being an adult and just saying so things? I mean, she's like fifteen or sixteen, so not technically an adult, but still, is it that?_ Deciding to just deal with it tomorrow, like a true adult, I headed inside, only to find Herb, Enter, and Boojack all sitting at the kitchen table, eating steaks.

As all three heads turned to me Boojack asked "Who the fuck're you?"

I mentally retracted my mask, grinning "Sup Boojack! This is Boardwalk, my secondary hero identity who is definitely not the love child of Skidmark and Purity," I manifested a Speed Zone and caused my palm to glow, "and not related to Shadow Stalker in the slightest! I finished, turning my other palm to shadow.

He laughed. "Nice, want a steak?" he asked, jerking his chin towards a pack of them on the counter.

"Sure!" I happily responded, nodding to BJ's Stand as it manifested. It gave me a lazy nod back and turned to start cooking. It had grey leathery skin instead of black scales, and seemed a bit broader and more muscular than Enter. Shrugging, I dropped off my ill-gotten gains, and returning to the table I accepted the plate from the Stand responding "Thanks. . . I'm sorry, I don't know your name." I said, indirectly asking Boojack.

The Stand gave a bovine snort before grunting "Jackhammer," To both Herb's and my shock.

"Well than thanks Jack," he gave me a gimlet eye, "hammer." I finished, making a note to call him by his full name.

"Why the hell don't you talk?" Herb asked his Stand incredulously. "I thought you couldn't but, what the fuck?"

His Stand smirked back, tearing into his steak with the air of a satisfied predator. "I think he hasn't because he hasn't felt like he needed to," I guessed. The Stand's smirk stretched into an evil smile. "Yeah, like that," I added. Trying the steak, it was _really_ good, and I voiced my opinion to that effect, getting another snort and a nod from Jackhammer.

"So, how'd your night go?" I asked Herb. "I head you from halfway across the city."

He grinned happily. "Being a dinosaur is so fuckin' awesome. You wouldn't even believe! I was tryin' out shit and some Merchants tried to jump me!" Enter gave him a raised eyebrow. "Okay, they may have just been in the area, but same thing, so I turned into a T-Rex and roared, and they both passed out in fear, the pussies!"

"I saw Velocity on his way there, how did that go?"

He shrugged. "Didn't, I stole their wallets, turned into a Pterodactyl, and took off."

I cocked my head. "How did you hold onto their wallets as a bird?"

He grinned harder. "Didn't have to, when I change, I change the stuff with me!" his eyes went wide. "Shit, I need to turn back to get them."

"Wait," I said, holding up a hand. "Are you telling me you took their wallets, _as a T-Rex_?"

"Yeah, there was a security camera, so I thought I'd fuck with it!" he crowed. "It was harder with tiny arms, but worth it. How 'bout you?"

"Hit another Merchant safehouse," I bragged, informing them of my raid, finishing with my parting shot.

"I'm surprised you didn't fuck her up," Boojack contributed.

I gave him an offended look. "Not with Gallant _right there_. Boardwalk is supposed to be a bit more gritty, but he wouldn't attack a hero unless they started it, and with him there that wasn't gonna happen!" I smirked. "Besides, with the Bank Job tomorrow, I want them to act as close to canon as possible, so we can counter them. Getting into a scuffle might make Gallant more cautious, and if we're gonna keep Taylor's reputation salvageable, we need the Wards to mess up on camera."

Boojack raised an eyebrow. "How are you gettin' 'em on tape?"

I shrugged, "I was gonna drop the cameras off that morning."

He shook his head. "Fuckin' Idiot." I sent him a look of confusion. "If they're there, like you knew, could use your bugs."

I thought, deciphering his statement, and was forced to agree with him. "Yeah, that's better. I can claim to always have them on me because of how I've seen the 'heroes' here acting, and set them up as soon as things started to go bad."

Plan tweaked and dinner finished, the rest headed to bed while I stayed up, strengthening my force fields. I found that extending it over an item made it count as me for the purposes of tanking damage. With this new information, I casually shot a 2x4 I'd covered with a variety of weapons, finding out that the forcefield was particularly week to Speed Zone accelerated buckshot, as it gave each pellet enough force to take down the field individually, letting the rest shred the wood.

Glad I'd been testing it out on something _other_ than my own body, I went back to using an enhanced pistol while I read up on the base's defenses, nearing the halfway point of the manual. Turning them on was easy enough, though I'd not be able to slide into base in Shadowform anymore, but keeping Sophia from doing the same thing was worth it.

This continued monotonously, using a variety of weapons on the shield until I felt the oddest feeling of expansion and reformation, as if something had shifted, or a soap bubble had split into two, still sharing a side but separate. After nothing else happened, I shrugged and shot my current target (my eighth 2x4), but only the shield on the piece of wood to drop. Looking at it and then at my own body, I reinforced the glove of my costume with armor, then shot it. The _second_ shield then dropped, the one on my body started recharging, but the one on the wood coming back online first. Letting go of the ad-hoc target, I felt the completed shield shift back to me, and, while difficult, I was able to shift it across my body, covering my hand, heart, and head in turn, the second shield coming back and covering the rest. As I shifted and stretched it, I felt, but couldn't see, it getting thinner and thicker as I did so. Grabbing the structured stick again, I shifted the zone to a 3-inch circle of the plank facing me, the field thickening quite a bit. Following this intuition, I dismissed the Speed Zone on my pistol and sighted down, hitting the target easily, nearly dropping it in shock. The 9mm pistol round _didn't drain the shield_.

Widening the target to 6 inches, I shot it again, feeling the field straining but holding. Widening it to cover a full foot I shot it a third time, feeling the field drop, my second shot punching through the board easily, stopping at the back where it hit the second shield and stopped, draining that one as well. I considered this. Moving the shields took time, taking out my phone and using a stopwatch app, I clocked it in at two minutes twelve seconds to drag the second shield and use it to cover my head, just in case. I tried to see if I could double layer the shield, but they didn't seem to want to do that, moving one pushing the other out of the way. Shelving that plan I shrugged, extending my body shield over the plank and picking up where I left off, enhancing my gun to drain my shield more effectively, glancing over at the bugs I had counting money while I worked, trying to split my focus to fully handle three tasks at once, to limited success, bringing in my equipment when it started to rain, and having to count the money by hand, since I was trying to be good about bring bugs in the base.

* * *

The next morning I'd had some success, having to switch off fields as only the one I drained gained in strength, for some reason. Making breakfast I checked my phone again, still nothing from Panacea. _Oh well, I'll deal with that after the bank,_ I thought, making breakfast for everyone as the gentle impacts of rain made the villain base seem almost homey.

The smell of waffles, coffee, and bacon roused my friends, Herb coming in first, followed by Boojack who still smelled faintly of weed. "So," I told them cheerily. "Today's the day we help rob a bank, you guys ready?"

"Ready to go punch some Nazis," BJ grunted, crunching on bacon. "Ready every day, but didn't want to fuck up your plans."

"Yeah, and getting jacked up had nothing to do with that," Herb snarked.

I cut in before the replicant could respond, "Well _I_ appreciate the thought Boojack!" I insisted. "So-" I was cut off by the sound of my phone ringing, checking it I saw that it was Panacea calling. _But it's almost ten_ , I thought. _Shouldn't she be in school_? I answered it, "Good morning Panacea, how are you?"

"Hi," responded the healer, sounding much better than she had before. "Just got your message. I've been sick, and mom called me out of school, again. I'm better, and you said you needed help?"

"Yes," I told her, making a 'be quiet' motion to the others. Herb oh so helpfully made kissy faces in reply. Turning around I continued, "I wanted to set up a bank account at Bay Central for my hero identity, but I've heard that can go badly. I was wondering if you could help me out, vouch for me as it were, so they didn't call the PRT as soon as I walked in the door."

She made general sounds of thought, before shifting to agreement. "I can do that. Needed to go there anyways. Meet you there at 12:30?"

That was _far_ too close to canon for my liking, statements made last night be damned. "I'm free right now, I could pick you up and get it done in time for lunch." _Does that sound needy? I think it does._

She laughed, a tired but happy sound. "I remember last time you wanted lunch. I've got some other things to do, 12:30 really is best."

 _Well, Shit_ , I thought. _If I push again she'll get suspicious. Better just play it by ear. That's what half your plans end up as anyways Lee._ "12:30 will be fine. Should I come in full regalia, or cover it with plainclothes so I don't attract attention."

I could practically hear her shrug. "Whatever you think works best. See you then." She hung up, and I turned to see Herb smirking at me.

"As close to canon as you can?" he asked smugly.

"Shut up Herb!" I snapped. This was _not_ how I'd wanted this to play out. "For that, you're doing dishes."

"Worth it," was his only response.

* * *

Herb and I walked down the street, both of us holding umbrellas, him wearing his full costume, attracting some looks while I covered my skintight getup with a created dress shirt and slacks. "You ready for this?" I asked as we strolled, approaching the bank ten minutes early.

"Definitely," was his immediate response, "It's the next thing that's gonna suck."

I looked at him, waiting for him to elucidate.

"Bakuda's bitch fit. That's gonna be an asshole fight for both of us."

That phrasing made absolutely no sense to me. "Okay. Define 'asshole fight'."

He leaned slightly back, hands raising into what I was quickly designating his 'explanation pose'. "So Bakuda, being mentally unstable as shit, still creates some of the most interesting bombs. Bombs that could still _fuck us up!_ "

I nodded. "If we're not careful, yeah. She likes the terror thing a bit too much so if we're fast enough and pay attention we should be able to dodge the worst ones. You always have a chance to get away from them. I can fly, and super-strength translates into super-speed if you're creative enough, thank you Deku, so as long as you've been fighting you're good. You have Enter on you?" I asked, continuing when he nodded, pointing at his breast pocket. "It'll still be a knock-down, drag out, let's fuck some shit up fight. Question is: do we step in and save the Undersiders?"

"Yes!" he responded without hesitation. "That's where we become something more than just the outsiders to them."

I nodded, seeing his plan. "More than just actors on the periphery. It's when we take the first step to co-opt them. I think that happening on the fifteenth. _That's tomorrow night._ "

"I'll have Boojack and Curtis with me for that one," he reasoned.

I did the math in my head and winced. "I'm assuming Curtis is your next replicant, in which case: Boojack yeah, Curtis no. it takes a week to recharge, so you'll get him _the day after_ this happens."

"Fuck, you're right," he swore. "Stupid asshole 'Worst Day Ever' throwin' off my fuckin' rhythm."

I shrugged, countering, "The points'll be worth it in the long run."

He nodded. "Doesn't mean I have'ta like it. Your date's here," he commented, pointing at a girl wrapped in a heavy raincoat, standing outside of the bank.

I rolled my eyes. "Dude, don't be creepy. You know the plan? Stay low-"

"-until Kid Win blows his little canon, then beat his ass before he gets another load going," he finished.

My judging stare met his innocent expression. "Phrasing man, Jesus," I admonished, shaking my head as he walked away. Waiting for the signal, I crossed the street and approached her. "Panacea?" I inquired.

She was looking in the opposite direction, and shook her head. "Sorry, waiting for someone." She responded, glancing at me, before double taking. "Vejovis?"

I took off my large sunglasses, revealing my thin domino mask hiding underneath. "In the flesh, you're early." _Does that mean something?_ I thought. _Why am I second guessing myself here, I didn't with Taylor._

The corner of her mouth quirked, "So are you," she reposted.

"Touché," I conceded. "Either way, let's head inside." Stepping past her I opened the door, indicating she should go in.

She nodded and entered, with me following as we approached a bank representative's desk. Introducing myself and tipping my shades, the older woman started to panic until Panacea introduced _herself_ , defusing the situation. I sat down with her, surprised that that _had_ started to go badly, as I'd just used it as an excuse to talk to Panacea. After answering a few questions, the pause I gave when asked if we were opening a joint account got me a sidelong glance. As the person escorted us to a private office and went to go get the paperwork, or more likely find out what paperwork they needed to get first as apparently "Capes never come down in person", I gave Panacea a look. "What was the stink eye for?" I asked, smiling.

"Joint account?" she inquired dryly.

I shrugged. "It surprised me. We _literally_ explained why you were here. Some people just don't listen. Makes me wonder if it's worth it opening an account for the Penumbral Defenders."

She leaned back in her chair, regarding me. "How does that work?" she finally asked. "I'm part of New Wave, but I've never done anything with them."

 _Probably because your adopted mother thinks you'll stick a knife in her back the second you get the opportunity._ _I wonder if it's projection_ I pondered. "I'm still figuring it out to be honest," I admitted. "Though it helps if you consider the reason I made it. The PD," her eyebrow raised, "Yes, I get it, police department, I didn't notice it until my friend pointed it out. My original name was Twilight Protectors, but the PRT nixed that, saying it was too close to Protectorate. Either way, my purpose was to help find people who were truly heroes and help them, no matter what others claimed they were."

She looked at me with suspicion, but didn't say anything so I continued. "Take the other founding member, Break, and tell me if this sounds like a hero or villain. You have a person who doesn't respect authority, likes the thrill of combat, but restricts their bloodlust to those deserving, the criminals, be they super-powered, or the pimp who's forcing women to work for him under threat of death. Is that a Hero or Villain?

"Do they break the law?" she asked right back, not missing a beat, probably seeing where this was going.

"Everyone breaks the law," I retorted just as fast. "People speed, people litter, people jaywalk, what matters to what _extent_ do they break the law. Let's say this person has not broken any of the really hard laws, hasn't stolen, as the law defines it, hasn't murdered, as the law defines it, and hasn't attacked anyone that cape law hasn't already defined as a fair target. Are they a villain, or a hero?"

"The law's the law," she responded simply. "And they like hurting people, they're a villain."

I put a hand to my chest, "How could you say such a thing? I can't believe you just called Brandish a villain!"

"What?" she sputtered, losing her cool. _Really_ , I thought. _No one's tried that trick with you?_ "She's not-"

"She's a lawyer, and no one who respects authority becomes a lawyer." I interrupted. "The law? Possibly, but never authority." I ticked off one figure. "After I met her, I looked her up. The videos of her fighting? If that sword of hers was real she'd have killed a _lot_ of people, and her expression was one of righteous bloodlust. My friend has the same thing going on, as do a lot of heroes, it's not _inherently_ a bad thing." Two fingers, "As far as I know she's restricted herself to criminals, but I might be wrong, nor has she stolen, killed, or attacked someone illegally, as far as I know, but she's human, so she's broken at least one law, hell, anyone who flies is probably breaking some set of laws about air traffic. Just because no one calls you out on breaking a rule, doesn't mean it isn't broken. It's why I respect those with personal codes they don't break, because they're usually the type of people whose word is actually _worth_ something." I held up three fingers, deciding not to go for the 'three strikes' comment. It would be especially effective against a lawyer, but lost on Panacea.

"Mind you, everything I've outlined probably applies to my friend, a quarter of the Wards, most of the Protectorate, and most _heroes_ in general. The problem is, public perception matters far too much to people than actual facts. Let's go extreme, and take Oni Lee of the ABB for example, his pseudo-suicide bombing sprees terrify people, and with good reason, but let's look at his power. It's teleportation that leaves behind a body that quickly degrades. Compare that to Brandish who uses _plasma weapons_. I know she keeps them constrained to blunt instruments against most, but that doesn't stop them from being what they are. What are weapons made from the same stuff as the _sun_ against mere teleportation when weighed on the 'should I be afraid of this person' scale, and leads to some thinking that bad powers equals bad people. Thing is though, that's not what happens, because it's what people think about you that matters most. That's why Brandish is seen as a Hero, because she uses her superpowers responsibly, while Oni Lee is seen as the Villain he actually is."

Panacea watched me explain with a guarded expression. "What, am I supposed to turn on Victoria now because everything is relative?"

I looked back at her, confused. "What? No, Glory Girl's definitely on the side of the angels." I bobbed my head in a thinking gesture. "Mind you, as someone with super strength I know how much work it takes to control that, and she doesn't seem to move like someone with that level of caution," I tactfully ignored her wince, "But yeah, definitely a good person at heart. My point is that there are some people who are either labelled, or consider themselves to be, villains, that really aren't. For example, say you've got a teenage kid who hasn't learned to swim, so his asshole father in law decides that he needs to learn, so takes him to a lake, walks him down the pier, and tosses him in, sink or swim style, ignoring of course that sinking _is_ an option, and that option means _death_. The kid is trying his best to stay above water but is panicking, trying to get back to the pier, but every time he struggles over to it his dad pushes him back out." Panacea leaned forward, raptly following the story. "The lake is _ice_ cold, the kid has inhaled a lot of water, is losing feeling _and_ energy, and thinks he's going to _die_ , and _Triggers_ , but powers are _weird_. If they made sense, he'd get water control and save himself, but they don't. Say instead he gets a breaker/blaster power that lets him turn into a high-velocity fireball, which he uses to get to shore. However, in his panic, he goes in the direction he's been trying for the past _half an hour_ , and hits shore by going _through_ the dock, burning and exploding it along the way, killing his father-in-law in the process. Now the kid's convinced he's a murderer for killing his dad, and decides he's a villain. If someone calls themselves a hero, everyone questions them unless they have someone in authority backing them up, just look at what just happened." I gestured towards where the teller had gone, getting a reluctant nod.

"If someone calls themselves a villain, even if they're just scared or confused, people tend to believe them. So, back to my example, say he goes and tells somebody what happened. If they're an intrinsically good person they'll see what _actually_ happened, they'll contact the PRT and ask for help, and, if the person who shows up does _their_ job, he'll get help. But if the person he talks to, or the PRT officer that gets called in doesn't care about the circumstances, assuming they listen at all, and they just hear 'I killed someone with my power', when any _fair_ court would not only _not_ charge him, but probably press negligence charges against the mom for letting her new husband's attempted murder of her son go on without trying to stop it. But," I held up a finger, "the kid doesn't get a fair hearing, hell, he probably doesn't get a hearing _at all_ , just people calling him, and treating him like, a monster and saying how he's going to go to prison forever for his crime of _trying not to die when someone was trying to kill him_ , maybe even the Birdcage. I've heard a member of the Protectorate threaten a new hero with that when she didn't do anything wrong, just to bully her into doing what he wanted. So, this kid is being threatened with jail, and maybe they may go into graphic detail about the abuse, maybe even the violent _rape_ he'll suffer there, convincing themselves that by making this parahuman, this criminal they've convicted with no evidence in the court of their own mind, this _other_ suffer, _they're_ morally righteous. _Those_ are the 'villains' I seek to redeem, and I only say redeem because that's how a lot of them think, not that they have always done something requiring redemption."

"But, but that doesn't happen!" she insisted, pale. "And I don't believe you about the Protectorate, they wouldn't do that!"

"There's at least three in this city alone," I responded calmly. "Rune, Bitch, and the provisional member of our team, The Lady, Bug, who was the one threatened."

Panacea blinked at me, focusing on the first name. "The white supremacist?"

I waggled my hand in a so-so gesture. "By socialization and upbringing, not religion like the really bad ones. What do you know about her?"

The healer shrugged, "Just that she's a Neo-Nazi, what do _you_ know about her." She froze. "Wait, do you know who she _really is?_ "

I nodded, but before I could explain, the bank representative came back. I calmly filled out some paperwork, feeling Panacea stare a hole in the back of my skull as I waited until the representative left before wrapping us in a sound bubble, mentally berating myself for forgetting to do so the first time. "So, Rune, who's real name I don't actually know, was the daughter of a group that splintered of from the Empire Eighty-Eight, family name starts with an H, not important. Still white supremacists, but more of a 'Let us set up our own enclaves in the country and leave us alone' type. So young Rune, before she is Rune, hits teenage rebellion, like a large percentage of teens do, and seeks out an uncle who was more of the mainline faction of Neo-Nazi, the 'Whites are superior and should rule over all' type, which makes _no_ sense but again isn't important right now. So, he takes her along, and eventually they both get caught doing something illegal, but she's arrested while he gets away. Her parents want nothing to do with her for 'betraying' them and working with the main line E88, so disown her, but don't have enough class to tell her. I know, I shouldn't expect them to, but still. So, all _she_ knows is that they never showed up to her trial. She's put in prison, not sure what for, and has a hard time dealing with the mixed population, having been raised on a steady stream of white supremacist bigotry. However, instead of getting her counseling, like they're _supposed_ to with juvenile offenders, they throw her in solitary confinement instead and just 'neglect' to ever let her out, because it's not worth the hassle to them." I saw her look of dawning horror. "Yeah, that's _several_ kinds of illegal and the warden himself should have been jailed for it if it could be proven that he knew it was going on. Not even the _Birdcage_ is solitary, and you can talk about gender equality all you want, solitary confinement is far harder on women than it is on men, and harder on teens then on full adults. So, she's effectively left to be tortured with isolation until she goes insane, and starts to do so, but Triggers first. Remember how I said powers always help, but are weird? Her power lets her break out of her cell and escape. If she'd known her family had abandoned her, she probably would have developed a Master power instead, but she most likely thought that if she could just get out, she could go rejoin her family. Thing is, she does get out and finds out her parents have abandoned her, and in her desperation, turns to her Uncle, the only other person she has in the world, even though he's really the reason she was in prison in the first place. Uncle sees her, not as a person, but as a way to get prestige in the E88 by giving them an _asset_. He likely convinces her that her family was inferior, and couldn't recognize 'the truth' or some BS like that, but the mainline E88, _they'll_ be her family, _they'll_ take care of her like her family _didn't_. And there you go, someone who has been raised badly, and screwed over by those in power, and then blamed when they react badly."

Panacea just stared. "How do you know all that?" she asked weakly. "That's, that's, how?"

I smiled. "That my dear, is not something that can be shared in a crowded bank, but later, if you really want to know, I'll tell you. Either way, I'm trying to help those who've never been truly helped, and could do good if given even a first chance. It'll be hard, I mean, Break is _black_ , so getting Rune to join won't be easy, but it might be worth it. The amount of good she could do in search and rescue, let alone straight construction is quite impressive, it's just getting her to that point that's the issue, along with seeing if she _is_ savable, or a lost cause like Alabaster. Thing is, I'm only trying to save the ill-treated, and the damaged, like Bitch a.k.a. Hellhound. Long story short _her_ power lets her enhance dogs, not control them. When she triggered she enhanced one, it got attacked because it looked downright monstrous, it attacked back and killed a number of people, including her abusive foster-mother. Crimes the recently triggered commit are supposed to be considered as done by someone in a state of temporary insanity, given what _makes_ people trigger, but for whatever reason, maybe because she was a problem foster child because her foster parents were criminally negligent and abusive but who cares about _that_ , so _someone_ determined she was bad, so the crime that she shouldn't be held accountable for stuck. Now she's on the lamb, so obviously a villain, as there's no _possible_ reason a scared teen would ever run away from something horrible, and she's treated as evil even when all she wanted was to be left alone and to care for her dogs, which are actually just normal dogs when not empowered. Is it any wonder she got recruited by someone who was _actually_ evil?"

I shook my head sadly before continuing, Panacea watching me, mouth agape. "Oni Lee on the other hand, is _broken_ , and I will not hesitate to match force for force. He tries to kill me, and that's the only thing he ever does to people anymore, and I'll try to kill him right back, as I am within my full legal rights to do. It's all a matter of degrees." I sighed. "The true villains, those among us who are actually evil love to hide behind the 'unwritten rules'" I told her, making finger quotes.

"Don't use lethal force, don't rape, don't use mind control, and so on. Thing is, whenever they think they can get away with it they do so anyways. One of the ABB's main income streams is whorehouses, and Lung has been known to 'test new merchandise', so unless you think 'don't rape' just means 'don't rape capes', and I _don't_ , that's him down right there. If any of the gangs acquired a Master, they'd be using them with impunity, and don't kill? Are you serious. The only gang that doesn't have at least member that tries to kill their opponents straight away is, maybe, the Merchants, and that's probably from lack of applicable powers rather than lack of desire. If they held to their rules the entire villain community would turn on Oni Lee, Lung, Hookwolf, Cricket, Stormtiger, Alabaster, and a lot more, and that's just in _this_ city alone. The only well-known group that has the capability, but not the inclination, in Brockton Bay would be Uber and L33t, and I've seen the videos. For their GTA one alone they should have gone to jail for years, but I wouldn't use lethal force against them unless they initiated it." I leaned back. "That's two main ideals of the Penumbral Defenders, help those heroes and potential heroes who deserve it, and fight the true villains on their terms."

"But doesn't that make you just as bad as they are?" she asked, with a speed that had to be a canned answer, and made about as much sense those gotchya soundbites the thoughtless loved. The fact that it was coming from _Panacea_ , who'd always seemed so thoughtful in canon, even if she was working with incomplete knowledge, surprised me. The fact that it was such a simplistically _wrong_ thing made it all worse, as I'd dealt with people like that all through high school and college, high off their own self-righteousness, and expected her to be better than that.

I looked at her scornfully, oddly hurt. "I'm sorry, I wasn't aware I was dealing with an _idiot_. Do you think soldiers are murderers, because both groups kill people, and cops are criminals because sometimes use violence? Leave your primary school philosophy at the door Panacea, I _know_ you're smarter than that, and if you think about your answers instead of just regurgitating the you likely just learned as a child you'd see why what you're saying _makes no sense_. _I'm_ not the one who would choose to try to kill people who've done nothing wrong, to kidnap them, torture them, _rape_ them, and I wouldn't torture or rape my opponents, I'd try to redeem them, or turn them over to stand trial, and if I'm sadly not strong enough to capture them, I'd put them down like the mad dogs they are."

She looked outraged at my response. "What do you mean, 'sadly not strong enough'? You don't sound that sorry about it!"

 _Why wasn't she listening to what I said?_ "Mercy is the gift of the _strong_ Panacea, for it means that not only can you take someone down, you are prepared to do so again on a battlefield of their choice. If I could capture Alabaster, I'd have him stand trial for his crimes, but Kaiser? I'm _not_ strong enough to lock him down and keep him from killing others, and if we fought, I'd kill him, just as surely as he'd try to kill me without a second thought, for if I let him get away when I had a chance to stop him, I'd a least be partially responsible for what he did after that!"

She stood up, flush with anger. "Then maybe you aren't the hero you claim to be!"

I was up in an instant as well. Disappointed that despite what I thought, she was a blithering idiot, only listening to the parts that she wanted to hear, ignoring the context and reasoning entirely like _so many others_ and was about to respond when I was reminded of where I was, who I was dealing with, and what pressures were in place, so bit back my retort. "Fucking Scion shards," I muttered under my breath as I calmly sat back down. Simply telling her, in as a matter of fact way as possible, "I absolutely, positively, _fucking hate_ mind control."

She stood there, not sure what to do, watching as I took a deep breathe. "What, are you saying you've been Mastered? That doesn't make your opinions right!"

I took another breath, sighing, catching sight of the employee at the door, looking in. I held up a hand, mouthing '5 minutes'. She nodded, looking a little frightened, but left us alone. "There are two main ways to get powers, most people Trigger, but some are given theirs, bought for money and favors."

She stood there, blinking at the non-sequitor. "What?"

"Those who Trigger, like you, have one type of power source. It helps your power evolve, change, adapt, and grow in power. However, it also pushes you to conflict, as powers are usually used in fights, and in new and interesting applications, which is ultimately what the powers want. Almost _every_ power is a combat power in some way, and that is _not_ an accident. That means that you are pushed, ever so slightly, by your power, by your. . . passenger, to get upset, to fight, to not _think_ when you could _react_ and then _use_ your power in new ways. I'm sure you were thinking about how you could take me down, given that my only exposed skin is my head and neck, giving me an advantage. It does not matter that all I had done was say some things you didn't like, your reaction when pushed, and I apologize for doing so, it's one of my less favorable habits, was to use your powers against me in a physical confrontation. Coma, paralysis, or simple sleep?" I inquired politely. "I'd prefer sleep, but that's just me."

She looked at me with wide eyes, before turning her eyes down at her own shaking hands. "I, I, oh god." She said as she slumped down into her chair. "What's going on? Are you a Thinker? _How do you know this!?_ " she demanded.

Looking at her as I casually shook the foundations of her world, I wanted to give her a hug, but it was safer to stay out of touch range. "Again, I can tell you _later_ , but not now. Your powers aren't evil Panacea, just non-moral. To use them responsible is a burden placed solely on us humans, but it's one I shoulder gladly, for it means that I am a good person because _I_ am a good person. The problem is that it makes talking with natural triggers _much_ harder. Pro-tip, if you are dealing with a parahuman known for their cool head, there's a 60% chance they've bought their powers, and a 25% chance they're actually insane. 15% are actually that controlled, usually having a non-standard moral code they follow, as the rules of society we learn as children don't count for super strength or laser vision, so one has to create their own hard limits." _Like you_ I added mentally, glancing at the clock on the table, displaying the time as 12:59. _Running out of time._

"So, take a deep breath and _think_ about what I've said. I don't harm innocents, and I try to give people the benefit of the doubt, but I believe that mercy to the guilty is _cruelty_ to the innocent. Now, I know it's not _exactly_ going to help with the entire 'I'm not a villain, I'm just a different kind of hero' thing, but, well, remember how I mentioned there were _three_ people that I was trying to help?" I asked.

She looked up at me, eyes blank. "The third one was the provisional member of my team, The Lady, Bug. Not enough time to go into, but before I met her she wanted to infiltrate the Undersiders, like an undercover cop, so she could get info on the truly bad ones and turn them over to the Protectorate. The Undersiders are a teenage villain team, of which Bitch is a member, and their boss is, unknown to them, a violent sociopath who has killed and likely raped _children_ , but used his power to make sure no one ever found out. Thing is, he almost _never_ leaves his base, so Lady Bug offered to go undercover could find the Intel I needed to bring him to justice. Understand?"

She looked at me in horror, before nodding once, this new predicament pushing aside the horror of the previous revelation, possibly with the help of her passenger.

"I say that because they're going to hit this building in about thirty seconds and I need your help to make sure no one gets hurt by them, or more likely, the heroes who are going to come charging in to stop them, unthinking of their collateral damage." I dropped the sound bubble as I stood up, the sound of frightened screams and someone yelling in the lobby coming through the closed door. "So, ever been in a bank robbery?"


	26. Blueprint 3-9

**Blueprint 3.9**

"NO!" was Panacea's response to my question.

I shrugged. "Didn't think you'd been in a bank robbery before, it was more of a rhetorical question."

She shook her head, hand swinging out in negation. "No, I mean I'm not going to help you rob a bank!"

I stared at her in confusion, bringing the sound bubble back up. "I'm not asking for your help in robbing a bank, I'm asking for your help making sure the hostages are okay, specifically from the Wards. The Undersiders haven't hurt civilians, so have a vested interest in not letting them get hurt as it lessens the official response to them, but the Wards could justify it by blaming the villains if they're not careful."

"They wouldn't do that!" she shot back, standing up in anger.

"Shadow Stalker would in a heartbeat, but she's not coming. Kid Win though, is bringing an untested laser cannon, among other things, that could kill regular people, if he's not careful, and he's too excited about using his new tech to check his targets. If I don't help, a whole lot of bad things are gonna happen."

She glared at me. "How do you know that? What? Are you a Precog too?"

"No," I answered honestly. "I-" breaking off I wrapped a much tighter sound bubble around us, just in case there was something in the room itself that was listening in. "I got a pretty detailed look at what would happen if Break and I never came here. We both did. It's why I'm pressing so on hard on things instead of taking it slow, because we _literally_ don't have time. I'm trying to save as many people as possible, and I refuse to do that 'I've been given a glimpse of the future, so now I'll let all these horrible things happen, so I'm prepared down the road' bullshit, which means I need to work hard and fast to derail as many horrible events as possible. I know a _lot_ of personal things about a _lot_ of people."

She went pale. "You mean you know. . ."

"About your _love_ for your adopted sister, yeah. I also know _why_ you feel that way, and it's something I both don't judge you for, and would have brought up gently, at a later date. but we've got, like, two minutes before everything goes to shit right now, so if you're not going to help, please just stay safe and out of the way." I started to turn towards the door.

"Wait," she said suddenly. "Is this why you wanted me here, to help you with this robbery? Is this all some plan to use me and make me a villain? Because from where I'm standing, you're not a hero!"

I facepalmed, frustration growling in the back of my throat as I swiveled back to face her. "Okay, last thing and then I'm heading out there, with or _without_ you. One: if you'll engage your _brain_ instead of your _emotions_ you'll remember I wanted your help to get the bank account set up _yesterday_ , and then _earlier this morning_ because I _didn't want you here for this. You_ are the one who specified the time. Yes that means I knew about it in advance, but if I'd told someone then my plan to take down the reclusive child murdering _rapist_ supervillain wouldn't have worked. Two: I'm not asking for you to _help_ with the robbery, just keep the heroes from accidentally _killing people_. And Three: _I. Am. A. Hero_. I don't go after law abiding citizens! I try and save those that _need_ saving, not for praise but because it's the _right goddamn thing_ to do! I don't nor do I have any desire to _rape_! I'm trying to make the world a better place, and even if I have to get my hands dirty to do so, I refuse to stain my soul like those dumbass 'Antiheroes'! Now I'm going to go out there, pretend to be a hostage, help manage things so that _they're_ okay, and stop this from going as horribly as it originally did. Now, are you going to charge in there, accomplishing _nothing_ other than putting yourself and the hostages at risk, hide here and stay _safe_ , or _help me protect those people!"_

I dismissed the tighter bubble as I turned my back on her, ready to dodge if she lunged for me, and was at the door before she bit out. "Fine! I'll help you, but this isn't over! You need to explain yourself!"

I opened the door, nodding before I crouched and peered out. "Agreed. Now stay low and follow me."

"Your glasses!" she called, right as I was about to dismiss the second bubble. Looking back she tossed me my shades from where I'd left them on the desk. I slipped them on, nodded, and dropped the bubble, heading out.

* * *

As I left the room I knew that Taylor was here, what with the swarm of insects flying about the lobby. Taylor and Bitch were counting money while her dogs stood at the ready, monstrous things that looked more like fleshwarped tigers than anything canine. As her insects impacted me I took out my own Bug Control, co-opting them and keeping them from attacking. Taylor's presence in the power sang with nervousness, fear, and self-hate, though they all relaxed a bit as I integrated into her network, the tension eased from her as she felt my power nearby.

Tapping into the network I saw the back door was still open, and took a few cameras from my belt. Turning them on I grabbed some of her swarm, using it to take the cameras out and set up a view of the street outside, though aligning them with only bug vision to double check was iffy.

Seeing Panacea's look as she stared at my belt I whispered. "There's no evidence like video evidence. Just because I want the robbery to go off, doesn't mean I don't want justice." She stared at me hard, before slowly nodding. Now that I could feel Taylor working, I realized that without being able to feel the emotions of the person I was talking to, and vice versa, this entire 'hey, I have radically different ideas that you are used to, but I'm right' thing was much harder that I thought. The other hostages looked over at us as we crept closer, panic in their eyes, the person who had been helping us with the paperwork looking at us with hope. Getting over to them, I felt through my bug sense and yes, Taylor had still gone through with the Black Widow plan. I took control and moved them off the hostage's necks, putting a housefly in their place.

The hostages whimpered as they probably felt the spiders moving, but it couldn't be helped. I moved to use the bugs to tell them it was going to be okay, only to realize that, while I knew it was possible, I hadn't actually figured out how to do that yet.

Shit.

Thinking, I used my Acoustokinesis instead, linking my voice to their ears, adding in the sound of bugs to make something that should be close enough. "This is Vejovis, of the Penumbral Defenders, Independent Hero Team. The Wards are incoming, but I'm here to make sure everyone gets out of this unharmed. I also have insect control, and have taken over the insects on your necks. If you'll move back and away from the windows, Panacea and I will be able to better protect you."

The crowd stilled at first, before starting to murmur happily. "Please stay quiet," I told them with urgency. "If I'm revealed, it will make keeping everyone safe much harder. Thank you for keeping calm in this stressful situation."

The hostages quieted down, looking around. A couple pointed me out, and I tipped down my glasses, revealing the mask underneath. Waving them over I directed an area in the back corner. Panacea went to ask me something but was interrupted by the Undersiders striding out of the vault. I Saw them and Knew them. The man shrouded in darkness was obviously Grue, the flames of his power a Grey and Black mix just like Shadowstalker, but the patterns of the flames were all different, licking outwards instead of contained column. His power was another Dimensional Shift, just like hers, but while she shifted herself into that other place, he just brought it closer to him, causing sound, light, and energy in general to fade into that dimension, leaving matter behind. He walked up to the front of the bank, which I only then realized was a flickering wall of darkness, having been using Taylor's swarm to see. With his power physically manifesting in front of me I quickly copied it, moving on to the next person. The butch girl in the fake dog mask was obviously Bitch, empowered with Bodily Enhancement targeted towards Canines, and a Thinker power that gave her the ability to understand them. Her power was a rich Brown and Yellow, the flames appearing to be almost like fur or hair. I considered her power for a moment, but without the Thinker power, the Shaper power was almost useless. Next Regent, standing there, a few feet back, watching his teammates argue. His power was Bodily Control via Nervous System Manipulation, Porcelain flames slowly shifting around what looked like living tissue. I honestly had no clue if I even could copy that, he wasn't using it so I had nothing to latch onto to check, and the way his power appeared was slightly disturbing. Next. Looking over at the blond girl in purple and black, who's fire was a many tentacled thing, washing over everything she looked at. The Black and Purple incandescence burning brightly, but the flames seemed almost insubstantial. She had Pericognition. The ability to know around things, to fill in the gaps of knowledge. Definitely something I both couldn't copy, and wanted to stay the hell away from.

As I came out of my thoughts, I'd realized it'd taken me a bit to process it all. Listening in I could here Bitch growl "We have hostages. If they come in here, we take out one of them."

The hostages, as a group turned to look at me. "That's not going to happen," I told them, meeting Panacea's glare. "She's damaged, and expects to be treated that way by everyone else. It's why she needs _help_ , and only if _that_ doesn't work then jail."

Taylor, bless her, came back with. "We do that they'll be here immediately, and they'll be trying to kill _us_. Right now, they're not, so we need to keep them off guard, but not doing anything stupid. You're all about the getaway, right?" she asked, waiting for the Undersider's nods. "Then we change gears, we get in their face and fight them where they don't have time to think!"

Turning back to Panacea while trying to give Taylor a thumbs up over our shared bug sense. "See?" I whispered to her as the Undersiders grouped up to plan, not paying any attention to the hostages, making sure said hostages didn't hear us. "She's got it under control."

"Yes, she's got the _bank robbery_ under control while acting like a psycho!" she hissed back.

I looked at her disapprovingly. "Okay, first of all, do you think all undercover cops are psychos as well, because she's doing pretty much the same thing. Sec-."

"Stop with that stupid undercover thing!" she interrupted. "It's not the same thing!"

I spread my hands. "Okay then. How?"

That confused her. "What?"

"You say it's different, I'm asking how?" I glanced over at the Undersiders. Grue was motioning towards us, but Taylor shook her head, her explanation causing Regent to nod.

Panacea rallied. "Well," she started. "Undercover cops are trained!"

"So are Doctors, do _you_ have a medical degree? By that logic, all of New Wave should have had PRT training, let alone regular police training. Do they _all_ have police training? If not, then why aren't you telling _them_ how they shouldn't be doing the jobs of trained professionals. Next."

"Undercover cops have support!" she tried. I motioned towards myself. "Official support!" she clarified.

"I am officially registered as the head of the independent team known as the Penumbral Defenders. Lady Bug is a probationary member, officially, and like undercover cops is lying to the criminals she's infiltrating."

"That's not good enough!" she doubled down.

I just looked at her. _Maybe this recruitment thing was a mistake_ I thought. I'd assumed she was smart enough to figure it out but for some reason she wasn't doing so. _But why? She obviously doesn't have a_ _ **good**_ _reason, or she'd have mentioned it, which leaves emotion shit. Lovely. Okay, with that theory what could it be._ I stopped and looked at her, not with the expression of mild confusion and disdain I was wearing to show how I thought that her argument was self evidently wrong, but really just _looked_ at her. She was in a sweatshirt and jeans, crouched down across from me. She was flush with anger, her gaze glaring at me, but with a twitch. Using Taylor's bugs I tried to figure out what she was looking at, but all that was there were the Undersiders. They were getting ready to head out, Grue explaining something while Taylor nodded, Panacea's eyes flicking towards her as she starting to pull bugs towards her. _It's Taylor, but why?_

If only I could feel Panacea's emotions this would be _so_ much easier, but I had to guess. She was angry, but the exact type I couldn't really get a hold of. She had this entire moral high ground thing going, which was one of those things that really pissed me off, though that might be solely targeted towards me. _Is it because Taylor's a hero, but is still doing something villainous, even in pursuit of a greater good?_ I knew that there were going to be people that wouldn't be able to mentally handle that, but I never expected Panacea to be one of them. _Why would should she?_ I thought as she said "Well? Do you have anything better?" and again, the glance towards Taylor.

 _Wait, is she jealous?_ I almost wanted to facepalm over it. _Of course she is!_ This was _Panacea_ , who held herself to an impossible standard of heroism to prove she wasn't a villain, and Taylor was standing over there, someone I called a hero doing blatantly villainous things bold as brass. Context didn't matter to emotions, just that Taylor got to do things she couldn't and was being openly supported. Panacea worked _herself_ into the ground to prove to her mother that she was a hero, probably in a desire born in childhood to get Brandish to love her, and she got nothing, while Taylor did everything Panacea stopped herself from doing it and got praised for it. "I-" I started, about to explain that she had no need to be jealous of Lady Bug, that _I_ knew she was a hero, but reconsidered it, hearing Herb in my head shaking his head, saying 'too much too fast man'. I recollected my thoughts and responded, making sure to tamp down my first confrontation response so she had nothing to jump on, trusting that she wouldn't take the confrontation physical and risk the hostages.

"I am a member of a recognized independent hero team, just like dozens across this country. What I'm trying to do is something that has been done, successful, many times before. My actions aren't morally cut and dry, but anyone who thinks crimefighting _is_ hasn't been doing it long." I felt Taylor send some of her swarm out the front door, Grue following it with his darkness, pouring off of him and out the door. "Every single criticism you have has been stated before, and been responded to in kind, but the fighting's about to start and we need to protect these people." Taylor stopped Bitch from going out, probably tell her about the costume switch. "Afterwards go look it up. If you have an honest argument I can't shoot down, I'll pull her from the Undersiders, but 'that's not good enough' isn't an argument, it's just a statement that you don't like mine, and isn't something I will use on your arguments either. Now I need you to go and help me corral the hostages to keep them out of the line of fire. Okay?"

She glared at me, eyes hard as she gave a single sharp nod. "This isn't over." She promised, turning and heading back to the hostages that had given us a bit of space as I dropped the bubble between us. Tattletale looked up from the computer she was working at, eyes narrowing as she scanned the hostages. I held my breath as she looked at me, and then promptly kept looking, shrugging before going back to her typing.

Grue yelled "we're sending out the Hostages!" before the majority of the swarm poured out the front doors, Grue, Regent, Bitch, and her dogs creeping out into the darkness.

I connected to the hostages, adding in a buzz "They've headed out, the fighting is going to start, let's head towards the back. Keep low and move slowly."

As the group moved past me, clustering against the back wall, I asked them if there was a meeting room in the back. One middle aged woman raised her hand and approached me when I waved her over. "It's just through the doors and down the hall," she whispered.

"Open the door quietly and take them there" I told her as the sound of high-tech gunfire, powers firing, and monstrous howling echoed from across the bank, oddly distorted by Grue's darkness. "Quickly now."

The door opened, and the hostages got themselves out with a minimum of pushing. I dropped a one-way sound bubble over the door, not allowing noises into the lobby. Following them out, I heard one person arguing "We could make a break for it!"

"Unless they choose that direction to run, in which case the battle will move to wherever you are," I responded, pitching my voice low, the crowd turning to look at me. "Let's get to the room, is this everyone?"

They filed in without a problem, which was a pleasant surprise, once they were in I stood in the doorway, addressing them. "Stay here and you should be fine. If-" The sound of something loud firing interrupted me, the sound of glass shattering and impacting stone immediately after. A deep roar echoed immediately afterwards. "If you stay out of the way you should avoid stray fire, like that."

"Shouldn't you be out there helping?" an older woman asked.

"I'm more concerned with keeping everyone safe than the glory of battle," I responded calmly, "Now Panacea and I-" I broke off, not seeing the recalcitrant healer. "Where's Panacea?"

"She went back inside," the woman I first met told me, pointing in the direction of the lobby.

"Of course she did," I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose. "Stay here, I'm going to go make sure she's okay."

"What about us?" a young man asked.

I looked at him, my expression hard. "Panacea's a hero, and doing what she thinks is best, despite having powers that heal instead of hurt. I'm going to make sure that her heart doesn't outpace her head, and that she's okay. So, close the door an-" Another impact sounded, almost like someone had just blown open a wall. "Don't leave or I can't protect you. Keep it closed and stay safe. Gotta go."


	27. Blueprint 3-10

**Blueprint 3.10**

Entering the lobby, I was confronted a scene straight from the book, with one difference. Taylor hadn't taken Panacea hostage with a knife, but with a baton pressed across her throat. Still potentially deadly, but not as overtly, though Panacea was treating it as the threat that it was. Tattletale was doing her entire 'I'm psychic, Bua-ha-ha!' villain monologue, and Glory Girl was floating there, dusted with plaster, alternating between glaring at my teammate and arguing with the Pericog, which was only digging her in deeper. The sense of awe I felt for her as she played into the hands of the villainess was _really_ annoying, feeling her power pull artificially at my emotions.

 _Shit_. I thought, as Tattletale smugly pronounced, "Scholars want me to be wrong." _If I let this go as normal,_ _ **everything**_ _I've been trying to help Panacea with is going to be overwritten. But if I go out there, Tattletale might spill my plans just because she can. Fuck it._ "Their res-"

"I leave you alone for 30 _freaking_ seconds and you do the one thing you said you weren't going to do!" I boomed, striding in, getting everyone's attention. "Panacea, you have very little heroic combat potential that doesn't involve skin to skin contact, what did you do that got you captured by the cape wearing _head to toe_ armor?"

"She tried to kill me with a fire extinguisher!" Taylor told me, holding Panacea fast.

I gave Panacea a level look. "Why?" I inquired, confused.

Tattletale turned to look at me, her eyes unfocusing as her brows knitted. _Oh shit, she knows,_ I thought, _And the stupid girl is going to say something in front of the two people I'm trying to recruit, just to prove she's smarter._

"None of your business!" Panacea spat. "Some hero you are, you were helping them!"

"What?" Asked Glory Girl confused. "What are you talking about? Vej's a hero!"

I stared at Tattletale who stared back, hand reflexively twitching upwards a bit, almost like she was getting a headache and wanted to press her hand to her temple to stave it off. _I don't get it._ _She should at the very least know that I'm a physical power copier who's taken the sister's abilities. That combined with my trying to be a hero should give her enough to turn both of them against me, but she's saying nothing._

"He-mmph!" Panacea tried to accuse as Taylor put a hand over the healer's mouth.

 _She_ _ **can't**_ , I realized. _Pericognition is close enough to Precognition that I'm a_ _ **blindspot**_ _to her, and she's stressing her power trying to read what it says doesn't_ _ **exist**_.

I suppressed a smile as I rolled my eyes. "I was more concerned with keeping the hostages safe then taking down the villains, yes, but." I paused, seeing Panacea pull at Taylor's hands. "Lady Bug, you don't need to gag her, even if she is trying to _start a fight between heroes in the middle of a hostage situation._ Let her go, I'm sure she's not going to try to hurt you a _second_ time."

Tattletale looked back at Taylor as she let Panacea go after a second, taking a step back as she tried to whip around and hit my teammate, nearly losing her balance doing so. Tattletale smirked, _of course_ , she could read the obviously off-balance girl, finding her feet as she sighted in on her emotionally vulnerable target. "Oh that's rich, miss perfect little hero healer's trying to hurt someone with words, when she should know that they're her weak-MMF!" was as far as she got as I closed the gap, covering _her_ mouth with my hand, mirroring Taylor and Panacea's position of a moment earlier.

"Keeping _her_ quiet, on the other hand," I told the group nonchalantly, "Is not only a good idea if we want to talk about anything constructive, it's downright required." Whispering to the villainess I continued. "Sarah, while I'm sure you understand how destructive secrets can be, given what happened to your brother, you should also know that malicious truths are weapons of mass psychological destruction, so maybe you should check to see if you're in the blast zone and _think_ before you piss of the _unstable biokinetic_." At my words she went rigid, and I could feel her staring at Panacea. "Who, you're right, would _normally_ never do anything bad, but under _extraordinary circumstances_ , like the outing of her deepest darkest desires to her sister, may be pushed to _extraordinary responses_." I stopped whispering as I let her go. "Now shut up, or I'll cover your mouth _with your own skin_. You'll still be able to breathe, but if you can't be _trusted_ with the most powerful weapon of all, I'll _revoke_ your ability to use it easily."

She was pale and shaking as I turned to look at the wide eyes of the three heroes in front of me. "Sorry about that, had to defuse a metaphorical bomb." I nodded to Glory Girl. "She's not actually psychic, but she might as well be. Her power is effectively super-intuition, like having Sherlock Holmes in the back of your head, reading tiny details to gain a lot of information. Problem is, she uses it like an Brute with a testosterone problem, feeling like they have to constantly prove their dominance in every circumstance, even if it hurts them."

Glory Girl looked from Taylor, who was nodding, to Tattletale, who was looking at me horrified, to her sister, who was glaring at both Taylor and I, before finally exploding. "What the hell is going on!"

A beam of blue light shot through a window, breaking it before hitting the far wall, blasting off plaster. I wrapped us all in a sound bubble, _might as well_. "Short version, I'm here to help make sure no one innocent gets hurt, your sister insisted on being here at _this_ time despite my attempts to dissuade her, and doesn't like the fact that I support someone who is pretending to be a villain, like an undercover cop, to get to her," I jerked a thumb at Tattletale, "boss. A boss who hired her at gunpoint, and due to the nature of her boss's power has killed, probably raped, and very possible raped her to death, several times, only to undo that timeline with his power."

"What!?" Tattletale called out, horrified, clapping her hands to her mouth when I turned to look at her.

"Yeah, sorry. By the way," I told her, somewhat sympathetic to her plight, but pressed for time. "If you have any secrets that you want to keep, be prepared to die for them, since he likes to torture you for them after a meeting full of you backtalking him. His notes make for. . . unpleasant reading." Turning back to the paling heroines, feeling Taylor's horror from a dozen feet away, singing over the connection, I pressed on. "So, yeah, The Lady Bug's working undercover, which involves this bank heist where no one innocent gets hurt and the villains get away. I try not to lie to people I respect, so I explained why, but Panacea took it badly. Oh," I focused on the sisters. "And, while I hate to do this, if you share _my_ secrets, I'll share _yours_. Panacea knows hers, but Glory Girl, there's a simple way for any two-bit thug to kill you, which I wouldn't want to share with other people, given that you are trying your best to be a true hero, but it's a bargaining chip, so yeah. Sorry," I shrugged.

"Watch out!" called Herb's voice, full of fear.

Reflexively jumping back and grabbing Tattletale mid-air, I pushed her down as she shrieked, covering her physically as Glory Girl did the same thing for Panacea, Taylor ducking as well. I flexed my Aerokinesis to try to cover all three groups at once as a thick beam of light shot through Grue's dissipating wall of darkness, blowing out another window. High velocity broken glass shot towards us like flechettes, and I felt my air control strain to cover all of us under the onslaught. Having to prioritize, I tried to block the ones coming towards me last. Impacts riddled my back, but I held steady, both my head and body shields overloaded and drained. Not as bad as a gunshot, they still felt like getting pummeled by a heavyweight boxer with tiny fists, my costume not letting them penetrate but letting the blunt force impact through just fine.

"Ow," I bit out, standing up and carrying Tattletale back to her feet, setting her down and brushing her off, her eyes wide as she looked from me to the pile of broken glass behind me. Stretching, my head aching, I couldn't help but comment. "Fucking Tinkers, never worrying about friendly fire." Looking over at her shocked expression I asked "What?"

"You, you saved me?" she asked unsure.

"Yeah," I stated a little unsure myself over her confusion. "Just because you're too free with other's secrets doesn't mean I want you dead." Turning as Taylor and the sisters got back up, all standing up on their own. "Everyone okay?" I asked.

Taylor nodded yes, looking at Tattletale. "I got her," I told her, getting a nod of thanks, the difference slight, but meaningful. Panacea was already healing Glory Girl, blood having stained her now cut uniform, but they were all superficial, the best I'd managed to do to deflect the worst of it. Taylor's costume had held fast, but the way she was moving she was definitely bruised. I tapped into the bugs to get a sense of what was going on. Almost all the heroes were down, Enter in a three way fight with Aegis and Bitch's dogs as Clockblocker pulled himself free. Herb was down but seemed to be feigning unconsciousness, and there was a guy carrying a smaller guy heading back towards us. Kid Win was down next to a pile of scrap that was probably his cannon, struggling to sit up as he twitched and grabbing at his belt.

The building itself groaned above us, the beam that broke the glass having also taken out a not insignificant part of the back wall of the lobby. "That sounded structural," I commented lightly as Grue's darkness continued to dissipate, giving the impression that something was beyond the wall, but not what. "Glory Girl, Panacea, go get the hostages and please escort them out the back."

"You think we're just gonna let them go!" Panacea said, though she was just bluffing. She knew I held the cards, and obviously hated it. I hated it, to be honest, but if rational discussion wasn't going to carry the day, blackmail and extortion would at least get me to the mid-afternoon.

"If the building collapses, Glory Girl can protect the hostages, and I want you safe, so you stay with her. I'll deal with the villains, who are an undercover hero and someone who's forced to work at gunpoint, even if she isn't that pleasant right now." I reasoned.

Panacea looked like she was going to respond, but Glory Girl's hand on her shoulder shut her up. "Let's go save the people, and I want you to be safe too Ames," she coerced, unknowingly playing into her sister's weakness, who just glared back at me as she let herself be led away.

"We're talking, later!" she commanded.

I nodded. "I agreed to it do so the last time you said that."

Kid win was still struggling with something on his belt as Enter fought Hero and Dog, allowing neither to get the upper hand. _What was it?_ I thought, trying to remember of the details of the bank fight from when I'd read this section almost a year ago. _Right, stupidly powerful flashbang!_ I realized, as I flew several feet away from Taylor and Tattletale, Grue's darkness wall further dissipating.

"When you see the grenade hit, Tattletale, yell flashbang and both of you cover your eyes and ears," I told them, taking a combative position facing them. The darkness faded to a grey haze, revealing the street, darkness still covering half the combat zone as I felt Kid Win within that darkness throw his grenade, his arm twitching oddly at the last second, slipping from soaked fingers, sending it off target. A bit of applied wind sent it careening off into the bank lobby.

"I won't allow you to get away villainesses!" I called, "For Vejovis, wi-" I started as the projectile sailed in front of me.

Tattletale yelled "Flashbang!" accordingly, turning to the side and covering her ears as she did so, Taylor following suit. I tried to do so as well a half second later, but it went off not five feet in front of me. Both my shields overloaded, and the sound so loud all I could hear was a loud ringing as my ears hurt in a way they never had before. I stood there, holding my head with one hand as I felt like I'd been stabbed in the ears, watching both girls start to stumble away. Taylor looked back at me, concern radiating from the connection. I returned with feelings that it was okay, and waving her away with a hand by my side, shielding it from view from the street. She ran after Tattletale, leaving me to look around, not even the smallest of spots in my vision. _Must be Power Sight protecting my eyes. Nifty_. I stood there, pretending to be blind for a good half a minute, giving them more than enough time to escape.

* * *

As I staggered outside, the downpour drenched me, my temperature immunity inuring me to the chill spring rain. However, as I looked around at the destruction the Wards had inflicted, I realized that my hearing _wasn't coming back_. Well, that wasn't good, though I could probably convince Panacea to heal me if only to answer her questions. Looking around I noted the Undersiders had left, the heroes moaning on the ground, Enter standing over Aegis as Herb struggled to his feet. He said something, I wasn't really sure, all I could here was that constant ringing. Looking at him I said "I appear to be deaf! Some idiot dropped some kind of Tinker flashbang in front of me! Are you okay?" He said something, before stopping and giving me a thumbs up as he moved next to me. "Wonderful!" I looked back at the damaged bank, the last of the darkness covering part of the street quickly dissipating.

Aegis was getting back up, groaning as Enter returned to Herb's side, smugly satisfied. Herb punched his Stand in the shoulder, hard, probably recovering from his wounds. The Ward looked over at us, frowning at me as he said something. "Hello!" I called. "My name is Vejovis, of the Penumbral Defenders! I seem to have been deafened by some kind of extreme flashbang, I hope it isn't permanent, so I can't answer any of your questions until it returns or Panacea can heal me!"

He said something, pointing at Herb and Enter. "Sorry, still can't hear you!" I told him, smiling. "Did it get you too?" He took a step forward, hands coming up in a combat stance. "There's no need for violence, I'm sure that they wouldn't have gotten involved unless they were needed!"

Herb tapped my shoulder, pointing to my neck. Now that I focused on it, it did feel odd. I brushed against it, willing my costume not to auto-clean. Examining my hand, I found my fingers red with blood. _Shit, my eardrums must've burst. If I didn't know of, like, three ways to get my hearing back, I'd be seriously tempted to_ _ **kill**_ _Kid Win._ Another Ward that was getting up, the armored figure of the Gallant, looked sharply at me _._ "Hello Gallant! I've been deafened by a Tinkertech Flashbang, so I can't hear you if you're talking!"

I had been deafened by these idiots, and I was going to milk it for all it was worth. The fact that it unequivocally put them in the wrong also helped. Looking over Vista was struggling to her feet, an ugly bruise on her jaw. "Is Vista alright? I am a healer, if that will help! Ironically, I cannot heal myself, or I'd be able to hear what you are saying! I assume you are talking, though none of your costumes have visible mouths, so I may just be talking to myself. Wouldn't _that_ be embarrassing!" I felt both of my ears, both were bloody. I _really_ hated god-damned Tinkers. Hero wasn't this bad, so maybe it was only the Scion Tinkers that couldn't control themselves. Aegis looked like he was saying something, not that it helped.

I pantomimed touching, then motioned to my jaw, and something shrinking, then gave him a thumbs up side. "I could heal her if you'd like!" He watched my interpretive dance, only shaking his head after I talked. Yeah, he wasn't deaf. Redundant Asshole. Looking around at the Wards I realized that almost none of them had powers I could copy as I Saw them. Clockblocker, walking over in Aegis' outfit, Locked the Fourth Dimensional Position of things, with an exception to keep them geo-synchronous, for a duration effected by a whole host of factors. Possibly copyable, but he'd have to freeze something first. The Grey and White flames of his power appeared to be flickering in stop-motion, which looked pretty cool. Aegis had Flight and Redundant Advanced Biology, the Rust Red of his flames lined with bright Silver. Vista, looking around at everyone, had Space Manipulation, Biologically Limited, and Green and Light-Yellow flames, twisting constantly in interesting patterns. Someone I didn't really recognize was limping over to the rest of the group, had Blue and Tan fire, tightly controlled against his body. Telekinesis and Biokinesis, both limited to himself. Potentially very powerful, but I'd probably need to see him action to copy it. Last, Gallant, who had Emotional Manipulation via Concussive Blasts, was different. Instead of a fire, his Red and Blue power instead hung in an aura around him, outlining his form, reaching out equidistant from every point on his body. Not flickering, not exploring, just. . . there.

 _So that's what a Cauldron Cape looks like_ I mused. I blinked as Herb waved a hand in my face, getting my attention. "Still deaf!" I told him. I allowed some of the worry I would have felt had I not had superpowers creep into my tone. "I don't think I'm getting better!" The Wards winced around me. Aegis had gone to get Kid Win. Looking at him, I saw the Yellow and Red of his power flickering, Tinker power focusing on Modular Design, not that I was ever going to tell _him_ that. "I think the flashbang was from him, do you suppose he has something that fixes hearing damage, since he was using something that created it?" Again, the wince. Good. "Probably not though!" I continued sadly. "I hope Panacea and Glory Girl got the hostages out okay, since I went through the risk of protecting them!"

The Wards, except for Kid Win were standing there looking at us, obviously not sure what to do, when Herb tapped me on the shoulder, pointing down the street. Looking I saw Glory Girl carrying Panacea come flying up. "Hello Glory Girl and Panacea! I believe that one of Kid Win's flashbangs has ruptured my eardrums, rendering me deaf!"

Glory Girl landed, Panacea saying something, probably biting given how the Wards turned to look at her. "I'm sure that was derogatory in some manner, and I apologize for not attacking the villains in the bank, or letting you do so, but my priority was protecting the hostages!" I waved towards the gutted lobby of the bank. "If they had stayed where they were, they would at least be injured, possibly killed by whoever was shooting that large laser!"

She started talking again but I interrupted her. "I can't actually hear you, I was just assuming!" Trusting Herb to get me out if she messed with me, copying her power to undo the damage before we left, I took off a glove. "If you could be so kind as to heal me, I could listen to your insults for real instead of just guessing!"

She said something else, a disbelieving look on her face as she grabbed my hand, the sneer changing to open shock as she probably too stock of my injuries. The ringing receded, being replaced with the sound of distant sirens and her saying "-say you had glass in your skull!"

I blinked. "I'M-" I stopped. "Sorry, I must have been shouting, what was that about glass?"

She looked at me, not letting go of my hand. "Why didn't you tell me you'd been hit in the head by the glass from the window. I would've healed you then, you almost tore an artery!"

Oh, that explained the headache. "I was kind of busy at the time making sure everyone else was okay," I answered honestly. "I didn't really notice. Thank you, that would've been unpleasant to remove." Why was she holding my hand in a death grip? _Right_ I realized. _Full diagnostic means instant lie detection. What a lovely double-edged weapon she's wielding._ "I meant what I said before, I'm a hero, and one of my main priorities is helping those who deserve it!" I told her, smiling, my honesty being confirmed by her powers, providing undeniable truth of, if not my words, then my belief in them, which was the same thing in this case.

She let go of my hand as if burned, looking me in the eye searchingly. "So now that I can hear," I asked Clockblocker, dressed up in Aegis' costume "You're Aegis right? The leader?"

"Um, No, that's him," He told me, pointing at Aegis in Clockblocker's armor.

I looked between the two as I realized just what that meant. Seeing their power, I realized that Aegis was at least a Brute 5, while Clockblocker was a standard human. If they had been fighting anyone with fast projectiles, he would have been a dead man, as a fifty caliber bullet that would've moderately injured Aegis would have been instant lethal to the time-stopper. "No, that's Clockblocker," I told Clockblocker slowly. "You can tell 'cause his costume is covered in stopped clocks, like his name. What are you trying to pull?"

"No, he's right, I'm Aegis. We switched costumes." I stared at him as another thought occurred to me as Herb stood back, grinning. The Wards were supposed to have someone managing the team back at base, they would've had to ok this plan and _they_ wouldn't have had the excuse of being kids.

"I'm sorry, what?" I asked, tone icy, causing Clockblocker, who had been standing close, possibly to freeze me if he needed to, to twitch before taking a step back. The only sounds in the street were the steady beat of rain and the distant peal of sirens as I gathered my thoughts as the implications of the depths of the stupidity of their plan. "Are you telling me you had one of your team, who is known to have a decently high _Brute_ rating, switch costumes with someone with no special defenses unless he could catch it? _Who the hell okayed that plan?_ All it would take is a single gun, and of _course_ they wouldn't worry about shooting _Aegis_ , after all, he's got redundant biology, it'll just slow him down a little. Hell, _he_ could probably survive a headshot and only be annoyed! Wouldn't they just be absolutely surprised when the cape in the _highly recognizable costume_ suddenly hits the ground screaming, possibly as he bleeds out, if the shot wasn't just outright _lethal!_ "

I sighed, muttering "They're just kids, this is why they have oversight," under my breath in a carrying manner. Herb patted me on the back. I ignored Clockblocker, who's exposed skin around his eyes had turned white, and focused on the sisters. "Did the hostages get away okay?"

Glory Girl nodded. "Yep, dropped them off with the cops and flew back here in case you needed help!"

I gave them both a smile of thanks as I stepped back, putting my hand on Herb and Enter's shoulders, making sure to make skin contact with Herb's neck, subvocalizing to him " _Check me over with Panacea's power."_

He gave the tiniest of nods as I said "Well, while the villains got away and the bank probably needs several times what was stolen in remodeling, no one was hurt. I'll call that a win!"

"Wait!" Aegis said taking a step forward. "Those two attacked us, we're going to need to take them in for questioning!"

I smiled, or bared my teeth, you could argue for either. "Only after you fired a cannon where you knew hostages to be, by your logic, I should be taking you all in, given that if I hadn't moved the hostages, you would have _killed_ them. None of the Undersiders have explosive powers or tech, and if it weren't for Panacea, I would've been permanently deafened by the _careless_ use of your weapons. We were doing our best to keep the situation from turning dangerous, would you like us to stop?"

I felt Glory Girl's Aura kick into overdrive, having been at the back of my mind, annoying me, but my conscience was clean, so all I felt was unearned awe. I lifted off, taking Herb and Enter with me, calling on my bugs to collect my cameras and put them away, lifting off from the Wards. Herb said goodbye for me, given that my focus was split. "Remember Kids!" he called, "Public safety is of paramount importance!"


	28. Blueprint 3-11

**Blueprint 3.11**

Once out of sight, Herb dismissed Enter, commenting "Ya know, that was fun, ya gotta admit it was but damn that was reckless. Even for me."

"Getting into the middle of a fight and taking on everyone?" I tried to clarify.

He shook his head. "Not on my part, me and Enter were pretty bad-ass, but dude, we've been doing this for," he paused to think, "a week?"

"Not even," I corrected. "Six days."

"And why are we better than a team that's been practicing for months?"

"Um," I replied, considering it. "We're not led by Armsmaster?" I hazarded. "We have proper oversight, even if it's just us. We don't have a boss thinking we're all human timebombs, the list goes on man."

"Nah, man," he agreed. "That's just dangerous. I don't want to work with any of 'em"

I sighed. "Look, if we recruited them we'd put them through training before we did shit like that."

He groaned. "That just seems like so much work!"

"Dude, you do know I'd be handling almost all of it," I informed him. "I _like_ teaching."

 **"** But you know they'd come to Uncle Herb," he countered, "For like, the goofy stories and midnight ice cream."

"Um," I stared at him, wondering what fight _he'd_ been in, and how _he_ of all people hadn't noticed how twitchy the Wards had been about him and his Stand. "Dude. You kinda scared the shit out of them out there, so I don't think they would, and if they did, you know you'd fuckin' love it. Ya giant fuckin' teddy bear."

He grinned in admission. "Yeah, you're right. Lookin' at me I look all Grrrr, but I'm really all," he made a sound that was, if I had to name it, reminiscent of a particularly retarded moose.

"Um, what?" I asked, nonplussed.

"Ya know, like a grizzly, when they're mad they're all Grrrr, but when they're playfighting they're all," and then he made the sound. Again. If pressed to spell it out, maybe it would be a ooooh, but there was a quality of intonation to it that I just couldn't put into words.

Seeing my confusion, he tried to explain. "It's like that show, Grizzly Adams." I just stared at him. Occasionally, I'd be reminded that my friend was just over a decade older than I was, and this apparently was one of those time. "Oh, man," he commented, "I hate your youth sometimes." _Right back at ya old man_ I thought. "So, premise is, there's this guy who lives in the woods, has a bear as a friend, I'm gonna have to say it was a female so he was pro'lly havin' sex with it."

"I'm sorry, what!?" I sputtered.

"Well, it's implied," he explained, like bestiality was just one of those things that just happened, and not a big deal in the slightest. "The bear loves him, and stays with him, so yeah, they're doing it." He nodded to himself. "'cause if it was a male it'd fight for dominance, so it's gotta be a female, so yeah, he's in the woods-s"

"Can we just back the fuck up to the fact there's apparently a kids show that featured human-bear relations?" I asked.

"Shows nowadays are just as bad." He waved off. "My niece was watching this show, lazy-something. And yeah, the main guy, sporty, he's totally a pedo considering how they tried to sex up that girl. So- just let me get to the point," he overrode as I was gonna say, I don't know, _something_ about this freaking conversation. "So they're in the Ozarks, and when there's danger the grizzly's all Grrrr, but when they're just play fightin', and pretty much makin' out, she's all like," and there it was again, that retarded moose sound which I had a niggling suspicion was going to haunt my nightmares. "And then it gets worse and then, ya know what? My childhood sucked."

"I'm like, ninety-five percent sure none of that actually happened," I responded.

He shrugged. "Watch Grizzly Adams, it's a female bear, they're doin' it. Lookin' back on it, eighties tv was, daaaamn. Implied, but still there, just like the Brady-"

"One, that explains so much about you, two, oh hey, look _our base!"_ as we started to descend I remember what I _originally_ wanted to ask. "When you were checking me with Panacea's power, did she leave any time-bombs?"

He shook his head. "Nah, you're good. And I must say, you are a _physical specimen-_ " We were only about twenty five feet above the ground, so I dropped him.

I landed as he picked himself up, and after I opened the door Herb asked "Did you really get glass in your skull? I saw something pushin' its way out, but I thought you practiced getting shot to stop that shit!"

Shaking my head I followed him in. "I was trying to protect Glory Girl, Panacea, and Taylor at the same time, while shielding Tattletale with my body. I focused more on the sisters, since Taylor and I had armor."

Herb just looked at me before laughing and walking away. "What?" I asked, but all I got was laughter in return. Checking the TV room it was, once again, thick with weed smoke. Boojack relaxed, a giant grin on his face, the sleeves of his shirt stained with blood. "Have fun?" I asked.

"Fuck yeah," was his blissed response. "Fuckin' Nazis went down like bitches, Hookwolf's an asshole."

I nodded. "That he is, you need healing?" He shook his head, waving me off as he smiled at the offer. "Okay, good work!" I told him, closing the door and letting him back to his cannabis consumption.

I stripped my costume and took, what I realized, was my first shower in a week. While I didn't need it, as my costume was self-cleaning, which I turned back on with a mental command, there's something psychological about the act of taking a bath or shower that I'd realized I missed.

Lazily getting a snack, I dropped with a sigh at my desk, connecting one camera after another, downloading all video files, watching through them and editing them to avoid any part where they got an image of Taylor. One fourth of the cameras were unusable, most of the footage not centered well, but with bug eyes there was only so much I could do., I reviewed Herb's portion of the battle, which I had only barely heard through Grue's wall of darkness. Suitably impressed, I forwarded the files to my Lawyers, with a request to send an edited version to Piggot, telling her in essence that she needed to get her Tinkers under control, and point out the foolishness of making your opponents think you were supernaturally durable when you weren't, as well as the care that needed to be taken when using emotion manipulation on unstable capes. That the Penumbral Defenders not going to the media with this is an olive branch, but if she sets it on fire, then everyone would get burned. Sending _that_ off I couldn't help but smile.

Piggot, the anti-cape bigot, had a military bent and a gang-leader's mindset, thinking of all capes as potential enemies and more focused on image than results or even her stated duty. She was prepared to face villains pulling the strings and heroes in name only, that my being nice and using an intermediary would render her usual responses of threatening violence, blackmail, and extortion toothless. For all of her flaws though, I would do my best to work with her, knowing full well that she held herself not to rules, but what she could get away with. She was a woman who's morality was externally enforced, and her world was worthless if she didn't have a sword of Damocles over her head. With that being said, she was better than Tagg, who, if he managed to get himself appointed, was going to get sniped in the head with an aerokinesis guided speed zone enhanced .50 caliber bullet. Murder? Yes. Required? Yes. Would I feel bad about it in the slightest? Maybe a little.

Sighing, I considered my position. If I had any hope that the protectorate would do what they were supposed to, and not follow illegal orders, then I would probable be more uncomfortable. It always bugged me that the military themed Miss Militia didn't follow anything like the Uniform Code of Military Justice. While I myself didn't know it all, having never served in the military myself, I was pretty sure her actions, or more likely inactions, violated it several times over. Faced with the zealot Tagg, she folded like a cheap table, and she was one of many heroes who should have done _something_. With Alexandria, as the Director of the PRT, pushing to let him do whatever he wanted, any lawful way to work with the borderline fascist were blocked, even if they broke their own rules in the process. So, with legitimate avenues of problem solving fixed, I didn't mind taking that level of response. As I told Panacea, I'd meet the villains at their level, and Tagg, like Alexandria, was no hero.

Breaking me from my thoughts, my phone rang. Glancing down, I saw that it was Panacea. "Hello Panacea, I didn't expect to hear from you so soon. I just finished sending the movie files from the fight off on their way to Director Piggot of the PRT, so she has a video record of her Wards' actions. How can I help you?"

"You can-" she started, my words stopping her. "Wait, you're not sending them to the news?"

I replied with confusion. "Why would I do that? It would be a massive black eye for the Protectorate, the Wards in particular, and they're kids. I mean, most of them are old enough to know better, but still, if they had training and a proper handler they wouldn't have _almost_ killed the hostages. The fact that the hostages were fine, and no one was that badly hurt, thank you again for the healing by the way, means I hold no true ill will towards them. Mind you, if Kid Win deafens anyone like he did me again I'm going to break his nose, but I'm pretty sure that's a training problem, not a moral one." I paused. "Mind you if Director Piggot did something malicious like try to pin the failure of her team on Break, Enter, and Myself I would of course have to publish the footage, if only to counter the smear campaign she would be enacting against the Penumbral Defenders, but I'm perfectly willing to work in good faith if she is."

"You! That's!" she started to yell, controlling herself. "I want to talk to you, tonight at 9, alone."

I laughed. "Well, that sounds like a trap, and isn't a school night?" she started to say something offended, but I talked over her. "Done, I promised you answers and you'll get them." She huffed and gave me the address before hanging up.

I sighed as I stretched. Walking over to my partner's room, I knocked and stuck my head in when invited. "Hey Herb, Panacea wants to talk to me at 9 about the things I told her."

He looked at me before shaking his head. "Dude, ya gotta stop meeting up with teenage girls in the middle of the night, it just looks wrong, and now you're telling them things? Ya got a problem man."

"Um what?" That made no sense. "She's the one who set the time." I shook my head, getting back to the point. "We were talking at the bank, and things got kinda hectic, and she was getting unreasonably pissed, taking everything way worse than Taylor ever did. Either way, I realized it was her shard pushing her, so I told her about them, and the fact that I knew about the future, so now I need to go talk to her to make sure she doesn't do something stupid. Okay?"

Herb had put his face in his hands and was just laughing. "Only you," he told himself. "Okay, you're gonna go talk to Panacea about your futures together, what else?"

I made a face, I think she was older than Taylor, but again, _way_ to young for me, and definitely not in the headspace one should be when starting a relationship. "Don't put it that way man, that's creepy. I'm meeting her at nine so If I don't call you by ten, something bad has happened and I need you to contact our lawyers before heading over to Brandish's house to see if they've done something stupid."

"Well, you could start by making sure she can't touch you," he offered.

"How would I. . ." I started before realizing what he meant. Concentrating, I extended my costume up from my neck, covering me completely but keeping it invisible. "Like this?" I asked, stepping in his bathroom and checking myself out in the mirror, seeing no difference from my normal costume.

"I was actually talking about a helmet or something, but that works too." He walked over peering at my face, poking it. "Textures off," he nodded.

"If she can tell, she'll have already tried something and I can get away," I told him. "The only way she could affect me now is if she touched the inside of my mouth." Herb opened his mouth to make some smartass comment, but I cut him off. "Don't dude, just no." He settled for a knowing smirk.

Rolling my eyes, I continued, "I'll call you when I'm done. I'm gonna go mess around Grue's power until it's time."

As I walked out he called. "At least this time you're playing around with a teenage _guy_. . . 's power!"

Ignoring him I headed to the workshop. Unlike my other powers, this would be easily visible from the air, so I needed to stay indoors to practice. Taking his power out, I extruded it, feeling it invisibly roil off my form though I couldn't see it. Annoyed at yet _another_ power that gave me nothing visual to work with, I looked over to the laptop and webcam I'd started using for my aerokinesis practice. Startling, I could easily see the screen, but on it I was a humanoid shape of shadows and darkness, the positioning of the dark smoke matching what I felt in my head. Pulling on my experience with my bug sense, I was able to direct the darkness back and forth, double checking with the camera I moved it back and forth. It too, was slippery, but easier to work with the more I did so.

Playing around I remembered that Shadow Stalker had mentioned that Grue's messed with hers, so I carefully shifted to Shadowform while keeping the darkness going. I didn't feel any pain as I slowly shifted to full shadow, but I didn't feel the lightness that my Shadowform usually gave me. Testing a theory, I walked over to a rack of material, and gently tried to pass my hand through it, the hand that should have been intangible bumping into the cool metal. I grabbed a chair and thought about it, still in full Shadowform and venting shadows around me as I sat, playing with the darkness.

Grue's power brought the dimension that Shadow Stalker partially shifted to closer, bringing it out with him like Purity did, but a lot less explosive. Maybe because the area of his darkness was already partially in that shadow land, then when she shifted, her body, which was displaced there, got dumped back into our dimension. Yeah, that could make for a _nasty_ surprise if you weren't ready for it, and Grue could probably see her just fine, which also messed with her assassin, strike from the shadows, style of fighting. Ironic that a girl who espoused rule of the strongest hid in the shadows like a coward, but I never claimed Sophia was _wise_.

Looking at the darkness I messed with it, making humanoid figures. They were a bit crude looking, but had the same appearance in the camera as I did, so that might be doable. Glancing over at the clock, I'd been at it for a couple hours, and it was almost time to meet Panacea. Flooding the area with darkness, I was impressed with how quickly it spread, pulling it just short of leaving the workshop. I concentrated and it all dissipated at once. The laptop camera feed showing complete blackness only for it to evaporate into the image of myself, standing there cloaked in darkness, which looked _badass_. Happy with my progress I dropped back into reality and headed out for the _totally_ not a trap with the angry flesh-sculptor.

* * *

Overlooking the area I was supposed to meet Panacea from high above, cloaked in shadow against the night sky, I scanned the small park. Focusing on my power sight I say the flame of her power, it's lightless Blaze a beacon in the night. To my complete and utter lack of surprise, I also picked out the White and Gold of Glory Girl on a rooftop overlooking the area, hidden behind a ledge as she watched her sister, normally freely blazing fire constricted and lessened. _Was it because she's concerned?_ Point for her, negative point for forgetting that I was a flier like her, and would probably favor an airborne entry. Just because I didn't fly constantly like her, she probably pegged me as land bound.

I didn't disabuse them of their notion, landing in a nearby alley before de-cloaking and striding out into the park, approaching Panacea. She turned around as I make sure to walk with noise, my boots thumping on the pathway. "You're early," she told me without expression.

"So are you, and I've come alone, like you asked. I told you I'd answer questions when we didn't have to save hostages from the well-intentioned danger of Kid Win." I spread my arms. "What do you want to know?"

"You told me you knew about powers and Triggers." She demanded. "I looked up what you said, and no one's heard anything like what you said!"

I looped a sound bubble around all three of our heads. If they had any recording devices on them, this wasn't making it to that. "I hope you weren't foolish enough to search for 'purchase superpowers' or anything silly like that." By her expression, she'd done exactly that. _Lovely_. I sighed. "In the future, please resist doing anything like that, if you do too much you'll be visited by the people who sell them, as they are _not_ good people. And don't mention it on PHO, the AI that runs it is watched as well, and- Dear God Glory Girl, learn to control your goddamn power!" I growled as a wave of Awe hit me.

The Awe promptly cut out, and I looked up at her as she sheepishly flew down, moving the sound bubble with her. "So, come alone?" I asked Panacea. "If I hadn't expected this, I would be walking away right now."

Panacea looked at her sister, shock and betrayal warring over her face. "You followed me?" she asked, offended.

The Awe crept back in a little. "You were going on about how Vejovis was some insane villain who knew things he couldn't possibly know, then you disappeared. Of course I followed you Ames, I was worried."

The artificial feelings grated, as did the manipulation via powers as Panacea's expression softened, turning back to me. "These people that sell powers, who are they?"

I shook my head. " _That_ I'm not going to explain, because you'll try to find them, succeed, and at best get blackmailed into silence. Besides, that's not what you wanted to ask."

She looked conflicted, probably trying to pick just one topic. "You know things, _private_ things, how?"

I went with the explanation I'd been preparing for Taylor. "Both my partner, Break, and myself got a comprehensive read on what the future would have been if we'd never arrived, focusing on certain crucial people in detail. I have a _month_ to help fix a lot of things before things in Brockton Bay get _really bad_ and warning people won't help for reasons I _won't_ tell you, because you'll try to help in ways that will hurt. After that there's about a month and a half of horribleness until things back off to workable levels, but everything is still pretty shit. However, everything slowly _gets worse_ unless I can stop a lot of bad things from happening."

"Bullshit," Panacea responded. "Precognition doesn't work like that, right?" she asked her sister, who nodded.

I sighed. There was no way I was going to get her to listen unless I was able to use her power to show that I was being honest. _God, I hope this doesn't go badly._ "Panacea, when you asked me that question after you healed me, you were checking my autonomic responses to see if I was lying, right?" Glory Girl shot Panacea a surprised look, her sister not saying anything. "Right?" I asked again. "With your diagnostic abilities that should be doable."

"Ames?" Glory girl asked.

She nodded jerkily. "Thought so. So, given that, like you, my powers don't work on myself, if I willingly put myself under your power do I have your _word_ that _all_ you'll do is check my responses. It is only because I know that you have a code that you follow, _no matter what_ that I'm willing to trust your word if you give it."

Panacea looked at me, conflicted. "If you can tell if he's telling the truth, then why not do it?" Glory Girl asked.

"If I could mess with him, he could mess with me," she responded, eyes widening as she made a connection. "It's almost like we have the same power, just like he has yours, and the bug girl's as well."

"I have not, nor will I, use my Biokinesis against either of you in an offensive manner," I promised. "I would probably never use it offensively _ever_ , but I don't know what will happen when I change the timeline, and am doing my best not to lie to either of you."

Panacea looked at her sister, who looked at her imploringly. "Fine," she said, holding out her hand.

I didn't move. "Do I have your _word_ you won't use your power on me while I am doing this other than to check my responses. I need to hear you say it."

She grimaced, whether because she was planning to slip out of her agreement, that she forgot to give it, or that I was being difficult about it I wasn't sure. "You have my word." I didn't move, just raising an eyebrow. "That I won't use my power on you," she added.

"Until I have time to withdraw," Insisted.

"Until you have time to withdraw," she repeated, starting to get upset.

I nodded, stripping off my left glove. "Then I will take your word, and trust in it." I stepped forward, taking her hand, holding it firm. "I have read the future as it originally played out. It is _bad_. Both you and your sister end up psychologically scarred, your father, Shielder, and his father are all dead, as is Gallant before June is over. I'm doing what I can to prevent that, but the fact that the shards that give you natural Triggers your powers push you towards conflict, so you can use your powers in new and interesting ways, makes it all that much harder. I never meant for you to be in the bank this afternoon, and couldn't think of a way that let me get you away without raising your suspicion." I felt her stiffen, trying to pull back, but I pressed on. "There's more I can tell you, I _want_ to tell you, but the more I tell you, the bigger the target on your back, and if you know too much you'll have to contend with the _Simurgh_ herself."

Her hand went slack as Glory Girl whispered "Holy shit. Is that true Ames?" who only nodded in mute horror.

"I'm immune to her power, as is _one_ other I know of, but if you tell _anyone_ of what I'm telling you here tonight, you are risking not only your life, but theirs as well, and increasing the chance of an Endbringer attack on Brockton Bay. She can read the future and past as easily as you would skip forward or back in a book, and if she sees crucial information getting out, she _will_ stop it. _You_ eventually figure out crucial information, and she takes steps to make sure it _never_ is heard. The only reason _I_ can tell you is that she can't see me, and I'm making sure that if you are recording this, the recording gets _nothing_."

Panacea jumped, looking at me. "How?"

I shrugged. "It's what I'd do." I looked between the two of them, "What's im-" unexpectedly, my phone rang. Without letting go of her hand I checked it. Taylor was calling, but it should be something I could get to later, as her run in with Bakuda wouldn't happen until tomorrow. Muting it, I slipped it back in my pocket.

"Should you've got that?" hesitantly asked Glory Girl.

I shook my head. "It was The Lady, Bug, _this_ is more important." The girls shared an indecipherable look. "What I was saying is that the future I saw, it gave me an insight into both of your characters. Panacea, you _are_ a hero, no matter what you may think, and I don't give people that title lightly. Your sister, she's halfway there, but definitely hero-ish," I told her with a grin.

Glory Girl, who had been practically hanging off my words, startled, taking offense. "Hey, I'm so totally a hero! I totes fight crime and everything!"

"While there might be things I won't tell you, for good reason, I'll try to do my damndest never to lie to either of you," I looked them both in the eye, smiling as I ignored Glory Girls' outrage, trying to break the tension, knowing I was going to make it worse again. "And since I'm here, one last thing to mention. Panacea, medical question." That got her attention, probably because it was the one thing that she could get a handle on. "Emotion altering powers effect brain chemistry, right?"

She nodded. "Haven't seen it myself, but yeah."

"And I know you don't do brains," I continued, "for damn good reasons that I totally understand, but you can still _see_ them, right?" She nodded. "In that case I'll be your Guinea pig, Glory Girl, if you could raise and lower your aura?"

She did so, and my smile became a bit forced as I felt waves of baseless Awe surge through me, fading only to come back. Hearing Panacea gasp I told her sister. "Okay, that's enough," before turning back to the healer.

"Is that why?" she asked, horrified.

"I believe so, it's downright Pavlovian, and just as artificial." I responded comfortingly.

"What is?" Glory Girl demanded, aura rising again.

I turned to look at her, the portion of me in Awe of the teenager who had done very little to deserve it sectioned off, trying to keep it from corrupting the rest of me. "I don't tell her all of your secrets Glory Girl, and I won't tell you hers, just reign in your aura please."

She gave me an annoyed look, turning to her sister, asking "Ames what is it?", only for her sister to shake her head no in response.

As the aura bumped up a notch, I let go of Panacea's hand, causing her to look at me as I put my glove back on. "It is her secret to tell. Control your power Glory Girl, no one likes mind control," I informed her, keeping my voice polite as I held back mounting irritation.

Her aura increased further. "It's not mind control, It's a Shaker power." She defended righteously as I called her out.

"Shaker refers to area of effect, and you damn well know that," I told the heroine, getting severely annoyed. "I thought you studied parahumans, power classifications are day _one_ , and I'd thank you _not_ to try to mislead me when I am trying my best to be honest with you, so would you please turn it _down_." She looked momentarily guilty, before almost visibly shifting that self-recrimination into a more offensive emotion.

"It's not mind control," the teenage icon told me as I felt the pressure on my mind grow, "just nudging emotions!"

"Your emotions are _part_ of your mind!" I informed her a growl creeping into my tone despite her not really deserving it. _Is she even realizing she's doing it?_ I wondered. _She has to, she's a professional hero so of course she would, no one I'd respect would. Oh._ **_Oh hell no_** _._ "The only reason you aren't viewed in a similar manner to _Heartbreaker_ and his kids Glory _Girl_ is that it only has two settings, and the fact that you don't consciously control it, though that's becoming less of an _excuse_ as you get older." She looked back upset, letting her power run rampant. She might not be able to consciously control it directly, but she wasn't even _trying_ to restrain it I realized, feeling betrayed for a reason I couldn't define. As I felt the weight of it pushing down, I realized that I had to tell her what she was doing, she deserved to know the truth, about my plans, about Leviathan, about everything, but _this_ was most pressing.

"Glory Girl, listen, please. Your studies should have shown you, that some people react _badly_ to having their mind messed with, with reactions ranging from annoyance to a desire to _kill_ the _mind controller_ as soon as their able." It clicked in my head why I wanted to praise her, but at the same time take Stormtiger's claws and gut this paragon of heroes everywhere. "That being said, would you kindly _reign in your fucking power!_ " I outright growled, seeing the dreamy look on Panacea's face and _despising_ it. The beautiful parahuman floating in front of me practically demanding my respect with her majesty, above such pathetic concerns like the _brainwashing_ of her sister.

The demi-goddess defended herself "Don't tell me what to do!" she commanded, and she was right to do so but she was also false, wrong, everything about this was _fake!_ My emotions made sense, they always had a basis in _something_ , even if I didn't like it, I'd put in so much time and effort to _make_ them _make sense_ to stop the pain but now they didn't as this _false_ goddess demanded I fall to my knees in praise. As I stepped forward to kill this image of divinity something in me snapped, a line I Would Not Cross, so I chose a non-lethal take down, to better decide her fate once I'd had some time to think and make it truly _hurt_. I sped forward in a flash, stepping on a Speed Zone to cover the distance in an instant, my first blow catching her in the stomach, dissipating both of our shields, though the one on my head remained. My second blow came, a backhanded slap, my musculature alone giving the strike enough strength to knock her down. How I wanted to coax just a bit of power to create claws and destroy that glorious visage that stared, shocked, back at me before that second blow hit, but again, it was a line I Would Not Cross, though I had no idea why. My hand connected with the harsh _crunch_ of something breaking, a spray of crimson blood arcing from the perfect nose I'd broken with my heretical hand, liquid rubies falling on unworthy soil. The celestial being fell, and as she hit the ground, like an angel thrown from heaven itself, clarity hit me like truck, dousing my thoughts in a torrent of cold reality.

I looked at Glory Girl, the teen who thought herself a hero, on the ground, moaning as she clutched her broken nose, and took a deep shuddering breath. "Okay, I'm not immune to mind control. Good to know," I commented to no one in particular. "Maybe pointing out what her power does to her sister while she was still off-balance was a mistake."

Hearing Panacea cry "Vicky!" and start to run to her, I made a split-second decision. Flying to Panacea I picked her up and carried her several dozen feet away, still close enough to see Glory Girl, but not enough to be hit by her aura if it flared again. "I need to help her! She's hurt!" Panacea cried in anguish.

I held her fast, simply saying "No."

She looked at me as she struggled, mindless fear and fury across her face as her hand whipped out like a viper, touching my cheek. Her shocked look a moment later had me thanking Herb in my head. "What?" she asked dumbly.

"Panacea, _think don't feel!_ " I implored. "Your sister kept pushing her power farther, and I kept on asking her to stop, but she didn't, even after she saw how badly it was effecting me. _Think_ now that your Pavlovian love response isn't making you _insane_."

Her struggles stopped as her eyes cleared. "What, what was that?" she asked numbly. "It's, she's, that's never happened before."

I sighed, letting her go, ready to grab her if she ran. "I'm not sure what the hell that was. Maybe she's never had anyone not relent like that when she's used her power to manipulate them."

Panacea looked at me in confusion. "Vicky wouldn't do that."

A mirthless chuckle was my response. "Her power is subconsciously controlled, for her to ratchet it up that hard that fast, that's an emotional response, and it makes perfect sense." I shook my head, not sure if I was talking to the healer or myself. "It's the kind of power that every teen would want, and should never have. If someone is mad at her for a legitimate reason? Turn up the aura, she's so awesome, that it isn't that big a deal and it gets dropped. Someone being unfair? Turn up the aura, they immediately feel guilty for what they're doing, and it gets dropped."

"She wouldn't," Panacea started, trailing off as she looked over her memories.

I blew out a long breathe as I let go of her and stepped back, hands shaking with the memory of how much I'd _Loved_ and _Hated_ Glory Girl a moment ago. "I just _told_ you guys that I know her power's weakness. Right now, one good hit drops her shield, leaving her vulnerable to one-two combos, or just double tapping with a pistol." I reached behind myself, pulling out my gun. "I'm glad I didn't remember that I had this," I told her as she went pale, before stowing the weapon. "Fuck me running, this shit is why I called you a hero, and her half of one." I told her, sitting on a nearby park bench, and motioning for her to sit down next to me in the darkening twilight. She glanced at her sister, who was moaning on the ground. "I just broke her nose, she'll be fine, though it might be the most pain she's ever felt. You can heal her in an instant, but let her deal with it for a few minutes. What she did was _not okay_."

Panacea sat on the edge of the bench, looking at me. "Did you know she was going to?" she motioned to us.

"Nope, her aura was never all that effective in the future I saw," I admitted. "Didn't know it _could_ get that bad. I'm honestly figuring out the deeper details like this as I go, sometimes a moment too late, but I was talking of heroism. You have the mentality and attitude of a Hero, a bit too black and white, but if you don't fall you'll pick that up with time. You're too self-sacrificing, and I know why but you aren't ready to hear it. With a support network that actually helps you, you'd learn to temper that, but Glory Girl?

I sighed. "She has so much power, but uses it so irresponsibly, relying on those around her to fix her mistakes, I know how she uses you to un-injure criminals she gets careless with instead of learning to control her strength, and if she does it with you, she probably does it with others. Panacea, she throws temper tantrums with _mind control_ and the only reason she hasn't been Birdcaged is that she's popular, connected, and her Master power is weak, though that last one apparently isn't true any longer."

Looking at Panacea, and waiting until she looked back at me, I continued. "Panacea, you saw what slight exposure was doing to my brain, and you could probably check the effects on a few other people and whip up a prion or something that'll let you reverse the damage without breaking your rule about interfacing the brain directly." I let out another breath, reaching over and putting a hand on her shoulder. "You know I wasn't lying when I said one of the two things I do is help heroes. If you need someone to talk to, help in a bad situation, hell, maybe just a place to stay that isn't in range of your sister's aura just call and I can set you up with a hotel room somewhere or something. If you want help on a hospital shift, call me and I'll come down if I'm free. Just. Just be careful okay?"

She didn't respond, so I told her in tones of complete seriousness, "Right now, through no one's direct fault, your drug is your sister's aura, she doses everyone near her, and you are _severely_ addicted. At the worst right there before I knocked her down, her aura made me want to get down and worship the ground she flew over, for you it must have been. . ."

The poor girl looked heartbroken "Like falling in love all over again," she whispered, tears streaming down her face.

I couldn't help myself, I leaned over and hugged her. "And now you know it's not real. I'm sorry you had to find out, but it _had_ to happen."

"Why?" she cried, collapsing in on herself. "Why did you make me face this! I didn't want to!"

"Because the alternative was _so_ much worse." I explained, having to make her _understand_. "You broke your rule, for reasons you couldn't control, and then you saw her, and you reached out without thinking and without thinking you _made_ her love you as much as you love her, but just like me she didn't react like she was supposed to. She _hated_ you instead and it broke you, and when the, when everything happened, it turned out _bad_. I know it hurts, but you don't heal a wound by sealing it up, it needs to get cleaned completely and be repaired from the bottom up." I let her go, sitting back. "So, Panacea, you have some options. If you want to we can leave right now." Her eyes went to her sister. "After healing Glory Girl," I added. "It's just a broken nose, _I_ could do it if you want. We could leave, and give you time away from her to get your head cleared, or you could get her home and do that. Or," I paused wincing. _I have to be fair_ I thought. "Or you could go back to her, knowing how everything is, and try to make the best of it. Knowing that your feelings are fake, and having to constantly deal with it. I'd really prefer you didn't, but I told you I'd be honest, and that _is_ an option."

She looked at me wearily. "I, I know my _feelings_ towards her aren't real, but what I felt, before she became Glory Girl, back when she was just Vicky _are_. She's my sister, and I love her, and she needs my help." She smiled sadly as she stood up. "I know you're just trying to help, and you know all of _this_ , but I just met you, and this is too much." Her words, similar configurations of which I've heard many times before, _hurt_ , but I understood.

"Just," I hesitated, trying to find the right words, "just make sure _you're_ alright too, okay?" I asked, feeling oddly hollow.

She nodded. "Thanks for caring, it's nice to know that someone other than Vicky does." She turned and slowly walked back to her sister. I watched her go, feeling heavy. I flew up into the night, watching from afar as she knelt down, putting her hands on her sister's arm, Glory Girl's tense form relaxing as she was healed.

I turned, and left in defeat.


	29. Blueprint 3-x(Interlude:Medhu,Dauntless)

**Interlude 3.x (Medhu, Dauntless)**

Medhu came to with a mouthful of blood and a chestful of pain. He stilled as he waited for the beeping of his watch, but it did not come. Trying to open his eyes, and only managing one, the other felt sticky, swollen shut. He looked around. He was seated on a chair, strapped in by the feel of it, the restraints digging uncomfortably into his wrists and ankles informing him that he had been divested of his standard dress shirt and slacks, left in his undershirt and underwear. _Well, this isn't optimal_ he thought as he took in the room around him. He'd expected to be in some dark and dank basement, but the place he was in had an almost clinical look; well lit, clean white walls and the faint odor of disinfectant barely discernable over the metallic tang of blood. Shifting, the chair appeared to be bolted to the floor, and padded, oddly enough.

His musings were cut off as the steel door leading out opened, a rough looking man walking in with his beeping watch. Medhu looked at him. White, blonde, though if you looked closely you could tell he colored it, clean shaven, but with a couple of minor scars. Edging up, barely visible, was the top of a tattoo. Normally, that wouldn't be enough, but he'd done his research, and that particular piece of body modification was unfortunately common. What could only be a member of the Empire Eighty-Eight addressed Medhu, unfazed by his injuries, asking only "How do I turn off the alarm. Tell me, or I'll break it."

Medhu smiled, or tried to. It felt like one of his teeth was loose, that probably explained the blood. "Press the button by the six twice," he instructed, trying not to hiss in pain. Yes, one of his ribs was probably broken, and while it hadn't pierced anything, it made breathing too deeply. . . interesting. The Neo-Nazi did so, checking his phone afterwards before nodding and putting it away as he walked out. From the glimpse Medhu had of his captor's phone, it was running a frequency tracker. _That was smart,_ he mused as the racist left. _If that had been a distress signal, they would have noticed, and this room may be shielded_. _I hate dealing with intelligent foes_. What was far more interesting had been the identification badge the guard had been wearing. It appeared he was being held within the Medhall building, which was apparently in league with the E88. _Well, that explains why it's doing so well. Probably should sell my stocks_.

With that in mind, he let go of his power, the world fading out in blurs of black and silver, which was still something he was getting used to. Returning back to his breakfast, twelve hours before his capture, Medhu glanced at the clock, seeing only a minute had passed. He made a note to cancel his meeting with the new client today, taking a sip of his coffee to wash away the phantom taste of blood that hadn't been spilled, yet. He took a deep breath, the memory of the pain such an action entailed dispelled by the act. Sighing, he looked over his possible futures, laid out in front of him like this he only got vague impressions, enough to gain an emotional sense, but no true information, which he needed now more than ever before. Ever since the day that the. . . merging had happened, his life had become more interesting, in the Chinese sense. It was hard to believe that it was less than a week ago when he'd rushed from place to place, barely even using his powers as he was awash in memories that where not his own, another life that had changed how he viewed things, how he did things, and, unfortunately, still did. If he went down to his office as normal, he ended up hurt, a ten second dive into that possibility bringing him back to that secluded room in the Medhall building, though his tooth wasn't loose, and he had what felt like a lightly broken arm.

Looking down the path of if he stayed and worked from his penthouse, doing the best job he could, for the third day this week, the sense of bored safety expanded. His surroundings faded out in black and silver, which itself was also different. Normally everything faded in deep ochres and reds, the colors Medhu had always associated with his powers, though he wasn't sure why. Now it was black and silver, and feeling the metallic color instead of the grey his eyes saw was an odd sensation, and he had to put it down to his other sets of memories, Jack's memories, affecting his powers, though he wasn't sure if there were other effects, which bothered him greatly.

Seeing himself uninjured and at his desk, he looked down at the list in his hands which gave an overview of the day's events. It was a habit that he'd carefully cultivated, as his power only let him choose general paths, letting his normal habits take root and guide him between needed events. As such, he'd made it a habit to, always, between eight and ten past eight, have written a list of the important events of the day to better review what had happened. He had a pad of flash paper at both his home and office desks specifically for that purpose, burning it afterwards and claiming it to be a "mind clearing exercise" to his assistant. Staring at a piece of paper for ten minutes was terribly boring but his power gave him a twelve-hour view into the future, and doing these dives took time, so he needed to do the boring chore to make sure he was looking at it when he peered down the periscope of fate.

Focusing on his list, he had apparently approved a few new hires and negotiated with the new construction company, a Fortress Construction, to rebuild his shop across from the Medhall building, having asked for additional surveillance and security options. The additions, once again, validating his first dive, unpleasant as it was, as the information gained from one shaped all the others, prioritizing the unpleasant ones first, making any passing discomfort from them worth the effort. Third on the list, with the star symbolizing an outside event, was the robbing of Bay Central at one in the afternoon. The participants listed were three names. The first was The Wards, though why you'd send children to stop a bank robbery baffled him, but also stirred a faint feeling of moral outrage that he wouldn't have had . . . before. The Second, The Undersiders, might have explained the first, as they apparently sent children to fight children. Once again, the ironic humor was tinged with a disgust born from another life. The Third. It underlined the problem he'd been grappling with. It was completely unreadable, the letters shifting, growing, shrinking, and blinking out entirely as he looked down at the page.

That meant it must have been his son, no, Jack's son, who had apparently taken the identity of the hero Vejovis, was there. It hadn't taken that much effort to put together, after all, he'd identified the young man that his new memories had tagged as Lee Rycroft as the source the corruption of his power, and shortly after he becomes unable to see the actions that the new hero Vejovis took. That and the e-mail that the hero had sent him which spelled out his name in the margin helped.

He turned his focus back to the list he was looking at, as his power did have a timed aspect to be mindful of, and if he stayed lost in thought too long this version of himself would torch the list before he finished reading it. It was something he'd done before. Fourth was a fight between the E88 and a new parahuman pair calling themselves "Boojack and Jackhammer", with "Black Supremacist?" written immediately after.

Fifth was the kidnapping of the mayor's niece, which he didn't care about, though, again, part of him wanted to do something to stop it. He squashed that impulse, one he hadn't felt in years, as doing so would have outed him as a precognitive, and as one he wouldn't be able to avoid notice, which was his first, and best, defense.

Deciding to go with this fate, Medhu activated his power, dropping back to the present, his body started finishing his breakfast, his mind in the passenger's seat. He'd continue on with his power like this, able to think freely and observe what was going on without disturbing what he did as he made the vision he'd seen a reality. If something went wrong, or if he saw a possibility that he hadn't considered, he could take over his body again, aborting that fate. He wouldn't have the pre-prepared list to review, but sometimes, occasionally, it was worth doing. What it did allow him was a great deal of time to think and plan while the boring details of the day were taken care of. As his body finished eating and started doing the dishes, Medhu's mind considered the e-mail.

He hadn't responded to it, as every future that he did was borderline impossible to see, shifting and glitching into uselessness. Part of him, the newer part, wanted to track down his son, if only to get answers as to just what was going on. The rest of him, what he wanted to think of as his original self, wanted to do no such thing. His power was what kept him safe from harm, from kidnapping, from death itself, and if he were to meet his- no, Jack's son, he'd be doing so completely blind. He wanted to keep that other set of memories, that other personality, separate from his own, but they where settling into him, changing him, and quite frankly he found that terrifying. To contact Vejovis, Lee, whoever this person was would be something that Jack would do in an instant, and was thus something he was avoiding as hard as he could, though some part of him, part of the him that was originally him, knew that struggle was futile.

That struggle was also, he considered, the source of his current. . . difficulties. After that first day, his following of the source of the interference with his powers, and his momentary mercy, so out of character for him, made him of interest to the Empire. Arriving at his Medhall shop, and dismissing the workers to try to keep them safe before the miniature gang war blew through, had attracted attention of no less than Kaiser himself. Two days later his power had shown him that the new client he was to meet had been with the leader of the Empire, who had come to him with an offer. Turn over the mole he obviously had in their organization and he'd be compensated for helping them close a hole in their security. He'd been given twenty four hours to consider their offer, but it was a matter of time before they found out he didn't have anyone, and after that he'd have an angry blade generator to contend with. Aborting that timeline, he'd cancelled the meeting, citing a flu, which just made things more tenuous. His new self, the one with Jack's memories, had wanted to try a third option, but he, his old self, the division was easier then, overruled himself somehow, he wasn't sure how anymore. The next day he dodged another meeting, and received a message from the gang-leader directly via e-mail. Turn over the name of the mole, or the name of the precognitive that he had on staff, or they'd kill him.

After that at least one path, per day, resulted in his death or capture, and it was really wearing on him. As long as he could continue avoiding them, he was fine, and the fact that he used a fake identity when renting his current abode was surely paying off now. He, his new, merged self, reminded the old that his powers were all about information gathering, and it was only a matter of time until he needed help, and if he just _reached out to his son_ , he'd have the help he needed. That if he had listened to himself before, he wouldn't have gotten himself into this situation in the first place. Medhu, the old Medhu, though that distinction was slowly failing, shut down his own thoughts as his body sat down to go over his e-mails for the day. 'I told you so's' after the fact where of no use to him right now, after all, _anyone_ could be a post-cog.

* * *

As he walked towards the meeting room, Dauntless rotated his shoulder, working the stiffness that lingered from his fight this morning, if you could call it that. Against the new pair of capes that had been killing the members of the Empire Eighty-Eight, they'd been practically useless. They'd arrived to a scene of carnage, some thugs unconscious, some maimed, and some little more than crushed bodies under the feet of the one who kept changing into animals. Rhinoceroses, elephants, even a giraffe once, but all stronger than they should have been, and by the time his team had arrived the fight had turned deadly. They now had Crusader in custody, though not the new parahumans, as they had ran after clashing with the Protectorate, though it didn't feel like a victory to the hero.

Entering, he nodded to Velocity, who was writing up his report, and Battery, who was doing the same while Assault joked and tried to get her to laugh. "I'm just sayin' we didn't really need to get in the middle of it, there weren't any innocents involved, and the situation was pretty black and white!" he smiled, Battery putting down her pen to hold her face in her hands.

"I cannot believe you just said that," she responded, mouth twitching minutely.

Dauntless walked to his normal seat, giving the Wards a nod as well. His team had been sent to support them when the impromptu gang war had diverted them, and while the report had been that they succeeded in securing the hostages, they didn't have the air of a group who'd won either. "How's the arm?" Velocity asked, not looking up.

He shrugged experimentally. "Not that bad," he responded. "Boojack was stronger than he looked, but my shield took most of it."

Velocity nodded, not looking up. "And faster, even with my power I've picked up a few bruises."

Dauntless' eyebrows rose at that. The suited cape hadn't been that fast when he'd fought him. _Was he holding back?_ He thought. _Why?_ Triumph came in, taking his seat on Dauntless' other side, no longer limping like he'd been when they'd gotten back to the Rig. he was about to ask the younger man about his take when Miss Militia and Armsmaster walked in, followed closely by Director Piggot and a PRT tech, who plugged in his laptop, typing away as everyone else took their seats as usual. The Director didn't, always standing at these meetings. It was probably a power move, but Dauntless didn't mind. She _was_ the director of the Brockton PRT branch, and as a member of the Protectorate he ultimately answered to her.

She looked around the table, gaze dispassionate and disapproving, though she usually wore that expression, so he wasn't sure if that was just how she looked normally. "I'm sure you've known why I've called you here, but in case some of you haven't been reading your reports," her eyes flicked over to the Wards, and Dauntless wondered if something had happened at the bank, "We've had at least seven new parahumans appear in almost as many days, and while most of them are presenting themselves as heroes, events have transpired such that we need to consolidate our resources and brief you formally. The first;" the tech turned on the table, the image of a shakily taken camera video playing. "Has no official name. For now we are calling him Spectrum, given his eyes." The clip of a man in a white hoodie with an embroidered red lion on his bank having a confrontation with Lung played, the man dodging blows before hitting his foe, knocking the Yakuza villain back and forth, immune to the flames the man-dragon was giving off. Flashing a thumbs up to the camera, the image stilled, showing two glowing eyes set against the unnatural shadows the hoodie cast across his face, the orbs prismatic in their coloration. The video resumed as he was taken off his feet by Lungs tail, fire obscuring what happened next as Lung was sent flying out, impacting the store across the boardwalk, Spectrum and a dark-skinned man covered in soot with a canary yellow jacket wrapped around his head ran out of the flames seemingly unharmed, taking off at almost inhuman speeds as Lung started to pursue and the clip restarted from the beginning. "As for the other individual, we have no evidence of powers, other than his resistance to fire. What is of note is that Spectrum's clothing seemed unharmed, both by flames and Lung's claws." The video played slowed down clips of the cape getting hit by claws that could tear steel, the cloth merely depressing. "We're giving him a preliminary rating him Brute 5, Mover 3, given his bursts of speed in the video. He or his friend may be one of the others that have shown up recently, but we cannot be certain."

"Second of all is the hero Vejovis," Armsmaster gave a dismissive snort, drawing Dauntless attention. _Had they had met?_ Director Piggot paused, before continuing, the screen showing security camera footage of a man in a white and blood red bodysuit. "We first heard of him when he walked inside our office, asking to register his independent team." Her statement was met with expressions of shock. Dauntless thinking of his own recruitment, working on his own before meeting Miss Militia on patrol.

"Who does that?" asked Assault. "There's no flair to that at all, it's just so _boring!_ "

The Director raised an eyebrow at him. "When informed that he couldn't name his group Twilight Protectors, he changed it to Penumbral Defenders." Assault snorted. "Yes, it was only after the name was officially approved that someone pointed out the acronym issue." It took Dauntless a second, but he saw it as well. What naming yourself the PD meant for the parahuman's intentions, he wasn't sure. "His abilities appear to be a mosaic power expression, though our experts say that the other factors involved are not present. He possesses an Alexandria package similar to Glory Girl's, though thankfully lacking in her shaker power. He possesses a healing power similar to Panacea's, though again, weaker than hers. His unique power appeared to be insect control," Clockblocker shuddered, and Dauntless was now sure that _something_ had happened at the bank, "But one of the other new parahumans appears to have that as her power as well."

"Mam," Gallant asked, voice thick with thought. "I've studied parahuman science with Glory Girl, it would fit if he had insect control, and the other controller had some other power. No one has more than three powers."

Director Piggot nodded. "That is one of our theories, please keep your comments to yourself until the briefing is over Gallant." He apologized, and the image changed to a still shot of Vejovis as he was lifting off the ground. "He has been labelled a Mover, Brute, Striker, Master, though as usual no values are assigned until he proves himself to be a threat." Armsmaster shifted unhappily, obviously disagreeing.

"The other two members are a pair of African American brothers, going by Break and Enter, both are claimed to become stronger as they fight in a similar manner to Lung. Enter is able to turn into dinosaurs." Assault looked incredulous, but the Wards looked unsurprised.

The image changed to a familiar man in a suit with pitch black skin, clear mask on his face next to larger man wearing working clothes, skin leathery and almost grey. "Another pair of Parahumans, that we became aware of go by Boojack and Jackhammer," she continued, ignoring Assault as he tried to say something. "Who we know are separate, as they were seen the same time as Break and Enter, and the fact that Jackhammer seems to only be able to turn into mammals confirms it. The two pairs are almost certainly cluster triggers, though we don't know the circumstances, or even their identities. Break and Boojack are Brute 4's, Enter and Jackhammer and Brute 4's and Changer 6's"

"The only female in the group, is an insect controller who goes by The Lady, Bug. From what we can tell she's a recent trigger, and is a probationary member of the Vejovis's team." The image shifted again, showing the entrance to the PRT building again, at a later hour, Vejovis and a girl completely covered in black and grey armor, except for her chestnut brown hair and wasp yellow lenses. She-"

"That's her!" Clockblocker said, "The one at the bank!"

Director Piggot regarded him coolly. "Are you saying you can make a positive identification. That you saw her clearly, or have evidence that she was there? Because that's what the Defender's lawyers are _requiring_ before they will cooperate."

"Um, no, but I saw that yellow, and they had all of those bugs!" he defended.

"Seein' a color and getting hit by insects is not enough kid," Assault responded before the Director could, "Not when there might be a third one around, even if it does _bug_ you."

"She is considered a Master, though she may have other powers, as stated." She rolled on. "Lastly we have 'Boardwalk', who has been active at night, targeting the Merchants." The screen changed to a drawing showing a man in drawing studded leather, hood, and mask, different colored spots across his form, feet completely white. "Mover, Breaker, Blaster, and Brute, Gallant and Shadow Stalker made contact last night. He gave his name, and provided them with thumb drives which contained coded information on drug trafficking. What is of note is that he knew Shadow Stalkers civilian identity."

"That glowing asshole unmasked me!" the Ward in question yelled. "Fucker needs to die!"

Gallant sighed. "No he didn't Shadow Stalker, he used the first syllable of your first name, and he was doing so as a joke. His emotions were anger and humor, and he wasn't loud enough for anyone else to hear."

"But he knew who you were?" Triumph asked, sitting up.

Gallant nodded, "Definitely, and his powers interacted oddly with hers. To me he was dark, like Stalker, but with different colors that moved across his body. Whenever he flew his feet turned bright white. To her he apparently was always glowing like Purity, which is why she missed when she tried to shoot him."

Director Piggot turned to the recalcitrant Ward. "You did not mention that you attacked him in your report."

She shrugged, indifferent. "Didn't hit the fucker, who _unmasked me_ , so who cares?"

"I do," was the response. "That brings us to today's events. Boojack and Jackhammer attacked the E88, and displayed a level of violence such that they should only be approached with overwhelming force unless we find out more. While that was happening, Dinah Alcott, the mayor's niece was kidnapped. At the _same time_ , the villain group known as the Undersiders attempted to rob Bay Central Bank. At least two of these events are related, if not all three, so all parties involved are wanted for questioning."

"What about the Defenders?" asked Aegis.

"Not at this time," Director Piggot told him, Armsmaster scowling next to her. "I'll be reviewing your individual reports tonight, but in short, what occurred?"

The Wards, except for the pouting Shadow Stalker, shared a look. "We received the call at school," Aegis started, "And headed towards the Bank with Glory Girl."

"And your handler approved this?" Director Piggot asked leadingly.

Aegis shook his head. "No Mam, he didn't respond when we tried to contact our support. We chose to continue as time is of the essence in a robbery."

Her eyebrow rose. "I'll have to review the logs. You know that, by bringing Glory Girl along, you were responsible for her actions, correct?"

He nodded curtly. "Yes Mam. I believed her capabilities outweighed the risks. When we arrived the windows were blacked out with Grue's power. He said he was going to send the hostages out, extending the smoke, but we were attacked by insects, the Undersiders engaging us immediately after. Sometime during the encounter Break and Enter, um, entered the conflict, fighting both us and the Undersiders. We were incapacitated, as was Break, and the Undersiders fled with the money they stole. Vejovis, who was inside with the hostages, was injured, and Panacea and Glory Girl were able to get the hostages to safety. We met Vejovis, who was healed by Panacea, before he, Break, and Enter left. We were not in a state to detain them, and we were not aware of the legality of such as an action, as our handler could not be reached."

She looked at the Ward, studying him, but he held fast under her gaze. "Is that all?" she asked. _She knows something_ Dauntless realized as Aegis nodded. "You had no other plans, such as switching costumes with Clockblocker to attempt to fool your opponents into making a tactical error?" _What?_ Dauntless thought. He could see the benefits of doing so, especially with Clockblocker's power, but the _risks!_

Aegis paled. "I," he started, apparently caught in a lie. "I did not believe that would be of interest to the group as a whole. It won't happen again."

"See that it won't," she informed him. "If your handler was indeed absent, he shares some of the blame. I'm sure you're wondering how I knew about your deception attempt. It is one of the reason the Penumbral Defenders are, _regrettably_ , hands-off right now." She leaned back, eyes dark and arms crossed as the display flickered back to life, showing a video of, what Dauntless realized, the bank robbery. The camera angles weren't great, and one of the cameras was partially obscured by what looked like a beetle covering part of the lens. The darkness that Aegis described was indeed covering the front of the bank, blacking out the windows in a wall of impenetrable shadow. The sound was of low quality, but they could hear Grue call out that they were sending out hostages, only for the darkness to billow out, an almost biblical swarm of insects pouring out of that, attacking the Wards as three monstrous creatures, presumably Hellhound's dogs, leapt out, going directly for Clockblocker, actually Aegis. _They knew_ Dauntless realized, the disguised Aegis getting knocked over as they ran over him, avoiding Clockblocker's neutralizing touch. Hellhound emerged from the darkness, re-orienting herself before going for the downed form of the Ward's leader, only to be hit by a blue ball of energy from Gallant.

As she screamed in rage Gallant explained from his seat. "I hit her with a calming blast. Sometimes they don't work, but I haven't seen a reaction that bad." The Director nodded, but said nothing as they all watched. The new member, Browbeat engaged Grue as villain shed darkness around himself, quickly obscuring the fight. Kid Win pulled something off his back, what appeared to a backpack folding out into a floating _cannon_. The thing was almost three times as big as he was, floating and glowing ominously. Climbing aboard, he pulled a lever, and sheet of lightning spreading out, bridging between raindrops and frying the swarm in front of him. Swiveling it he fired one shot from the cannon itself, blasting a dog off Aegis. Firing again, he hit it mid air before his head snapped over, obviously seeing something beyond the camera's view. Kid Win smiled broadly as he turned the cannon and pressed something, the cannon firing out a beam nearly twice the size of the previous shots into the bank, the camera angle changing to show the glowing beam firing into the darkness. The video paused.

"Now," the Director's voice practically drawled, simmering with anger and disgust, "I know I might have missed that _particular_ piece of paperwork, I am, after all, human, but I'd hope that I'd recognize seeing the form detailing _that_. What is the name that particular piece of Tinkertech Kid Win, to help _jog my memory_."

"I-It's. Um," he stuttered. _You didn't_ Dauntless thought, stomach sinking. Even though he could have argued that his empowered equipment didn't need the testing, he still made sure to get all of his pieces checked out every month. It only took a few hours, and helped him quantify his increase in power and avoid _problems_. "It's my Alternator Cannon, I just finished it."

"You mean you _just finished getting it tested,_ correct?" She asked, tone Icy. "Because you _know_ that using untested equipment in the field means that you not only will be up for disciplinary review, but possibly _criminal_ charges as well."

Kid Win paled. _Probably didn't even think about it_ Dauntless thought pityingly. "I. I built it to take down A-class threats and-"

"And you decided to use it in a hostage situation, against an unknown foe, when you had no confirmation that they did not-in fact-have _hostages_." She cut him off, practically hissing as she glared at the quaking Tinker. "According to Panacea's report your blast _would_ have sent shards flying glass _into_ the hostages, had not she and _Vejovis_ gotten them out of the line of _your_ fire. Your _second_ blast nearly killed everyone inside, villain and _hero_ alike, and it's only due to sheer luck that no one _died_. Luckily those who _could_ do so are not pressing criminal charges, which is yet _another_ reason the Penumbral Defenders are _hands off._ I cannot charge you directly, but the damages done, and they are _extensive_ will come out of the pay of _all_ of the Wards on-site when this _fiasco_ occurred. _Am. I. understood?"_ she snapped.

It looked like Aegis and Clockblocker wanted to say something, but they kept their mouths shut. "Y-Yes mam!" Kid Win stuttered, looking like he wanted to bolt, but Director Piggot wasn't done.

"Furthermore you are to turn over _every_ piece of equipment for re-review, are on Monitor Duty for the next 3 _months_ , only allowed to return to active service after you have finished the training you _will_ receive to make sure something like this will _never_ happen again." She gave him a moment to understand what she said, turning back to the display after he broke himself out of his shock to nod frantically.

The video picked up where it left off, the image of Kid Win still smiling as he swiveled the cannon back around, sighting in on another dog as a roar of anger rang out, distorted by the Grue's darkness, but deep and masculine. From the shadows a large man in an odd combination of black formal suit Purple sneakers, and purple metal gauntlets practically flew at Kid Win, who tried to swivel the cannon to hit the new threat. A second even larger man came out of the darkness, dark skin oddly shiny, eyes obscured by shades, dressed head to toe in what looked like alligator skin. Jacket, shirt, pants, boots, all of it, though only the jacket and boots matched in pattern. The second man leapt with a speed that spoke of powers, pushing the first, and launching him farther upwards, twisting himself to avoid the blast from the cannon that missed him by what looked like inches. The first man, still flying, pointed towards the fight Gallant was having with Hellhound as he started his decent, twisting to land on the cannon fist first, the entire thing buckling under the impact, hitting the ground as whatever let it hover was overloaded. Kid Win drew a pistol to hit the man who'd hit his cannon, but was interrupted as the first man rolled off the piece of artillery, grabbing the Ward by the face and taking him to the ground. Dauntless noted that man seemed careful to make sure that his opponent didn't hit the ground head first, but flat on his back, the man's weight impacting Kid Win's chest, knocking the wind out of him and probably bruising his ribs.

The care that the first man, who Dauntless assumed was Break, displayed was not shared by Enter. That man, after dodging the cannon blast, had hit the ground, form shifting into what he was pretty sure was a velociraptor, and tore off so quickly he almost left a path in the rain, covering the distance towards his new target in an instant. A bark from one of the dogs gave Hellhound a half second's warning to duck as Enter's fist, having shifted to human form, passed right where the back of her head had been. She sidestepped her attacker, trying once again to go after Gallant, only to get caught by the back of her jacket by Enter, who threw her back, stepping between the two. Hellhound gave a guttural growl as she glared at the interloper, sound carrying clearly over the rain. Enter tipped his glasses down and growled back, a deeper but infinitely more menacing sound. They stared each other down before Hellhound lowered her gaze, turning to go fight Aegis, while Gallant shot Enter in the back with a blue blast, drawing looks from those assembled.

"I was aiming a blast at Regent, and he changed my aim. I hadn't thought that he'd seen me," he explained a little defensively. The tech backed the video up, and you could see Gallant's arm twitching to face Enter's back at the last moment, at the corner of the screen Regent's arm twitching as well in a similar motion. After being hit, Enter's aggressive posture slackened as he turned to face Gallant, head tilting in confusion or disbelief, before he shrugged and calmly stalked towards the Ward who appeared to have just shot him in the back. Dodging several more blasts with an almost casual air, Enter reached out an open hand and casually smacked the Ward in the side of the head, sending the teen stumbling away from the force. As Gallant tried to come back with another blast, Enter struck the Ward's arm, sending it wild, before smacking the other side of his head, sending him stumbling off again. It dawned on Dauntless, _he's playing with him_. "It worked," Gallant told them, having a couple of glances sent his way "He calmed down, and was just having fun. He was strong enough that he could've done a lot worse." The back and forth that was going on, with Enter completely controlling the fight, batting the smaller grey armored figure back and forth brought up unpleasant parallels to one of his ex-girlfriend's cats, whenever it caught a mouse.

At this time Break had gotten up from Kid Win, who was flat on his back gasping for breath, the Tinker coughing as he inhaled water, and charged the confrontation between a downed Aegis, two of Hellhound's dogs, and the villainess herself. However, instead of taking down Aegis like Dauntless expected, Break ran to one of the dogs, giving it a brutal kick to the ribs, lifting it up and sending it flying almost a meter away, what must've been half a ton of flesh landing with a crash as it impacted a parked car. With the support Aegis was able to get to his feet using his flight, chest bleeding freely from bite wounds that would have been deadly on anyone else. Hellhound turned on Break, throwing a wild punch which he grabbed, twisting her around and lifting her into the air before landing in a move that looked like Aleph professional wrestling, yelling "Steiner Bomb!" as he did so to the surprised looks of those assembled to watch.

The dog that had been sent flying leapt at Aegis' back, only to twist down unnaturally mid-jump and crash face-first into the ground at speed. From the cloud of darkness Browbeat came running, moving towards for Vista, who had been busy keeping Hellhound's third dog away from herself. Instead of tackling the hound however, he turned and punched the young girl in the jaw, sending her backwards, a look of betrayed surprise visible on her face, the camera angle showing it easily. As the heroes started to look at Browbeat, the one on screen started emitting darkness, obscuring his form completely.

The video paused as Director Piggot addressed the Wards. "And _this_ is why you need _our_ permission for new tactics. If _you_ do something, _they_ will do it right back, and you need to be prepared for the _backlash_ of your actions. From what we've seen, the leader of that group can see through the darkness he makes, which means he probably knows Browbeat's face, but as long as he doesn't say anything, we can't _do_ anything to him in response." She gave them another cross look before continuing the video. Break, getting up from Hellhounds moaning form, glanced over and saw Kid Win had gotten up and was getting the cannon back online. Charging him Break dodged the Tinker's sidearm, lasers twisting randomly as they were fired, encountering areas of Vista's twisted space and missing, though Break's dodging also encountered them, slipping and throwing him down into the street, up into the air, and into cars. Watching it from a remove like he was, Dauntless could make out the twists in space by the changed trajectories of falling rain, but from his experience he knew those details slipped by in the haze of battle. By the time that Break was close to Kid Win, the Alternator Cannon was back online. As it turned to face him, Break dodged backwards, his path twisting to be thrown in front of the bank.

The Ward followed his target and lined up the shot, while Break looked behind himself, a frightened shout of "Watch out!" immediately drowned out by the sound of the weapon firing. Launching himself upwards, the beam passed right under him, impacting something in the darkness covering the front of the bank, the blast sending Break spinning off into the shadowed section of street. The Tinker tried to turn the cannon to follow him, probably to shoot him again like he'd done to the hound, not seeing Regent coming at him from behind. The Undersider's scepter sparked as it was jammed into the back of the Ward's neck, sending him into spasms and falling to the street below, the darkness growing forward to cover both hero and villain.

Enter, finished playing and knocked Gallant out, casually striding to where Aegis was fending off all three hounds. The man casually backhanded one of the dogs, sending it flying backwards, before grabbing Aegis' arm and pulling him out of the way of monstrous snapping jaws. The help was short lived, as Enter used Aegis as a cudgel to smack another dog, dropping the stunned hero as he glared at the third, who turned tail and ran, retreating back to Hellhound, helping her to her feet and carrying her into the darkness. From the area of Grue's darkness in the street flew something small, which crossed the street and flew into the slowly dissipating blackness covering the front of the bank. A loud boom and flash of light came from within, the burning white light barely shining through the wall of shadows.

As he stood over Aegis, watching this happen, Enter was hit by Clockblocker, who had stumbled out of the darkness a moment earlier. Instead of freezing in place the man gave a scream of pain, form flickering before exploding in a shower of gore that shocked the viewers. "Holy shit!" commented Assault as Clockblocker shuddered. Onscreen, Clockblocker froze in horror at what he'd done. A saurian roar was heard as Enter, alive and undamaged, ran from an alley, turning into something that looked like a small T-rex, spinning to tail-whip Clockblocker into the side of building, where he slumped down, unconscious.

Grue's darkness quickly cleared, the Undersiders no-where to be seen, and Enter the only one still standing in soaked street. Vejovis, twin crimson trails of blood from his ears running down his mutilated neck, stumbled out from the ruins of the bank lobby, speaking far too loud. The cameras easily caught his words, as well as Aegis' demands that he identify himself, and Panacea accusing him of covering the villains escape. They watched the rest of the conversation, Vejovis echoing the Director's sentiments, the video ending as the cameras started to fly up towards the retreating group.

"And _that_ is why the Penumbral Defenders are hands off," Director Piggot told those assembled, teeth clenched. "While they have not released this to the public, they are using it to blackmail us into not holding them responsible for their actions. Unless you catch them committing a crime, have proof that will stand up in court, and _only_ then if _I_ give the command, you are not to work against them. This is not the first encounter we have had with them." That statement got looks of surprise from everyone. Dauntless searched his memory for anyone he'd heard of whom had the power the Break, Enter, and Vejovis displayed, but couldn't come up with a single name. "Armsmaster, your report." Piggot spat, her dislike of the position she'd been forced into clear from her tone.

The leader of the Brockton Bay Protectorate stood, addressing the heroes. "Three days ago I was contacted by a young woman, the parahuman who would later identify herself as The Lady, Bug. She asked about joining the Wards, but had my personal number, which was my first clue that something was amiss. She asked to meet in an abandoned lot off Canal street, and I agreed. After scouting the area I met with her, but it quickly became clear that she had no intention of joining. From there I was ambushed by Break and Enter, with Vejovis likely prepared to stop me if I attempted to escape. I found that Enter was able to resist Brute-level tranquilizers, as well as electrical currents of several thousand volts and temperatures of several hundred degrees Fahrenheit. They subdued me, before stealing my suit, my weapon, and my transport, finding and disabling the trackers within. I believe they are working with or for either a Tinker, or the Toybox themselves, and in my report suggested they be brought in with extreme prejudice, before they ambush any other heroes."

 _The bastards_ Dauntless thought. They'd looked almost heroic, well, Vejovis and Break had, but that was obviously just a show for the cameras. If it weren't for what was obviously a setup, they probably would have stolen Gallant's Suit and Kid Win's equipment as well. Assault voiced his thoughts. "So they were just playing for the cameras. Assholes."

"Funny you should mention cameras," Director Piggot remarked, voice humorless. "Today's video isn't the only one the Penumbral Defenders have sent us." Armsmaster's head snapped over to look at her. "Sit down Armsmaster, I'm sure you'll find this video enlightening. I know it showed _me_ something I'd hoped I'd never see."

The Tech started another video, the camera angles much better, depicting The Lady, Bug standing in an empty lot. The differences in composition where completely different, almost cinematic. _They prepared for this one_ , Dauntless realized. _The other was a spur of the moment thing_. They saw Armsmaster arrive on his motorcycle, approach and engage the girl in conversation, voice easily audible. Finding out that that girl was the one who had taken down _Lung_ was a shock, and it wasn't the only one. Assault was the first one to start glaring at their leader, but after a minute into the video he wasn't the only one. "It's obviously falsified." Armsmaster tried to say, talking over himself.

The video paused as the Director responded, not even turning to look at him. "Video is a lot harder to fake then reports, as you know. Our experts however, concluded that this valid, barring unknown Tinkertech. Now, be quiet and don't interrupt." The video rewound and played, the part that Armsmaster had tried to talk over showing why Lung had almost died. _Did he do that on purpose?_ Dauntless thought, his image of his leader crumbling before him. _Of course he did, this is Armsmaster,_ and from Dauntless's experience working with the man, he never left anything to chance if he could help it _._

Disheartened, Dauntless continued to watch as, verbally backed into a corner, Armsmaster chose to attack what was probably a teenage girl instead. The video froze as the Director spoke. "You seem to have something in common with Kid Win, Armsmaster. I don't believe I've seen the plans for _that_ weapon either." The video continued as Break and Enter charged Armsmaster, Vejovis swooping in to pick Lady Bug up, pressing a hand to the back of her head. _Healing her_ he realized. The fight, if you could even call it that, continued, the two men surprising the Tinker and keeping him off balance as he tried to retreat. When he started to flee it was Enter who followed, not Vejovis as Armsmaster claimed, though given the magnitude of his lies that was a relatively minor point.

As he watched Armsmaster hit the ground he had to wince at the impact, but the hero's killing of Enter took them all by surprise, the girl as well by her cry of distress. Her bugs started to swarm before settling, her conversation with Vejovis clearly audible. After the reborn cape had rendered Armsmaster unconscious, they stripped him and rendered all of his hard work to scrap, a fact that Armsmaster hadn't known about, given the Tinker's pained expression, looking as if he had been kicked in the most vulnerable of places with each land of Enter's mace-like tail.

Their parting words were captured as they left, the video ending immediately afterwards. "If _this_ was the only video they sent us, I could have worked around it to make sure they could be contained, but after today, that's not the case. _Armsmaster!_ " Her voice held the whip-crack of command. "You are to turn over _all_ of your _remaining_ equipment for testing. You are not to go on patrol. You are not to serve monitor duty. You are not to _leave_ the Rig unless I _personally_ give you permission. You are relieved of command, and the _only_ reason you are not confined to your quarters is for the sake of public appearances. Publicly you were injured in the confrontation with Boojack and Jackhammer and are currently convalescing. Miss Militia, you are now in charge of the Protectorate, with all the duties such a position entails. Am I understood?"

Miss Militia looked like she wanted to object, but responded with a meek "Yes Mam." Armsmaster sat there, not responding.

"I said _am I understood_ Armsmaster?" she reiterated.

"Yes," he ground out.

"Good, all of you are dismissed." She glared at them all. "You've put the PRT in the kind of position that _I do not like to be_ , and rendered us unable to respond to _this_ ," she waved at the video in disgust. "See that you don't make it any worse."

The assembled parahumans quickly and quietly left, Armsmaster sitting there for a moment before stomping out, Clockblocker jumping out of his way. Dauntless took his time, lingering at the door. "Can I help you Dauntless?" She asked, with a tone that hinted that what he said needed to be important, or else.

"Mam," he started, pausing to pick his words. "As far as we know, have the Defenders done anything illegal?"

The Director, having turned to the tech's computer informed him "We haven't caught them, yet, that is all you need to worry about."

She seemed to be reviewing the second video, pausing it at points as Enter struck Armsmaster. She froze on one shot of him being punched in the face, lip split and blood flying. She seemed to be looking at this shot in particular, playing and rewinding back to it. "Do you see something Mam?" Dauntless couldn't help but ask.

"Yes," she announced with a cruel smirk and a click of the mouse. "My new wallpaper."


	30. Impediment 4-1

**Impediment 4.1**

I flew in a roundabout route around downtown as the sun fully set, idly hoping to spot some crime to stop. A dark part of me wanted to find some gang scum and take what I was feeling out on them. I could even make an entirely new persona. Cobble together Grue's darkness and Stormtiger's claws, hide my form and use Cricket's sound control to make me sound female and no one would trace what I did as. . . Kurai Kaze. I'd drop on the Nazis and rip them to shreds with wind claws belonging to one of their own, darkness filling the area, amplifying their screams, the only sounds in that cloying darkness, leaving nothing but cleanly cut corpses in my wake.

I shook my head, _no_ , as horrifically amusing as the thought was, it wasn't the right thing to do. I was a hero, _damnit_ , and I'd take my failure as it was instead of striking out at others like a child. Focusing on that ideal, I checked my phone, and seeing that Taylor had left me a message, played it.

"Hi Lee, thanks for being there, I wasn't sure you were gonna be and when I knew you, I, um, so, are you okay?" she asked. "Your neck was bleeding when we left, even though it wasn't getting on your costume, it still looked bad. I made it back to school, so I had an alibi, and then I met up with the Undersiders again. Tattletale kept asking questions about you, but then not letting me talk and she kept getting a headache. We're off to meet up with Bitch, she's been lying low with the, um, stuff we got on our . . . trip. Can you call me when you get this? Thanks. Um. Bye."

I stopped in midair, mind working frantically. If they were meeting her today. . . _Shit_. Pouring on the speed I dialed Herb as fast as I could. "What's up man?" he asked, picking up on the third ring. "Your date go well? You kiss her goodnight?"

"Fuck you!" I hissed, I _did_ not have time for this shit right now. "The Bakuda fight's tonight, get ready to go!"

"Fuck!" was his surprised response "I-" On his end an alarm started to ring as I saw, far in the distance in the trainyard a momentary bright spot, almost lost glare of sun on metal as the last sliver of day slowly vanished.

"Get to Taylor, make sure she's safe!" I commanded, hanging up as I piled on the speed. Calling her number, _maybe I could give her some help over the phone_ , do _something_ , I don't know. Her phone rang twice, before it went to voicemail. Re-dialing sent me straight back there. _Fuck!_ Turning my sound powers up I could barely hear distant explosions, and something that sounded like an anti-explosion, air sucking somewhere ahead of me. Pushing my flight as much as it could go, I wanted to call on my Lightform, but I needed to come in and blindside the bitch to get my teammate out, and I couldn't do that if I was shining like a lighthouse.

Wracking my brain, I reached to the air control I had been considering, using it to try to shunt the air out from in front of me and reduce the resistance. It worked, though it made it hard to breathe, but I didn't give a shit about that right now. With my enhanced speed, it was still about a minute to get to the railyard, and the explosions had stopped before I'd figured out where exactly I needed to go.

I hung there, far above, darting all over the place, looking for Taylor, for the Undersiders, for _anything_. Spotting destroyed storage lockers, I flew down, looking around and but there was nothing but wreckage and the fading wisps of Grue's power. Bringing out _my_ copy of his power they turned translucent, and I could feel their presence everywhere. He'd spread it so far around I couldn't get a feel for where he was. He'd laid false trails as they ran, but now those spread out powers were making it hard for me to find them as well. Dropping his power I took back to the air, trying to find them.

I could hear people screaming and guns firing, but the structure of this place bounced the sounds around oddly, and the lack of any conventional explosions meant I had no light to follow. Swerving back and forth as I moved across the miles of railyard and warehouses, I narrowed down the direction when a burst of white caught the edge of my vision. Shoving the air out of the way, I was there and looking around in an instant, but when I arrived at the twenty-foot-tall spire of ice I couldn't find them, trying not to focus on the several people frozen solid, red ice arcing in bright crystals from their corpses. Asians of all types were running back and forth in a panic, but I didn't give a shit about them. Flying around, trying to find them, my eye caught on a bright red pool. Diving near it, a horrific smell assaulted my nose as I saw it was a puddle of something, my memory oh so helpfully reminded me of one of Bakuda's bombs, one she'd planted inside a _kid_ that liquified him as an example to the others.

 _If this was the starting point, and the spire was the middle,_ I took off, Bug sense and Grue's powers both out and searching for something. Grue's caught something in the distance, a bit of fading power, and I pushed that way as I heard another of those odd explosions, combined with the sounds of people shrieking in pain. One voice in particular screamed in a way I'd hoped it never would.

Pushing as hard as I could, I flew up and over, trying to find Taylor with my bug sense, but getting nothing in return. _NO_ I raged, _You don't get to die, not while I'm here!_ Going back and forth, pushing as hard as I could, I finally felt her presence barely kindle to life in my mind, the blaze that should be her presence weak and guttering, but enough of a signal fire for me to home in on. Arrowing over the maze towards her, I saw what had to be Bakuda in some stupid costume haul back to kick Taylor in the face, lying down in a pool of her own blood and my thoughts turned red with rage, blasting past conscious thought into a single thought of _Fuck. You._ Diving down at the pair I was dimly aware of my arms moving out, holding onto the air in an iron grip and shoving it down and across.

Bakuda's form was yanked backwards like a thrown puppet, crashing into the wall across the street. I'd kill her later, I _needed_ to get to Taylor. Bringing myself down, I picked her up and took off at as fast as I could, not touching the ground, dissolving my glove to press against the back of her head, her hair dripping with her blood. I focused on her, not knowing what to do and forced to just pour my general 'get better' manifestation of healing into her as hard as I could, hoping that did more good than harm. She clutched at my arms, breathing weak as I took off, dodging a grenade from the tinker which erupted into a firestorm at my back, not bothering me in the slightest as I darted away from it. Bakuda raised her launcher to fire again when I saw a dark shape slip down the street, two legged but inhuman.

Bakuda saw it too, turning to fire at it, a green mist enveloping it and quickly shrinking, trapping the monster, but obscuring its form. Turning back to me, she never saw the other one coming up behind her. It clipped her hip as it passed her, blood spurting as a single vicious looking claw on its foot tore through her armor like paper. The creature darted back into the maze of buildings, and in that moment I got the sense of claws, scales, and a long lizard tail, but my focus was split between the scene before me and the hopefully _not_ dying girl in my arms. It darted back around as a tearing noise grabbed her attention, the first creature she caught having escaped its bonds and darting into the shadows of the building around us. She looked back and forth, bleeding heavily, before looking up at me. "Help me or he dies!" she screeched in an odd monotone, pointing her launcher at Grue, who was tied down by the same goo that she used on the first monster.

Maybe it was because I was distracted healing, maybe it was because I was pretty sure I knew what the pair of monsters were, maybe it was because I just didn't give two _shits_ about the dumbass leader of the Undersiders, but I just floated there, watching her flail. If she shot another grenade at me, my wind would make her eat it, so I was just an audience to the _Breaking of Bakuda_.

"Don't you care about his pathetic life?" she demanded as I remained silent. After all, I thought, the parts of me that might worry about Grue or feel bad for this psychopath were focused on healing Taylor, and, as I noted the pair of dark shapes on the rooftop below me, what kind of audience would I be if I interrupted this performance. She moved to fire, but one of the raptors darted down, clawing her arm and throwing off her aim, the projectile going wide and landing a few blocks away, the sound of steel as blades impacted rocks, wood, and flesh rang out.

Before she could see what it was, the shape was out of her sight again, both of them circling the rooftops around her, waiting for an opening. The darker one jumped forward with a screech, and Bakuda spun, shooting it dead center in the chest with a grenade, the air around it turning white as the temperature plummeted around it, the ice riming it and outlining the form of the black velociraptor. It stood there, grinning, unaffected as it started to stalk forward almost lazily.

"What the fuck!" she cried out as she stumbled back her launcher cycling something different to lob at the slowly advancing threat. What it was going to be, I never found out as the other raptor leapt at her, feet tearing at her armor as it's jaws clenched on her arm, a sharp cracking sound ringing out as she cried in pain, dropping the weapon. Whatever the armor she was wearing was made of, it didn't hold up against the onslaught, coming loose with a tearing sound that turned wet. It disemboweled the Tinker, and was soon joined by the pure black one that ripped into her as well, her screams quickly fading off into monotone wet gurgles, then nothing. Part of me realized I should be horrified by what I just saw, the viscous death of the woman below me, but I couldn't bring myself to care.

Taylor's breathing _finally_ levelled out, and checking her I saw that she'd fallen asleep, costume soaked with blood, though my healing _should_ have gotten her taken care of for blood loss concerns. I hoped. Flying down I landed a dozen feet from the feasting raptors. "Break." I called. She was dead, at this point what they were doing was pointless. They continued unabated. Stepping forward I called again, harsher. "Break!"

The brown one's head whipped up hissing at me. " _HERB!_ " I ordered. _"ENOUGH!"_ I stared at my friend as it glared at me, before backing off and shaking his head, running off down an alley. He walked out in his villain costume a moment later.

"Sorry," he offered quietly at my unyielding gaze, hand subconsciously wiping at his mouth over his mask. "Didn't realize that I got their instincts when I changed."

I considered his words. He'd had limited practice time, and probably didn't account for a pack hunter's response to seeing one of its own attacked, it's not like I wasn't going to kill her myself. "Fine," I said simply, understanding and forgiving, as long as it didn't happen again, turning back to Grue, who was staring at us in what I assumed was horror from behind his helmet as the distant sounds of screaming and an explosion that almost sounded jagged rang in the distance. "Brian," I commanded, getting him to jump in shock, before moaning in pain. "Can you move?"

He just stared as I strode over, noting that he was stuck to the wall as he uselessly struggling against the dried ropes of goop holding him to the ground. With a thought I had my bugs grab a fallen knife, probably Taylor's from the empty sheathe on her thigh, and flew it over to Grue handle first. Glancing between me and the blade, he only took it as I nodded, pushing it towards him.

He cut himself free, standing up with a grunt of pain. I looked over at Herb, but he looked subdued, probably realizing how bad things could have gotten if he'd lost control to his instincts on something important. Letting him handle that I motioned for Grue to go first, jerking my chin in the direction I could hear what sounded like Regent swearing a blue streak. "You go get them, we'll follow in a moment."

He looked at me, head dipping a fraction as he looked at Taylor, before nodding and tried to take off at a run, but had to slow down as he almost fell, unsteady as he jogged. Looking around, I tried to find Enter, a flash of black catching my eye as he turned into what looked like a crocodile scaled up to ridiculous proportions. A swift couple of bites, and a few unsettling crunches, and Bakuda was gone, nothing more then a red spot on the ground and a little bit of unidentifiable flesh on the ground.

It grinned at me as the launcher she'd dropped beeped once, Enter glancing at it and trying to jump away before it exploded into what felt like a miniature star. I could feel the heat from that ball of plasma in my turned face, but my own power negated it, for both Herb and myself. I flexed my Aerokinesis to keep Taylor shielded from the blast by our bodies and a cocoon of air, the superheated gasses streaking past us in every direction. It was with a slightly detached feeling that I noted that it had expanded to a set point and then stopped, setting the ground around it on fire in every direction, the metal near it no more than slag, the ground where it laid a concave dome bubbling like black lava. I glanced over at Herb, who had looked back after the flash and was staring at the hole open mouthed, his Stand getting up from where it had been thrown, molten metal streaming from its back. It changed back to human form, the asphalt depressing around its feet as it walked around the blast zone. He gave me a shrug, which I returned, glad that we could no-sell her deadman's (woman's) trap. Keeping a stream of healing going towards the girl in my arms, we walked away from the blast-zone. I gave a snort as I realized that it was true, Herb, the coolest of us, was the only one who hadn't looked at the explosion.

* * *

As we were about to turn the corner, I could hear the Undersiders arguing. "I don't care why Lisa, I need to know who the hell they are, _now!"_ Grue demanded.

"It doesn't matter anymore!" she yelled back. "That was a fucking _sun!_ Taylor's dead! They all are!"

Turning the corner, I saw the two arguing as Regent cut himself free of yet more goo, an impression in the substance probably where Tattletale had been. _For a Tinker who was all about trying different things, she used that a lot. At least this one is blue, I wonder if that matters?_ I pondered. Regent saw the four of us approaching, eyes going wide as he redoubled his efforts to cut himself free. "Um, guys?" he tried to interrupt Grue's response of "Then you could tell me what the _hell_ is going on!" only to be told off by the darkness generator.

 _Some leader_ , I thought, smiling at Regent. _You're arguing in a combat zone and dismissing someone trying to get your attention. I'd never do that._ I glanced over at Herb. _The dismissing part at least_. There was the sound of distant screaming before the almost exaggerated sound of something wet tearing from a couple of blocks away.

"They're dead and we need to get out of here!" Tattletale told her Grue. "She must've had something that started setting off bombs when she died. We need to get away now!"

"Guys?" Regent tried again, freeing one leg and working on another. "You really should-"

"Not now Alec!" Tattletale interrupted, "we need to. . . fuck me," she whispered, looking at us.

"Sorry, you're far too young for me young lady," I responded with a wide smile. "You're probably correct about Bakuda though." There was another scream and the sound of a lightning strike, but in reverse, then the correct way. "And we need to have a chat, so let's get out of here, and not back to your base in the Docks either." _That_ got me frightened glances. _Good_. These kids needed to start thinking tactically or they were going to _die_. "Think!" I urged them. "If she found your stash here, she might've found your base. I wouldn't put it past her to've put a bomb there in case you get away to tell herself she planned to let you escape the entire time. Let's go downtown, I'll get us a suite and we can lie low for a bit. If it helps we aren't going to our base either." I'd had Herb check my phone on the walk over, the ABB were running scared everywhere, and several had run by our base in the thirty seconds he'd watched.

"I'm not so sure that's such a great idea," their team lead contended.

I rolled my eyes. "Oh drop the tough guy shtick Grue, we'll put you up and out of harms way. You can even call Aisha to have her lie low with us if you want to keep an eye on her," I entreated.

He froze, "How?"

"Long story, can't tell it right now, involves a precog, let's get out of here," I responded blandly, looking over at Tattletale. "We're not a threat to you guys, right Tattletale?"

She glared back. " _You_ , I don't know, but he won't, he'll just-. You what!?" she yelped, taking a step back.

Herb winced as I felt a twinge of irritation. "New power problems, nothing you need to worry about as long as you're an ally. In the mean time Enter, can we get transport for them?" The Stand gave me a 'do I have to look', and I nodded. It shifted to a, well, I'm not sure. It looked like an ankylosaurs' more effeminate cousin, the bone spike just bumps, and its body was much thinner. "So kids, who wants to ride a dinosaur?"

Regent raised his hand, to the betrayed looks of Grue and Tattletale. "What?" he responded guilelessly, "You saying you didn't want to when you were a kid?"

* * *

With the Undersiders onboard, Herb jogging alongside as I flew, we headed south. Holding Taylor with my forcefields to free up a hand, I grabbed my phone and selected one of the numbers from Number Man's guide that I'd spent a couple hours reading. Calling for a discrete evac to pick us up, I also got us a suite of rooms at a place called the Emerald Echo Suites. The price of both hurt, by my old sense of money. With my current earning strategy, it was nothing, but still, four hundred for what might be a three-mile ride, at most? They'd better be worth it. I grumbled as I looked up, seeing all three of the Undersiders staring at me as they held onto Enter's back. "What?"

"Um, is that healthy?" Regent asked, motioning towards Taylor. I glanced over at her, supporting her with my power cradling her via my hold on the back of her head, her body lying on air like a magician's levitating trick.

"Yeah," I reassured them. "It's power bullshit, just go with it."

Turning a corner, we almost ran over a group of ABB, this group was unarmed and looked terrified. We both stopped, looking at each other, when an older man in the back held his head screaming in pain. "Get away!" I commanded, half remembering the scene where the kid got liquified. Half the group scattered as Herb and Enter leapt backwards effortlessly and I flew after them. Most of the runners got away as the screaming man turned to glass, the effect shooting outward and overtaking those who just stood there staring, either at him or us. The wave killed a few runners, changing one man's foot as he almost left the blast radius. He screamed as it shattered, broken glass sticking out of the wound as blood poured from the stump. I flew over, opening a finger on my free hand and pressing it to his skin, my general healing enough to stop the bleeding, but I hesitated to do anything else, not sure what I could do.

Looking back on the scene of frozen horror I heard something, barely on the edge of perception even with my sound abilities as I noticed the glass start to vibrate. Realizing what was about to happen, having almost been killed by this sort of thing earlier that _very day_ and with no better plan to protect that many people, I said screw it to subtlety and dropped a wall of drastically increased air pressure between us and the glass and a sound bubble around all of us to mute the ultrasonic spectrum as I rose. A moment later, the first victim shattered, throwing shards in every direction as the effect spread down the transmuted area, filling the air with deadly slivers. The ABB that ran in the other direction but stopped when they thought themselves safe were cut down by the flying glass, our side spared as the silica shards hit the wall and ground to a stop. After a few seconds of cacophonous shattering it was over, the Undersiders and the surviving ABB all staring at me, floating in the air with Taylor held in one hand, the other outstretched, a hanging wall of translucent death before me.

"Um." I said eruditely, trying to think of an excuse and finding nothing underneath those stares, I went for blunt honesty, which honestly seemed to work out more often than not. "That happened. I just saved your lives so don't mention that this happened and we're square. Also, you need to find a doctor as soon as possible, because it looks like she's setting the bombs she put in your heads off randomly. So. . . yeah." I dismissed the air pressure wall in front of me, the missiles, having spent their momentum trying to pierce nearly solid air, dropped in a tinkling clatter. The noise shocked those assembled out of their stupor, a couple nodding, one kid, must have been in middle school, actually gave me a bow, and they quickly left, without the blind panic they'd been in before.

I looked back at the Undersiders, who were still staring. "What?" I asked, "It doesn't stop bullets, but it should've been enough for slower things, and was." Making Air Armor, while cool in theory, was not that practical, since while I could increase air pressure until I could stand on it, moving it was another matter entirely, and thus I had to give up my idea of riding around on a cloud, Dragonball style. It took a moment to realize "Oh, right," I said, remembering that I _hadn't_ _yet_ recruited them before throwing up another sound bubble. "What I said to them, don't blab about my powers, anything you could have on me, I have more on you, blah blah blah. Just know that whatever you think my powers are, _you're wrong._ "


	31. Impediment 4-2

**Impediment 4.2**

With the Undersiders _hopefully_ suitably cowed, Regent and Tattletale both white and shaking, probably more due to their recently averted deaths than anything I'd said, I looked over at Herb who was holding a piece of glass, his metal gauntlets gripping it gingerly. Floating over to see what it was, I realized that it was the face of a young man, maybe in his teens, maybe early twenties. It was one of the runners, frozen in a rictus of pain as he probably had a half second to feel his body turning to glass before he fell, shattering across the ground, pieces skittering over to us before I put up the barrier.

"Dude," I said gently, coming down next to him, making it so only he could hear me. "We gotta go, we need to get them to safety."

He looked at me, expression haunted in a way even accidentally eating a person hadn't managed. "Dude," he nearly whispered, voice hoarse, not from use, but emotion. "This is _messed up_."

I snorted. "Welcome to Worm, it's a modern Westeros, with less sex and violence."

"But, _superpowers_ ," he reasoned.

"Yeah, mostly created when people's minds are about to _break_ , there's a reason I've been working so hard to fix things."

His gaze slid past me to the three teens hanging onto the dino behind me. "This is what you went into when you broke?" he questioned quietly to himself, his words only reaching me because I amplified them. "This is how you live your life? The shit you do? The life you're _stuck in?_ " His eyes, usually full of energy and good humor dimmed in the realization of just what having a group of teenage supervillains _meant_. How _many_ people had to fail you for that to happen. For me, it was obvious, but it looked like he only understood the ramifications when he could see them, scared and clutching onto Enter's back, trying their best to put up a brave front. "No," he said, focusing back on me. "I'm sorry," he apologized, voice thick with regret.

"For what?" I asked confused. I'd already forgiven him for going all feral, so I really didn't see what he had left to apologize for.

"This," he started cut off by a scream and an explosion, from somewhere close. He winced before continuing, "This was like a playground for me," he professed. "This was fun, with us being here, havin' powers, but, it's not for them." Looking back at the face in his hands, forever frozen in fear and agony. "We have to save them all," he informed me.

"We can't," I informed him, trying to be nice. "We can only save so many right now."

He shook his head, not conveying what he meant. "No dude, we have to save them all, like, from themselves, from everyone else, from so much."

I shrugged. "Not possible man, but we'll get as much as we can."

He gave a mirthless chuckle. "Reach for the stars, get gutted, right?"

"Um, I think it's reach for the stars, fall and get a face full of mud, but it doesn't matter. Who's everyone? Kids? Capes? Kid capes? You need to be a bit more specific."

"As many as possible, but these poor kids man," he frowned at the ground. "They're pushed and broken into this, it's not right."

I shrugged again, _did he not understand the implications of the setting?_ I thought. "Take it up with your bosses. They're ultimately the ones who're doing it."

His head snapped up. "What."

"Capes aren't made from happy families, and it's easier to get kids to trigger than adults," I informed him incredulously. "Big C needs as many paras as possible to try to fight Goldenrod, and that means letting things get bad enough they suffer and _almost_ die, without actually kicking it. There's a shitload of reasons I didn't go conspirator, even though it'd let me get infinite money and transport. I was surprised when you did, but I figured you'd try and subvert 'em from the inside."

"Um guys, w- Ow! What the hell Lisa? Regent asked from behind us. "We can't hear them so-"

"Shut up!" she hissed. Looking back I saw that she was staring at Herb in consternation.

Turning back to him, he finished stowing the glass into his pocket carefully before stating, "We need to go."

Rolling my eyes, I dropped the bubble. "Dude, we were waiting on you," before flying to the front of our group and leading Enter out of here.

* * *

We'd almost made it out when we turned a corner, only to run into yet _more_ ABB, grouped together and talking in a language I didn't know. _These_ guys were armed and in colors, so I assumed they weren't your standard conscripts, though as they turned and raised their guns, I saw that only a third of them actually had weapons, the others shrinking back away from conflict. "Who are you!" the leader called, assault rifle held aloft.

"Vejovis, Hero of the Penumbral Defenders," I called back without fear. If they opened fire I'd cover Taylor with my body, drop another pressure wall and let go with air claws. I wasn't strong enough to take them all down nonlethally right now, and as badly as I would feel about hurting the unwilling conscripts, corrupt as they were the police and the PRT could have taken down the ABB if the people who lived there had done more than turn a blind eye when it hadn't hurt them. They were civilians, but except for the kids, they weren't innocents either.

"Who?" he called, barrel swinging between me and the dinosaur behind me uncertainly. I tried not to be annoyed at the lack of brand recognition, it _had_ only been a few days after all.

"New team, we were going after Merchants in the area when we heard the explosions," I lied easily. "When we got here members of your gang where exploding, and not normally. The group started looking uneasy. "Is it a new Merchant cape we should be concerned about? If it is, they look pretty indiscriminate, and you should get to cover. We are."

One of the others said something to the leader in another language and Tattletale's indrawn breath meant it probably wasn't a good thing. "Who're they?" the leader asked, using his gun to indicate the teens.

"People are dying!" Herb tried to reason. "We all need to get to safety!"

"I'm asking the questions here!" the leader responded. "Who are they?"

"Another team we met up with, might join ours. Break's got a point, we need to get out of here," I urged.

"You lie!" he declared, a nasty grin on his face. _Technically, I didn't about that_ I thought , but it was academic at this point. I got ready to unleash hell. "They're the one's Bakuda wants! Turn them over and we won't kill you!"

As I was about to eviscerate these dumbasses, the conscripts having moved back far enough that I wouldn't hit them by accident, a young girl, no more than twelve, started screaming. Hating what I had to do, I yanked on her with my air control, picking her up and throwing her to the middle of the thugs, who had turned to look at her. Enter moved backwards as Herb tried to move forward, face desperate.

I caught him by the back of the collar, dragging backwards as he struggled calling "No! I have to save her!" He tried to twist out of my grip, but I wouldn't let go, slamming down a wall of air pressure between us and the poor girl. I felt of _something_ through the air and the gang members around her started screaming again, tearing at their skin as they visibly aged, the oldest in the group dropping first, bodies withering away as time continued to ravage their corpses. After what was probably only thirty seconds, but felt a lot longer, it was over. The girl was a wizened crone, sobbing and surrounded by corpses. Herb moved to help her, but was stopped by the wall of air as her crying petered out and she fell over, dead.

My friend turned on his heel, punching me straight in the face. A distant part of me taking note of the time it took for my shield to recharge, as I calmly blocked his next two punches on autopilot. Halfway through the bomb's effects my mind had stalled, effectively rebooting in safe mode, the horror of it popping a mental breaker and suppressing my emotions until I could handle the effects. "Herb," I placidly told him. "Stop."

"I could have saved her!" he cried as he ripped off his mask, wiping away tears. "I could have stopped that!"

"How?" I asked simply. "Your powerset couldn't have helped, and neither could mine. You know that. I told you, we can't save everyone."

"But you!" he accused, taking another swing, which I turned aside. "You just tossed her like she was nothing to take out those guys."

"I pulled her away from the civilians," I disagreed. "You know me Herb, I never have _one_ reason for doing anything. She was dead no matter what. The only one who could have saved her was Panacea, possibly, and even then it was probably too late." Moving Taylor behind me to make room I grabbed his wild blow, forcing him by his wrist to twist and look in the direction of that atrocity. "Look Herb, not at the dead, but those alive. If I hadn't moved that girl, _they_ would be dead instead of those who threatened to kill us and the children we seek to protect. Look at them, and know that _I_ saved them."

He elbowed me in the face, draining my newly restored shield, but I let him go, point made. "The way you're talking, it's like you don't care, it's like. . . oh," he realized, slumping. "This is fucking you up too."

I raised an eyebrow in numbed exasperation. "What was your first clue dumbass, now get with the kids we _can_ save."

He looked at me, before nodding, letting out a breath, and retreating back to Enter, still laden with Undersiders. I looked past him at the others, letting the pressure wall fade, the scent of death, age, and stale air blowing into my face. I suppressed a gag as I addressed the others. "Any of you who got knocked out have a bomb in their heads, get to a doctor to get it out as soon as possible, or it will go off. Bakuda's traps are going off randomly, and the only thing that will save you is moving quickly." The shocked civilians reacted: some screamed, some ran, some did both. I didn't care, I'd warned them, and now I was getting the hell away from them. Turning back, I flew over to the Undersiders, ignore their gazes as we continued to escape this maze.

* * *

It was twenty minutes later when we found our way out. Calling our pickup and giving them our location, answering their question that we weren't currently under fire. We heard the sound of an engine running at high performance minute later, a large black windowless van pulling up to us. Glancing over the guy riding shotgun had an automatic one in his lap, looking past us, eyes searching. The side door opened and a man clad in black with an assault rifle opened the door, stepping out and waving us inside. The kids jumped off Enter's back, legs unsteady as they supported each other. Enter disappeared, causing Regent and Grue to jump, a quick glance of power sight showing him back to hiding on Herb's coat. The kids climbed inside, followed by Herb. I maneuvered Taylor in, the guy closing the door behind us.

"Dropoff the same?" the driver asked through a metal grate separating us from the driver's compartment. At my nod the man outside jumped in, sliding the door shut, taking a position near what, from the inside, I realized was a one-way window, a slot in the door set to open, theoretically so that he could fire out of it. As the driver sped off, Regent looked at all the hardware and whistled. "Your guys run quite an operation."

I glanced over at Herb. He was better with the quippage, but looked reticent, so I responded. "Just friends in odd places. This is costing us a bit, but you guys can't fly and we needed to get you all out asap." Tattletale looked at me at that, eyes narrowing before blinking in pain and looking away. I turned to the man here with us, who was very obviously _not_ looking at us. "Can you tell us what's going on in the city? Nothing confidential, just general info."

He glanced back at us before returning to his job. "Explosions every which way, an' weird shit. Other team down south had tentacles comin' out a fuckin' buildin'. Had to skip a street 'cause it turnt ya around the way you came. Bodies there were turnt inside out. Din't notice till it turnt us around." He shivered. "Ya know anythin'?"

I glanced around. "ABB has a tinker that specializes in bombs, named Bakuda. We ran into her. She's apparently had her thugs knock people out and put bombs in their head, but something went wrong and they're going off. If you see someone start screaming and hold their head, get clear, fast. The ones we've seen give a few seconds, but with Tinkers that's no guarantee."

He nodded. "Thanks mate, ya hear that Bernie?" The man in the passenger seat nodded, pulling out a phone and texting. We drove for another several minutes, the van swerving back and forth at times before there was a bump and it drove down an incline, pulling to a stop. The gunman opened the door and stepped out, checking the area with his gun up before waving us over. Moving to a service entrance, he motioned towards a key-code. Typing in the code I'd gotten from the hotel it sprang open, revealing a man in a suit, the side bulging where he carried a sidearm.

"Client 3482?" He asked, and at my response he showed us all to an elevator which led to our sweet of rooms. Shepherding the shell-shocked teens inside, he said he'd send the hospital doctor up for the young lady, and promptly left.

After a quick check of the rooms, I laid Taylor down on one of the double beds. Checking the bureau, I saw that it held a number of clothes in a number of sizes, and the question the hotel had asked for the gender and sizes of our guests made more sense. I looked down at her, hoping I'd made the right call. I'd been flooding her with my general "Be Healed" power for almost an hour, but I had no idea if that had been the right call.

Stepping out of Taylor's room I addressed the Undersiders, "Everyone, there's a change of clothes in the bureau, Tattletale, get Taylor out of her costume before the doc gets here, Grue, call if you want to, call your sister. It looks like Bakuda's left bombs everywhere, so it'll be safer if she's here. This place will have checked for that."

"What about me?" Regent asked.

"You have anyone you need to make sure is okay?" I asked flatly, knowing the answer.

He shrugged. "I might." Under my stare he relented. "Not really, but you never know." Doing my best not to argue with him, he was probably just as nervous as the rest, I shifted my costume to jeans and a t-shirt, ignoring his whistle of appreciation at the trick as I plopped down in my seat, trying not to listen in as Grue argued with his sister.

Herb tiredly sat down next to me, taking out the face in his pocket to stare at it. That probably wasn't healthy, but I'd deal with that later. Grue hang up. "She's coming, but I want to go get her, can I?" he asked, businesslike.

I nodded as Tattletale walked out in civies, domino mask in place. "Good Idea," I responded. "Your power might smother energy based explosives, or at least attenuate them. Take Break & Enter, and pick up Bitch on the way back, but have her drop off her dogs in her kennel. Tattletale, where did the odd couple stash her?"

She looked startled that I addressed her. "Um, docks," she stated, rattling off an address. "How did you?"

Ignoring her I turned back to them. "Break, if you see a bomb, have Enter minimize casualties. He can survive death, you can't."

Ignoring Tattletale's complaint of "How does that even work!" Herb nodded, getting up. From the window we heard the sound of several explosions, layered on top of each other and Tattletale shot me an accusatory look, as if to say 'this is your fault'. Herb caught it and gave a derisive snort, getting her attention. "What?" she asked, sounding offended.

"You didn't do much better without us," he said, taking her aback as her power flared, likely filling her in on what happened originally. He motioned for Grue to follow and the two of them walked out to gather up their wayward members.

We sat there in awkward silence for a few minutes, Tattletale looking scared and introspective, while Regent just looked bored. He broke the silence, "mind if I?" he asked, grabbing the remote. Turning on the tv he flipped to a news channel, which was detailing the bombings. Energy bombs, Transmutation bombs, Spatial Distortion bombs, even a few literal Time bombs had gone off, though not the time bubble grenade Miss Militia would end up using on Leviathan. Instead they all had temporary effects, speeding up, slowing down, or skipping forward and backward in time, which wouldn't be that bad if the effect didn't happen in bands, slicing people apart. Regent laughed as they reported one that turned everything in four meters to Vanilla pudding, including two cars and four and a half people. He stopped laughing when they flashed an image, the off-white stained red.

I checked my phone, hoping that our base was still intact, and while a couple of the cameras now saw blast zones, one looking at a pool of acid while another saw a sphere carved out of the area, digging into the ground and the walls, but leaving everything else untouched, the base was intact, and there wasn't anyone nearby. Looking over I saw that Tattletale was also clicking away at her phone. "Checking your base cameras?" I inquired.

She looked up, blinking. "What?" she finally asked, hand twitching upwards.

I rolled my eyes, "One, stop using your power on me, it's just going to leave you with a headache and no answers. Two, the cameras you have around your base, are you checking them? If you have ABB try to break in, it should tell you if they're planting or retrieving a bomb."

"Cameras?" she repeated before putting her face in her hands. "Why didn't I think of that?" she moaned.

I shrugged as Regent looked on, amused by the byplay. "Your power gives you info about things, it's entirely uncreative. You need to cultivate that yourself to use it to its fullest."

"How?" she questioned before wincing and holding her head.

I sighed. "You need to learn to control your power. You're probably halfway there, but it'll let you shepherd it for when you really need it. Try meditation, it might help."

She glared at me before turning back to her phone, probably not doing it _specifically_ because I suggested. _Ah, the pleasures of working with teenagers_.


	32. Impediment 4-3

**Impediment 4.3**

The doctor came by, checking up on Taylor, whose face was covered with bruises to the point that it looked like she had a splotchy yellow complexion. After checking her over, including taking what looked like a piece of Tinkertech out of a locked box and passing it over her, he informed me that she appeared to have suffered blunt force trauma across her entire body, bruising her skin, muscles, organs, and even bones. She had also suffered a moderate concussion, though it, like the extreme bruising, seemed to have been healing well in the past week. Leaving a small bag of pills for her to take twice a day, I tipped him a hundred and thanked him as he left.

"A week?" Tattletale asked after he left. "How?" She wrinkled her brow as she stared at Taylor's supine form. I watched her mounting frustration with ill-hidden amusement. Apparently not only could she not read me directly, she couldn't read me at a single remove like this. _Abaddon you magnificent bastard_ I mused before stopping her. "Don't bother, you can't figure it out since you're still trying to read me through her," I told the Thinker. _At least, that's what I think it happening._

"I'm a healer," I told her. "But for anything complicated I need a mental model. I can do general healing though."

"That makes no sense," she told herself, brow knitting. "Unless. . . Can you apply the general healing to a specific area?" she asked suddenly. I shrugged. She gestured towards Taylor and I shook my head.

"I'm not trying anything on her if I don't have to, if you want me to experiment on you or Regent, sure."

She shot me an indecipherable look, before Regent yelled "You're a healer, can you get me?" having listened in.

We walked back in as he held up his arm. "My arm's messed up, can you make it not?"

Giving another shrug, I reached over and touched his hand. "Not sure if I can heal power overuse, but I'll give it a shot." Focusing I tried to heal just his arm, not giving Panacea's power any particular instruction other than 'make this better'.

"How'd you kn-oooh, that's the stuff," he sighed, his arm going limp, an angry bruise across his knuckles slowly cycling through several shades. Before lightening to his pale skin tone.

"Oh that's such _bullshit_!" she cried. "I can _see_ it happening but, Ugh!"

Glaring at Regent's arm, she held her head. "You want me to take care of your headache?" I offered, only for her to shift her glare to me. "No, I don't want you or your, _blankness,_ anywhere near me!"

I held up my hands in a pacifying gesture as I moved back to my seat. "Fine, no need to bite my head off about it, just wanted to help." She shifted her attention back to his arm, much to his amusement as he stretched it back and forth before turning back to the television. "If your power gives you nothing Tattletale, don't rely on it. You're smart without the shard, use your own brain instead."

Her head snapped over. "Shard?" she asked intently. "What's, Argh!" she cried out, holding her head. I mentally facepalmed. I hadn't meant to mention them, for fear that something like this might happen, but fuck it, teaching experience.

"There's certain things your power not only will not give you information on, like me, but will actively try to stop you from thinking about. I need you to take a breath and clear your mind okay? If it helps, focus on the sound of my voice. I'll give you a null result, which is better then a negative response," I instructed patiently, falling into professor mode.

"Is this like one of those hypnotism things?" Regent asked, eyebrow raised.

"Closer to autohypnosis," I corrected. "And it's really more a metacognitive skill then a subconscious programming device." At his blank look I simplified. "It's a way of thinking about thinking instead of hypnosis." Ignoring his "Oh" I focused on the girl in pain in front of me. "Are you focused on me?" I asked.

"Yes, you fucking _blank_ ," she spat. _Okay, some issues there I_ _ **wasn't**_ _gonna touch._ "Okay, now you need to feel whatever part is giving you that blank, and try to shut it off." If it was giving her the same result every time, I reasoned, then it should be easier for her to focus on the power itself without it distracting her with a rush of new information.

I sat there for a minute before she commanded, "Keep talking!" through gritted teeth.

"Oh, um, okay," I responded. "I suppose, since you've closed your eyes, that focusing on a single sensory stream would help isolate the sixth sense that is your power, possible eighth sense if you count balance and proprioception, but you get the point."

"Are you a college professor or something?" Regent asked as I drew breath.

"Or something," I responded over her growls of annoyance. "I'm not actually versed in parahuman studies as you know it, to be honest half of this is stuff I'm throwing together from my pre-existing knowledge of a whole bunch of things, but I'm tweaking my plans as I get responses, thus closing in on the truth of the matter all the time. It's annoyingly similar to having a math problem and the result, but needing to figure out all the steps between. Reverse engineering is always easier than the regular kind."

Tattletale held up a hand. "Think I got it," she said, opening her eyes. "Fuck!" she swore, closing them again.

"Only have it if you aren't seeing things?" I guessed, and received an angry nod in response. "You've turned it back off?" Another nod. "Okay, the one thing you need to know, and sharing it will piss off the Simurgh, so don't, is that shards _are_ powers. The actual name the tiny crystal that lodges itself in your brain when you Trigger calls itself. Yes, there are all sorts of implications that go with the name, and a lot of them are spot on. They're morally neutral, but using a power that gives you knowledge on the thing that gives you knowledge doesn't just cause a recursive error, it sets off security protocols. That's why, amongst a whole host of other reasons, you need to use your _own_ intelligence instead of leaning on your shard's, because it _isn't_ you, and thus has some things that are restricting it that aren't restricting you."

"What about my s-" Regent started to ask before stopping as I slashed my hand in the air. "What?"

"Don't refer to them by name, or at all if you can help it. The same thing that has your partner's power slide off me lets me talk about this stuff, but if you talk about it directly, even to me, I'm not sure you'll get the same protections."

He looked offended. "What, you can talk about it but I can't that's n-"

"Unfair?" I asked. "Bullshit? Yes. You can hijack people's nervous systems, how is _that_ not complete bullshit compared to a normal human. Not all powers are created equal. _Deal._ "

Tattletale pointed at me, eyes still shut tight. "When you say piss off the- Her," she stated, catching herself. "What do you mean."

"Someone in the Birdcage figured out what I just told you, tried to tell the people monitoring that _super_ -illegal prison, and the bird wonder changed course in flight, specifically because the same hardware that monitors _it_ monitors _her_ , and the priority message unflagged the vital intel due to a glitch in the program. If you're not a Blindspot, fighting precogs blows."

Tattletale groaned, putting her face in her hands. "Now I have even _more_ questions!"

I couldn't help but grin, "Save it for the team meeting we'll have when our compatriots return!"

"I hate you," was her only response as she glared at me. "Are you even human?" she finally demanded.

I grinned. "Just as much as you are Sarah."

"Who's Sarah?" Regent asked looking at her.

"We all have fake names Jean-Paul," I informed him, a quick glance the only reaction he gave to his real name before shrugging, commenting "Fair enough."

"Then what's your name!" she demanded. "Since you know ours."

I shrugged, not really seeing the entire point of the pseudonym game at this stage. "Lee."

"Lee?" she asked, looking down at the jeans I was wearing. "Like Le-vi. Lee Vejovis? You're an ass!" she declared. "If you're not gonna tell me your name, don't make something that obviously fake up!"

She sat there, glaring. "At least tell me why I can't read you. You said you were a 'Blindspot', but what does that even mean?"

"It means that I am one of the few people out there that precognition just doesn't work on," I told her, wondering if she'd connect the dots.

She didn't. "But I'm not a precog, so why does that stop me?"

"You're a Pericog, It's apparently close enough."

Tattletale, apparently a glass cannon when it came to intellectual cat and mouse games, threw her hands up in anger. "What does that even _mean!?_ "

"It means you know _around_ things, your power fills in missing details, but it needs something to work on first. When you get things wrong? It's because you've given your power faulty information to anchor against," I explained, trying to help.

She growled at me, it was adorable. "But how do you _know_ that?"

I grinned unrepentantly. "Precogs."

" _That isn't an answer!_ " she yelled, getting up and marching out the door to Taylor's room where she _totally_ wasn't going to sulk.

"It is and it isn't!" I yelled back before she slammed the door closed.

I exchanged a look with Regent before I turned to perusing my Base Manual, as I only had about four hundred pages left. The door slammed open and she strode back over to sit back down, still glaring at me. "You didn't win." She informed me.

 _Yes I did_ I thought, saying "If you say so."

As she growled Regent tried to play peacemaker, though it might have just been so he could watch tv in peace. "Just leave him alone Tats, can't you see he's one those _stoic heroes_ , sitting there, ignoring us as he reads his book on how to control us all." _He's trying to tease me? Two can play at that game._

"Left that one back at base," I commented. "This one's on corrupting the Wards."

"Wait, you have one?" he asked. "I mean, with the ride here and this place, he might," he defended to his teammate.

"I don't need one for you, all I need to do is kill your dad." I stated simply.

"What?" the two cried in unison. "Like, people say their going to all the time," Regent clarified. "But no one ever does."

"Wait. You're okay with that?" Tattletale sputtered. "You are, because he's, holy shit."

I ignored the sputtering Thinker. "His power's line of sight, his eyes aren't as good as mine, and being a flier means I'm never wanting for a sniper's ideal elevation. He's an asshole, and the only reason he doesn't have a kill order is the ones that issue them can't do math, so I'll shoot him from a thousand yards away, or six."

"Um," he said, obviously not sure how to take that, finally just shrugging. "Okay, good luck."

I turned back to my manual as Regent turned back to watch TV, glancing over at me every few minutes. As fun as they were to mess with, I didn't trust either of them _at all_ , and the sooner Taylor was better the sooner I could get back to the mission.

* * *

It was another forty minutes before Herb got back. Regent tried to make conversation with his teammate, only to get flipped off with the explanation that she "needed to think" before going back to what I was pretty sure was meditation. I was tempted to point out that I had suggested she try that _before_ she got a migraine, but I was the adult here and that would be petty. I was still tempted though. Regent gave up and turned back to the tv, which led her to retreat to Taylor's room, claiming the other bed while muttering to herself about how the anchor was cheating on both her husband _and_ her taxes.

As Herb opened the door, I grabbed my pistol from where it was hidden in a pocket on my back, ready for anything. The sound of a teenage voice announcing. "This is swanky as _shit_ bro!" caused me to relax. A familiar looking black girl running into the room and flopping onto an empty loveseat.

Grue walked in after her, gruffly telling her "Aisha _behave_ , I brought you here to keep you safe."

Looking at her, my eyes itched and my Power Sight activated. I hadn't realized it before, but Aisha'd already Triggered. Looking at her I saw a Black and Purple flame of Direct Cognitive Masking, spreading out similar colored smoke in a translucent ghostly miasma around her. Her power flashed for a second, the fire igniting the miasma as I looked at a power that had no source which let me focus on the source which let me see Aisha as her power flared and I looked at a power that had no source which let me focus on the source which let me see Aisha as her power flared and I looked at a power that had no source which let me focus on the source which let me see Aisha as her power flared and I looked at a power which- My head hurt as my eyes **_BURNED,_** my vision clearing as I saw a power which had _no_ source which my brain told me was Aisha.

"You okay man?" Herb asked, looking at me. "You've been staring at her for five minutes."

"Yeah," the bodiless flame commented from her position on the arm of the chair her brother was sitting in. "It's super fucking creepy! How are you even doing that?" as Grue asked "Looking at who? He's not looking at anyone."

I blinked, hard, holding back swears. I was trying to appear at least a _little_ mature and swearing a blue streak right now wouldn't help. "Okay, that's how I deal with Strangers." I commented as it felt like someone had maced me. Or at least what I assumed being maced was like. Either way, it wasn't fun.

"Strangers?" Tattletale asked, sitting up straight. "Where?" Herb and I both pointed at Aisha, as I got the sense the fire was waving to the Thinker, though I couldn't say why, stupid Stranger powers. "I, what? Invisible? No." she said, struggling as her headache came back. Bitch looked down at a Rottweiler at her feet which was looking in Aisha's direction, ears back, but not growling. "Brutus smells her," She stated, looking in the general direction of the girl.

I glanced at Herb. "Wasn't she gonna drop off _all_ her dogs?"

He shrugged. "She wouldn't leave him, and I didn't want to fight her on it when we were in a hurry."

Looking at the group, I decided I'd handle one problem at a time, motioning them towards the couch Regent and Tattletale were sitting on. "This'll help. Group photo everyone. Grue, Bitch, stand behind that couch. Aisha, sit next to Regent." Herb shot me a grin which I ignored. When everyone was in place I took out my base phone, the camera showed Aisha just fine, and the pressure on my eyes faded a bit. I snapped the photo, then turned the phone around to show everyone.

"The fuck?" Tattletale yelled, looking at the photo. Grue told himself, "Right, sis's here, why'd I forget?" as Regent reached to the left and tried to touch her, my brain telling me he accidentally copped a feel and was slapped for it as my eyes and ears said he touched nothing.

"Why does my face hurt?" he asked to himself as Aisha jumped off the couch to take a seat off to the side.

"Right," I told everyone. "Before we begin, Grue's little sister, who goes by Imp, triggered as a decently powerful Stranger."

"Imp?" she said. "Didn't have a name, but that works. I'm all mischievious n' shit, and I don't know, mess people up. Imps do that, right?"

I nodded. "They do, and it's the name you'd eventually pick."

"Holy shit! Can you see the future? Do you know lottery numbers? Do I make it big? Oh! Do I get big tits 'cause they're pretty fuckin' descent for my age, which means they should be real nice later!" she asked in a torrent.

I pinched the bridge of my nose as Herb laughed and the rest of the Undersiders looked at us in confusion. "In order," I responded, trying to remember all her questions. "Sort of, no, as much as you can with your power, and I have no clue, that's not something that was focused on a great deal, but they tend to be genetic."

Regent held up a hand. "Um, Lee? Who are you talking to?"

I sighed. "So, Grue's little sister, the _Stranger_ , is the sixth member of the Undersiders that none of you can remember because unless she suppresses her power you don't realize she's there. I showed them the camera picture again. "See her in the photo, she's sitting in that chair over there. Suppress your power and say hi Aisha."

My eyes registered what my brain knew as she waved to the group, saying "Hi Aisha!" before disappearing again.

"And now you know enough that her power probably won't erase her from your mind, just whatever she's doing at this time." I explained.

"But that doesn't explain why my face hurts." Regent pointed out.

I looked at him incredulously. "Think of where you put your hand to try to feel where she was, now figure out where you would have touched her if she'd been sitting next to you."

He considered this as Grue's helmet tilted down at him, probably glaring. "Fair enough," Regent admitted, "Though I should at least be able to remember what I got slapped for."

"That's my sister," Grue groused.

"You can grab one of my sisters if you want," Regent responded blandly.

"My _thirteen-year-old_ sister," he practically growled.

"And?" Regent asked, confused.

Tattletale and Bitch where staring at him now, though Tattletale decided to copy me, sighing and pinching the bridge of her nose. "Let's just say he had a messed-up home life, I'm eventually going to kill his dad, and he's totally okay with that," I told the group getting their attention.

"Aren't you a hero?" Bitch glared.

"And rabid dogs need to be put down." I declared. "Not misunderstood ones, or miss-trained ones. Mad ones."

She held my gaze before nodding, looking away.

"What he said, now let's order dinner!" Herb declared, holding up a menu.


	33. Impediment 4-4

**Impediment 4.4**

Once we were properly fed and watered, and Aisha got over having people she could talk to, we settled down to business. Sitting down in the lounge area, most of the group had un-masked to eat, Regent commenting, "You already know who we are, so what's the point?" and never put them back on. Herb's teeth had gotten a few comments, and while Lisa and I had both not removed our masks, no-one remarked on it.

"First of all," I started. "Tattletale, I need you to call Taylor's dad and tell him that she was out with friends, got caught at the edge of a blast, and got thrown by it. She's a bit banged up, your mom looked her over, she's staying at your place until things calm down, and she's sleeping, but okay." She nodded and stepped away, pulling out her phone. As we'd had dinner the rate of detonations had slowed, but hadn't stopped, and there was now one every thirty minutes or so according to the news.

Leaning back in my chair, I dropped a sound bubble between Herb and I. "So, time for your recruitment pitch."

He looked back, a little confused. "You're better at speechifying than I am."

"Yeah, but the Undersiders are _your_ project." I pointed out. "I'm willing to give them a chance, which is a hell of a lot more than anyone else has, but I'm not spending the effort I'm giving to Pan & Taylor. You want to convince them thoroughly, _you_ convince them." I dropped the bubble and got up, helping Bitch collect the plates, though she didn't say anything.

The Undersiders had spread out across the lounge, and looked at me as I sat. I turned and looked at Herb pointedly, who took a deep breath, stepping forward and began; "I don't mean to insult you by callin' you kids, so I won't, but you've got _so_ much shit on your shoulders. You have no idea what. The sheer fact that _we_ know what it is makes it unfair, the sheer fact that we can't tell you makes it _more_ unfair. Welcome to your world, sorry it sucks," he informed them sadly as I realized that I hadn't heard Herb give _that_ many speeches. He just usually interrupted mine. I wanted to help him present his argument better, as what he'd just said didn't make a _ton_ of sense, but I'd _said_ this one was all him and I meant it, choosing instead to tune him out, checking my phone, looking at the base security and typing up a message to Boojack to tell him what had happened with Bakuda.

"But, what you didn't have before you have now. Two people, who want to make it _better_. Not gonna make it perfect, not gonna stop a lot of the big things from happening, and I can't even _tell_ you about the big things because, oh my god," he lamented. "So much I can't tell you, cause if I tell you, it changes everything, and I don't want things to change right now. So much so, that I let you be accomplices to a kidnapping." He sighed. "Yes, look at me, I made you kidnap a child. I'm sorry."

The ringing silence that statement created pulled my attention back as I tried to go over what he'd just said. "Wait, what?" I asked, attempting to reel back the half-heard conversation and coming up with nothing. "What'd you just say?"

"Oh," my friend said, looking back at me. "Oh, you oh," he responded, surprise flashing across his face. "You did forget."

 _Wow, that was helpful,_ I thought. "Forget what?"

"Diana?" he supplied.

I trolled through my memory, trying to remember a character called Diana, getting nothing. The only Diana I could think of was not of this universe. "Wonder Woman?" I hazarded. His expression didn't change. "Who?"

"You know," he said in a manner that suggested I _really_ should. "The wicked good precog." _There's no precog named Diana in this world_ , I thought as he continued "Who can see multip-"

 _Oh, he must mean,_ "Dinah Alco-OH FUCK!" I swore, shocking the group of teens. "HOW THE FUCK DID I FORGET ABOUT DINAH! Fuck fuck fuck fuck!" I dropped my phone, hands springing to my head in horror.

"Sorry," Herb commented, a little surprised, but not nearly as upset as he should have been. _Did he realize it when he picked up Bitch and Imp?_ I thought. _He must've, no way would he-_ "I thought you were just going along. I'm sorry bro." He sounded like he forgot to grab his wallet when we went out to see a movie, not _condemned a girl to drug addiction and torture!_

"It's been like a year man," I tried to reason, more with myself than him. "I kind of. . . _Fuck,_ " I finished not even able to say aloud that I'd _forgotten the bank job was a distraction for kidnapping a preteen cape_. Grabbing my phone from the ground and searching online, there it was, bold as _fucking_ brass: "Mayor's Niece, Aged Ten, Kidnapped by Armed Gunmen!" I wanted to throw the damn thing against the wall, but that wouldn't help anything. Springing to my feet I began to pace, company forgotten. "Okay, now she's with Coil," _set the situation, figure out what we can do._ "But we don't know _where_ and they've probably started working on her by know."

"She kinda needs to be there right now," my . . . teammate advised.

" _No!_ " I retorted, "She really doesn't need to be!" _No location means no op. I can't save someone if I don't know where I need to go to do it. I can't do_ _ **anything**_ _to save her until I find that out first, and the only way to get that right now is through the Undersiders, who are. . . right._ Glancing over at them, most were eyeing me cautiously, Tattletale's eyes were wide, with fear, guilt, maybe shock? _Fuck it I don't really care right now_. I stalked back over to my seat, plopping down in it, trying to search my memory of what I knew about Coil's base. It was underground, had a parking lot, which these kids ended up confronting the Slaughterhouse 9 in, and was near construction or under it, though all of that info came after the bombing and after Leviathan wrecked half the place, which told me _nothing_ right now.

Seeing that I'd sat down, Herb turned back to the Undersiders. "So, you guys are accomplices to a serious issue. Kidnapping."

Seeing their wariness shift to confusion I explained. "The bank job was a distraction-"

"To kidnap one of the most powerful precogs out there-," he interrupted.

"Who is the mayor's niece," I finished. " _Fuuuuuuuuck_ ," I added to myself, still unable to understand how I'd missed _this_. If I was being honest, I had an idea. I'd started reading this _stupid_ story about a year ago, and I'd been so focused on helping Taylor and Panacea in the past few days I'd had a serious case of out-of-sight, out-of-mind for a lot of the secondary characters, like Brandish.

"Did you know?" Grue asked Tattletale accusatorily when it became clear I wasn't going to continue.

"No!" she practically shouted. "I knew it was a distraction, we were hitting a _bank_ in the middle of the _day_ , of course we were, it's why he was paying us so much. I didn't know it was for _that!_ I'd have turned him down if I knew! I . . ." she trailed off, looking as horrified as I felt.

Regent looked on, face blank, as Bitch leaned against a wall, unhappy.

"You get him the drugs too?" Break asked her pitilessly, her eyes going wide as she looked at him. "Cause their pumping her full of them right now."

"What drugs?" Grue asked, looking between the two.

"That's not fair man," I interceded. "She wouldn't've been involved, she'd've figured it out if she had been. Dinah's precog gives her odds of the likelihood of any event, but doing so hurts her," I disclosed. "Once a day or so and she's fine, but past that it results in a feedback effect that gets worse the more she uses it, like when Tattletale overuses her powers, but much faster. Coil, your boss, is getting her addicted to opioids; it both blunts the pain she gets from powers overuse, and lets him use her withdrawal symptoms to convince her to use her powers for him, a metaphorical stick, the carrot here being her 'candy'. Fuck."

"Jesus tats," he muttered, Aisha adding "That's fucked up!"

"I didn't know!" Tattletale pleaded.

"Now here's my thing for you guys," my teammate told the group, getting their attention once more. "The reason I let that happen, and yes, I let that happen. Knew exactly what was going to happen, I'm a dick, yes, hate me all you want."

 _Well_ , _I guess this_ _ **wasn't**_ _something he just realized._ "We are going to have words later," I coldly informed him.

He waved at me dismissively. "Yes, we will." He turned his focus back on the teens. "It's because I needed you to understand that, _yes_ , you were makin' money, _yes_ , you were doin' this amazing thing, but the boss you're working for is a complete and utter ass who constantly rapes one of your best friends."

" _WHAT?_ " yelled Bitch, Aisha, and Grue, Regent's eyebrows shooting up in surprise.

"And forces drugs on children," he continued, "after he kidnaps them. There's a reason why he does this, but it's best if we just, I don't know, kill him, but he's really protective and his power makes him a bitch to off."

"I have a plan to kill the asshole," I told the group, "But I need to know _where_ he is first."

"And we don't," he added. "And hey, what do ya know, he sidesteps things. Quite well."

I elucidated. "He has time power bullshit. Calls it fate control, but he splits the timeline, aware of what happens in both futures as they happen, and closes the one he doesn't want. It lets him ask any question, do _anything_ , and then close out the timeline with the knowledge of what happens in the other one while nothing's happened in this one. He's fond of, after a meeting is successfully concluded, going with whatever timeline gave him the best result, splitting it again, and having the person who he just finished talking to tortured in one for information while in the other they leave peacefully. He then goes with the peaceful timeline with all the information he's gained from the torture timeline. To kill him I'll need to know where he'll be, and a day. I set a pre-set time, not in reaction to anything, but of my own will, and put it a day or so in the future as he splits and chooses lines pretty quickly. Then I hit him at the set time, so no matter what decision he split, I'll hit him in both timelines. Once he dies in one, he's forced into the other so if it's not at the same time, he'll use the knowledge he gained from the first time I killed him, split time again, and try two different tactics, going with whichever works best, or doesn't make him die, same thing really." I told them, finding comfort in explanation.

"This is why we picked you guys," Break informed them. "Because you're basically decent people and you're reacting in the way you should. You're going 'Oh no! this is horrible!' and you're right. You know what else is horrible?" he asked, pulling out the glass face from his pocket, the sharp edges of it scraping against the metal of his gauntlets, "This. Know what else is horrible? Your lives. Know what else is horrible? All of it. All of it, just this entire thing and we want to help make it better." He put the face back, commenting, "While having a little fun, less at the expense of other people, but still fun." He turned back to them. "But with less people dying, wouldn't it be nicer?" He smiled at them, nearly chirping. "So, recruitment speech, yay!"

The Undersiders looked at his sudden change in mood with no small amount of horror as he finished. "Join, stop all the bad shit that's comin' into your life. I can't tell you what it is yet, but we can save you, and you don't have to go through all of it. Some of it," he corrected. "You really don't want to go through all of it." He looked at their leader. "Especially you Grue, _really_ important for you to join us. It'll save you, up here," he tapped his forehead. "So," Break told them all, "You can sleep on it if you want, but killin' people and stuff, really deserves a good plan." He looked around at them. "Questions? I'll give answers, as much as I can."

There was a moment of silence as we all looked at him. _That's it?_ I thought. _Vague threats and 'things will go well for you if you join'? Really you dick?_

The teens looked at each other, silently trying to decide who should go first. Grue stepped forward, warily. "Why me?"

"Pain. Suffering of immense proportions that you won't have to go through." My teammate told him, which really didn't answer the boy's questions. "And if you think you think you know what I'm talking about, crank it up _a lot_."

I couldn't leave it at that. "Do you know what Second Triggering is?" I asked him, getting a head shake of no in response. "Look it up. You'll understand."

"You do it," Break told him, deciding to throw subtlety out the window. "Regent, because eventually you'll be happy. Very, honestly, happy."

"Um, yay?" the teen responded. "You too?" _Yeah, he's not sure what Herb just said._

"Aisha," my teammate continued, addressing her not-presence on the arm of the couch. "Yeah, pretty much the same thing. You handle all the shit well, but I want you to be happy." She didn't say anything. At least, I think she didn't.

"Bitch," he plowed on. "You're wicked awesome, you really are. You just need people to understand and I've probably said way too many words for you to even care. Join. That's it."

"And Tattletale," he addressed the shell-shocked girl, who was taking his words worse than anyone, probably because she could see everything he meant underneath what he was saying in more detail than she liked. "You can read me like a book, so me compadre, when I speak, I don't hold much back. I'm kinda an emotional individual. I ate someone today."

"The fuck?" Aisha asked, falling off her perch in shock.

"It wasn't my proudest moment," he agreed, not breaking eye contact with Tattletale. "Stuff I need to work on."

"He killed the bit-cunt who tried to kill your brother," I explained to the thirteen-year-old.

Break continued, staring at the Thinker, "You know, just by readin' and listenin' to me that I'm not a bullshit person. I'm a fun person, I love to hang around things, but this," he indicated the pocket holding the glass face, "Is _bullshit_. And I don't like bullshit, it's messy, and you guys are stuck in a bullshit situation, and you guys are gonna end up doing some bullshit things. But I don't want you to, so help us out. Join our group, and enjoy the perks of being the better bad guys."

I felt compelled to define, "We're Heroes of the mythic variety, not the modern cops and robbers types that plays games that ruin civilian lives."

"I love you guys," Break addressed them, as if I hadn't said anything. "And I don't want any of this bullshit to happen to you. You don't know why I love ya, but I do. Kay? You're, like, important to me. So join, and don't be bitches about it." He was met with silence.

I stood up. "right, good speech, you guys need to get to bed and I need to have words with my. . . teammate."

"I'm going to the principal's office," the man in question snarked. "I'll be okay."

"Dude," I told him, not looking at him. "Just _shut the fuck up_ right now." I continued addressing the teens, "Each of these rooms has two twin beds. Tattletale, can you take the one with Taylor so she has someone if she needs anything?" The Thinker nodded and got up as well, happy to have an out. "Bitch, Imp, you guys can take another room."

"Why?" Imp's not-voice asked petulantly, an underlying tone of fear running through that single word.

"Because you're both girls, and your power means that you have to actively try to annoy her, and you know better. if I stick Bitch with Regent, she'll hurt him, and if I stick you with him, Grue'll hurt him."

"Fair enough," Regent added, "Sorry," he apologized to Imp, looking in the wrong direction.

"Grue and Regent, you're the last room, for obvious reasons." They all looked at me, Tattletale near the door to her room, but the rest all just sitting there, staring. _"Leave. Now"_ And they were gone.

I turned back to the man that I had considered my best friend and confident, my voice cold with anger. "Herb. _Buddy_. **_Pal_** _._ "

"Compadre!" he added, a tremor of apprehension in his voice. _Good._

" _Shut the fuck up._ " I hissed. "When, _exactly_ , did you remember the Bank job was a distraction for the kidnapping and torture of a ten-year-old girl?" I wanted to believe that he, like me, had completely blanked on it and was talking a big game for the teens, but I wasn't nearly as sure as I wanted to be.

"When we got here?" he responded simply.

"And by here, you don't mean this hotel, do you?" I asked with a deep sinking in my chest.

"Nope."

He _must_ have had a good reason though. "And the reason you did not see fit to _remind_ me of this at _any_ point in the past, I don't know, five days was _what,_ exactly?" He motioned towards the rooms the Undersiders were now in. "You do that like it excuses something." I bit off the beginning of an unpleasant laugh.

"Extra incentive for them to join," he explained, as if that made _any_ sense at all.

"They didn't need that when their boss is planning to _kill them all_!" I wouldn't shout, that wouldn't solve anything.

He had the temerity to shrug. "Yeah, but, stuff."

"Oh, stuff, of course, the most extensive of _rebuttals_." I took a deep breath. "No, not _stuff_ , we had Boojack as _our_ distraction, we could have just as easily sent him to stop Coil's men, or start the fight earlier and lead the fight there, stopping it from happening. I could figure out a way to make it all work if I'd _known_. The fuck is _wrong_ with you?"

"Well, while we're talking, we're running out of time. We need to go save a girl before she gets _totally_ hooked on some drugs she doesn't need." He countered, as if this was somehow all part of a larger master plan.

"Okay, cool, I'll go get her _right now_." I retorted, calling his bluff.

"Again, why we need them," he said, motioning towards the rooms again.

 _Yes, he really doesn't get it_ I thought. "You do realize," I informed him, "That with proper medical care, or improper as it were, she'll be addicted in _days_ , if not _hours_."

"I know," he affirmed nonchalantly.

"And it's going to take them _weeks_ before they could tell us where his base is."

"I know." Again, in the same tone of voice.

I would not punch him in the face, no matter how punchable it looked right now. "So you're not saving her from _anything_ _are you?"_ My voice had gone cold again, but I didn't care.

"Not right away, no," the asshole agreed.

I had to know, "What, _conceivable_ , part of you thought this was a _good_ plan?" I wondered aloud.

"Ya know, when you think about it," he observed.

 _"Yes?"_

"And it's a concept," he continued unabated. "And you don't really put actual things behind it."

"Like _Reality?_ " I offered.

He nodded. "True. You go with it. And then, oops."

I sighed. I would not hurt my friend unless I had a good reason, and relieving my frustration with his complete lack of thought wouldn't help _him_. It would be like kicking a dog the day after it did something, it wouldn't link the pain to the act _emotionally_ , and he'd just gone on about how _emotional_ he was. "Oops is, I counted the hours wrong and overpaid an employee. Oops is, I stubbed my toe getting out of bed this morning. Oops is not getting a ten-year-old girl taken by a _sociopath_ , and hooked on _FUCKING OXY!"_

He nodded sagely. "You're right, but, silver lining-"

"It better be _fucking Mithral_." I sneered.

He hedged, "Probably not, maybe gold."

"What?"

"Yeah, Gold," he decided.

"What the fuck is it?" I demanded.

He held up a hand. "When we save her, she'll be highly indebted to us and we can probably get her on our side once you, or Panacea, do your healing shit on her."

I just blinked at him, boiling ice in my veins. "One," I bit out. "That's not how _debts_ work. You can't let someone get _in_ danger, just to make yourself look better when you _save_ them. Second of all, in case you've forgotten, ya fuckin' moron, _I'm immune to precognition_ , which means that she can't help us on anything that _I'm even slightly involved in_."

"God, I keep forgetting about that," he responded, still with a voice lacking any human empathy or concern, but I wasn't going to respond to that.

"Third, her power doesn't give you a vision, it gives you probabilities, which, again, when you throw me into the mix-"

"Doesn't count," he completed, like I'd corrected his math on a restaurant bill's tip.

"Yes, ruins everything. Fourth! If her power hurts her to use, and is going to be fucking useless _there was no reason for her to go through_ _ **any of this fucking shit**_."

He just nodded. "Yep."

I waited for him to say something, anything else but he just stared at me, waiting for me to continue. I obliged. "So here's what's going to happen," I asserted quietly.

"We wait a week, we're-" he started.

I silenced him with my power. "No, we've seen what happens when you just talk, _now_ you listen. If you remember _anything_ that I seem to have forgotten or not mentioned you are going to tell me," I instructed calmly, so far past the point of anger and just sick of his nonsensical shit that I reached a higher plane of not giving a single fuck.

He held up a hand and I dismissed the bubble. "Should I tell you now?"

 _Good, start a beneficial habit._ "What did I forget?"

"I don't know, what did you forget?" He asked smiling, trying to make a joke out of this entire _clusterfuck_.

"I don't know," I responded, not taking the bait. "Is there something that I haven't mentioned that you believe to be important, like the enslaving of a small child, that I could go fix?"

"Right now, hmmm." He responded, pantomiming thinking.

I waited a few beats, but he just continued his _act_. "alright then, if you think of it, or think of something in the future, you are to tell me. Immediately. And not attempt this cloak and dagger shit, because, as we've seen, you suck at it."

"I never said I was good at it," he observed placidly.

"I'm glad we are in agreement then." I responded pleasantly.

He finally tried to defend himself, stating "I thought eventually, you'd, like, remember."

I smiled at him. "You know me, I get focused on shit." He nodded in agreement. "Regardless, you think of something, you tell me, _just to double check,"_ I told him in conspiratorial voice. "That way this shit doesn't happen again." I waited, but he didn't respond, though he tried to say something as I started talking, and I plowed on through. "Because if it does, I will beat you bloody, heal you, and repeat, for as long as it takes for you to learn to not play games with the lives of _children_."

"But again," he countered. "It gave them extra incentive."

 _Really_ I raged internally. _FUCKING REALLY._ _ **YOU THINK THAT MAKES IT OKAY!?**_ But I had a realization, that I just _had_ to share. "Oh, so, thought. When Dinah can no longer reliably predict the future because of the actions that I take, and her powers seem faulty, there's a not _insignificant_ chance that Coil will decide she's not worth the trouble, and put a bullet in her _brain_." I looked at him as his eyes widened slightly, though he controlled the rest of his reactions. _"Didn't think of that, did ya?"_ I asked in a stage whisper.

"Nah, wasn't up there," he responded in an uncaring tone, as if I'd pointed out that his shirt and pants didn't match.

"Yeah," I agreed, trying to match his unconcerned tone. "Yeah. This, _this_ is why you need to run shit by me man." He mm'd in agreement. "You've got the breadth of ideas, I have the depth."

"Construction site, underground, tunnel," he said. I couldn't tell if he was thinking out loud, or if this was yet _more_ of his pseudo-cryptic bullshit meant to put me on my back foot.

"While that does narrow it down," I agreed, and he gave no reaction whatsoever to my words, the lack of which was obviously a controlled response, so it was probably the latter. _Damnit man,_ I raged, keeping my expression calm, _friends don't play these fucking mind games with each other!_ "We don't know which base he'll be in, if he even has more than one, whether it's a current construction site or one that's been delayed, or one that's started after _the storm_ hits."

"No," he disagreed. "It's current."

"If that's true that narrows it down, but not nearly enough."

"Tattletale actually knows where it is," he responded in a thoughtful tone.

I quirked an eyebrow. "Right now?"

"Yes."

"No she doesn't," I disagreed. "He's keeping her as far away from his main operation as possible. It's only after _it_ happens that she gets allowed that close, given the amount of work she has to do for his organization, but that's not for another few weeks."

He stopped, thought, and then agreed. "You're right, he met her in a different place."

Finishing this tangent and returning to my point, I reiterated. "So, if I seem to be forgetting something, mention it. I might have already accounted for it in my plans, but you mentioning it gets us both on the same page, and avoids the kind of FUBAR that you've led us into. Okay?"

He didn't respond. " _Ohhh-Kay?_ " I repeated.

"Not everything," he disagreed.

" _Like. What?"_ My voice lost its pleasant façade in an instant.

He didn't seem concerned. "Stuff I'm not sure about yet," he replied absentmindedly.

"Run it by me just in case," I whispered.

"Mmm, I'll think about," he responded instantly.

I started again, wondering if I was going to need to beat my best friend to a pulp right now. I didn't want to do it, and I'd heal him, but he needed to understand that I _wasn't fucking around_. "If it results in another child being tortured-"

He cut me off, "I don't think there's anymore child torturing, maybe child dying, but not torturing."

I stared at him for a minute, as he waited for my response. "If it results in a situation like this, _you will hurt for it._ You're my friend, so I _won't_ kill you, but this is **_not okay_**."

He sighed. "I know, I get it, and come on, _duh_ , of course it isn't." I wanted to point out that it apparently _wasn't_ 'duh' considering that at the _start_ of our little. . . dialog he had been defending his position. His insinuating that he always thought it was unacceptable was a tacit lie, and I _hate_ it when my friends lie to me, but he looked like he had more to say, so I waited. "It's so not okay, that I get," he responded, trying to mock me.

"Then why did you do it in the first place?" I asked him, mocking his mockery.

"Again," he responded, dropping the affectation. "Certain things have ta kinda just happen."

"No they don't!" I shot back. _What did he mean by 'again'? He'd never brought up that point before, because it was made of_ _ **stupid**_. "We don't have to hit the Stations of Fucking Canon. We don't _want_ to hit every single important point, and the points that we're going to hit, like _the storm_ , and _the visitors from out of town_ , we can't _fucking stop!_ They're external threats, but everything else we _can_ stop, or fucking change, we _do_ , because we really should." _Wait_ , I thought. _Is_ _ **this**_ _why he wanted Taylor in the Undersiders? Just because it_ _ **happened in canon**_ _? I want to ask, but if that's true, I_ _ **will**_ _hurt him, and I really don't want to do that right now._

"Can I ask you a _small_ question thought?" He asked. "If she doesn't get kidnapped, how do we find him?"

"If the ten-year-old girl wasn't kidnapped and enslaved with narcotics, after _it_ hits, Lisa will still get brought in to help streamline operations in stage two of his plan." He made a noncommittal noise. " _Yes,_ it would be simpler because he'd drop his guard, but _no_ I wouldn't want a child to suffer to make our jobs just a little _easier_!"

He nodded in agreement. "Understandable," he said like, like, fuck I don't know. Like we were discussing something _unimportant_.

"Okay," I said, settling the matter. "Fuck man, just fuck." I sighed, feigning more relaxation than I felt, body still taut and simmering with rage, at him, at me for trusting him, and this entire _fucking_ situation, but he'd head to bed and I'd have time to cool off. I pointed at the last bedroom. "That room's yours, it's like midnight, go and get some sleep. I'm gonna stay here and, I don't know, keep fucking watch."

"For what?" he asked confused.

"Fuck, I don't know," I said, truly wishing he would just leave for the first time in my life.

"'cause with what's going on, people are slightly preoccupied," he explained.

It hurt to say it, but I replied honestly, "Maybe I just don't want to look at you right now."

He laughed, like he hadn't just fucked me over and tried to stain my _goddamned soul_ with his thoughtless, misguided actions. "Okay lovebutton, I'll see you," he told me as he left, closing the door behind him.

I snapped a sound bubble around the room as I roared **"** ** _FUUUUUUUUUCK!"_** The air around me whipping in my useless rage, air claws ready to strike, to tear, to _rend_. Whatever the fuck I'd felt after failing with Panacea, this was **_fucking immeasurably_** worse. I'd **_fucking_** **_trusted_** that motherfucker to have my back, and he'd been treating it like a **_fucking game_** , even now that he'd claimed to realize just how 'messed up' the situation **_fucking was_**. I'd work with him, and have him back me in a fight, but never again when it came to planning, to leading, to doing the **_fucking right thing_**. He was the first true friend I'd had in over a decade, and **_fucking this_** was how I learned I couldn't really trust him to be honest with me like I'd always tried to be honest with him. He'd planned to let a child be tortured from the very beginning, and didn't even feel bad about it, the **_fucking bastard_**. I flipped a chair upright with wind and sank into as the tears came for the first time in years, and just like when I was a kid, I was truly **_alone_**.


	34. Impediment 4-5

**Impediment 4.5**

An indeterminate amount of time later, I pulled myself together, feeling drained. _Okay, it's just me, and I need to_ _ **save the world**_ _._ As I walked around, picking up the furniture that I'd blown over with my accidental wind blast I could almost physically feel the weight settling on my shoulders. _Lovely_. I needed to work on my powers, but I had no one to heal, and hitting myself to drain my shields would probably be taken badly by the kids if they saw it. _Hitting and healing Break might help with both_ my mind supplied, but I wasn't going to do that. For my current persona's set all I had left was bug control. . . hmm. Tapping into it I felt Taylor's presence, which seemed to direct its attention onto me, full of muted and confused feelings of fear, pain, and oddly enough, muted hope. Keeping that running, I noticed we'd attracted some insects outside the window, and quickly sent them on their way. With that done I kept the connection open, sending back feelings of safety and protection to her, trying to screen out my own rage at Break, loneliness, and my concern over the state of her injuries. As I felt her relax I tried to focus on individual insects, seeing through their eyes to check up on everyone subtly, but it felt. . . off. Taylor's own power felt like it was mimicking me, connecting to every bug I tried to directly control, so I gave that up until I could talk to her about what was going on with her powers.

With my known powers as far as I could train them right now, I was stuck. The downside of only being able to copy with physical effects meant I couldn't practice them subtly, as they all had a certain level of flash that I didn't want the teens to see. Explaining why I had Shadow Stalker's or Grue's powers was not something I wanted to deal with right now, as while I was a Blindspot, Tattletale could still try to figure me out with her own intellect, so I settled on reading. Odd sounds still filtered in through the window from time to time, what I assumed were the bombs continuing to go off.

I finally found how to turn on the low-level base A.I., buried as it was on page one thousand, two hundred and twenty-seven out of one thousand, five hundred and fifty-three. Looking at the way it was written, I started flipping back through the manual, finally putting together something that had been bugging me the entire time. Mentally reviewing what I read, I rearranged the chapters in my head, and suddenly they made a lot more sense. It looked as if someone had taken this document and cut and pasted the chapters together in a nonsensical mishmash, disabling the search function, and I still hadn't found what should've been the introductory section of this manual. Wondering what the hell Break had _done_ at his meeting with Cauldron, I turned on the AI, and finished sending Boojack a message explaining what was going on and telling him to lie low. I toyed with the idea of asking him if _he'd_ known what his creator had been planning with Dinah, but BJ seemed lacking in personal agency, probably due to all the weed he smoked, so asking him would do nothing other than further upset me. After that it was back to reading. I _wanted_ to go out and do something, save some people, hit some bases, train, _something_ , but I needed to guard my teammates while they slept, just incase we had _massively_ overestimated the Undersiders. It wouldn't do to continue on, only to find that Regent had hijacked them while I was gone.

It was with an internal sigh of disappointment that I saw Tattletale sneak out of Taylor's room, creeping towards Herb's door. I dropped a sound bubble over the common room where I sat, clearing my throat. She yelped as she jumped, looking at me in fright. "What are you doing Sarah?" I asked tiredly.

"Nothing!" was her immediate reply. _Riiiight_.

I sighed, pointing at a chair as I got up. "Have a seat, you want anything to drink?"

She complied, and after I got us both a glass of water I sat, looking at her. "What were you doing?"

She took a drink, glancing at me. "I wanted to talk to _you_."

I raised an eyebrow, finding that _highly_ unlikely, prompting her. "Okay, talk."

I waited, as she looked at me, trying to see something, "Did you know?" she finally asked.

"About your trigger event? It wasn't your fault."

She gave a shocked look, before she shook her head "No, about Dinah."

My expression must have darkened, given how she flinched. "Sorry," I sighed. "No, I didn't know. If you'd asked me about her, I could've told you about it, but I was worrying about Taylor, and Panacea, and to a lesser extent your team, and I forgot. If Break had mentioned it, I would've made sure she was never taken, but he didn't. Not even once." Which, now that I thought about it, meant it was probably pre-meditated. _Fuck._ "It's not your fault either, though it's both of our responsibilities to try to save her."

"I'm not a hero!" she shot back, defensively.

"Are you saying that if you could save her, you wouldn't?" I asked. "I'm not asking you to storm Coil's base with me, but if you knew where she was being held, and telling me wouldn't definitely get you killed, would you risk it to save a ten-year-girl who wanted her parents to be happy so hard she Triggered to try to find a way to fix their marriage and make them a family again?"

She looked down. "That isn't fair."

I gave a hollow laugh, "Life isn't fair. Fairness is a human construct that we impose upon the universe because we wish it to be so. It's up to us to _make_ life fair, or as much as we can, because reality doesn't care about fairness, equality, or even morality. It's only by our actions that we can do our best to stop injustice, and without our efforts, all we have is entropy and decay, moral, intellectual, and physical."

She stared at me. "Sorry," I apologized. "I just hate it when people use that phrase that way. Like by saying it that means they're excused from doing anything. Still, you didn't answer. If it put you at some risk, and _all_ life is risk, would you help save her?"

"Why do _I_ need to be the one to do something?" she demanded.

"If not you, who? You have the capability, the power to do something about it. I'm not asking that you sacrifice yourself for everyone, especially because they wouldn't return the favor but," I hesitated. The best example would be to point out that someone could have done something to save her brother, but that would be too personal right now, so I went down a less . . . _raw_ route. "But if someone could have stepped in when Coil's men grabbed you. If Velocity was on patrol and saw you being taken, wouldn't you want him to step in?"

She immediately objected, "But _he's_ a hero, that's his _job_!"

"No," I disagreed. "His _job_ is working for the Protectorate, doing what they tell him. What he _is,_ is a hero, as far as I can tell. You're _working_ as a villain Sarah, and _only_ under direct threat of death, but what _are_ you?"

She said nothing, not looking at me, so I turned back to reading the base manual, reading up on the features of the basic AI. It was nothing on Dragon, more like a high-powered Alexa, though the features it was supposed to take care of, everything from running cleaning bots to firearms ranges, all things that our base didn't have, so _why were they in the manual_. I continued reading for half an hour before Tattletale spoke again. "Aren't you tired?" she questioned, staring at me.

"I don't need to sleep," I informed her, continuing to read.

"How? Are you even human?" she muttered to herself, but loud enough for me to hear.

I responded without thinking, still puzzling over the AI conundrum. Holding up my arm, I mentally commanded my costume to pull back, revealing my skin. "Would you like to feel?" I offered.

"Wh-What!?" she sputtered. "You don't just say things like that!"

I looked up at her confused. "Why not? If I'm a human I should have a pulse. I'm assuming you have basic medical training, it's dead useful to know, pardon the pun. If I'm human and not some kind of Tinker android or something I should have a pulse. Ergo," I indicated my raised arm, pointing at my wrist with the hand still holding my phone. "Plus, synthetic skin is usually hard to get just right in sci-fi, so there's that as well." She looked at me in disbelief. "Why? What did you think I meant?"

"I-you-argh!" she articulated, which didn't explain anything. "You're insane!"

Not knowing where that came from, I still wouldn't let such an obvious straight-line pass. "This coming from the girl who listens to the voices in her head? Go to bed Tattletale, there's a lot to do, and not enough time to do it in."

"This isn't over!" she promised, going back to bed. I suppressed a smile until her door closed. Her parallels to Panacea were amusing, and as I washed her glass and put it away, I finally realized what she'd thought I meant.

"Teenagers," I rolled my eyes. "Everything's an innuendo." I took comfort in the fact that I wasn't _that_ bad when I was her age, though I did have a completely different mess of problems, so that's probably why.

* * *

I was just finishing up the AI section, reading about all the features that I _couldn't use_ , when I knew the door opened, and Aisha had crept in, moving next to me and reading over my shoulder. Glancing over I saw she'd left the door open a crack, and made a note to talk to her later about the mechanics of proper stealth, leaving things as they were so you left no trace of your passage. After a minute, and a muttered "The fuck is that?" from behind me that I didn't _actually_ hear, she left to go into the small kitchen, rummaging around the cabinets.

"Would you like me to get you something to eat Aisha?" I asked, causing her to jump, silverware clattering on the hardwood floor as she yelped "Holy shitballs!"

I got up, walking over to where I knew she had backed up against the counter. "Remember, Break and I can see you, now," I told her, quickly taking stock of the pre-loaded kitchen. "Peanut butter and Fluff work for you?"

"What?" she asked, eyes lighting up as showed her the jar of marshmallow creme that had been on one of the higher shelves. "That's a thing? Hell to the Fuck Yes!" she practically shouted, before covering her mouth in fear. I cocked an eyebrow at her. "If your friend can hear me, I don't want to wake his ass up," she whispered.

"He's a deep sleeper," I reassured her, "Just don't yell and you'll be fine." Making two of them, and getting us both a glass of milk, I sat down at the table with her. We ate in silence before she asked, "So the kidnapping thing?"

"Didn't know, would've stopped it if I could." I said, after I finished my bite of the sticky concoction.

"Good," she nodded, taking another bite. "Gebbing a kib hoobed on drugs, fugged up," she said around the sandwich.

"Aisha, don't speak with your mouth full. It makes you look stupid and makes it hard to understand what you're saying," I gently rebuked.

"Sowwy," she responded, finishing and reiterating "Getting a kid on drugs is fucked up."

I nodded, "Yeah, when it comes to adults, I don't really care. As long as they know what they're taking, and are doing of it of their own free will, it's not my business. Kids aren't old enough to make those kinds of decisions, and haven't finished developing, so might get messed up either bodily or in the head by it. Voodoo Pharmacology is bullshit though."

She looked at me in confusion. "What? Magic drugs? That a thing? I mean, I didn't know they made this awesome shit," she indicated her sandwich, "So fuck me, right?"

I laughed. "No, Voodoo Pharmacology is the 'the drugs made me do it' defense. That you aren't responsible for what you do when you're drunk or high. They fuck with your head, sure, but at your core you're still you, and still responsible for what you do when you're on them. You might not like what you did, but you still did it."

She gave me considering look, "So, you don't care if grown-ups do shit, but what about if they have a kid?"

I shrugged. "Then we're back to the Voodoo Pharmacology. If you get drunk and don't take care of your child, then I'd judge you just as harshly as if you did he same sober. Child Protective Services is a thing for a reason, though like a lot of bureaucracies they run into problems of corruption and limitations from outside that disallow them from working effectively."

She looked at me. "Um, in English?"

"Which part?" I asked, reminding myself I needed to drop my vocabulary a bit.

"The CPS part. Burau-whatever, that's like, the man, right?" she asked.

I smiled encouragingly. "Pretty much Aisha. So, because of the way government stuff works, 'the man', you get people that don't do their job because nothing bad happens to them if they don't. Also, you get people yelling and complaining, probably lying to try to get something, so that people who are trying to do their jobs can't do the thing that the place they're working for was _made_ to do because they're afraid their bosses will throw them under the bus instead of doing _their_ jobs. So, you have a group that's supposed to look out for kids, but you get stuff where they don't do their jobs, and leave kids in horrible shit, or they do things they're not supposed to, because _they're_ the ones in power so they _couldn't possibly_ be in the wrong and mess up kids lives when everything was cool. If parents _can_ use drugs and still be good parents, fine, but most can't, and I'd say they're bad because they're bad parents, not because of the drugs."

She nodded. "Okay, I feel ya. But," she hedged, "What if they're like, pregnant. Should they get high then?"

 _Ah,_ I thought, _What you really want to know._ I looked at her, feigning confusion. "If I don't think kids should do drugs until they're adults, why would I think they should do drugs _before they're even born?_ "

"Yeah," she said, more to herself than me. "That's fucked up."

We finished eating, and I took the dishes to go clean up. "Hey, Lee?" she asked, continuing as I turned around. "You're okay. You're friend's a fucking asshole though."

I sighed, "Not gonna argue with you on that one," I affirmed. "Go get some sleep Aisha, I'll make breakfast at eight."

"Not gonna turn down that shit! Can you make pancakes?" she pleaded.

I shrugged, we had milk, eggs, and Bisquick, so why not. I smiled, "Sure."

She fist pumped. "Fuck yeah!" she crowed, practically skipping back to her door. "Haven't had someone make me breakfast in weeks!"

My smile became a bit fixed as I was reminded just how bad her situation was. I considered canon before realizing that there was actually no reason for her to go back to her fucked up home. Grue was _so_ concerned with getting her to be able to move in with him legally, but what was the point when her power made people ignore her very presence? I rolled my eyes as I sat down, opening up the guide, marking it down as yet one more strike against letting the leader of the Undersiders plan _anything_.

* * *

Another two hours, and hundred pages, later I heard a door open again. Looking up I saw Bitch walk out, permascowl in place, dog at her heels. She matched my gaze, glaring at me. "It's not even dawn, do you need something?" I asked.

She didn't break eye contact as she took a few steps forward. "You and Break, who's in charge?"

I wanted to glance over at the door to my teammate's room, but stopped myself. _She thinks in dog terms_ , I thought. _Which means dominance games. Yay._ "I am."

She snorted, a sound rich with disbelief. "Then why didn't you do something. He betrayed you, but all _you_ did was _talk_."

"I talked," I informed her, "Because hurting him wouldn't do anything. If you'd asked me who the leader was yesterday, I'd say we're partners." _Keep it short._ "Now I don't."

"He said he wanted to help us. Do you?" she asked, getting to the point. I nodded in response. "Why?"

She still hadn't broken eye contact, so neither did I. I had noticed that her dog had moved away, and increasing my hearing, I detected it moving behind me. _What's your game?_ "Because I think you're a good person, and the people who were supposed to help you as a kid, didn't, so I will."

Her eyes narrowed. "You don't fucking know me," she stated, as the sounds of the dog's breathing deepened, probably growing under her power.

I shrugged, standing and putting my phone away, expression carefully neutral, not breaking eye contact. "I know your Trigger event. The dog, Roll, Rex, whatever his name was, didn't deserve to die, and it wasn't your fault."

She got in my face, growling. "You're all talk, just like her!" I stood, not reacting, ready for whatever she did. "You think you're fucking strong?"

"Yes."

She swung at me, a right hook aimed at my face, but her form was _atrocious_. I leaned back, dodging the telegraphed blow, stepping around her as I grabbed her wrist, viscously twisting it backwards and behind her, making sure not to use my powers. The dog, now the size of a small horse, leapt for me, jaws open. Yanking her in the path of the dog, it broke off its attack, coming up short. She tried to elbow me with her free arm, which I also grabbed, twisting it behind her.

The dog tried to dart around her, knocking over a couch, but I twisted her to use her as a shield. It backed off whining. Switching my grip to hold with one hand, I grabbed her firmly by the throat with the other, twisting her backwards. "Just because I talk doesn't mean I won't _act,_ Bitch," I growled in her ear. "And if we're talking strength here, _you're_ the one who's weak, relying on your dogs to do your fighting. Get _better_ , and you won't need _them_ to save _you_."

Shoving her towards her companion, I calmly waited for her response. I didn't want to kill her dog, but if she was stupid enough to have it try to kill me, I'd return the favor. It took a few steps forward before she commanded. "Brutus, come." It immediately stopped, returning to her side, flesh sloughing off as she got it a bowl of water and returned to her room, not looking at me as she did so.

I sat down while she moved, taking my phone out and pretending to ignore her, not relaxing until she closed the door. "I _hate_ dominance games," I lamented to no one in particular, walking over and grabbing some of the matter that Brutus had shed, examining it. As I turned the flesh over in my hands, it ever so slowly shrank. Using a wind claw, which I carefully controlled, taking the time to try to recreate it as a single blade instead of the triple slash I'd copied from Stormtiger, I tried to cut it. After a couple tries I managed it, the smaller section shrinking, dissipating into nothingness as the larger shank still shrunk. _Well, I_ _guess Bitch isn't going to revitalize the Korean restaurant industry in Brockton Bay. Is that racist?_ I mused.

Tossing the not-meat to the side, I continued reading, interrupted, yet again, less than an hour later. I heard my teammate getting up, and sighed, putting away my phone. Despite the shit he pulled, he was still my friend, and he'd have my back without blinking.

I turned to look as he opened the door and practically _slinked_ out, looking around. It was awfully early for him to be up though. "Hey Break," I called tiredly. "What's up?"

His head snapped to me, and he gave a wide smile, his body language all wrong. "Oh no," he told me, voice smooth to the point of almost being slimy. "I ain't _that_ kiddy pimp."

I looked at him in confusion. _Did he just call Herb a pimp who specialized in children, or a child who is also a pimp. Either way, eww._ But he wasn't done. "I'm Curtis baby," he said, lazily snapping his fingers, a humanoid leopard coalescing behind him. "And that's my boy, The Hurt."


	35. Impediment 4-6

**Impediment 4.6**

I looked at the two of them, oozing malice, before I made the connection. "Oh, you're the new replicant, cool," I observed, outwardly relaxing.

Curtis went still as the jaguar-man growled. The replicant turned, addressing it. "Oh, he hurt you," he turned back, motions languid. "You want to be the first of our. . . _encounters?_ " he inquired, smiling nastily.

I looked at this display and sighed internally. _Of. Fucking. Course. This day hasn't sucked enough, now I'm going to need to kill a monster wearing my friend's face. When we get back to base, we're having a talk and maybe getting him a counselor. I wonder if I could hire Yamada._ I felt nothing but disappointment looking at this dark reflection of what my friend _could_ have been, prepping Stormtiger's claws. It was a trick Break hadn't seen me practice, and if Curtis, like Boojack, had his progenitor's memories up till his creation, it'd be something I could use to catch him off guard. Outwardly I sighed. "Okay, I'm not sure what _deviation_ of. . . Herb's base personality you are, but know that unlike him, if I have to, I _will_ fucking kill you in an instant. _Understood_?"

Curtis took a swaying step forwards, hands flexing in anticipation as he practically purred " _Challenge. . . Accepted."_ _Fuck_. "This is gonna be," he announced, flesh shifting and changing, sprouting black fur. " _Nice."_ A pure black tiger stood before me, growling as it leapt for me, claws outstretched. I didn't bother getting out of my seat, lifting my arm up, sending a single air blade to gut him, chin to groin, in the blink of an eye. The added force of the cutting wind knocked him off course, the leopard-man Stand winking out of existence as Curtis died in an instant, his corpse landing with a heavy thunk at my feet.

I sighed, what the _fuck_ was I going to do with a pure black tiger, whose entrails were probably staining the carpet even now. A motion out of the corner of my eye got my attention, another air blade ready. Grue opened his door took a step inside, and froze, looking between me and the corpse in front of me. "Go back to your room Brian, I'll take care of this. Do your exercises next to Regent."

"How. . .?" he asked, not looking away from the dead melanistic tiger.

"With your physique, you have a daily exercise regimen."

He made no motion for a beat, before backing up and starting to close the door, not turning around. "Okay."

I just stared at the corpse for a minute, checking that the sound bubble was still in place before I couldn't suppress my laughter any longer. It was _not_ a happy sound, after all of _this_ , all this _bullshit_ , I got attacked by fucking not-Herb as a black fucking _tiger_ of all things. Once that petered out, and I once again felt drained, I walked over to the landline calling up the hotel's assistance. "Hi, yeah," I told them. "Through a complete unexpected series of events, I have a dead black tiger in my room, and it's bled all over the lounge rug, could you send someone to take care of it." They were confused, but said they'd send someone up. A few minutes later a very apprehensive young woman was at my door with a trolley. She was quite helpful, and I helped her maneuver the corpse, as well as lay down a new rug, tipping her a hundred. Her last question took me back. "What do I want you to do with it? Um. . . can you have it made into a rug?" I asked. Maybe Curtis would think twice of trying to _kill me_ with a reminder of how I'd swatted him like an errant fly the first time at his feet. "As for the rest," I shrugged. "Whatever you want? Thanks!" I gave her my PO box number and wished her a good day.

Sitting back down I was at a loss on what I should do next. It was still too early to start making breakfast, and I couldn't focus on the manual. _It's just one thing after another_ I groaned internally. I leaned back and relaxed, setting an alarm for an hour later, and tried to meditate. Clearing my mind, and all that shit. Bakuda was dead. _Couldn't have happened to nicer psychopath_. Break had apparently planned on Dinah getting taken in some twisted _it happened in the book, so it has to happen now_ deterministic _bullshit_ , so I couldn't lean on him for support anymore. When it came to minor characters, like Purity, he seemed to have no problem mucking about with canon, but I couldn't trust his actions on the protagonists and secondary characters. _I'll deal with that later_. I went through my breathing exercise, and subsumed myself in them until my alarm went off.

Muting it, I dropped the sound bubble and got started on pancakes, eggs, bacon, the works. Yesterday sucked, so _hopefully_ a nice breakfast would make this day go better, or something. Turning on the TV as I worked, I saw the bombings had continued, without seeming rhyme or reason, though vague reports about Asians with bombs in their heads made me roll my eyes, wondering if the E88 owned the local news station. _Like_ _ **that**_ _won't cause mass panic, and get racial tensions ratcheted up_ I mused, flipping pancakes, adding chocolate chips to the batter on a whim. Focusing on my task, I jumped, blades ready when I heard a voice from my elbow comment " _Chocolate?_ Fuck, Is it my birthday or somethin'?"

Glancing over I _didn't_ see Aisha as she leaned over the plate of flapjacks, sniffing. She reached for one, and reacting on instinct I lightly smacked her hand away, internally confused at how I was able to do that when I couldn't actually _see_ her hand. "Those are for breakfast for everyone. Take a shower and grab some clothes from the dresser, I can smell you from here. Your power doesn't cover that up."

"Fuck, it doesn't?" she asked. "Hadn't noticed it at home, mom-. Yeah. . ." trailing off, she sniffed herself. "Shit! Ya, I'm kinda fuckin' ripe. Don't start without me!" she called, bounding back to her room.

Rolling my eyes, I finished up, knocking on everyone's doors to get them up. Tattletale answered immediately. Taylor had woken up during the night, but was out of it, and had fallen back asleep soon after. Grue had been waiting in his room, and Regent asked for five more minutes. Shrugging, I moved on. Bitch got up, giving a small nod when I told her I wasn't sure what she wanted Brutus to eat, so hadn't made him anything. Break woke up blearily, looking around himself. "Where's my next replicant?" he asked, confused.

"He tried to kill me," I informed him. "I returned the favor. I'm better at it than he _was_."

He had the decency to wince. "Oh, that night kept getting better, huh?"

" _Apparently._ I made pancakes."

He perked up at that. "Fuck yeah, I'll be up in a few."

Going back to Regent's room, I poked my head in. "It's been five minutes Jean-Paul, time to get up."

He groaned, rolling out of bed. "Whatever _mom_ ," he grouched.

Smiling, I quipped back, "Just don't call me dad," closing the door to block the pillow that he threw at my head.

The Undersiders sat down with us, eating in a scene that was downright domestic. I tried not to preen under the praise of my cooking from the teens. It was sadly, not to last. Regent used his power to twitch my arm, laughing as I got maple syrup in my face from a flying bit of pancake. My own power activated without me meaning to, lashing out, coping his power, the 'physical effects' restriction satisfied by my own body being controlled by such a margin I didn't get a choice in the matter. I sighed, now I had a _human_ master power, _and things were going so well_ , but I guess I needed to get this done.

"Regent," I addressed him coldly and quietly, the jovial atmosphere disappearing in an instant. "I _despise_ human Masters. That was your _one_. I _could_ say that if you do that to me or anyone else on my team without their express permission I will hunt you down and have insects consume you slowly over the course of hours, my knowledge of anatomy allowing me to extract maximum pain as I eat you alive for as long as your mind will hold out, as my range _far_ exceeds yours, but I won't, because I'm a _Hero_. Instead, I'll just do what I'm planning to do to your father, since you'll have decided to stoop to his level, which is shoot you in the head at extreme range with a sniper rifle. Being able to fly means I never have to worry about finding an optimal position. And if I _am_ mastered to the point that you can pull my metaphorical strings, I have contingencies that will take care of it for me, and at least one of them is _immune_ to your power." The master in question looked back cockily, hand waving dismissively, though it appeared a bit forced, and opened his mouth to respond, cut off as something wet hit his shoulder. Confused, he looked up into a pair of meter wide jaws, opened on either side of his head, Enter having manifested and shifted to a smaller, but still prehistorically large, crocodile, jaws ready to snap shut. He shakily put his hand down and looked back at me. "So, we aren't going to have an issue. Agreed?"

"Agreed!" he squeaked, flinching as Enter disappeared into nothingness.

"Good," I smiled widely, glad that was taken care of. We continued, though the teens did glance at me occasionally, and the atmosphere didn't truly return.

Break, probably trying to make up for last night, offered to get the dishes. As he passed by Bitch, he almost absently reached out and scratched the back of her neck. She growled, turning to glare at him. "Stop molesting the newbies," I chided him, not really caring if he got himself in trouble at this point, but offering a token rebuke out of duty.

He shrugged. "Just showin' some love." Everyone stopped and stared at him at this declaration. "What?" he defended. "You don't like hugs and shit. Are y'all _that_ damaged?"

"Dude," I commented. "Phrasing."

He rolled his eyes. "I'm sorry Le-"

"No," I cut him off. "Whatever you're gonna say, no. Shush."

"But, come on!" he whined. "Hugs, teambuilding, spreading that positivity!"

Regent held up a hand, "Can I _not_ be on this team?"

"None of you are on the team yet," I informed him.

"Think of this," Break addressed the body controller. "You'll be able to touch all the hot chicks, I mean you'll also have to touch the nasty ones, and some dudes, but anyways, hot chicks in there somewhere."

He was waved off. "Pass, done that already."

I felt compelled to add. "Yeah, I'm not going to make a comment on the hotness levels of our underage not really team members."

Break looked at me, confused. "What? Not them. If we're spreading the love we're gonna need to hug _everybody."_

I shot back, "I know you just want to hug Purity."

"The Nazi?" Tattletale asked, looking at him. "Oh, eww, that's just _wrong_."

He nodded unrepentantly. "Oh definitely her, I want to give the big circle-"

"I'm gonna go check on Taylor" I told the teens, talking over my friend.

"-and the really tight hug," Herb continued unabated. "And the hug that just caresses you all-"

I closed the door behind me, muting his words as I walked to where Taylor was still sleeping, sitting on the other bed and using my bug sense to prod her into walking up. She stirred, blinking wearily, accepting her glasses as she sat up with a groan of pain. I grabbed a cup from her room's bathroom, filling it with water and handing it to her, along with the one of the pills the doctor had left. She took them and I sat down, waiting for her to talk.

"What. . . What happened?" she asked. "I remember the bombs, and running, and pain, and you weren't there." She accused, weariness blunting her anger. "You said you'd be there, and you weren't!"

"Taylor," I told her calmly, "I was on the other side of the _city_ , and dealing with something delicate, and I _was_ there in twenty minutes."

"You were?" she asked, more to herself. "Thought that was a dream, like when you're about to die and everything seems nice. But I'm not. Pain means I'm not, unless," her emotions were a chaotic mess over our shared sense, vacillating wildly between depression, hope, confusion, anger, and more.

"I was," I asserted. "I tried to call you back, remember?"

"Oh, the phone!" she cried, suddenly alert, and I threw a sound bubble up to keep us from being interrupted. "I broke your phone, I'm so sorry, it was really nice, and really expensive, and you were kinda an ass when you gave it to me, but you weren't wrong which just made it worse!" she babbled. "But we were running and then there was a bomb and it vacuumed everything and and I dropped it when I had to grab onto that sign to keep from getting dragged in too and, and now it's gone and there's _no_ way I can pay for it and stop laughing I'm serious!"

I couldn't help myself, my guffawing laughter derailing her panic attack. I held up a hand, as I got myself under control, the utter ridiculousness of her statement just striking me as hilarious, though also incredibly sad. "Taylor, your being safe is worth more to me than any stupid phone," I informed her. "I'll get you another one, I'm just glad you're okay." At this, she suddenly broke into tears, which made _no_ sense whatsoever. Her emotions were mostly happy, but still mired in that chaotic mess, so it was probably the lingering aftereffects of the concussion, though the doctor had said the dangerous period had passed. I wondered if I should do something, or just let it pass. Choosing the second, I got her some tissues, handing them over as she collected herself.

"I'm sorry for being mad at you," she apologized. I shrugged, not taking offense to it in the first place. With her abandonment issues, if she thought I had turned my back on her, it was only understandable she'd be pissed. "I remember pain, worse than anything, and then everything felt better, and there was screaming, but it wasn't me."

"Oh, that was Bakuda," I explained. At her look I kept going. "Herb killed her as I was getting you out of there and healing you. For specific things I need detailed info, but I have a general healing application which I used. The doctor said you'd been healing for a week after I'd been using it for an hour on you."

She winced. "You mean I feel this bad after a week, that-wait. Killed? He _killed_ her?" she was aghast.

I didn't really see the problem. "If he hadn't, I was going to, but I was busy making sure you were safe." She looked at me horrified. "Neither of us take kindly to seeing someone we care about hurt."

"Did, did you kill her because she hurt me?" she questioned, sounding scared of the answer.

I sighed, looking at her. "Well, if we're being honest, she was going to just hurt you, she was going to torture your teammates in front of you, then torture you, before finally giving you to Oni Lee to be repeatedly raped, and for that, yes, unquestionably yes, I would kill her. But that's only just yet another reason why we were going to kill her to begin with. She was insane Taylor, you saw that yourself. That kid that got liquified, the bombs she planted in people's heads? That's another. We did it for a _lot_ of reasons, her targeting you just made it an immediate thing instead of a planned strike later. She's bombed the _entire city_ , and now that she's dead her remaining bombs seem to be going off randomly."

Almost on que, the sound of a distant explosion was heard through the closed window, a plume of yellowish-green flame rising up over downtown. "Oh god," she whispered, voice thick with guilt, "this is all my fault!"

"What?" I asked, completely confused. "Fucking how?"

"If I wasn't there, none of this never would have happened. If I wasn't on your team, you wouldn't've killed her. Everyone that died is my fault!"

I blinked at her, a bit taken aback. "Holy shit Taylor, I didn't realize you were a precog, why didn't you say so earlier?"

"Huh?" was her reply at what must have been to her, a complete non-sequitor.

"Well, you'd have to be, to know that _all of this_ was going to happen, and take _sole_ _responsibility_ for it. Anything else would be the height of arrogance. You must also be a powerful Master, making Bakuda implant all those bombs in the people her gang was supposed to _protect_. And making her program in a _deadman's switch_. And making her _ambush your teammate_ to capture you. And to make _the Undersiders_ go looking for Bitch. And to make _us_ come to help you. And to make _Herb_ kill her. Wow Taylor, what is _free will_ in the face of such awesome power?" I deadpanned. "I say that, of course, because unless you are _directly_ controlling their actions, there's _no_ _logical_ _way_ you could be responsible for the actions of others." I gave her an unimpressed look, as she gaped back at me. "Besides, the bombing was going to happen no matter what, it was a distraction to break Lung out of PRT holding, the revolving door that it is, only now the following detonations are random instead of tactical, and most of their conscripts are busy fleeing and trying to get medical help instead of following the ABB's orders."

"Wait, _Lung's_ free?" she asked, scared.

"Really?" I asked in disbelief. "After all that, _that's_ what you focus on?"

"He's going to try to _kill_ me for what I did to him!" she responded, trying to dodge the question. I rolled my eyes. _Fine, but we're having this discussion later._

"He's really not that big a deal," I commented, getting a disbelieving look of my own. "No, really, if we hadn't messed with the timeline, you'd have taken him down in about a week and a half pretty much on your own, after taking down Oni Lee with the help of a sniper team. For Herb or I, if we really went at it, no contest."

"How?" she finally demanded, after processing my declaration.

"You or us?"

"Yes!"

"Well, for Oni Lee, you know how he seems to teleport, leaving behind an ash clone?" I asked, continuing at her nod. "Well, you hit him with a swarm, like ya do, but notice that when he teleports the bugs travel with him, immediately letting you know where he is. With the help of a sniper team that you're working with, you can immediately tell them where the real version is. He's used to taking a second to survey the area before teleporting back in with no-one knowing where he is. In that second, you ID him and they snipe him."

 _"And Lung?_ "

"Well, at the time the villains had made a truce to take down the ABB, since the threat to the city they posed was getting extreme and they were making a bid to take it _all_ over, so you were working with Newter. He's a Case 53, a real one, and he's an anthropomorphic newt who secretes hallucinogenic slime. Lung was going all rage dragon, and had scaled up, but mucus membranes are mucus membranes and you covered your bugs in Newter's slime. It would kill them in minutes, but you had them divebomb his face, crawling up his nose and against his tear ducts. Enough got through and you dropped him, but he was going to be back up in minutes. After calling Lisa and checking that he could regrow _anything_ , you tore out his eyes."

"I wouldn't do _that!_ " she practically shrieked, before suddenly getting introspective. "Would I?"

"Well," I reasoned. "You had him down, but he was going to be back up before the PRT could secure him, and you knew he'd regrow anything you take off of him. He was\s still covered in steel scales and extraordinarily hot to touch. How would stop him from getting up and killing you, Newter, who's injured and unconscious, and Bitch, who's also injured?"

"Oh god, I would," She whispered to herself. "What kind of hero _am_ I?"

"The kind that's willing to do what's necessary to protect people. The kind that's willing to match your foe's brutality. The kind that _I_ am." I said simply.

She looked at me, the chaotic mess of emotions on her end of the bug sense settling a bit as she did so. "Okay, anything else I should know?"

"Um, well, I had Lisa call your dad to-"

"You _what_?" she cut me off, panicked.

I rebuked her gently. "Taylor, you were seriously injured, and we were laying low. I had her call him and say you were out with friends when you got caught by the edge of blast, but you were okay. He knows you're staying with friends, and you getting back late makes perfect sense because they've stopped the busses because they found bombs on them, so-"

"What!?" she interrupted again.

"They only found three more bombs after the first exploded, and only a few people died, so it could have been _way_ worse. Either way though, the bus system is down," I finished explaining. We sat there, her looking at me, completely at a loss for words. "So. . . school's out. So there's that. . . are you okay?"

Her emotions over the connection spiked at my question and she started laughing and crying uncontrollably. "Yes, No, I don't know! I'd just robbed a _bank_ and everything was _okay_ , and I met Emma and I didn't care for the first time in _forever_ , and then I realized I was friends with _villains_ , and then we went to find Bitch and I thought I was going to _die_ , and then we won, but we didn't because we were _idiots_ , and then I _knew_ I was going to die, and then _you_ were there and it didn't _hurt_ anymore, and you were _there_ , all hot with your muscles, and then I woke up and I was _safe_ , and now the cities being _bombed,_ I don't know what's going on anymore!" she finished.

"Um. Wait. What?" I asked, wondering if I heard what I thought I'd heard.

A flash of panic came across the connection. "I don't know what's going on." She shrugged helplessly, after pausing a second too long. "It's just too much."

"No," I clarified, "right before that."

She went bright red, sputtering. "I, I didn't say you were hot. Or your muscles were."

An awkward silence spread between us. "Well," I finally pronounced, **"** Since we've established that, I'm gonna go. There's clothing in the dresser, find something that fits you, and get changed."

I dropped the sound bubble and was out of the room in a flash, not wanting to deal with any of _that_ for as long as I could. Until she was eighteen, at the _very_ least.

Closing the door behind me, my teammate was _still_ going on about hugs **.** "and really, hugs almost saved the world. Coke almost had it with that hands across the world thing but if it were hugs, if it were _hugs_ , how could you say no? Like, you get a Palestinian to hug an Israeli, and yeah, both thinks the other's gonna stab them in the back, but when they don't, and they didn't do it to you, which they probably would, but if they didn't either, then that's something good, and you can spread it all over!"

"Has he been doing this the entire time?" I asked, walking over and making some more coffee.

"Yes!" was the response from Lisa, Brian, and Aisha.

Regent nodded, obviously not as sick of Herb's antics as the rest. "Man's got some good points."

"I have a new messiah." The man in question grinned at me.

"Does that make Regent the king of kings?" I mused. "Nevermind."

"Wait, I like that!" the villain in question objected, to the groans of the rest.

We lounged a bit, Bitch was getting a bit restless, but the rest were willing to watch the developing situation on TV. The Protectorate appeared not to be doing anything. As usual. It was a bit later that the door opened and Taylor started to walk out, freezing as she saw us all hanging out, mostly unmasked. "Hi?" she offered to the collective stares, looking to me for help.

I shrugged, "Long story short, they know you're working with us, they're cool with it, and might join the team at a later date."

Lisa added smugly, "I knew you were really working for them the entire time."

I ruined her all knowing image by leaning over and tousled the Thinker's hair, to her great annoyance. " _Sure_ ya did. So, Taylor, you're still going home and resting for a few days." She started to protest, but I cut her off. "You'll be back on your feet faster than you would normally, but you still need to go home and rest for three days at least. It'll make your dad feel better as well. Give me a call when it's been a few days and you're ready to go back into the field. Okay?" She hung her head and agreed, and I continued "Good, Brian and Lisa will make sure you get home okay."

She glared at me petulantly. "I can make it back okay."

"Possibly, but one, you're still concussed, even if it's healed, and that's about the same as being a bit drunk, or so I'm told. Second of all, _someone_ needs to drop you off, and given how you've been hurt if you ever want your dad to let you hang out with your _friends_ again they need to go talk to him, and Herb and I can't be the ones that do it."

He added only somewhat helpfully, "Yeah he'll be all like 'What did you do to my daughter,' and I'll be all like, 'Nothing, I don't have a dungeon, I don't know what you're talking about!'"

I gave him a confused look, "You don't _have_ a dungeon."

"That you know of," he sniffed.

"We live in the same secret base!" I retorted. "Ugh, anyways, Tattletale, you and Grue take her home, give her dad a comforting lie, and if you want to I can check your base for bombs with my bugs with Regent and Bitch. Taylor could theoretically do it, but in her unfocused state she might miss something."

"I'd rather you didn't," the Thinker grumbled.

I shrugged. While I didn't want anything to happen to them, Taylor would be safe, and they _should_ be fine.

My teammate wasn't so laissez-faire, prompting, "Wait, so, you want to die? You're perfectly fine going home, chilling, eating some pizza, going to your separate rooms, lying down in bed and then when you're asleep _that's_ the trigger and the bombs go off and you're _dead_." He looked to me for help.

"No one on _our_ team will be in the blast radius, even if I don't want them hurt, I'm not gonna press them on it," I contested, though he had a point.

"I'm gonna fuckin' press them on it," he asserted. "'cause they're being moronic kids!"

Lisa looked between the two of us, "What?"

"If I can work with you to both help you and society, I will, but at this stage, I only care about you a bit." I explained. "The 'go out of my way to help you' kind of care, not the 'possibly alienate you because I care more about your safety then how you feel' kind. You want to work with us? Great, I'll help. You don't want to and end up dead because of it. That's _unfortunate_ , and I would be saddened by your deaths, but I'll focus my efforts on people that _want_ to be helped." Mind you, I was still going to check their base even if they told me not to, but I wasn't going to tell _them_ that. Herb was right, though I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of agreeing with him after his. . . revelation only hours ago.

"Me, on the other hand," Herb countered, "I understand that you're still children sometimes, and your brain development, though altered by shards, ain't done yet."

"That isn't to say you're stupid," I added, "just your lacking in experience to see all angles of a problem and may overestimate your own tactical abilities, see last night's debacle."

Herb furthered his argument, "And when I was your age I was all like 'Hey, I know it all' and I don't care if I sound like your god-damn father but if I have to pull you over my goddamn knee and smack ya ass, I'm gonna do it 'cause you're gonna do the right shit!"

I looked at him in the wake of his comment. "That sounds a bit pervy man."

Herb waved me off, "I'd be a perv if I used a spike paddle and they were strapped to a horse."

I wanted to argue the point, but I noticed that his comment had short-circuited the kids' indignation at being treated like, well, kids, so I went along with it. "Wherever you choose to draw the line is up to you, but I'm pretty sure you're just debating degrees of perv by that point, but right, rah, father-figure, whatever."

"Yeah, Whatever," he firmly agreed, turning back to them. "You're gonna motherfuckin' get your shit swept, ya gonna do it so ya don't die from somethin' stupid as 'I don't wanna'! Are ya done? Any Questions? Good? Then let's do this! God-dammnit people." He finished, mostly to himself.

With the blank looks he was receiving, I stood up, taking my role as the leader. "Not to give you guys orders, but here are your orders. Grue, Tattletale, get Lady Bug home safe. Regent, Bitch, show me exactly where your base is so I can double check it. Imp, honestly do whatever you think is best but watch out for bombs. They don't need to _see_ you to _kill_ you. I'd prefer you stay with Grue, but there's no way I can make you, or even check with him to see if you did. Herb, you get Enter and check _our_ base for surprises. Okay, let's go."

My partner nodded, spreading his arms wide, "And hugs? Anyone for hugs. 'cause I do love ya, like you're my kids, but I love ya." There were no takers "Must be the shards," he commented, "makes 'em have an aversion to hugs."

I rolled my eyes. "Right, it's the _shards_ , whatever, let's go."

Grue held up a questioning hand. "What's a shard?"

"A discussion for another day," Herb told him. "Let's go!"


	36. Impediment 4-7

**Impediment 4.7**

We all broke into different groups as we left the hotel, Herb turning into a velociraptor and taking off, Brian flagging down the taxi I called for Taylor as Lisa hid her mask under a large pair of shades, refusing to unmask to me. After they left, I shifted my costume into full Vejovis gear, walking with the other two.

We took off down the fairly empty street, casually walking, Brutus unleashed but keeping pace with Bitch. After a couple minutes Regent spoke up. "So, walking with us, doesn't that mess up your image, _associating with known villains_ and all that?"

I shrugged. "What villains, you're not in costume. You're just two teens that got caught in the edge of a blast, and I'm making sure you get home safe, since I'm not doing anything else and haven't been contacted by anyone to help."

He nodded his head, "So, between us, Taylor, and apparently Panacea if Tats was tellin' the truth, you sure are hangin' out with a lot of teenagers. Makes ya think."

I ignored his implications, playing the question straight. "Before this I was a teacher, which means I'm used to teens."

He perked up, "What'd ya teach?"

"Unofficially, Not Foreign languages."

"That's not what you teach, that's what you don't," he informed me, confused.

I shrugged. "Same thing. High school subjects aren't _that_ hard unless you teach advance placement, and even then, not _really_. I've got a teaching cert, and was working on another, but for. . . reasons, it's no longer valid. Do you have your GED?"

He shook his head. "Pops wasn't big on, well, anything that wasn't him, and it wasn't like we ever got truant officers. Every day was Ferris's for us. Saw what was on it when Brian was working on his, didn't look that hard."

"Get it," I told him, "Then you're qualified to be a substitute teacher."

His stride paused a second, before he continued on, asking mildly, "That's it?"

"Yep."

He gave a snort, "No wonder high school sucks."

I matched his with one of my own. "Like you ever went."

"I've seen TV," he defended.

"That's usually exaggerated for effect." He gave me a look, "Though not always," I acceded, "see Lady Bug."

"You both talk too much." Bitch growled.

I rolled my eyes, stopping, the other two stopping with me. I turned to face her, looking her in the eye. She started to turn away, so I put my hand on her shoulders, tightly. "I treat you the way you understand, same for him. You're different. You treat all your dogs the same?"

She didn't say anything, just glared. "I asked you a question." I reiterated calmly.

"No," she spat.

"Exactly," I told her, letting go and continuing to walk as if nothing had happened.

Regent tried not to laugh as he kept pace, not quite managing it, which was probably on purpose. We'd made it into the docks when he spoke up again. "So about the, you know?"

I tried to think of all the things it could be, finally responding, "I really don't"

"You know," he said leadingly, adding when I didn't get it, "The S-word."

"Oh, shards, what about them?"

"What are they, you know, of?" he pried.

I shook my head. "Not gonna tell you."

"Oh come on, please?" he begged.

"No."

"I'll be your friend," he promised.

"I'm good."

"Pleeease?" I didn't respond. "Pleeeeeeeeease?"

"I threatened to cover Taylor's mouth with skin with my healing ability if she didn't stop pushing me. All it takes is skin to skin contact," I informed him, pulling my glove off, "Don't make me do it to you."

He feigned indignance, "You wouldn't!"

My hand flashed out, hitting him lightly in the back of the head. His eyes went wide as his hands went to his mouth, sighing in relief that it was still there. He glared at me as Bitch chuckled, and didn't say anything else for the rest of the trip.

Getting there, I had to give Coil props for base design at least. If I hadn't known this was their base, I never would have guessed that someone lived in this seemingly abandoned warehouse. Reaching out with my bug sense, I got a response from a _large_ amount of spiders. Directing them, along with everything else in the area, I swept them through the place, getting a three-dimensional image of the location, peering through their eyes whenever I found something I couldn't ID from shape alone. Regent yelped, stepping back from the entrance as he saw the swarm flowing through his house, quickly retreating back to my side. It took a few minutes, but by the end I was sure Bakuda didn't leave a bomb, informing them as much.

Pulling out most of the bugs, leaving only a small population, completely harmless, and only there to keep worse things out. I pooled the most into a swarm a few yards down the street. "That's a whole lot of nope," Regent commented, staring at the gathering.

"Yeah, side effect of Bug Control, you forget they can be dangerous, since you control everything they do." I explained as I figured it out, understanding the disconnect as I toggled the power, letting go and reaffirming my control on the group. "Thing is, if she's not there, they go back to their instincts. It's why she didn't see a problem with having twenty-seven black widows in the empty area your loft didn't take up."

"That's. . . a lot," he commented mildly. "And she really doesn't get squicked? Huh. 'cause I saw a couple beetles in her hair, and yeah, I'm good."

"Precisely. Powers, especially Thinker powers or anything with sensory feedback, attenuate their user's brains to maximize use."

"What's that mean?" Bitch asked, surprising us both.

"Powers change how you think. Yours help you understand dogs, Lady Bug's make her comfortable with bugs."

"Wait," Regent asked, holding up a hand. "Do my powers screw with my head?"

I looked him in the eye, asking calmly, "Are you saying some part of you _doesn't_ see everyone walking around as flesh puppets, just waiting for you to pull their strings?"

He blinked, before smiling weakly. "Noooo?"

I rolled my eyes, taking off, calling back to him "There's your answer!"

* * *

Taking a roundabout route back, the city, while not in chaos, was certainly in a state of emergency. Checking before we'd left the hotel, there had been no statement from the PRT other than a "stay in your homes" and "do not panic", which was so boilerplate it probably did more harm than help. I honestly didn't like them, but more info might save lives, so I bit the metaphorical bullet and gave them a call, only to get a "please hold on" and elevator music. After five minutes of this, I changed my route and flew towards the PRT building, half a dozen guards out front pointing their sprayers at me.

"Hello good sirs!" I called, amused. With my speed they'd never hit. "I have intel that your superiors would probably like to know, but I'm on hold on my phone. Could I just tell one of you, and go on with my day?"

One of them called something on his radio, the guards all lowering their weapons as the one on the radio, presumably their leader, waved me over. "What is it sir?" he asked, earning brownie points for politeness.

"One of my contacts heard Bakuda, the ABB's bomb tinker, bragging that she'd gone on a recruiting spree, by kidnapping people and surgically inserting special bombs into her head. Something happened, and now they're going off randomly."

He nodded. "Thank you, anything else?"

I stopped and thought for a second. "Before the bombs go off, they seem to cause pain to the subject, though with Tinkertech that might not be reliable. If the Protectorate are willing to risk it, you could cut down on problems by having the doctor that's removing them team up with Clockblocker, so if the bomb started to go off, he could freeze the victim and get the doctor to safety. You wouldn't be able to save the person, but it would let you remove the implanted bombs with minimal risk to your surgeons."

There was silence for a moment, the full face mask of the PRT troopers masking any response. "That. Would that work?" he asked.

I shrugged, "When he freezes someone, he freezes everything they're wearing, so that should also freeze the bomb. Easy way to check, have him freeze someone and try to move their clothing. If you can't, it's frozen too, and if something that loosely connected is frozen, something implanted should _definitely_ be frozen as well. Power are tools, not just weapons. Your sprayers could probably put out fires, even if that's now what you use them for."

The PRT officer nodded slowly. "Thank you sir, I'll pass that on. Anything else?"

"That's all I've got officer, have a nice day." I gave him a friendly nod, which he returned, and I walked away before taking off, pleased at this positive interaction.

After moving out of eyesight, I headed back towards base, the area around it clear, but a couple of police cordons set up around bomb blast sites a few blocks over, though there wasn't anyone manning them. Landing lightly and walking inside, I found Herb in the computer room, reading news stories. "Hey," I called, and he nodded, closing what he was reading.

"Hey," he called back, turning to face me. "So, we need to train. I need to get better, and you've got the fighting shit down better than I do. Help me Obi-Lee Vejovis, you're my only hope!" he declared, grinning.

My first response would have been 'of course, let's go do this!', but I hesitated. I didn't understand _exactly_ how Herb's cloning worked, other than they gained his memories at the time of their creation, but what happened when they died? Did they get a new dump of information when they reformed? Herb didn't get _their_ memories, Shadow Clone style, when they died or he'd have known Curtis had tried to kill me, but if they got his, the better to 'help' him, _any_ training I gave him, I'd be giving Curtis, who I had no guarantees _wouldn't_ try to kill me next time. I didn't hold his clones attempts to take me out against him, though we _needed_ to have a talk about that later, but it was too much of a risk. "No."

His face fell. "Dude. I know I messed up, but, I want to fix it!" he pleaded.

I wanted to lie and tell him some BS about him needing to train on his own, and figure out some things on his own so he wouldn't just do what I thought he could, but he was my friend, _still_ , and deserved my honesty. "Herb, when Curtis reforms, will he get the training I give you?"

"I don't know," he replied unhelpfully. "But, you're like the GI Joe crew of superheroes. Aren't you a teacher? I'd be a great student. I'd be that urban child you could reach out to and teach me! Get all Michelle Phifer on me!"

I looked at him, not knowing what the _hell_ he meant, but considered the problem before me. Curtis seemed like an ambush fighter, so what I was considering _should_ be advice _he_ couldn't use. "Okay, here's something to consider. You get stronger the longer you fight. Once you reach a certain level of strength, you can use it to move quickly as well. Look into a style that's heavy in movement and strong blows. You'll need to be able to dodge blows at the start of the fight, and that speed will, once you get stronger, let you hit in a way that most super strong capes don't seem to, since they prefer to just slug things out, moving slowly even when they don't have to. If you can, get Boojack to help, so you learn how to dodge a brawler. I'll heal your bruises when you're done. Sound good?"

He smiled. "Thanks man, again, sorry about _everything_."

I waved off his apology. "For whatever reason, your clones aren't really you. I don't hold them against you." Herb left to go harass his replicant and I checked my e-mail, finding a request to meet with my lawyers as they'd found a few clients for me to use my Fleshsculpting on, even with the state of emergency. Arranging to meet them that afternoon, I killed time working on air claws.

Making just one came pretty quickly, but anything more than that, or creating them in any direction other than from my hand was impossible. Sighing, I tried to pull apart the mechanics of the creation, feeling out with the power to understand how the constructs functioned. Creating one and holding in place was difficult, like holding back a hiccup, interrupting what almost felt like a natural process. Once I got that in place, picking it apart was a finicky process. As far as I could tell it created a wedge of vastly heightened air pressure, using the power to keep it from dispersing. From there the hardened air pressure was pushed forward, moving air around it and creating the blowing effect.

Finding the mental command that moved hardened air pressure, I immediately tried to reform my flying platform idea, but even focusing entirely on it, pushing it as fast as I could, it moved at a walking pace, creating great gusts of wind as it did so. Sighing, I dispersed it. The cutting edge of the claws were tiny, and while I could make them long, creating a blade with a bit of effort, it was still so tiny that imperial measurements were insufficient, it's width and depth _maybe_ measured in micrometers, even if it was a meter long. Visions of calling it "Invisible Air" just screw with people amused me as my phone's alarm went off, telling me it was time for my meeting with Quinn Calle. I shook my head, dismissing the invisible sword. I could never pull off an armored dress anyways.

* * *

Making sure to fly low on my way out, I left the base, heading towards the office of Eldington, Raul, & Calle, waving hello to the secretary, whose name I should probably learn at some point. He led me to a meeting room, where I only sat for a minute before my lawyer walked in. "Good afternoon Mr. Calle," I greeted, standing to shake his hand. "What do you have for me today?"

He shook it firmly. "Good afternoon Vejovis. Given your, demonstration, we have some clients who have facial scarring. Standard plastic surgery can reduce the scarring, but rarely removes it entirely. From what we've determined, your method does, and leaves no trace. This has interested quite a few people but given the current state of the city, many are leery of coming here." His tone dropped to just above a whisper. "Also, thank you. My wife and children are on vacation, and one of the busses she regularly takes is one where they found a. . . device."

I smiled, dropping a sound bubble between us. "You're welcome. This'll continue for about a week before the villains get sick of this and work together to take down the ABB, and I'm going to see if I can help them. After that things are supposed to calm down, but a 'storm' is coming in the middle of May. Whatever it is, it sounds bad, worse than the bombings."

He, to his credit, controlled his reactions, paling slightly. "Should I be here for-"

I shook my head. "No. Not if you can help it. People who should know will be informed when I get better intel, but right not it's vague warnings."

Quinn took a deep breath, letting it out with a sigh. "Again, thank you. After this maybe my wife will listen to me more often," he joked, mouth quirking in a smile.

"One can only hope," I agreed. "So, patients to see, money to make, right?"

He nodded, motioning for me to sit, leading in an older woman with a healed knife wound, the line faint, but still there, breaking the curve of her cheek with the indentation. It took all of ten seconds to heal, and I added a couple seconds of the "Get Better" treatment, just as an extra. The bags under her eyes healed up a bit and she sat straighter, taking out a mirror and smiling experimentally, hand feeling the unblemished skin. From its placement, I realized, smiling probably pulled at it. She thanked me and walked out, a bit of a spring in her step. More followed, each one fairly minor, each one happy with the treatment. After only half an hour, Quinn came back in without anyone. "That went a lot faster than I thought. There's one more, and do what you can, but," he paused. "Are you familiar with the villain Acidbath?"

"Not really?" I remembered him as being Birdcaged, and hurting Scion a little, but being a general asshole. "I assume with a name like that, he burned people with acid?"

"Indiscriminately," I was informed. "I have a contact who was part of the group who originally tried to arrest him. Just, do as much as you can. Thank you." He turned and left, coming back with a man with a covered face, who sat down and hesitantly removed the bandana covering his face. I controlled my reaction as I looked upon a visage from a horror movie. Face almost completely melted, part of his chin having dropped down and bonded with his shoulder, one eye covered by distended, runny looking skin.

Barely any of face skin was unmarred, and I winced, having to ask. "I'm sorry, but do you have a picture before you were attacked? I need an image to work with." Both men, who had looked disappointed but accepting at my apology, brightened a bit at my question. The man pulled out a phone, gloved fingers bringing up a photo of a man smiling with a decently attractive brunette. Looking at him I could see, _barely_ , the resemblance between the photo and the man before me. Taking a breath and concentrating, I laid a hand on his cheek, choosing to start on his shoulder. Focusing on the seam where chin and clavicle seemed to connect I carefully had the skin separate, pulling it back and unfusing it. Even moving slowly, I occasionally pulled wrong, opening up the flesh to muscle, which I healed, continuing the process.

Once I'd separated it, the flesh hanging loosely, I focused on pulling it back, glad that while acid ruined skin, it had apparently left the bones and musculature intact. "This is honestly a job for Panacea, and if you can, get her to double check this. She's got a full diagnostic suite, while I'm working blind."

The man who I'd been working on, who had been staring at himself in a mirror Quinn had set up, bit out an unhappy laugh. "I don't have that kind of money, or that kind of pull. Even this is. . . It's worth it, even if you stopped here though." I paused. "Please don't," he begged, panicked.

"Calm down man, I'm going to keep going, but Mr. Calle, don't charge me for this one." I told the lawyer. "I don't normally do charity, too much 'you did it for him, why not me' bull, so let's call this a teaching experience for my powers. Okay?"

He looked at me, surprised, nodding. "We've had requests for you to heal people, especially with the bombings. Does that mean you won't?"

I considered the problem. "Demand I get paid like a top tier surgeon, and I won't do it without Panacea to check my work. Hell, I'd honestly be assisting her, so if you can get them to agree, take 2/3rds of what I get paid and put it in an account for her once she reaches adulthood. She might think working for free all the time is noble, but all it does is make people devalue you."

"She doesn't get paid?" the man I was working on asked. "But, it costs tens of thousands of dollars to be seen by her!"

I continued pulling back the skin, bringing it around his face in an amorphous blob, glancing between the photo and the man as I pressed my powers in general terms to conform to the picture, slowly, making sure I didn't mess anything up. "Which would be news to her. I worked a shift with her, and the hospital refused to even pay for our lunch, there's a video of the confrontation online."

I'd uncovered his left eye, milky with damage, as he said, "That's bullshit! She-what?" he cut himself off as I copied his right eye onto his left. My power emplacing the design without me understanding it in the slightest. I copied all the fiddly bit as well, tear ducts, eyelid, eyebrows, the works, just mirroring it to try for symmetry. "I can see." He breathed, his mouth still slack, lips malformed, but I'd get to those next.

"Well, that's the point of having an eye. Kinda useless otherwise." I quipped, leaning back, glancing over at the clock. I'd been at it for longer than I'd helped everyone else combined, but I was learning a great deal. "Could I have a glass of water or something?"

Quinn, jumped up, returning back a moment later with a bottle. I accepted it gladly, taking a deep drink before continuing. Working on his mouth, it was a bit finnicky, a lot of soft tissues, and I muddled my way through it, happy with my work after 15 minutes of molding. The rest of the face was much easier, tightening, smoothing, shaping, and sculpting it with increasing ease. He had very little hair left, but it was enough to try to reseed, the black box that was my power letting me just go 'more of this' all across his scalp. After two hours of work, start to finish, I looked between the picture and the man before me, and they were pretty much the same, though the luster of his eyes were all off. It took me a second to realize the man was holding back tears.

Glancing, I saw his neck was scarred, and by this point that only took a few seconds. "So, do you have more or was it just your face? Because I've got time, and we might as well make a clean sweep of this." He looked at me in disbelief before haltingly taking off his jacket. Arms and hands scarred, several of his fingers stuck together at points. His chest had less burns, lessening down to just above his beltline, which was untouched.

Taking another drink, I started on his hands, unsticking and smoothing them out as I went, working up one arm, then another, working ever faster. His chest was easier still, taking care of more skin in a few minutes then I'd worked on in hours. Giving him his chest hair back, I blasted a few seconds of my general health setting and leaned back, stretching, spine cracking. "So," I smiled, "Better?" He sniffed, staring at himself, wiping at his face. "Ah, allergies, heard they get bad this time of ye-"

I was cut off as he lunged forward, grabbing me in a hug, saying "Thank you," over and over again. I patted the somewhat sweaty man on the back awkwardly, waiting for him to be done. After a bit he let go, apologizing.

I waved him off. "Don't worry, I understand. Not personally, but metacognitively." Sitting back, sipping my water, I waited for him to show the man, who I realized I'd never gotten the name of, out, promising to meet him for dinner. He returned, sitting down, letting out a breath that visibly surprised him.

"That," he observed. "was _impressive._ You'd said you could," he defended to my raised eyebrow, "but seeing it. Thank you."

I shrugged. "It was the right thing to do, just tell him not to mention that I waved my fee. Even doing so once is enough to get people begging for you to do it for _them_ , and then getting angry at _you_ when you don't. Doesn't matter if it's special circumstances, _everyone_ believes _they're_ special, and it's enough to bait the social reality types."

He looked like he wanted to ask what I meant, but changed the topic. "With what you've done, are you comfortable doing vanity cosmetic surgery?"

"Yes?" I asked, confused. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Some people, when they've really helped someone, wouldn't want to do so for what they would deem lesser reasons," he elucidated carefully.

I snorted. "I'm doing _this_ to make money. I might help someone occasionally, but I'm planning on using this to keep the lights on and free up time to go do general heroics. How much did I make today?"

He checked his tablet. "Just over fifteen thousand, though you'll make more per person now that you're a proven commodity."

I nodded, "Exactly, that kind of money will fund myself and my team, and I can do a lot more than just scar removal, though that last job was a learning experience."

He passed me a paper, with a list of plastic surgeries. "Which of these would you be comfortable with?" he asked.

Looking over it I commented. "So, I probably won't be able to actually do a face lift as I think it's normally done, but I can do pretty much the same thing. Same for the other lifts. Arm lift? That's a thing? Oh well. Okay, Rhinoplasty, that can't be what it sounds like," I told him.

"It's more commonly known as a nosejob," he commented, amused.

I shrugged. "Then why don't they call it that? I can do that though. Otoplasty?"

"Ear."

"Easy," I retorted. "Only thing I'm not sure about is Lipo. I don't create mass, just move it around, so I have no idea how I'd make that work. Also, Labiaplasty? No. Just no. Also, not doing the male version, which yes, I _might_ be able to do, but I'm not _gonna_."

I looked at him meaningfully, and the interest that had glimmered in his eyes disappeared as he shrugged. "Whatever you're comfortable with. That alone will be more than enough. I have to ask though, you healed Acer's eye, could you do others?"

"Could I? Probably, but anything internal I'm working blind on. He didn't expect it back, and if all I'd been able to do was just appear normal without actually restoring sight, he still would've been happy," I revealed. "I could do more, but unless I study a hell of a lot more, I can't make any guarantees that it'll work, and maybe even not then. Have him gloss over that too, the eye couldn't see only because it was covered or something."

Quinn nodded, standing up as I did as well, shaking my hand. "Thank you for what you've done. I'll contact you when you have more clients ready, would you be available on the 20th?"

I thought about my plans, and nothing I knew of happened that day. "Barring an emergency, I'll see you then."

I walked out with a spring in my step, waving happily at Acer on my way out, glad that I'd done something unequivocally positive.


	37. Impediment 4-8

**Impediment 4.8**

I sighed, reading medical texts as I tried to keep an air blade formed without concentrating on it. Getting home I'd healed Herb and Boojack of their bruises, had dinner with them, and settled down after they'd both headed to bed. I could make the blade, and mentally treat it like a sword, moving with my hand, but as soon as my attention was drawn to something else it destabilized, blowing wind in every direction as the air pressure equalized.

Because of this I was working on keeping it stable while working on something that demanded my attention. If I could understand a piece of biology, I could theoretically recreate it. I wasn't going to start playing around with it until I could get Panacea to check what I was doing, my efforts equivalent to cave-painting next to her Botticelli. Regardless, it was worth spending time working on, if only to learn how to learn how to do, and I thought it was coming along pretty well. After several hours, I could manifest, hold, and dismiss the blade at a thought, and had grown to understand quite a bit about the structure of a number of body parts, human and otherwise.

Dawn broke, and my partner rose, sitting down with me to eat the breakfast I'd made. Getting an air blade stable enough to cut vegetables for an omelet being a kind of training all its own, though we _might_ need a new cutting board. Shooting down his offers to help him train, which he accepted easily, adding "Can't blame a guy for tryin'."

Stretching, and heading to a different area then the spot Herb & Boojack were sparring, I manifested the sword, going after an abandoned train car, the rusted steel parting effortless under my strikes, the shimmer of the condensed air the only clue of the blade's existence. I focused on the edge, trying to thin it while keeping it stable, succeeding slightly, but short of some laboratory tech, I couldn't say how well I did. After the thinning though, a couple of my cuts were fine enough that my targets seemed to remain intact until I pushed them, coming apart easily. "I _am_ the anime now," I quipped to no one in particular, amused at what I'd developed.

Considering my weapon, I tapped into my forcefield power that I'd copied from Glory Girl. I'd learned how to use it to reinforce weapons, if blunt their edges, and now I'd learned to _create_ a weapon. It was only common sense to combine the two, but I let go of both immediately as my hand seemed to catch fire.

Tamping down my panic and reminding myself that I was _immune_ to fire I took a deep breath. Manifesting the blade again, I carefully started to cover it in a force field, the area I'd covered catching fire in the deep purples and bloody reds that were the colors of my power. I slowly extended the field down the blade, outlining the nigh-invisible air construct in unnatural ghostly flames, the heatless blaze flickering next to me. I stared at it, giving it a few experimental swings. The air around me rippled as it swung, blowing the gravel about, and just looked absolutely freaking cool on top of everything else.

Taking a stance, I swung down at the side of the cut-up boxcar as hard I could with a shout. The blade cut into the side, but not smoothly, the force of the blow draining the field covering it with the sound of a muffled cannon. The blow pushed me back slightly as it flung the multi-ton piece of steel off the rusted rail it sat on, air gusting away in every direction from the impact, the train car crashing into another two dozen feet away, crushing it with the force of the blow, an ungodly screeching of metal nearly deafening me, ringing through the railyard as the impact was well outside of the sound bubble I'd set up for training. My sword's flames dimmed, becoming a shifting red and purple outline, though the flickers of incandescence started to appear as I felt the field gain in strength again, ethereal but undeniable, the light of them glimmering off the broken glass around me.

I looked at the destroyed mass of steel, the cut I'd made standing out starkly, an open wound in the metal. Dropping a sound bubble around it I pulled out Purity's Lightform, blasting it repeatedly, until all was left was an unidentifiable mess. Barely feeling the beginning of a drop in that power's reserves, I let it fade, flying away before anyone came calling.

* * *

Back at base, reading more medical texts, my phone rang. Surprised to see it was Panacea, I answered immediately. "Good," I checked the time, "morning Panacea, how are you?"

"I don't like being _blackmailed_ ," was her curt reply.

"Um, neither do I?" I agreed. "Who's blackmailing you?"

 _"You are!"_

"Um, no I'm not?" I disagreed slowly, wondering what the hell she was talking about.

" _Yes,_ you are!" she insisted, leaving it at that.

I sighed, lamenting the communication skills of the average American teenager. "Panacea, _why_ do you think I'm blackmailing you?"

She gave a harsh laugh. "You said _you_ wouldn't heal anyone unless _I_ was there. If you wanted to talk you could have just _asked_! I thought you were better than that!"

I sighed, _harder_. "Panacea, in case it slipped your mind, I _don't have_ your diagnostic power. I, quite frankly, have no faith that if I worked with anyone else, and _they_ made a mistake in _their_ diagnosis, they wouldn't throw _me_ under the bus and blame _me_ when I healed something wrong because _they_ gave me bad intel. I know _you_ , and know you _never_ would do that to me, but I've worked in exactly _one_ hospital after getting my powers, and it didn't exactly fill me with _confidence_ in their _morality_. Add to that all the weird stuff I'm sure they're trying to heal, and the possibilities of getting stabbed in the back are more than I'm willing to risk."

"Oh," was her subdued response. "Well, if you wanted to help I'm at Good Samaritan. They're the ones that told me about what you said."

"I'll be there in a few minutes," I promised.

"Thanks," was her response before hanging up.

On my way out, I ran into Boojack and Herb, both battered, both smiling. "Hey man, could we get some heals?" my teammate asked. "And did you hear that crash? We think it was a bomb."

Healing both their bruised bodies, I told them, "That was me, I'll explain later, I'm going to go heal people with Panacea."

Herb laughed. "Have fun with your girlfriend then! Tell her I said hi!"

I glared. "Do you _want_ me to heal you again, because it's kinda sounding like ' _Hey Lee, you don't need to help heal my training injuries, the pain'll help me think more clearly!_ '"

Boojack laughed at him as he backpedaled. "No dude, I know you don't want to bang her when she's 16. But 18? You're _planting that seed_."

"Can we not talk about me _planting seeds_. At all. _Ever?_ " I replied firmly, walking out and taking off, trying to scrub that conversation from my memory. Focusing on my task, I was grateful for modern technology. The satellite view of Google maps was _so_ useful for finding places while flying, and a few minutes later I landed in the commercial district, walking in the front door of my destination. I was quickly led through a maze of corridors until I saw a familiar white and red cloak. The nurse that showed me the way left, and I waited for my friend to finish healing the sleeping woman, before speaking up. "Hello Panacea, how can I help."

She looked up with an expression of, happiness? Annoyance? I wasn't sure what, and it passed by too fast for me to identify. "Follow me, they've set up a circuit." She looked around and seeing whatever she was looking for approached a bit closer than was exactly comfortable, especially with such a determined expression on her face. "But before we start. What happened _that_ night, I _don't_ want to talk about it. _Okay_?"

I shrugged. It was only the night before last, and if she didn't want to talk about it, I'd respect her wishes. "Okay." I looked at her, noting the slight bags under her eyes, obvious this close. "I'm good for ten hours, then we both need to go get some rest. I was up late getting kids out of danger, and it looks like you were pushing yourself as well. We'll both stop at," I stepped back, checking my phone. "Nine-thirty, get some dinner, and you're going home to sleep. I'm willing to put in another shift tomorrow, but we have no idea how long this is going to keep going and need to pace ourselves."

"But what if someone needs my help while I'm not here?" she argued.

I shot that down, parrying with, "Then they'd be in the same position as if you'd worked yourself to the point of exhaustion and passed out, only _this_ way the hospital staff can plan around it." I put a hand on her shoulder to try to get her to understand the importance of my point, something I'd been trying to figure out how to bring up. " _Any_ healing you do is a net positive, and you're being a person with needs of your own isn't a negative thing. We don't judge the Wards for not running themselves ragged patrolling, or for doctors having time off, you shouldn't hold yourself to a standard that _literally_ no one else is held to. Hell, Miss Militia doesn't even need to _sleep_ , but _she's_ not working twenty-four seven. If you have to view it that way, think of the extra people you'll be able to heal by getting _me_ to help, and the numbers should even out a bit. So, ten hours, we'll only take twenty minutes for lunch if it makes you feel better, and we'll heal a ton of people, more if we're talking metric instead of metaphorical. Okay?"

She looked conflicted before holding out her hand. "Tell me you're being honest."

I smiled, taking her hand. "Panacea, making me take a lie detector test all the time, the lack of trust wounds me deep." I pressed her hand to my cheek so she could read me. "I'm being honest Panacea, I didn't want to heal without you because _you're_ the one I trust to have my back here. I think you're being foolish about pushing yourself too far, but understand _why_ , and want what's best for you. I didn't mean to blackmail you, didn't think of it that way, and if I had I would have said something specifically about that. Now, let's go be _heroes_ , and heal people, okay?"

She pulled her hand back, walking past me, pulling her scarf up around her face. I fell into step with her, and spent the next several hours wading through some of the _strangest_ injuries I've ever seen. We worked through them all, the only words passed were her instructions on how to heal my next patient. One man, early forties, had lost a leg to shrapnel that grew and crystallized what it hit, his limb a quartz weight. I looked at Panacea, knowing this was well in her wheelhouse, but she shook her head sadly, not wanting to reveal the extent of her abilities.

I was tempted to do it myself. Pulling bugs for biomatter I could copy the other, undamaged limb, flip it, and create it, having her take care of all the fiddly bits. If I pretended this was an aspect in which my power outpaced hers, it would work. That was something that I _needed_ to talk to her about though, so instead we removed the stone limb and kept him from bleeding out by sealing the stump immediately.

Moving on she helped me sidestep some problems, such as when one patient, a teenage girl, had been impaled by a spike of cement, but her internal organs were flipped in positioning. That let me heal her correctly, instead of, well, it would've been _bad_. We worked as night fell, only once being pulled away from our circuit as a bomb went off that burned people pretty badly. Panacea's diagnostics identified they had phosphorous flakes imbedded in their skin from the blast. Any attempts to remove these flakes would ignite them, further burning the victim, and the natural healing process would try to push the foreign substances out, which would again, ignite, burning the victim. After the first patient was treated by staff, only to burst into flame and die, the rest were sent to us. In the face of _her_ power though, the substance was quickly converted and subsumed, reinforcing the victim's bones and teeth instead, dumping the excess, bonded so as to no longer be pyrophoric, into the bladder. As Panacea cursed Bakuda, I had to admire the dead Tinker's ingenuity, the same way one might appreciate the inventive applications of chemistry involved in the creation of mustard gas. Finishing off by repairing the burned skin, we worked through the baker's dozen of surviving victims before moving on.

It was almost ten thirty when we finished, handling a few cases that couldn't wait until tomorrow. Stepping out I sighed, glad my costume was auto-cleaning. "So," I addressed my tired co-healer. "What do you want to eat?"

She looked up, surprised. "You don't have to." At my unyielding stare she shrugged. "Not Asian?"

I laughed, looking up places that were still open. "Steakhouse it is." She started to say something, but I cut her off. "Nope, you said not Asian, so that's what we're doing. Take my hand."

She hesitantly reached out, squawking in surprise as we lifted off into the air. "How?"

" _I_ train to find new uses for my powers. Not to say _you_ don't, but from what I've seen, very few people bother experimenting with their powers." We'd risen above the level of the buildings as I headed towards the restaurant. "I mean, at least you _think_ about it."

She tore her gaze away from the city, our positioning giving her a sense of flight that being carried by her sister probably didn't inspire. "You mean you know about. . .?"

I shrugged. "No specifics, but the things you could do with microbes alone would be damned impressive. Original timeline you only really started cutting loose when you were fighting a Tinker-plague, and you stopped yourself before you got _really_ impressive because you weren't in a good headspace. You never even came close to achieving your full potential, but even then, you came farther than a lot of people who were in much better positions. Name a hero, and I could probably tell you a number of ways they could at least _try_ to improve themselves."

She looked thoughtful as we started our descent, not saying anything as we walked in, and were immediately given a seat, which caused a few people to complain, but the others told them to shut up. We ordered our food, and finally she lost whatever inner argument she was having and said, "Glory Girl," staring intently at me.

"So," I started, dropping a sound bubble, "Her main power's force-fields, right, so-"

"What?" she interrupted. "No it isn't, it's an Alexandria pack-" She stopped herself. "No, you said you saw everything. Forcefields?"

I nodded. "Did she ever go through power testing?" Panacea shook her head. "It's probably a bud from Manpower's shard." That got me another look. "Okay, as powers develop and learn new ways of using their base abilities, they bud off and look for new hosts to learn from. The children of capes are around more likely to Trigger for a whole host of reasons, and if they Trigger, they normally get a bud from their parents or close family. There's more to it, like shards pulling from other nearby shards when they Trigger for secondary abilities, but that's going off into territory I'm not so sure about. Her emotion based abilities are probably because Gallant was at the game she Triggered at, which is also why he's immune to her Aura."

She took a moment to process that. "So, your powers, you triggered near me?"

I shook my head. "If anyone asks, yes, but no. It's complicated, and I'll tell you later, but for now it's something that isn't terribly important. So, Glory Girl, her forcefields are what carry her, letting her fly, create kinetic energy for her to create the illusion of super strength, and take impacts for her. It takes a few seconds to recharge after taking a hit or hitting something else. It's why her weakness is double-tapping, or any kind of automatic weaponry, which she's been fortunate to avoid so far. Thing is, repeatedly draining the field _may_ increase its strength, like a muscle being used. Also, while it's invisible, she could probably extend it to others, to carry," I motioned towards Panacea, "or to use as weaponry. I won't demonstrate that, because we're in a restaurant, but covering an item could let her hit harder than she already does. There's also the entire always hitting things at full strength problem. A lesser strike might not drain her shields, leaving her vulnerable to counter-hits."

She looked thoughtful as she considered her response. "Velocity."

"He's limited in how he effects the rest of the world?" I asked rhetorically. "Get Dragon to whip up some containment-foam grenades. He runs past at super-speed, pulling the pins and dropping them. They start moving at normal speed after he drops them, and explode, neutralizing his target after he's already moved on."

"Armsmaster?"

I paused. "Well, he's a jerk, so don't tell him, but he's a miniaturization specialist? Have him outfit his bike with tech instead of working so hard on his halberd. He's so focused on making that one piece of kit the best it could be, he's hit the point of diminishing returns a _while_ ago. Just think of the number of things he could put in his bike, armor, a secondary ranged weapon? Or, idea, just pair him with the other Tinkers in the Protectorate and all of a sudden _their_ unwieldy or impractical ideas are suddenly doable."

"How much time have you thought about this?" she demanded.

"Glory Girl, an afternoon for the ideas, the other two I'm just spitballin'," I admitted. "But the fact that they're so focused on quantification of observable affects instead of exploration of base causes and new applications from _that_ , really limits them. Same thing's happened to most of the Social Sciences, but that's . . . hmm. Maybe it's a factor of our increasingly technological society? Our focus on software instead of hardware limiting the populace to think about what to do with what they have, instead of trying completely new things?" At her confused look, I shrugged, a bit chagrined. "Sorry, tangent. What I'm doing isn't that hard. Hell, if the PRT payed attention to PHO they might find some new uses all their own. Not all of them would be exactly PR friendly, like making Clockblocker a trap based assassin, but hey, ideas are ideas."

"I'm sorry, what?" she asked. "He's-" she cut herself off, our food arriving, continuing at a whisper once the server left. "How could he be an assassin. I've _met_ him! He stops people, but he wouldn't _kill_ them!"

I took a bite of my filet mignon, appreciating it, even if the price would've made me blanch without my current revenue streams. I waited for her to take a bite of hers, obviously not responding until she did so. "You've seen the video of the truck that hit the paper he froze?" She nodded, chewing. "Now imagine a person running into time-stopped fishing line." She froze, paling. "Or, if he can freeze an object, but not a person it's touching, then something he can throw and wrap around someone, like adding a weight like a yo-yo, so it hits a person and wraps around them, then freezes it, and they now have thin lines with absolutely _no_ give to them holding them in. The first idea someone else came up with, the other is, again, just a thought, no idea if it would work." I took another bite. "This is _really_ good."

"How?" she demanded. "How can you just sit there and talk about this? That's _horrible!_ "

I quirked an eyebrow. "You've really got to get over this thinking the worst of people thing. Just because he _could_ doesn't mean he _would_ , but it's better to have tools you never need to use instead of not having the tools you do. I'm not suggesting he does that to street-level thugs, but isn't there like a bio-tinker that specializes in plant monsters? Blaster, Blister, Boldo? Doesn't matter. Using lethal force against killer plant monsters is just kinda common sense. Also, if they'd tested his powers extensively, the entire truck paper thing would've _never_ happened. There's a difference between thinking about something and doing it, and any morality system that judges a person by nothing more than their _thoughts_ , is one that can't work unless you can read people's minds. Otherwise, only the honest people get in trouble, as the dishonest ones just lie about what they're thinking." I considered the problem. "Also, anyone who judges you by your thoughts is _probably_ a massive hypocrite, projection and all. Thoughts _do_ contextualize actions, yes, but it's by your _actions_ that you truly judge a person, not what they think."

She really didn't have anything to say to that, and quietly ate. After we were done she asked, "You don't do casual, do you?"

I shrugged. "I don't lie to people I like, so, maybe?" She looked at me, visibly tired, as I realized I'd done it again. "Sorry, if you want me not to talk about stuff like that, please say so. Um, so, we did really well today? Have you even seen half of what we ran into before?"

She gave me a thankful smile, shaking her head no, and we chatted about healing, the methods to handle problems, and generally talked shop over dessert. We were told the owners comped our meal, and when I offered to pay anyways, I was turned down. We left, flying back to her house, the lights still on inside even though it was close to midnight. "Thanks for helping," she said as we landed. "Will you be back tomorrow?"

I smiled. "I said I was going to, and I do my best to keep my word. An hour to get to bed, eight for sleep, and one to get up and ready," I measured. "See you there at ten? And do you need a lift getting there?"

She smiled back. "Ten it is, and Vicky'll probably want to take me. I'll call you if she doesn't. Good night Vejovis," she said, giving me a quick hug before turning and walking to her house.

"Good night Panacea, I'll see you tomorrow," I called back, taking off into the ocean of obsidian that was the night sky.

* * *

I flew back, spirit high, swooping down and landing with barely a whisper as I entered the base. Herb was there, reading what actually appeared to be the base manual. _Good on him_. He looked at me, starting to say something before visibly stopping himself, asking instead. "So, date went well?"

I sighed, my good dimming. "I healed a lot of people _working_ with Panacea, made a bit of money, but the PR gains were probably much larger."

He smirked at that for some reason, the ass. "You said that that noise was you?"

I blanked for a second, grinning. "Right! So, Stormtiger's air claws, once you deconstruct it, is pretty much just a shitty air blade. Because of that, I built a sword," I manifested it, the air shimmering where the blade existed, but little else was apparent. It still got a whistle of appreciation from Herb who, once I concentrated on seeing his powers, was borrowing my Power Sight to view it clearly. "But then I thought, I could use Glory Girl's forcefields to cover weapons, and thus," I activated the power, ghostly flames slowly dancing down the length of my weapon.

"Holy fuckin' shit that's awesome," he exclaimed. " _That's_ what did that to the traincars?"

I swung it through the air, the force of its passage creating a breeze that ruffled his clothing. "Yep."

He gazed at it in awe. "It's complete bullshit that I can't copy your copied powers, I hope you know that, because I _want_ one."

"Sorry," I replied unrepentantly, heading past him to grab some supplies from the workshop and back out to the area of the trainyard we'd set up to train. After putting together some targets, I worked on creating, not the air claws which dug out furrows when they hit a target, but blades like my sword that cut a thin line. It took a few hours, but I was able to get them to form and fly at my target, the damage less visible than their original use, but far deeper, cutting a full foot into concrete before they lost cohesion, instead of the four-inch-deep and wide furrows.

After that I started working on the next weakness of the technique. My attacks all originated from me, but there was no _actual_ need for them to do so. The mental maneuvering to make that happen was another thing altogether though, and despite working until dawn, all I managed was creating them a few feet away to my left or right, blades arrowing in on my target, but having to relearn how to aim them in that manner every time I pushed them a bit further. I started to get annoyed at my slow progress, but soothed my ego as in a few hours I'd done more with Stormtiger's power than he'd probably done in a _year_.

Heading back inside, and making breakfast, I grabbed one of the base's flashlights, adding a few things to the outer housing, effectively bejeweling it, tinker style. Finishing that I flicked it on, the bulb gone and instead the batteries lighting up the outside LEDs. It _looked_ like Tinkertech, and when I manifested my sword, covering it with my shield, the flaming blade seemed to emit from the flashlight completing the illusion. Satisfied, I stowed it in a pocket and headed out, ready to practice flying as I 'patrolled', though if I saw any actual crimes, I'd be shocked.

Out for a while, I was getting a handle on my acceleration and deceleration, turning, and all of the things I'd need to be able to do at speed to really utilize the power when a bright white light caught my attention.

Even in the day Purity was blinding, my own powers dampening her incandescence as she flew right for me. I stopped, readied for an attack, but instead she came to a hard stop a dozen feet away, calling to me, "Vejovis, we need to talk."


	38. Impediment 4-9

**Impediment 4.9**

Normally when a woman says 'we need to talk' like Purity had just informed me, I'd either been dating them or working for them, and wasn't _that_ an uncomfortable realization, so I was thoroughly confused at what she wanted. "Okay, what about?"

"Are you going to change things, for the better?" she demanded.

 _That's out of left field_. "Yes? I'm a _hero_ , that's kind of in the job description."

"And you think I could be one too?" she pressed.

 _As was that._ "Unless you've joined back up with the E88, I'm pretty sure you already _are_. Stopping crime and protecting people and so on," I contested, _really_ not seeing where this was going.

That took her aback, for some reason, "You said you were recruiting. Are you still? I've had other offers."

I responded without thinking, "Yeah, but Kaiser's a controlling dick."

"How do you know it's Kaiser? Have you been stalking me!?" she questioned, looking panicked.

"Well, you're not Asian, and you don't look like a _complete_ dumbass, so it can't be the ABB or Merchants," I remarked. It seemed stunningly obvious to me, so I really didn't understand her response. "The Protectorate is led by self-righteous assholes, so they wouldn't recognize _actual_ repentance if it filed the proper paperwork and slapped them in the face with it, and you're not a complete waste of potential, so you wouldn't join Uber and L33t. Pretty much leaves one group." I paused, waiting for a response, but just getting shocked silence. "And yeah, still recruiting heroes if you're interested."

Purity visibly steeled herself, her emotions so open and honest it hurt. "I do. Vejovis, I want to join the Penumbral Defenders," she professed, looking at me pleadingly.

I floated to her holding my hand out. "Glad to have you on the team." She hesitantly took it, firmly grasping it and giving it a shake as I wrapped us in a sound bubble. "Break, the other member of our team, and I currently don't have any operations in the works, and with Kaiser putting the word not to talk to you, I know you probably don't have any yourself." Her grip hand tightened. "We have a contact scouting out locations, and when we have a lead we'll give you a call. If you need anything, give me a call. You're part of the team Kayden, and we don't let our teammates suffer if we can help it." She looked at me with wide eyes. I shrugged. "Yeah, I know who you are, but I _wasn't_ going to say anything about it. My name is Lee Elric, and I wasn't going to use my knowledge about you to try to pressure you to join. It would've been wrong."

I clasped her hand with both of mine. "So, if you need something, don't hesitate to ask. I might not be able to do whatever it is, but I won't play quid pro quo bullshit games. In the meantime, if we find an ABB target, how should I get ahold of you?" Letting her go I let her dart backwards a few feet and get control of her breathing, which had quickened as I talked.

"I," she started, shakily. "I don't know. Do you know where. . .?"

I shook my head. "No, I don't know where you live. I could probably find it if you want me to, but you're a hero, so I didn't see the need. If you have a cell-phone, just call me, and I'll have your number."

"I'll do that," She agreed, "Thank you." And with that she was off like a shot, a trail of light arcing into the distance. _I wonder if Herb is going to be annoyed that I talked to Purity again without telling him_. I mentally shrugged. _Whatever._

* * *

Finishing my flight practice, at least with Glory Girl's method, I landed at Good Samaritan, ready for another shift. Panacea was surprised to see me, which was odd, but I let it go. Her pleased smile, though quickly hidden, reassured me that she was in a better place than in canon, and I matched it with one of my own. We worked throughout the day, getting off just before nine, heading for Italian instead, having made the reservation over lunch. "This place looks expensive," she prevaricated as we landed. "I'm not sure I could pay for this."

I rolled my eyes, leading her in. "With how much we're making, we're good."

"I'm doing this for free, are you getting paid?" she asked after we were seated, a hint of accusation in her tone.

"Yes?" I asked, feigning confusion. This was something that she'd have to get over, and I may as well lay the foundations. "Just like any other surgeon would. In fact, I made sure _that's_ the pay rate I'd get, no more, no less."

"But," she responded, stopping as she had to form an argument. "What if they can't pay?"

I shook my head. "I checked, this is coming out of a government disaster relief fund, just like the pay for all of the other nurses and doctors." She looked like she had an objection ready to go, but I could guess the general thrust, and thus pre-empted it. "Volunteering is nice, but if you want reliable, regular work you need to pay people. The only reason _you_ can volunteer your time as much as you do is because someone else pays for all of your expenses like food, housing, clothing, _medical care_. If you were twenty and had moved out of your parents' house, you couldn't _help_ at the hospital like you want to, because you'd have to _work_ a different job where you wouldn't be as effective to pay for food and shelter. It's basic economics. Now, I will happily debate this with you, and would like to _later_ , but would you prefer to do _that_ or just relax after a difficult shift with your co-worker?"

She struggled with herself, sighing as she admitted, "I'd rather just relax."

I smiled, "I'm not going to lie to you Panacea, which means if you ask me difficult questions, I'm going to give you my answer, not a comforting lie. That being said, let's put that aside. Those patients that were turning into grass, you told me how to fix it, but how did it happen in the first place?"

After paying the bill, and hiding it from Panacea to her resigned acceptance, we headed out. The people with cameras that had gathered outside were annoying, but we ignored them as we flew off, landing and arranging to do it all over again the next day.

That night I took an hour to figure out our finances. If we were going to have actual members, using a single account probably wasn't the best. Futzing around I found that Bay Central Bank had actually filed my paperwork and the Penumbral Defenders had their own account. Making a sub-account for Vejovis, Break, Enter, Purity, and The Lady, Bug, I dumped 5k in each, further increasing our debt to Cauldron, but we'd already _more_ made this months minimum payment from my efforts, and the 30k Herb had made 'consulting' for 'Witch's Brew Security. _Subtle._

After that hum-drum bit of logistics was taken care of, I got to the fun stuff and worked on seeing if I could add any other powers to my 'sword'. It wasn't stable enough to add Speed Zones to, and shifting to Shadow or Lightforms disrupted the blade, bringing the forcefield with them, but leaving the condensed air behind, the forcefield collapsing as it had nothing to hold onto. What was interesting, was that using Grue's Shadow Propagation on the blade clad it in darkness, but no other effect seemed present. Shifting my free arm into Shadowform though, revealed that the blade could touch me even in that state. Past that I practiced more with the unclad blades, form invisible edges farther and farther away, and flinging them at ever more acute angles to myself.

I realized that I kept focusing on my sword, and wasn't _that_ a thought full of Freudian meaning, but it would let me use some of my extra powers under the guise of Tinkertech. Thinking of Zelda, and anime in general, I paired my sword with my ever-increasing speed in creating wind blades to create a seeming "pressure wave" or something equally ridiculous. Forming a blade on top of the shielded sword, moving both as one, letting the top one fly on a ballistic course as I swung the base layer like the weapon it appeared to be. Several hours of practice later let me form and release them with a thought, the sun rising on metal targets that looked like they'd been put through a woodchipper. Happy with my progress I headed inside with the gathered scrap, right into Herb who had cooked breakfast, a big grin and puppy dog eyes lying in wait.

"Look, I got you some breakfast, and I know you're always busy, but how about you and I train?" I groaned looking at him. I _may_ have been thinking of certain techniques that he could learn that I could counter easily, but someone _else_ would have problems with. He looked so hopeful, like a puppy afraid of being kicked, and while I wouldn't let any _moral_ decisions up to him, he'd always had my back martially.

"Fine," I ground out. "After breakfast."

* * *

Standing out in a different abandoned area, I stood opposite of my friend. "Okay, power training. Your natural powerset lends itself to a more intellectual fighter, which sadly you aren't."

"What'd ya mean?" he asked. "I'm no Einstein. Taking other people's powers and beating them with 'em doesn't sound that snooty."

"Okay," I challenged, "you have Hookwolf's power. Now how do you out Hookwolf, Hookwolf?"

"Well, I'd turn into a rolling thing of sawblades and tank him!" he declared. "Panzer bitch!"

"So, roll into a ball and hit him. Really?"

He shrugged, giving no other response.

I shook my head. "Ironically, I would probably do better with your choice, and vice versa. If you're going to rely on it in battle, you need to do a _lot_ of research, constantly asking yourself 'If I had this guy's, or girl's, power, what would I do with that? How would I use that power to _defeat_ the person who's had that power for _years_?' While your Abaddon shard may give you a more powerful version of their power, letting you win a straight power vs power, Harry Potter vs Voldemort connected wands kind of fight, anyone who isn't a moron isn't going to keep that going until they lose. They'll run, move, and strike you where you're vulnerable. Quick question, your power, does it tell you _where_ the powers you're copying are coming from?"

"Not a clue," he responded, shrugging, "haven't really worked on it."

I thought for a second, nodding to myself. Taking off I told him, "Close your eyes and point at me. As I fly around, I want you to focus on my power and keep pointing at me." He pointed at me, eyes closed, and I took off, slowly rotating around him. He didn't move at first, slowly pointing in my general direction, sometimes right at me, sometimes just in my general direction, but only once in the wrong direction. He lost track of me over and over, but after thirty seconds he'd get my general location again. Wrapping him in a bubble of silence, he jumped, eyes opening as he said something. I dropped the bubble saying. "You were actually doing pretty well, but we need to eliminate as many senses as we can to isolate yours. Give it a try again."

This time though, he had much greater difficulty. Still able to point in my general direction, but with almost a full minute between reacquisitions. I let sound return to him, his furrowed brow indicating he'd found something out. "Dude, it's like tracking a ghost in a field of fog."

"You found me, but with the time and effort it required, it's not something you want to use in battle. Maybe if you were in a Stranger fight, and if you train it more, but right now? No." I informed him, to his disappointment. "So, homework for later, look up the major players and do the 'if I had their powers' game, and maybe browse the Parahumans Online forums for ideas. Second power, cloning. Theoretically that makes you a one-man team, but yours are different enough it's more like, well, a supervillain organization actually, with specialized members. The lead time is hurting us here, so, that leaves your Peak Condition, which just let's you skip the training montage, and avoid spending the hour or three a day you'd need to keep you, to borrow my little brother's term, SWOL, and your Stand. Summon him and keep him near you please."

He complied, and I looked at him with my Power Sight, the power of his Abaddon shard making the Ethereal flames of his power appear almost real, and sometimes _more_ than real. I continued, "Right, _this_ is how you're going to get the majority of your reliable powers. Immunity is a passive power, so not something you can train, and you've been training your hand to hand to best use your Vampirism, get stronger as you fight power, right?"

He nodded. "Okay," I said, taking a stance. "You were supposed to work on dodging, so dodge." Running forward, I threw a punch, telegraphing the hell out of it. He dodged easily, and the pattern continued. I pulled my punches that impacted, and his return blows didn't heal him in the slightest, only draining my shields when they got through. I'd instructed him to dodge only, but I rolled with it, keeping my speed at the edge of what he could handle, increasing mine as his power increased his. Kicks were thrown, dodged, and caught, punches and elbows aplenty shot out, and his conservative fighting style let him dodge more, though the one time I clipped him in the ear, he went full berserker, training forgotten until I dodged long enough to get a handle on himself. As we kept going his style tightened a bit, but as he got stronger, and I matched it, even my pulled punches were getting dangerously strong. I backed off, using my flight to escape, his grin showing he thought he won.

"Pretty good, right?" he prompted eagerly, smiling smugly.

"Not bad," I agreed, "We never really sparred before, but from what you'd told me, you're not just the berserker you used to be. When I clipped you, is that how you used to be?"

He nodded, chagrined. "Yeah, sorry, got a bit dazed and kinda just reacted."

"It happens," I tempered, "But that's what training's for, so even dazed you can fight how you want. I do have one question, does your Vampirism fade if you get a bit distance, but are still fighting?"

He shook his head no. "As long as I'm still in a fight it works, yeah?"

I shrugged, "Just wondering why you didn't use your Mover power."

He snorted in disgust. "Dude, doing the whole Hulk thing out here is really gonna mess up our _secret training_."

I raised an eyebrow, flying back a good distance, landing in the gravel. Making sure I wasn't flying, I pulled on the Super Strength aspect of my shields, channeling it through my legs as I crouched, leaning forward. With a grunt I launched myself forward in a spray of gravel, my shields draining as they spent their energy. Flying in a flat parabolic arc I closed the distance in an instant, landing right in front of him, fist out and missing him by inches as I swept past him, skipping awkwardly to bleed of the momentum I hadn't spent in a strike. Floating back to him, his eyes wide, I landed, shields back to full.

"Now take a swing," I instructed, and as soon as he had I pushed off with super strength, backwards this time, opening the space between us, landing and skidding in the gravel a little as I stopped. Walking back once again I instructed, "Leaping is in whatever direction you can push off, not just up. Getting the direction just right will probably take some work, as will landing, but it'll let _you_ choose the pace of the fight." Left unsaid, was that this strategy would be utterly _useless_ against my Air Blades. Getting in close, fast, and hard would result in nothing but getting cut to ribbons against a threat that you couldn't see and could appear in the blink of an eye. As far as I could tell, _every_ major threat had a love of theatre and dick waving that I found downright _idiotic_ , but it meant that Herb would be fine. Against the S9, that kind of weakness could get him hurt, but that was months away. I _hated_ pulling this Machiavellian bullshit, but I couldn't _trust_ him on this, and until I could I had to play it safe.

Putting him through his paces, running him back and forth for several hours, working on landing and blows that utilized the momentum from the jump before calling it quits, and leading the sore parahuman back inside. We both drank heavily from the water dispenser on the fridge, rehydrating, as I healed him as best I could. "Okay Herb," I addressed him, taking a seat. "I _need_ to know what happened with Cauldron. I was letting it go, but _something_ happened, and you gotta tell me before it bites us both in the _ass_." _That, and I can't trust your judgement,_ I thought, but didn't say, _So I can't trust that you have that avenue of attack covered_.

"Well," he said, looking thoughtful as he started cooking. "I went in, we talked, and then I went out."

 _Fucking really?_ "I'm going to need more than that Herb," I responded, deadpan.

He sighed. "Okay, honestly? I went in, and they were all sittin' around the table, all 'we're so awesome and we're so powerful and we control the world's destiny!'" he continued in mocking tones. "And I was just like, 'oh, I so want to just shit on your table'."

"Please tell me you didn't _actually_ shit on their table," I begged. He gave me a disbelieving look. "It was our Worst Day Ever, and we were being pushed to make the worst choices possible. Let's be honest, with you, _nothing_ is guaranteed."

He shrugged, taking it as the compliment it _wasn't_. "Fair enough, I _was_ tempted, but then the doctor opened her mouth and was all like 'you're a new cape and blahblahblah and we're gonna need your help, savin the world and all that shit'." He gave a dismissive snort. "And I'm sittin' there and we're talkin' about savin' the world and I'm like 'more than happy to', and they're all 'awww'." I looked at him, doubting heavily that Doctor Mother, Numberman, _or_ Contessa would _ever_ go 'awww'. He continued unabated. "And then I pissed people off, like I normally do, sometimes, if they're too serious."

"That does seem to be a talent of yours, yes," I agreed dryly.

"So, they gave me bottles, the stuff we wanted, then I left. Yay! Oh!" he exclaimed. "We really should think about distributing them eventually."

I sighed, I had the distinct feeling that he was leaving _something_ out, but I was in a 'but you never asked' bullshit devil scenario, and I _hated_ those, so I just addressed the current issue: "Find some candidates and we'll look them over. This isn't the kind of thing you can undo man. We're giving them Triumvirate level powers,"

"Which is kinda cool," he agreed, excited by the prospect.

"But requires us to be careful," I prodded.

" _Yeah_ , definitely not givin' one to Taylor's dad. He's not-"

"We've had that discussion, I agree," I cut him off. "There's no need to be rude."

"I'm just sayin' he's a broken guy," Herb hedged, doing the _very thing_ I just asked him not to. "I'm not mad at him, he's just broke. But. Yeah. I already. Yeah. Hmm." He started several times, going nowhere. "Hmm." He paused. "Hmmmm." He paused longer. "Hmmmmmmmmmm."

I growled. "What."

"Okay, so, I'm just thinking," he proposed immediately, like he'd been waiting for me to ask. "Mine, which are _awesome,_ or at least one of mine needs to go to someone who is _highly_ devoted to me. _I think I may have screwed that up_." He looked at me in silence for several seconds. I started to worry exactly _what_ he may have done, but realized that worrying over it wouldn't help in the slightest. We sat there. In silence. For a minute.

I finally broke, "Would you like to share with the class?" I inquired, using my best teacher voice.

"Oh, oh, okay," he said immediately, _again._ "The Undersiders, they're upset."

"I wonder why," I mused. "Besides, they all have powers, so you couldn't give them one anyways."

"That's not what I wanted to do," he defended. "But, I mean, Taylor wasn't there for it. Yay. But there are a couple people around them that are highly susceptible to me giving. . . _interesting_ information to. Ala, bottle." He laughed, and I really didn't see why. _Nerves?_ "Um. But. When." _Definitely nerves_. "But when I'm getting _bad stuff_ said about me _constantly_ , nobody's gonna want to trust me," he whined.

"Don't," I started, thinking _Don't pull this shit and maybe that won't be an issue again,_ but I had another thought. "Did you think you were going to get people on your side that were friends with the Undersiders?

"It was an idea," he admitted. _And we've seen how well your ideas go_.

"One, I don't think they _have_ any unpowered friends at this point. Second of all, you shit in that pond pretty effectively when you told them you set them up to condemn Dinah to her canon fate."

"Taylor does," he argued, and it took me a second before I realized he was trying to refute my first point. "Tattletale has a _bunch_ of people under her that are _really_ -"

"Not at this point, no," I argued.

"Not _now_ ," he dismissed scornfully. "But _eventually_."

 _If that's what you were thinking, why did you use present tense dumbass_ I noted, as he obviously covered his mistake only slightly better than my little brother when he was in his 'I knew that' phase. "Maybe, though we want to make sure anyone we bring in is more loyal to _us_ than Tattletale, as we're going to be using her to vet people."

"Of course!" he exclaimed, "that she will! Good idea! This why you're, like. . ." he trailed off.

I resisted the urge to ask 'I'm the what?' voicing my surprise to his ill-hidden surprise at my idea, "You _didn't_ think about using the rule sixty-three'd Sherlock Holmes to find out if the people we want to give superpowers-, okay, wow. _This_. This is why I need you to run shit by me man."

He gave a laugh, "Well, you know, _I_ was just thinkin' about a couple years down the road or somethin', us havin' children and jokin' about that. I've got my Purity, that's all I need."

 _What does that statement have to do with_ _ **anything**_ _we were just talking about?_ I mentally raged at his complete non-sequitur. "When we have kids, _if_ we have kids." I corrected. "Assuming Goldenrod doesn't completely obliterate us, our kids will probably trigger easily, maybe even be Abaddon Triggers, I have no idea how _any_ of that works. Our shards will eventually bud, and maybe they'll get variants of our powers?" I hadn't the foggiest of ideas what was going to happen on that front, and Herb seemed lost in thought.

I waited, and was starting to debate poking him when he shook himself. "I'm sorry, I was caught up in, ya know, _Purity_. I was thinking flowers, chocolates, silk sheets. No! Those eight thousand count ones. Either way, definitely red."

I figured that was my cue to _end_ this particular conversation. "Please don't sexually harass any of our prospective teammates. I want _no_ part of _this_ , I hope you know."

"I know, but thanks for the training," he offered, changing the topic, _again_. "I didn't think of half this stuff."

I shrugged. "We're getting into serious fight time, you need to not suck, because it might get you actually killed."

He nodded. "Yeah, going up and eatin' things is not the best way." _Which wasn't exactly your strategy before. What is he talking about?_ I thought _._

"Yeah," I agreed, shooting him a look. "That was Curtis's strategy. Now he's a rug."

He gave me a 'sorry?' look. "Either way, thanks. What're ya doin' next?"

"A hospital shift with Panacea," I replied calmly, waiting for his inevitable response.

He laughed. "Have fun with your," he paused at my stare, "totally non-romantic fellow healer who only happens to be teenaged and a member of the opposite sex?"

I nodded, "Thank you, I will," and left him to his own devices.

* * *

The rest of the day was spent with Panacea, who was increasing distracted by something. She didn't say anything, and I finally brought it up over dinner. "Panacea, what's up?"

"Huh?" she asked, looking up from her Pescado Vallarta. "Nothing. Nothing's wrong."

"You've barely said anything since we've got here, what's up?" I pressed.

"Why," she stopped, thinking. "What is this?"

I looked around, unsure exactly what she meant. "Um, well, that's fish in mango sauce, we're in a Mexican restaurant, and we're getting dinner before I drop you back home and we both hope they find Bakuda's lair and stop the bombing so we don't have to do this all again tomorrow." She looked at me like I was being obtuse. I sighed. "You're going to have to be more specific Panacea."

"This," she motioned between us, "What is this, you're coming to help me _every day_ and then we go out to dinner, and Vicky can't decide between getting upset and protective and. . . _something else,_ and _I_ don't even know how to feel about this. Why? Why do you care?"

I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose. It was probably best to just handle that last question. "Do you want the simple answer or the more complete answer?"

"Simple," she decided after a moment. "Simple is best."

"To put it simply, I want to help heroes. The Protectorate has been giving me the cold shoulder, and I don't even know where to begin on asking around to find Bakuda's lair, which leaves me with trying to help with the aftermath, ergo healing. I _enjoy_ working with you, and you are a _great_ help in developing my powers, and even at one-third surgeon pay, it's still a descent amount of money to be made. I know you, and how you like to push yourself with _no_ regard for yourself, which can be just as bad as it is good, so by working _with_ you instead of trying to be a stupid authority figure and _dictating_ what you should and shouldn't do I can help keep you from burnout." I motioned to the restaurant. "This is part of that, a place where you can relax, away from stressing influences, be it your sister's accidental Aura exposure or you adopted mother's cold indifference. Furthermore, this makes sure you get at least _one_ good meal, as I'm pretty sure if left to your own devices you'd make yourself something basic, like peanut butter and jelly, and sack out. I _know_ you skimp on lunch, I do too because we're _busy_ , and I'm pretty sure you do so on breakfast as well, so this is enough to keep you going, not to mention the _psychological_ aspects of eating good food. You are worthy of care Panacea, because of who you are, and if that means working at a hospital and going out to dinner with my co-worker, that's a burden I'll shoulder gladly," I finished, smiling.

"You. But. what do you mean one third pay?" she finally asked, latching onto the emotionally safest part of what I'd said.

I shrugged. "Well, I know _you_ won't take pay for what you do right now, so I'm taking _my_ pay and splitting in three. One share goes to me, and one to you, since we're partners in this, and the third _also_ goes to you, since you're the _senior_ healer here, and you're _teaching_ me. It's held in escrow until you control your own finances, so until you're eighteen unless you choose to be an emancipated minor. What you do with it is up to you, whether you give it to charity, use it to help someone else, or accept it as the just reward for your hard work which is essentially what all pay from a job is on a basic level."

"You," she sputtered. "You can't just _do_ that!"

"Pretty sure I just did," I responded blandly. "You can't touch it until you're older, and if you still feel that way about it, just donate it back to the hospital. At the _very_ least it'll give you a nice tax credit, which is just the government rewarding you for doing what they want you to with your money."

She glared at me, not continuing the conversation, having obviously recognized that I was right and unable to come up with an argument that would work. It was just like Taylor being undercover, I'd challenged her to come up with an actual argument against her placement on the Undersiders, and she hadn't brought it up since then. That or she forgot, which was doubtful. I didn't bring Taylor up though, just because it might be seen as gloating, and wouldn't really help anything. Her rancor was blunted by the food, and by the end of the meal she'd gone down from angry to generally annoyed, which made sense since she'd lost. Very few people lost arguments gracefully when they were teens, and I'd be understanding, given her age. Flying her back, she started to not quite stomp to the door, stopping halfway there as she sighed. "See you tomorrow? I'd understand if you don't want to."

I held back a laugh. "See you tomorrow Panacea." She sighed, harder, shaking her head as she strode inside and closed the door. Taking off into the night, I thought about doing more power training, but between my meeting with Purity and my conversation with Panacea I _needed_ to start looking for an ABB stronghold to go after. It would make a good team building exercise at the least, as there was nothing like combat to help the ex-nazi get over the fact that Break and Enter were both black.

Landing in a dark alley, I switched from Vejovis to Boardwalk, giving a tough sounding "What?" to no one in particular to get in character. Covering my forearm in a Speed Zone, I used it to ride the wall to the roof, turning to shadow to move rooftop to rooftop through ABB territory. With Bakuda neutralized the ABB's 'recruitment drive' had stalled pretty hard, a sizable number of the conscripts running to try to get the bombs out of their heads. Confusingly, a majority had apparently _stayed_ with the gang, maybe believing that Lung could stop them from exploding, maybe out of fear of what happened if they ran, which was silly given they had an unstable _bomb_ in their heads, or maybe they were just weak-willed _sheeple_. Whatever the reason, Lung had a larger army at his beck and call and was pressing the Merchants and the E88 for more territory, though not nearly as well as they had in canon.

That being said, there were apparently a few more triggers running around, of note was a new member of the Protectorate, an Asian woman who could turn into shadow and build things from it. The Merchants apparently had someone new, but casual eavesdropping didn't give me any info. Flitting across rooftops I found a building that showed some promise, with the watcher in the only open window, the rest blacked out. Watching it for a bit, the front door opening to let in an ABB group without them knocking was a dead giveaway. Launching myself across the street, I landed on the roof, taking cover in the shadow of an air vent, I sat down, cross-legged, and started connecting with everything that creeped or crawled within. Building an idea of the location, it was an ad-hoc armory. Definitely a place to hit, though I'd need to make sure that Kayden stayed at a distance. I wasn't sure that her Lightform, while possibly tougher than normal, would be up to concentrated small arms fire.

Watching the general patterns of everyone inside, someone knocked on the door, another ABB most likely, though by the movement of the guard he was surprised. I started to turn some bugs to see who when **_something_** happened, and the world shifted, like a moment of real life lag. The world seeming to skip as I got the sense of fire and my eyes burned, whatever the power was passing past me too fast to see. Checking inside through my insects, everyone was down, the guns gone, the safe open, and every door in the place wide open. I found the one of the walls now had an image, but bug eyes were not meant for seeing clearly in a hurry.

Dropping down through the roof, and hurrying past gang members all clutching the backs of their necks, I turned the corner and saw it. Emblazoned in fine calligraphy was one word, **ÆONIC** , the O a clock set to midnight. Slipping out my phone, I called the raid in to the local cops as I started to leave, the responder telling me that authorities were already on their way as flashing red and blue light pulled around the corner. With response time _that_ good, I'd realized I'd been caught in some _serious_ time power bullshit, and the cops practically fell out of their cars to pull their guns on me, shouting at me to get down.

I dropped into shadow as I stowed the phone, calling back "Um, this wasn't me. I just got here. Some dude named Æonic hit it first."

"We're taking you in for questioning anyways. Get on your knees and put your hands behind your head!" one of them yelled harshly.

"I'm literally standing here, telling you it wasn't me. There's an entire safehouse filled with ABB back there, shouldn't you worry about them?" I asked. Intellectually, I knew they were trained to handle _everyone_ as a threat, but when you had people that could literally sneeze lava, maybe the battle lines drawn, guns at the ready, hollering at the obvious parahuman response _wasn't_ the best?

"I said get on the ground and put your hands on your head asshole, this is your last warning!" the same idiot screamed. Maybe it was the costume, and they were reacting to me being black. _Theme, not skin color_ , I internally amended, _though that might be it_. Boardwalk's general setup screamed villain or vigilante, on purpose, but that appeared to be backfiring right now. With Acoustokinesis I could hear someone suggesting they _not_ point guns at me to him, as I might be a hero, good on _that_ guy, but Officer Screechy McBellowsalot told him to not question his orders and put his gun back on me or he'd be up for insubordination. _Ahh, corruption and abuse of power of Law Enforcement, the meat and potatoes of any crime-ridden city_.

Looking through the lights shining at my mask, eyes adjusting, I could barely make out the guy in charge; he was Asian, older, and _pissed_. Not sure what his problem was, but fuck it, the golden rule was a thing for a reason, and I'd respond to his unfairness with my own. _Time to sow some dissension_. "Fuck you," I told him, flicking him off, "Just because I'm taking down the guys that pay your fuckin' bribes doesn't mean you should have ta be a fuckin' bitch about it."

His gun fired, but the round passed harmlessly through me as I fell backwards, flicking him off with both hands, laughing as I fell through the pavement, disappearing from sight as several others opened fire. My arm tingled as I passed near a power line, twisting out of the way, dropping into the cool darkness of underground, flying away, wondering _Who the hell is Æonic?_


	39. Impediment 4-x (Interlude: Herb)

**Impediment 4.x (Interlude: Herb)**

Herb sat down in the abandoned house, thinking to himself about his first day in Brockton Bay. _This day has been an emotional roll coaster trip on acid_. _At least I'll get Chinese, unless, who knows?_ He sighed. _We're definitely in Worm, and Lee is going to take this so fuckin' serious._ His friend took _everything_ seriously, so Herb, thinking about it, made an affirmation. _I'm gonna need to be the fun-time guy or he's gunna fuckin snap. He's gonna try to save the word, which needs to be saved, and so much shit is going to go down, and it needs go down. I need to make sure I save the Undersiders. Lee's gonna be focused on at least Taylor, so, what do I do?_

He leaned back, musing; _The bank, it all starts at the bank. That poor girl. So, plan time. I really should've finished the story faster, what the hell was happening?_ He searched his memory. _Right, the S-9000, that fuckin' shit show. Okay. Undersides need to be saved, but to get to them, and to get to Coil, I have to sacrifice a little girl._ _ **Shit.**_ _Fuckin' shit._

 _Dear Lord_ , he prayed, hoping for _something_. None of his prayers had ever been answered, but fuck, maybe here, now, he'd get _something_ to help. _I'm about to be a demon amongst angels. Please give me strength to come back from this, for I am truly sorry for what I am about to do._

He thought about Lee, how he worked, and had a sinking realization. _I can't speak her name._ he realized. _If I mention Dinah, even once, he'll latch onto that shit, and act, and he can't if this is gonna work._

He took a deep centering breath, needing to show _nothing_ by the time Lee got back. _Okay. I'm here. Let's have some fun._ Getting up, he grabbed the first aid-kit he'd found, busting it open and hoping nothing had expired, applying the wound cream he'd found to what was left of his injuries. Beating the living shit out of the Nazis had pretty much healed any real injury he'd had, and this'd take care of the rest. Thinking, looking at the surprisingly well stocked kit, all he could think was _Dear god this world is full of so much fucking violence if this is a standard medical kit. Fuck it, just channel my dad and enjoy this shit_. Relaxing, he'd thought about his day with _that_ view, a necessary evil. For a supposed "Worst Day Ever" it had turned out not half bad. They'd gone space diving without a suit, let alone a parachute, and fought every single gang in the city. Despite what Lee said, the PRT didn't count, they were like cops, but more so. Dangerous, yeah, but not quite gangs. You could negotiate with gangs after all.

They'd kicked ass all over the city, tickled the dragon, and while yeah, they hadn't been able to save Taylor, it was probably for the best that she got her powers. He even fucked up those bitches that fucked with Taylor. _No_ , he thought, immediately repelled by what he'd done. _I hit little girls. That's fucked up!_ Taking another breath, he submerged himself in his father's view of the world again. They disrespected Taylor and got what they fucking _deserved._ The fact that this place didn't have power really sucked though.

Herb twiddled his thumbs, waiting for his bro to get back when a point of light appeared in the air, lengthening first into a bar, and then into a rectangle. On the other side stood a guy in green and white skintight suit, with cape, hood, and sleeves, the hood and sleeves lit up, as well as the mask. Looking him down and back up, the muscles were obviously fake, like those skinny dudes who wanted muscle, but not enough to work for it. The guy spoke with a deep, calm voice, like he was trying to be a white Morgan Freeman. "I need your help, to save the world," he intoned in a way that he probably thought was dramatic or something.

It clicked for Herb who this was, and he voiced his displeasure. "Oh they sent you, you stupid fuck! All right, let's go." He stood up, pushing past the guy whose idiocy and glory-hound dumbassery had unveiled Cauldron when he tried to one v one Echidna.

"E-Excuse me?" the moron in question asked, confused, his mind probably not used to someone who wasn't fallin' over themselves to suck his dick.

On the other side of the Portal, Herb looked around, the white walls, floor, and ceiling with fluorescent lighting just rubbing him the wrong way. One would never've thought they did experiments here that woulda made the Nazis blush. "Gotta admit," he told the guy who won the superpower lottery and did jack-all with it. "Much cleaner than I thought it would be. I mean, ya know, anyway. It's really weird. And clinical."

The flying fuckup led him down several passageways, not saying a word, floating 'cause he was apparently too good to walk, which might be why he had to pad his suit. Eidolon opened the door and led Herb into a conference room. Seated to his left was Number-man in the nerdiest of office wear. Herb had never seen someone who had _actually_ worn a pocket protector, at least not since he'd watched Revenge of the Nerds, but this _was_ a day of firsts after all. Contessa was seated to the left, looking all hot n' shit in her fedora/suit combo. Doctor Mother stood, because of _course_ the only unpowered person here would feel the need to take a power pose, holding a clipboard and in a white jacket and skirt.

"Uhhh," he groaned. "Okay, you want to recruit me, you want me to do stuff, you're all dumb motherfuckers tryin' to kill Zion, which is his actual name, idiots." He informed those gathered. "Um, yeah, sure, I'll help." He shrugged. "Where's my shit?"

Silence greeted his, let's be honest, perfectly reasonable statement. Dr. Mother took the lead, because _of course she did_. "We have your power vials, what else do you require?"

"Money and a place to live, would be nice too," He told them. Really, for a secret organization, they were surprisingly dumb.

She nodded. "I'm sure Number Man can provide you with what you need. He looked over and the guy was tapping away at a tablet, and actually hadn't stopped since Herb had walked in, which was _really_ fuckin' rude. The dude was looking right at Herb, but just kept tap, tap, tapping away.

"Kay, little man," Herb asked, trying to be nice. "Can you _please_ stop typing? It's _literally_ annoying while people are talking."

"I'm doing what you asked," was the emotionless, almost robotic response from Poindexter.

"You can pause, for _just_ a moment, listen to the conversation, _be part of the class_ ," Herb shot back, the lack of any emotional response from the nerd pissing him off. "Or are you the dick who sits at the back of the class and knows everything and just is a _dick_?"

He _didn't stop typing_.

"You're a dick," Herb concluded. "Jesus." The dick shot a glance at Contessa, _still typing_ , who shook her head, relying on someone _else_ to get shit done for him, another strike, if he needed one. "Oh, you're expecting her to know everything? She doesn't," he informed the typing tyrant. "She knows enough, but not _enough_. She's dumber than shit in hell when it comes to the golden guy in the sky. Can, okay, so," he started, getting his thoughts in order. "You guys suck, you guys suck _bad_. You're fucking pieces of shit. All those Case 53's all that experimenting? Dumb on you. So stupid," he finished, shaking his head in disgust.

Eidolon spoke up, finally. "How do you know all of this?"

That was easy. "Because I'm better than you. Period. That's why you called me to help, am I not right Miss Contessa?" Herb asked, addressing the only person not to have said a goddamn word. "By the way, you're hot."

With that, the rest of those assembled looked at the precog, who gazed back at them. "With him, the path shortens by twenty-seven steps," she responded simply.

"Twenty-seven? That's not enough, but ooh," he remarked, getting an idea. "Contessa, can I ask you somethin'? Just a little, quick thing? Are you sometimes coming up blank when you think about me?"

"No?" she asked, genuinely confused. The first emotion _she_ 'd shown since he walked in. Thinking, before a look of surprise flashed across her stunning features. "Sometimes. How?"

He just smiled back at her enigmatically. "Oh yeah, not just twenty-seven steps. Give me the Vials, I'll be _amazing_ , and all y'all fuckers can just, _not_ get in my way?"

There was more silence, except for the _fucking_ _tappin'_ from Numberman, who asked like he didn't have a care in the fuckin' world. "You need an identity. What is your villain name?"

"Hmm," Herb thought, tapping his chin. "Ya know what? 'cause what I'm about to do, I'm gonna be called Break. And Enter." He added, remembering his Stand. "Break and Enter, sounds like a tag-team. Like Wrestling! Oh I'm so gonna have fun. This is gonna be the greatest life ever!" He said, hating all the shit he'd have to wade through to get there. Not like this group had any room to talk though.

Eidolon sounded like he was grimacing behind his mask, which just made everything better, as he intoned "Saving the world is not about _fun_."

Herb scoffed. "Yeah, look who's talkin' and helpin' _destroy_ it." Eidolon took a step forward, but backed off when Contessa's hand rose, staving him off, the little bitch. "Look guys," he addressed the Cauldron agents. "Could you show me more of the base at least? I mean so far it's nice, clinical, wooo so white. But isn't it supposed to be like, scary and literally, well, I'd like to have more fun. I'd like to see what you got goin' on."

Doctor Mother opened her mouth to speak, brow furrowing, probably to try to tell him off but Contessa beat her to the punch. "In return, you will give us twelve hours warning on the next Endbringer attack." Her fellow agents looked at her in shock, her calm expression betraying nothing.

"Wait. What?" sputtered Eidolon, voice still deep, but sounding like a person instead of a movie trailer.

"Twelve hours?" Herb asked back, considering. Lee probably remembered the exact day, his memory was weird like that, so it shouldn't be that hard. "Sounds fair," he acceded. "Which one?"

The collective stares were turned on him as Contessa clarified, "The next one."

Herb nodded. "Will do, and don't worry, it's not the Simurgh."

Contessa moved towards the door, Herb obviously supposed to follow, so he had to throw out one last tweak. "So, where's your _competent_ member?"

"Alexandria is busy," Eidolon bristled.

 _Guess I know which one's his fave_ Herb mused. _Prolly 'cause he wants to fuck her, don't see why myself_. "Nah, I mean Legend," he clarified. "That bitch dies like a chump,"

"How?" Alexandria's cunt-hair cling-on demanded. _No, that's not fair. To Alexandria. That suggests she'd let this pissant prissy motherfucker get that close._

"Like you care," Herb scoffed, practically getting pushed out the door by Contessa.

"My dear, so hands on, and we've barely met," he teased the South American beauty. "So _spicy_."

"It's the next step," she told him simply, and boy did _that_ kill the mood.

"Just," he started, trying to think of some advice to give her, 'cause she _was_ a good person, just with her power. "Don't be so stupid," he told her kindly. She didn't seem to respond, because of _course_ she didn't.

He tried to make small talk as she led him through corridor after corridor. At some point he passed by someone invisible, the power to make mostly insubstantial clones offered up to him. He ignored it to continue makin' on this cutie that he was all alone with, to sadly little effect, but she was obviously one of those chicks who held her emotions close, so he had to just keep trying. After a few identical passages they turned a corner and entered a hallway with glass walls, monstrous looking beings in cells all the way down.

Walking with her, passing by the humans mutated by Eden's power, their powers offering themselves up for his use as he passed. He couldn't help but comment, "So these are your Case 53's, your experiments, your _slap_ at humanity."

"These are people that would have died without our intervention," Contessa countered. "They owe us their lives, and even though they won't remember it, they pay off that debt by helping us help others."

"Admirable," he agreed. From that perspective, he could understand why they were doing it, and even if it was _wrong_ , he knew he wasn't going to be convince her. "I wasn't lying before," he informed her, diverting the conversation. "You are cute. Like, _really_ cute. Hotter than I thought you'd be." He considered her. She made that suit _work_. Probably had it tailored for maneuverability, but that didn't stop her from looking _fine_. "Old enough too," he mused to himself, looking at her. She looked back, and was that a hint of challenge in her eyes?

"While you're here, if you could help us with identification, that would be of great importance," she proposed, using her feminine wiles to get him to help her.

 _Hell, why not. It's amusing when they think they're playing you_ , he mused, nodding and looking in the nearest cell. Inside was what looked like a humanoid alligator, the power to move instantly through water begging to be used. "Water teleporter," he informed her, moving on as she made a note. "Implants suggestions, but needs to do so through another medium. If she touches other's hair with her own she can control it, _all_ hair, kinky. Shape change, but only through regeneration. Can manipulate electricity, but only above a certain voltage, and needs line of sight. All around vision, but can still see through his eyeballs if he detaches them, prolly why he has so many. Literally feels the pain of others, which has gotta suck. Is made of and can manipulate dust at like thirty feet. Is that dude made of. . . eww. Um, if he covers someone in his. . . substance he can puppet them, but only pre-pubescent boys, because of course. Wonder if he's Catholic. Becomes the element he touches, boring. Grows crystals on what she touches that can explode. Controls internal Parasites. Really? A werewolf chick whose power is proportional to the phases of the moon? Unoriginal much? Makes minions out of the clay he's made of, and can regrow it by eating earth. Is just a person with wings, how is that a real superpower? Eats dreams to gain people's memories. Boar dude gains super momentum when he charges. Slight probability manipulation, so, you know, flight risk. Cat chick releases pheromones that puts mammals into heat, _that's_ gonna get her in trouble. Just straight up is a griffon. Can explode, and reforms an hour later. This dude is just made of cloth. That's it. Ugh, how many more of these are there? Is a humanoid insect. Can breathe poisonous gas, but not like, out, just it doesn't affect him. Heat vision, but it's pretty weak. Creates air, but only when there isn't enough. This asshole makes a field which blocks out sensory powers. She-"

"Subject 2601?" Contessa interrupted, narrowing her eyes. "Yes, that is bad."

"Could you give them names?" he asked, hoping that she'd see why calling them by _numbers_ was a bad thing. "They _had_ names. They were people before you screwed them up. They _deserve_ names."

"They decide their own names upon their release. What is better, a name given to you by your captors, or the name you choose for yourself?"

Herb sighed, "Then how about lettin' em decide _now_."

Contessa frowned, and even _that_ was cute. "But their memories are erased before they are released. If they remembered that, they'd remember us, and compromise our security."

Herb had to laugh, like _that_ was going to be the thing that compromised them. "You'll learn some other day," he promised her. It was fun playing around with her, but with her damn power, he couldn't be sure if he was talking to _Contessa_ or just what Contessa's _Power_ told her to say, which was a cryin' shame.

"Thank you for your assistance," she told him, bowing her head in thanks.

"Any time you need some ass-istance, I'll be right there for you," he replied with a wink. Even if this was all some power shit, at least he'd enjoy himself. She led him back out, through more identically _boring_ hallways. "We should go out on a date someday," he offered. "I'll treat you nice, we'll go out, with like, flowers, wine, Barry Manilow. Nothing ruins a mood like Barry Manilow."

"We'll see where our Paths take us," She responded, with _maybe_ the hint of a smile.

"It will happen in the future," he promised. "You just don't know it yet. You might see a lot of things, but our love, is just budding." Herb paused, considering his plans. "Not sure how my wife is gonna deal with that though."

"You're married?"

"Not yet, no," he reassured her. "But Purity _will_ marry me."

Contessa's sure steps paused for a second, resuming with no trace of hesitation. "The Neo-Nazi?"

Herb smiled, looking forward to the challenge. "Yeah." Walking next to Contessa, he almost wished her Path to Victory said, 'you must have wild passionate sex with this incredibly handsome man in front of you', but that'd be too _easy_. The power was right there, waiting to be used. Hell, he could feel it offer a Path to Contessa Falling in Love with You, sixty-eight steps, like it'd been offering suggestions in the back of his head the entire time, but he ignored it. If he was going to do something, _he_ 'd be the one fuckin' doin' it damnit.

He figured they were almost back, so he tried for that brass ring, something nice to part on. "If I slapped your ass, would you be mad?" he asked, smiling.

She looked back, and simply said, "No."

"You wouldn't," he groused. Contessa was a good person, but the reliance on the power offered up to him he just _didn't_ get. "That's just stupid. Can you think for yourself? Fine, let's go." He said, opening the door back to the conference room.

In it Eidolon and Doctor Mother stood, Numberman was _still_ tapping away, but on the table was a very large silver suitcase and a bag containing a suit, gauntlets, and _holy crap are those what I think they are!_

Grabbing the costume and heading to the attached bathroom with a barely repressed squee of glee, he changed into a _ballin'_ supervillain outfit. The dark suit was nice, a tag mentioning how it was bullet and knife resistant, and made of 'smart fibers', whatever the hell those were. The royal purple undershirt was awesome, and the gold tie really brought it together. The clear mask, patterned with scales was really nice, and managed to hide his teeth and features pretty effectively. The gauntlets fit him like, well, a glove, but the shoes, _the shoes!_ He'd never been a sneakerhead, but ever since he'd seen those commercials all those years ago he'd wanted a pair. Laced up and ready to rock, he took a step out, thinking that these Cauldron guys might not be so bad, only for Eidolon to comment, "Are you done being childish?" and for Numberman to _still be typing_.

Herb sighed, even when he wanted to be nice, he couldn't. "You know I don't know much about you four eyes," he told the geek to end all geeks as he walked towards the conference room door, "Dickcheese over here," he jerked a finger towards the green goblin, "is an _ass_. Big time ass. A selfish, self-centered-"

"I'm standing right here," Eidolon interrupted, patience obviously at an end. _Which made two of us_.

"Oh," Herb said, not caring. He could feel the guys power's the catalogue of abilities available to him, and with _that_ much power the world was in trouble? Fuck that guy, and the high horse he rode in on before sticking it up his ass to keep the stick company. "Like I was trying to hide the fact that you're an ass, from the other, smaller ass. I'd offer you toilet paper to wipe your-"

"Door me to Break's previous location," Contessa politely intoned, a portal appearing in the hallway as Eidolon advanced on him. _Like he could do anything._ Turning his back on the father of the giant fucktards, he saw the portal led to a dark room, an odd purple glow coming from something there. As he neared the Door a hard to see figure stood up, the purple glow coming from a strip down it's arm, levelled at him.

"Stop! Who the fuck are you?" Lee's voice called.

Glad to be rid of these assholes, barring Contessa, Herb stepped through the portal, telling his bro "Dude, it's me! Look at this baller costume! And check this out! Adidas _Superstars!_ " Holding up his foot to show off their magnificence, and seeing the uncomprehending look on Lee's face, he explained "I've always wanted a pair!"

Lee obviously still didn't understand, but he was happy that Herb was happy, which was sweet. "Your case," He heard Eidolon call from behind him.

Turning around, mildly distracted, he asked "What?"

"Your vials you idiot," the moronic master who couldn't even use his powers correctly called back.

"Oh right!" Herb told him, his own happy tone underlying how much of a soppin' wet pussy rag he knew Eidolon was. Contessa, the darling, tossed Herb the case, her throw perfect, of course, passing right through the portal, the weight of the thing surprising him as he stumbled. Lee, jumpy as he was, and the day we'd had Herb couldn't _really_ blame him, dropped something on his arm, and Herb barely had enough time to notice it was a knife as it blurred into a blurred streak, passing right by him. Glancing over his shoulder he saw a steak-knife buried to the hilt in the green blunder's shoulder, the don't-care-bear going down like a bitch.

The look on Contessa's face though, was priceless. The shock, fear, and general dumping of her ass out of her bubble was delicious as she cried "WHAT? That wasn't supposed to happen!"

"Clairvoyant, who else is there?" Doctor Mother snapped, having completely lost control of the situation, something she better get used to. If Herb knew Lee would make things _this_ fun, he would've brought him to the meeting in the first place.

Another voice, a new one, weak, like from lack of use, called back "There isn't anyone else in there just. . . Chinese?"

"Doormaker, close the damn door!" the woman in charge practically shrieked as she lost control of a situation she never had in the first place, the portal closing to nothing.

Herb stared at me friend, a wide-ass smile on my face. Shit like this is why he loved him. Lee probably had some complex plan to handle all sorts of shit, but in the end almost killed Eidolon and scared the crap out of Cauldron. _Good man_.

His best friend stared back, panic and embarrassment written across his face, wooden spoon held at the ready on some weird ass probably super inventive use of powers. "Um. Oops?"


	40. Spoiler 5-1

**Spoiler 5.1**

Returning home from my. . . less than optimal outing as Boardwalk, I found Herb still training with Boojack, figuring out low-altitude three-dimensional movement. He and his Stand were jumping back and forth, trying hit and run tactics on BJ and _his_ Stand Jackhammer, Herb getting out of range of his Stand and unable to double-jump, inadvertently body slammed a train car. Only stopping for a second to patch them up, I headed straight for a computer to try and see if I could find information on Æonic. ParaHumans Online only provided a couple threads on him, but nothing certain could be gleaned. Opinion on the cape was mixed, as he apparently had taken to saving people from bomb blasts by freezing time in a bubble and moving everyone around. He then would hand out cards with his number in case they wanted to join his supervillain gang. It was confusing a lot of people to say the least. Thinking about it, that's probably what hit me while I scouted out the base, though he must've had at least a twenty-five-foot range to get me stuck in time from his was at the front door. If he had found me I would have been _defenseless._

I growled in annoyance, time based powers were such _bullshit_. He apparently wore a Victorian suit and had a clock for a head. I hoped they meant as a helmet, but this _was_ Worm, so who knew. Making a note to snipe _anyone_ I fought if they wore a suit and vest combo, I closed the window before heading to a different part of the trainyard, switching to my Vejovis costume, setting up my gun firing contraption, and settling in for a night of tanking pistol rounds while trying to get through the base manual. The only thing I found that was useful was the section on how to use the base's kitchen. The drawer under the oven was a warming drawer, instead of just storage, apparently. I was tempted to use my sword while getting shot, but if I accidentally drained my shields _while_ getting shot in the chest, well, I'd _probably_ be okay, but there was no need to risk it.

Some time before dawn, both of my shields were about ready to split, at the stage the first one was earlier that week. Intrigued, I tried to focus on holding one together as I alternated shots, a mental sensation to trying to hold, not quite water, but that slimy toy stuff. Gak? Gooze? Something like that. As my shields grew in strength, straining, the one I was ignoring split into two, both stronger than when I'd first started, but not by much. The one I held onto though, _that_ one grew in power, strengthening, straining, and as I brought it to the front, taking hit after hit, I got the sense of crystallization as it settled, stronger, tougher, _better_.

Turning to take the shots on one of my new shields, I tried to focus on this new development. Moving it was a ponderous affair, easily taking several times longer than before, and equivalently more focus, but it _was_ doable. Moving back to take hits on it, I blocked a bullet, only for the shield to remain untouched. Frowning, I took another, then another. Finally walking up to the pistol, take it out of the device, and empty the remaining magazine into the crystallized shield on my right hand, one shot after another, until it clicked empty. Grabbing another of the magazines I'd had my insects load, I laid a Speed Zone down the gun barrel, taking aim and firing. Still nothing. Another Zone was laid down. Nothing. A _third_. Nada. A Fourth? _That_ did it, the sensation of the shield cracking and shattering. I had a moment of doubt. _Did I just break it, like, for good?_ But couple seconds later I could feel it starting to reform. It took longer than the other, more malleable shields I had, but once it restructured, it felt measurably stronger, tighter built, more settled. Shooting it again it shattered, but not as completely. Over the course of the next hour the rebuilding time shrank by ten seconds, until my enhanced bullets weren't enough. Layering a _fifth_ layer, what my earlier calculations indicated would have been equivalent to a fifty caliber _Anti-material_ round, I shot once, having to grip tightly to not have the pistol tear itself out of my hand. The shield shattered, taking _five minutes_ to rebuild itself, still with that feeling of incremental improvement. I wasn't sure if I was relieved or impressed that it took _that_ level of firepower to drain my shield, though with that amount of recharge time, the actual threshold where I could take shots without it draining was far, far less. The Speed Zones weren't _quite_ exponential, but they were close enough that the difference between four and five layers of enhancement meant I'd probably have to either try a lot of different guns, or a whole lot of math to maximize the training time. Shrugging, I shifted it to protect my head, resuming practice getting shot, which just sounded wrong.

Continuing on until dawn had fully broke, I'd made some more progress, but I just felt _drained_. Half a pot of coffee and some breakfast helped, and now I had a forcefield I could designate for my sword alone, so overall a win. As I got ready to go back at it my phone rang the chorus to 'You're Gonna Go Far, Kid'. "Is it your girlfriend?" Herb asked from his place at the table.

"It's Taylor, and Panacea isn't my girlfriend. She's underage!" I shot back as I took it out of my pocket.

"Right, your mistress," he nodded.

"Fucking how does that work?" I demanded as it rang again.

He grinned. "Well, she's the villain, so she's obviously the mis-"

I shut him up as I dropped a silence bubble on his head with a snap of my fingers. He grinned wider as I answered the phone. "Hey Taylor, what's up?"

"HI, um, I'm feeling better, and the. . . my other friends told me what happened," she responded before hesitating. "You said that if I needed training, I just needed to ask." She paused, waited. If she wanted something, she needed to learn to go for it. "This. This is me asking."

I smiled, voice warm, "Then we'll train. How well healed are you?"

"I'm fine," she responded far too quickly.

"Not what I asked," I rebuked gently. "Are you completely uninjured, sore as if from overexertion, sore from bruising, or does just lying down and not doing anything still hurt? We're going to train no matter what, but I need to know exactly _how_ we're going to train."

"Oh," she muttered. "Bruised, I guess."

I nodded in thought. "Okay, we'll train tomorrow. If you could meet me at the abandoned northern ferry station at dawn tomorrow, we'll begin your training." She started to object but I cut her off, "In the meantime I want you to move around and see if you're still hurt, but haven't noticed it yet. I want you to think about your power, and all the uses of it you can think of, get a notebook or something if that will help. Don't worry about testing, we'll do that tomorrow. Most of all I want you to practice emoting. Put on your mask and practice displaying emotions in the mirror."

"But, why?" she complained.

"Because I have a couple techniques I can help you learn, but you _need_ to be able to display emotions if you want people to think you're a _hero_ Taylor. Armsdick can get away with it because he already has fame and public opinion behind him, but if you want people to like you and think of you as something other than someone to be wary of, you need to be _human_ , and that means displaying _emotion_." I emphasized.

"But. . . I'll feel silly," she groused.

I let that statement hang for a moment. "Taylor, I fly around in a _skintight_ outfit, you think I _don't_ feel silly sometimes. I'd rather go with armor, full kit, enclosed helmet, and at least three different weapons, but I have to settle for a single utility belt, because _that's_ what people want to see." She mumbled something that the phone didn't quite pick up. "What?"  
"Nothing!" she squeaked.

It had sounded like _something_ , and her response further indicated that, but I let it go. "Right, do those three things, and I'll see you tomorrow mourning for training. Okay?"

"Okay," she responded, sounding a little disappointed, probably because I didn't drop everything to go help her train. _Still a teenager,_ I reminded myself.

Hanging up, I looked over at Herb, who had moved to hear the conversation, but hadn't said a word. Dispelling the now useless bubble of silence I gave him an expectant look. "So, are you still gonna go heal with Panacea tomorrow?" he asked.

I looked back in confusion. "Yeah, I'll train with Taylor for a few hours, and give her something to work on while I go help heal people. I scheduled it _specifically_ so I could do both."

He nodded sagely. "Right, don't want the wife to know you're cheatin' on her with some villainess, good idea."

 _Whelp, I walked into that_. Taking the high road, I flicked him off and walked out the door.

* * *

After a bit more flight practice, buzzing rooftops and only running into one, I landed at the hospital early. I refused to heal anyone until Panacea showed up, but casual inquiry revealed that there were a few people with superficial but disfiguring injuries recuperating. Taking a minute to check with Quinn that it would be covered by my agreement with the hospital, charging an hour's worth of pay per patient, I promptly did the rounds, fixing burns, scars, and other skin-deep injuries to kill time. I refused to do vanity adjustments on principal, though I _did_ give out my Lawyer's number if they were interested in _paying_ for such things instead of having the taxpayer do so. I'd finished, and was tiddling my thumbs, having to point out to one insistent young man that everything he was badgering me to do I could do the _opposite_ of and may be inclined to do so if he continued to harass me.

It was there that Panacea found me, walking in and giving me a questioning look. "What?" I asked, standing up.

"Why am I hearing about you doing plastic surgery?" she asked slowly.

I shrugged. "I was bored and it's the one thing I can do without your help. It was mostly things that'd scar pretty badly, and was covered by the fund. You ready for another day of healing?"

She looked like she wanted to say something, but stopped herself, nodding and walking past me to the circuit the medical staff had set up. Things progressed pretty well after that. Apparently, Oni Lee had gotten ahold of four of Bakuda's grenades and had been using them to great, or horrible, effect. Burned by fire, cold, electricity, and acid, those that weren't outright killed we were able to save, working through last night's backlog for hours until we were down to the trickle coming in from the still constant low-level bombing. When we'd not had anyone that needed our specific level of help for an hour, I convinced her to hit up the oncology ward, Panacea's walking of me through the process hopefully helping alleviate the boredom I knew she felt dealing with that particular malady.

We finished our shift, had a nice dinner, though several times she started to say something, expression serious, before she stopped herself. I wanted to ask what she wanted to say, but we had time, and it was probably best if she came to it herself. At least I could wait until after the bombings were over and the general tension pervading the city had relaxed. I was about to leave when she said, "Wait."

Landing I looked at her expectantly. She stood in front of her house, visibly struggling with herself, and after a minute she steeled herself, asking, "Why haven't you asked?" I looked at her, waiting for her to expand on that. "What happened that night, with Vicky, you haven't said _anything_ about that. Not even once!"

I responded simply, somewhat perplexed, "Because you asked me not to?" I thought it was obvious, really, but apparently not. "You _know_ I'm willing to help if you need it, and the situation isn't spiraling out of your control anymore, so if you don't want to talk about it for a few weeks," I shrugged, "Okay." She looked at me uncomprehending, and I sighed. "Panacea, you are one of the few people who I respect. If you tell me something, especially in private, I'll assume you're being honest. I hate those 'I said one thing, but I really meant something entirely different, and it's your fault that _I_ wasn't honest, that I didn't have the spine to say what I _really_ meant, and you didn't somehow read my mind' people. It's a coward's tactic where someone wants to get what they _want_ without having to take responsibility _for_ wanting it, and they keep the option open to change their mind _retroactively_ , because they didn't _technically_ ask for it, and if it turns out worse than they expected, they can blame the person who gave them what they originally wanted."

Grimacing, I apologized. "Sorry, but I can't stand that shit. Too many of my problems have come from people needlessly lying to protect their own fragile egos and delusions. So, you asked me not to talk about it, so I assumed you needed time to figure things out yourself and trusted you to come to me when you did want to talk about it. Was I wrong?"

"No," was her immediate reply. "It's just, I kept expecting you to, and you _didn't_ so. . ."

"So you were wondering why I hadn't," I smirked. "You should know by now, I'm not like most people Panacea." I paused. " _Wow_ , that sounded arrogant, but you know what I mean. I'm not normal, never have been, though if I _were_ the norm things might be a lot better, which I _know_ is arrogant as all hell, but not exactly _wrong_. I'm not normal, so general social expectations don't really apply consistently. Honestly, due to the nature of powers, let alone the Triggering process, I'd be surprised to find that more than half of parahumans are what people consider 'normal.' You're not, I'm not, Glory Girl seems to be, but I don't know her well enough to make that call. Brandish sure as hell isn't, your adopted father is depressed enough that he isn't, though without that he might be, and the . . . intel I received didn't really cover your Aunt's family, so I've got nothing there." I shrugged.

She looked a little lost. "But, isn't being normal a good thing?"

I snorted, "Yeah, says the _normal people_. Seriously though, it's through our differences that we tend to push boundaries and find out what's best in every sense. Honestly, I could talk for an hour about _that_ , but it's late, and you need to head to bed. I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

She nodded, giving a soft. "Thanks, see you," before heading inside. Looking over I could see Glory Girl staring at me from the second story window, though she closed the curtain when I waved at her. Shaking my head, I took off, headed for home.

* * *

Settling in, I considered Taylor's training tomorrow. I wanted to believe that she'd do what I'd asked, but there was a good chance she wouldn't. Either way, if I was going to teach her how to make bug clones and speak through them, I needed to figure out how to do it _myself_. After a pass over the trainyard to grab a swarm, I settled in and tried to recreate arguable the most inhuman use of power she displayed in canon.

Bug clones, or at least the rough version, took _three_ _hours_ , a quarter of that was spent looking at videos of army and fire ants to figure out the intricacies of making bug structures without crushing the ones at the bottom. Getting those with wings to provide lift helped as well, but coordinating the entire thing gave me a bit of a headache, both creating and looking through their eyes requiring my utmost attention. It got easier as I practiced, but the stress of trying to control that many at once, even in just a general sense, not directly puppeting them, still hurt to try to manage.

Relaxing my control, and getting a snack, I attempted my second task, swarm communication. Playing around with the noises my swarm could make, I was able to raise and lower the sound, and took separate insects, making them make all the noises they could. Eventually I compiled I got a library of sounds I could attempt. Experimenting, I was able to create _somewhat_ recognizable sounds, but trying to make actual speech was _well_ beyond my capabilities. The muddled mess was only understandable to me because I already knew what I was trying to get the swarm to say. With a pounding migraine, and dawn an hour away, I stopped there, letting the swarm disperse, sending them all back to where I'd gathered them.

As I got up, body feeling heavy, I thought about the _other_ way that Taylor had used her power, the technique that had truly made her _Skitter_ , the unfeeling villainess that would do anything to achieve victory. It was a trick I was probably never going to teach her. Connecting to the insects around me, I hesitated before I dumped the pain, the anger, the _frustration_ , every single negative feeling I had out into the ambient swarm. The emotions drained out of me, agitating the insects but leaving me feeling an almost supernatural sense of calm and _peace_.

As fast as I could I _reversed_ the process, taking them back into me, shivering and feeling _wrong_. That, _that_ , had been _dangerously_ easy. An easy _out_ to any negative overwhelming emotion I might feel, but it wasn't me, wasn't _right_ , on a deep and visceral level. As much as I hated feeling that way, negative emotions had a source, and it was by the presence _of_ those emotions that I could identify the source, and _deal_ with that shit. _This_ was the reason I'd never really liked harder drugs, or even excessive use of the softer ones.

Keeping yourself from feeling for longer than just the duration of an emergency or a single night was playing with fire, the longer you didn't feel, the harder it was to go back. I'd flirted with that before when I was younger, but it was an evil, a sweet poison that killed those who indulged, slowly and by degrees until who they were before was _dead_. Realizing _exactly_ what the effect was, and looking at Taylor's actions in canon, paired with this ability to outright get rid of unwanted emotions, her decisions suddenly made a _disturbing_ amount of sense. After a quick shower, I headed off to the meeting site. Hopefully, with my support, not only would Taylor never be Khepri, but she'd also never truly become _Skitter_ either.


	41. Spoiler 5-2

**Spoiler 5.2**

The fact that Taylor was early _really_ shouldn't have surprised me, I _was_ giving her training after all. Opening my Bug Sense I immediately pinged off of her network, following the threads of power to where she was hiding in an alley. Dropping down into it, I saw her looking back, expression relieved and nervous. She was in exercise clothes, the bulging backpack she picked up probably containing her costume. "You're early," I commented, turning my back to her. "Change into your costume and we'll head to where we're training."

"Right here?" she sputtered, confusion and embarrassment coloring her voice.

I looked through the bug on either end of the alley. At this hour, and in ABB territory, even if only a few blocks in, no one was around. "Unless you want people to see Vejovis flying about with Taylor Hebert, yes. If you want to go public, I'll support you, but I'd assumed that you wanted to keep your identity a secret."

"Right," she rebuked herself, needlessly commanding "Don't look," as I heard the backpack's zipper and the rustling of cloth and silk. A few moments later she announced, "I'm done." Turning back, she continued, in costume, "Okay, let's go get training!" raising a fist in determination a half second after she finished her declaration. It looked awkward, and a bit forced, but was still better than she'd been earlier.

I smiled, offering my hand. "You've been practicing displaying emotions, good."

She took it, responding, "You _said_ I needed to do it, and you wouldn't show me some stuff if I didn't."

Lifting off, taking a slightly wavering flight path to conceal our destination, we headed towards the area I'd cleared, along with some supplies we might need. "I know, but I can still be happy you did so. I assume Grue still gave you the basics of street boxing this time around?"

"Yeah, but he's a lot better than I am. I'm not sure I'll _ever_ be as good as he is," she professed, making no motions other than talking.

"Nod when you agree with something, and shake your head if you disagree," I instructed, coming in sight of our landing. "And if you're unsure about something shrug. If you can add hand gestures without effecting what you're doing, do so. And you'll _never_ be able to beat him in an unpowered boxing match, but by the time you're fully trained, you will be able to beat him in hand to hand."

She looked at me in surprise as we landed, obviously wanting to question but holding her tongue. "So," I gestured towards our section of trainyard as I enclosed us in a sound bubble, "This is where you'll be training until I can find something better. We'd be doing it at our base, but Herb has a 'no bugs' policy, and it's _technically_ his place, so that rules out training there. Now-"

"You're the _railyard wrecker!_ " she exclaimed, completely derailing my speech.

I blinked, "I'm sorry, what?"

She gestured to the trainyard, "For the past week something has been tearing up the railyard at night. PHO has a thread on it. They've found piles of spent ammo and bullets smushed flat, but no one's heard a shot. People have seen things moving, and a couple days ago something wrecked a train car with enough force to smash it into scrap, and everyone heard it, but it was the _only_ time they heard something." At my look she paused, before shrugging, "I've been at home, and bored, what did you expect me to do? That _was_ you, right?"

"Most of it," I admitted. "The shapes might've been Break and Enter, but most of it's probably me."

"But how did you destroy that train car, are you _that_ strong? And how'd you keep people from hearing the gunshots?" she queried, confused.

We were completely sidetracked by this point, so I asked instead, "Do you want to talk about this, or do you want me to start training you?"

She started to say something, before stopping herself, considering. "If I ask, will you still train me?"

"Yeah," I nodded, "But we'll have less time. We need to stop before ten, since I'm working at Good Samaritan healing people injured by the bombs. That and of course, I don't want _you_ to share what I tell you, as if the wrong people knew things could get. . . _bad_. But I won't lie to you, and if I can answer, I will."

"Then I want to know," she declared. "How did you _do_ that?"

"Like this," I told her, pulling out the pistol from the pouch at my back, dropping a sound bubble over it and firing it twice at a train car forty feet away, dropping a sound bubble over that as well between shots.

Holstering my weapon and dismissing the bubbles I was about to explain it as a secondary power, which was technically true, when she beat me to the punch. "You're a power copier!" I froze, and I felt a spike of fear from her as I did so, her words coming out in a torrent. "I'm sorry, it's just that no-one's supposed to have more than three powers, and you already do, and that looked like, sounded like, sound control, or maybe something to do with air pressure, and Lisa told me about how you stopped them from getting killed by glass that night, and about how _you_ said your powers _weren't_ what they looked like, and about how you probably stopped us from getting hit in the bank too, even though _you_ still got hit, which she said means you're limited in use, but that means you have to have at least four, which _everyone_ online says you _can't_ , but if you could copy other powers then you'd only have _one_ , and that would explain why you have _my_ power, because even when people have similar powers they never have the _same_ power and I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said anything!"

 _Well, I knew she was smart_ , I chided myself, pissed that I'd slipped up and given her more than I was ready to at this time. _It's the reason, okay, the third reason, I recruited her._ I walked over to her, and she froze, terrified. "Taylor," I said gently. "Why are you scared?"

"I just guessed your secret, and then you went all cold, and you looked angry. Aren't you upset? Y-you _feel_ upset!" she stammered.

"Taylor," I tried again. "I'm not upset with _you_. You're smart, it's one of the reasons I recruited you, I just didn't want to let that _particular_ cat out of the bag just yet, even to my teammates. Yes, I can copy powers, not all of them, and if I want to do anything other than monkey see, monkey do level things I need to train and experiment on my own. I don't want people to know because if they think they know what Vejovis's powers are, they'll plan on how to counter _them_ , and if things get bad I can bust out an extra power and play it off like I was hiding my true power the entire time. Also, people with powers tend to get a bit prissy when you copy theirs."

"I don't mind!" she protested. "Wait, you said _Vejovis_. Does that mean you have more than one identity? Are you _Æonic?_ " she pressed, now that she knew I wasn't going to react badly and, I don't know, kick her from the team or something.

I shook my head, "No, I don't have any time-based powers. Yet. Why did you think that?"

She shrugged. "Well, he saves people and then gives them a business card." She dug into one of her belt pouches, taking out the card I'd given her. "Seems like something you'd do." She looked at me, pausing before bringing up a hand to point accusingly. "If you aren't Æonic, who are you?"

I took a breath, shifting my costume, my domino mask growing as the material around my collar extended up to cover my head, darkening as it did so. Shifting mindsets, I puffed my chest out a little, crooked my arms and legs a little, and shifted my balance so I was leaning slightly to one side. Giving that chin-jerk, I roughened my voice as I said, with the hint of a sneer, "Hey Bug Chick, name's Boardwalk. You one of those goody-two shoes bitches or do you actually get shit done like _me?_ "

She staggered back. "What the hell, you, you changed!"

I dropped the persona, straightening up again. "Well, yeah, it'd be a poor disguise if I was _identifiable_."

She walked closer, shaking her head as she looked me over. "No, I mean, you kept your, my power on when you did that, and you changed, like you felt like a completely different person!"

"Just refer to it as my power, not yours, it'll keep you from slipping up in the field. And, um, yes? Boardwalk is a mental construct that I built to slip into for things I can't have Vejovis linked to. Vejovis will try to recruit Boardwalk, and while they _will_ work together, he'll never join, his dislike of authority enough that he'll balk even if Vejovis seems on the up and up, or will until I no longer have need of a deniable asset." I didn't really understand what the big deal was. "It's just acting. Both my parents were professional actors, and I spent a lot of time in the theatre. It's not _that_ hard, people do it all the time, I just do it on purpose, and with more skill than most, though I'll admit that might just be hubris."

"But then," she started, debating with herself, "Which one is you? Have I been talking to you, or just you playing a part?" The unsurety and vulnerability in her voice and over the connection was borderline painful.

I dismissed my mask, pulling back my hood as I looked her in the eye, putting my hands on her shoulders. "Taylor, they're both _me_ , just different facets with different traits exaggerated. Vejovis is me with my more traditionally heroic traits turned up, more likely to work within the system and lead from the front. Boardwalk is me with my more, to be a bit crude, 'fuck the police' traits turned up. He's the borderline vigilante who's pissed that _he's_ the one that has to bust his ass to go shut down the, ahem, 'motherfuckers fuckin' up the streets, struttin' around like they own it, 'cause the police ain't doin' shit', or something to that effect." I paused, trying to find the correct words.

"Think of how I act when it's just people I respect, like when we were eating the take-out from Fugly Bob's, versus in public when we were _in_ the restaurant ordering said food. One was me, Lee, just relaxing with friends, the other was Vejovis, putting on a show of casual heroics, humanizing our superhero identities in a way that the Protectorate would never bother with, possibly because _they_ actually think they're better than everyone else. I don't lie to people I respect, though I also expect them not to lie to me in return. You _are_ my friend, don't doubt that, ever."

She gave me a hesitant nod, her emotions an utter mess over the connection. I took a step back, shifting to jeans and a t-shirt, giving her a moment to collect herself before I continued and gave her something to focus on. "You were right, I nabbed Cricket's sound control, which is what lets me silence things. I also have Stormtiger's air control, and dear god is _that_ guy a failure when it comes to living up to his potential."

"How?" she asked, voice still strained, but I didn't comment on it.

"Well, you've probably read up how he has 'air claws', right?" I prompted, waiting for her nod before continuing. Turning to a nearby train car I demonstrated, using the motion that I copied, sending out three unstable ribbons which cut into the car with a loud tearing sound before exploding as the destabilized.

She jumped, looking around, "Should you be that loud?"

I looked back, grinning. "Why should I be worried?"

"Someone will've. . ." She trailed off, thinking. "You've silenced us, haven't you, like you did your gun?"

I nodded. "Exactly, if you go more than fifty feet in any direction you'll pass the barrier. Sounds can get in, but not escape, so look at this damage. Nasty right?" She looked at it, gulping, and nodded.

I couldn't help but grin as I gave into the urge to show off. "Come stand behind me," I instructed, sitting down on a thin sheet of hardened air. She stared for a second as I sat on nothing before coming to stand right behind me, looking over my head at the train car. Reaching over I had her put her hands on my shoulders, explaining, "I need to know _exactly_ where you are. This is a work in progress." Covering her with one of my shields, just in case I _completely_ screwed this up, I started manifesting blades in front of me and to my sides, one after another, until the air practically shimmered. I could feel her look at them through the changing pressure on my shoulders and the feedback my shield provided, but she kept her hands planted. "By your command," I quipped.

"What?" she asked, distracted.

"Say fire when ready," I dictated.

"Oh. Fire?" she asked.

I hmmfed. "Say it like you're the captain of a starship, about to unleash hell upon your opponents. _Come on_ , have fun with it," I teased.

She gathered herself before imperiously ordering "Fire!"

As one I shoved the blades forward and into the damaged traincar, forcing them through steel, detonating them in explosive blasts of wind, the structuring tearing and cracking as the cuts were forced open and pieces were propelled in every direction, large chunks of metal skidding past us as I deflected them around us and the pile of supplies I'd set up. After half a minute all that was left was cut up scrap, torn and scattered in every direction. "Holy fuck," she quailed, gazing upon my handiwork. "Stormtiger could do _that!?_ "

I laughed, pleased by her reaction. Holding back all the time was annoying, and having an audience to play to was _highly_ amusing. I could see why so many capes went _full_ theatrical, but you never went _full_ theatrical. There was a great difference between the stage and the battlefield; 'all the world's a stage' being one of those sophistic statements which got misapplied _all_ the time. "If he wasn't such a dumbass, yeah. But then again, if he wasn't such a dumbass, he wouldn't have teamed up with _literal Nazis_."

I stood up, hand Lighting up as I used my air control to replicate crude telekinesis, gathering the scrap up into one large pile. It was inefficient, and noisy as all hell as I kept dropping them, but it did the job. "But having giant piles of cut up scrap is a bit of a tell for powers that I'm _not_ supposed to have, so blasting it to an indistinct mess with Purity's power is required." A few blasts later, using sound control to provide hearing protection for both of us, the pile of cut scrap was a crushed together mass, parts of it glowing orange from the heat generated by the repeated tearing and crushing.

Taylor stared dumbly at the result as I led her over to a cleared off portion of ground. "You need a moment?" She shook her head, focusing on me. "So, hand to hand speech, female version. People like to say men and women are equal, or that they are the same. On a mental field, nature versus nurture muddies everything, as well as psychology being more art than science, the brain being the device which modifies itself, but the nature of sentient beings to self-improve means that it's probably possible, though usually not true in the current western setup. On a physical level though, they _are_ different, and saying anything else is not only a bold-faced _lie_ it's a downright _dangerous_ one. Women are physically weaker than men, full stop. One of the world's strongest unpowered woman went to a bar and arm-wrestled the regular joes there and lost, hard. Some people will tout women as having higher stamina but not only does that not matter in combat, since most fights never last more than a minute, but if you had a man holding back to using the same amount of force as a woman going as hard as she could, they'd be at best even, at worst he'd _still_ last longer. With this in mind, straight up power techniques are not going to help you _at all_ , and while teaching you the basics of fighting was good, he was teaching you to fight like a _man_ , which wouldn't help you in the long run. Honestly, if he got a spine, _Greg Veder_ could kick your ass in a fair fight. With that being said, he _doesn't_ , and you should avoid those kinds of fights if you can. To quote, honestly I don't remember; 'If you're in a fair fight, someone fucked up'."

I started pacing. "Don't block when you can dodge, don't grab when you can strike, and always, _always,_ be aware what happens if you lose. If it's a friendly spar, there's a certain threshold you shouldn't pass. If you'll get captured, but your opponents are honorable, there's a certain threshold you shouldn't pass. If you're fighting, and the price of failure is torture, rape, and/or death, there is _no_ threshold you shouldn't pass. Serious, do or die fighting isn't romantic, it isn't heroic, it's dirty, and risky, and if you can avoid it, by all means do so, unless the consequences for doing so are _worse_. If you've heard about how you learn to fight so you don't have to, that's because once you understand what is actually _involved_ in fighting, you'll understand why, but that's philosophical ground we don't have time to tread today, and we need to focus on the basics. You are no stronger or tougher than the average human, and while I have plans to rectify that, that's at _least_ six months in the works, and a whole lotta shit is going to hit the fan before then. Your competence in fighting will be your speed and flexibility, not your strength and durability. Take out your baton."

She stared at me for a second before shaking herself, taking out her weapon, extending it. "Now, weak points, regular fights you'll go for the nose, temple, back of the head, chin, kidney, and ribs. Wrists if you want them to drop something, though that's getting into the realm of trick shots, and back or sides of the knees if you want them to go down, but with your height you'll have to drop down to hit that. If you're in a serious fight, add in eyes and throat, but blinding or killing someone should only be done if they would do the same to you."

"Not the chest?" she asked. "or the groin?"

I shook my head. "Punching verses swinging gives different avenues of attack, and the solar plexus is one of the targets that you can hit easily in a straight on thrust, but if you're swinging and dodging you'll want targets you can get the most leverage on, or strike at when they're not directly in front of you. As for Groin, you run into the Women's Magazine problem."

"What's that?" she asked hesitantly.

"There's a sizable percentage of the female population that believes they're smarter than men, and thus tell each other things about men without ever actually checking with one, or if they do it's usually with a man that wants to sleep with them, so the man agrees to whatever stupid thing they come up with to try and get into the woman's pants. Fifty years ago, you had a similar problem on the other side of the gender divide, with some men thinking women were lesser and inferior, and certain things were 'women's work' and below the attention of the 'superior sex', but with time while the misogynistic population were rightly judged for their bullshit and shrank, the misandristic population was given a pass and grew. That's why you get those '20 things that'll drive men wild' articles, which if you actually read, make you wonder if the writer has ever _talked_ to a man. "

"Because of this you get a lot of 'common knowledge' things that a sizable portion of women take as gospel, but are actually either completely baseless, or only true a small percent of the time. Groin shots are one of those things. The average guy will probably fold, but unless the guy has a pair big enough to be its own power, it's a harder target to hit then you'd think. Most of the times it _does_ get hit, the man doesn't even _know_ he's in combat, and thus isn't prepared for the pain, which presents _all_ sorts of moral problems, and makes those 'victories' less than useless for telling other women how to handle _actual_ combat scenarios. Thing is, _you're_ not going to be fighting office workers, at best you'll be fighting thugs, at worst monsters in _questionably_ human form. These are the sorts of people who _live_ combat, so they'll never truly let their guard down if they know you're a threat. They'll be able to shrug it off, and while they might be hurt, they'll stop _playing around_. Capes seem to love the theatre of their own importance, playing with their foes if they think they're winning, and while that gives you time to formulate a strategy to take them down, it's a time you only have because they _let_ you have it. Hitting there is a dishonorable move, as you are essentially attacking them in a sexual manner, even if you don't see it that way, and they don't consciously think of it that way. Because of that, unless you're ready to incapacitate or _kill_ them in the next few seconds, if you don't know that strike will work, don't try it. It gets mentioned by _military_ training because their objective _is_ to kill, but as a hero you're held to different standards."

I tried to think of a suitable comparison. "Imagine you were in a fight with L33t and he tried to take you down by trying to shove his fist _down there_." She shuddered as I felt her sick horror over the connection. "Yeah, that sense of disgust and violation, how you'd think of him for doing _that_ , that's generally what guys feel about getting struck in the groin. They don't display it because they've been trained practically since birth not to, and to not think that badly of women in general, usually to the point that it never hits the level of conscious thought, and that's not even touching all the programming they get about never showing weakness from _both_ genders, so they laugh at the pain instead, or just get uncomfortable for reasons they find hard to put into words. If the alternative is torture, rape, or _death_ , then of course, go for it, but by that point you should be ready to _kill_ them."

I took a few steps away from her. "With that _lovely_ topic out of the way, temple, nose, chin, eyes, throat, back of the head, ribs, kidneys, and back of the knees. I want you to try to avoid my strikes while trying to hit me in turn. I'm protected by Glory Girl's forcefields, so you won't hurt me, and I'll keep my strength to human levels while starting slow. It'll take a serious hit to drop them, so don't worry. Ready?"

She nodded, taking a position with her Baton as I started walking towards her. She didn't move as I approached, and ducked out of the way as I swung a lazy punch for her head. I took another swing and she dodged again, staying out of my reach. _Is she doing_ _ **that**_ _stupid thing_ , I pondered as a third blow was dodged with no counter, reminded of a female friend of mine who wanted to spar, but never would attack, turning the entire thing into a protracted dodging exercise. She never gave me anything other than a silly 'I don't want to hurt you' BS excuse. Taking another swing, overextending myself, my fears were put to rest as she ducked under my arm, baton striking my ribs enough that it might smart if it'd gotten through, only for her to spin, a second blow to the back of the head, hard enough that it might have dropped my regular shields as she put her entire body into the blow, the crystalline barrier holding firm.

I spun on _my_ heel, smiling, leg up in a kick, but she pushed herself backwards and missed it by inches. "Good!" I beamed. "Now let's see how fast you can go!" I called to her, upping my speed as she dodged, on the edge of panic, but keeping it under control as she hit me in the back, putting her entire body into the blow, draining one of my shields as she did so, but unable to dodge my follow up, taking the strike, but moving with it, hitting the ground but lashing out with a vicious kick at my knee, which I dodged, laughing.

* * *

An hour later I called our spar over, Taylor collapsing with an "Ohthankgod. I think my bruises have bruises!"

I smiled as I walked over to the supplies, grabbing the cooler and carrying it over. Sitting down on air, I popped it open, handing her a bottle of water and a fried egg and bacon sandwich as she removed her mask. She gulped down the water greedily before tearing into the sandwich. Looking at her, I saw a couple of bruises forming on her face, and internally winced. I'd known we'd been going pretty hard as we progressed, but I was glad that I was a healer. "You want me to patch you up?" She touched her jaw, where she'd _almost_ dodged an elbow, and winced before nodded. As I leaned over and reached for her face she leaned back, confused and wary. "Taylor, I need skin contact and your gloves aren't made to come off. I'll either need to touch your face, or you'll need to take off your costume if you want me to heal you."

She froze, before nodding to herself, "Panacea's power, right." Closing her eyes she leant towards me, and I had to move my hand so I didn't accidentally poke her in the eye. Giving her the "Get Better" treatment she sighed as the bruises on her face shifted colors and disappeared, her hesitance disappearing into a cat-like contentment. After a minute I pulled my hand back, and she started to lean to follow before pulling herself back, blinking and turning back to her sandwich. "That. That was good. Thanks."

I shrugged. "I probably should've started with that, so you could spar in top condition. We went a bit harder than you really should normally, but I'm a healer and going that intense helps you pick things up faster. You've gone from, 'can probably take down a thug' to 'can take down your average streetfighter'. Anyone with _serious_ training could take you down if they took you seriously from the start, but most villains don't. Don't try hand to hand with anyone who has a Brute rating though, stay the hell away from them and use your powers. Well, more than you already were."

"What do you mean?" she asked innocently.

I grabbed control of the bugs she'd stuck to my arms and legs, flying them over to dance in a circle around her bottle. She dismissed them, blushing. "This is why your power pushes you to conflict," I explained, "because through it you come up with things like that. You did last time around, but it was farther down the road. It took you twenty minutes, but you started inventing new techniques to keep up, which lets us skip that lesson."

"You kept getting faster as we fought," she interjected. "I thought I had you, then you'd spin or dodge or something and it was like I was back to where I started. How fast _are_ you?"

Biting back a snarky comment equating to 'faster than you', I instead offered her a hand up. Taking it, I pulled her up, grabbing her bottle and resting it on my seat, pulling her to a clear spot. "Okay, go after me, like usual, but I'm just going to push you, open handed, so you'll get a sense of my unpowered maximum speed. Or at least as fast as I can go without hurting you." She looked hesitant, and I wondered if it was the fact that we were doing this unmasked, or if she was worried about getting hurt, despite what I'd said. "I'll heal you again afterwards." She made up her mind, nodding, so definitely the second. She took a step forward, but I dashed in before she could start to close herself and set the pace, dodging under a blow to whip a hand to her shoulder, pausing for just an instant to lessen the blow as I made contact, before pushing her, hard. She stumbled, but turned on her foot, the other lashing up in a kick. Lightly catching it, I pushed it to the side, spinning her around in the opposite direction before placing both hands on her back, shoving her again. She turned as she stumbled, baton coming up, the bugs on my limbs helping her track me, but I tapped the bottom of her arm, lifting the blow up before pressing a hand to her side, sending her flying once more. I had to admit I was impressed with how she was keeping her balance, as I kept pushing, several times lifting her off the ground entirely. Her emotions however had spiked into panic after a minute and she was starting to lose cohesion of techniques, her calculated reposts devolving into wild swings. Diverting a blow while settling the swarm she was pulling at, I tripped her, catching her before she hit the ground letting her down softly as I took a step back, letting her collect herself.

She shakily got to her feet. "That was _not_ cool." She declared, trying to head back to where we'd sat, flinching as I caught her when she swayed losing her balance. She glared as she hung onto me, directing her to a seat of air. "You said you weren't going to use your powers." I looked placidly back at her. "Bullshit."

"Skill," I countered, "Combined with a male body at Peak Condition. I'm honestly strong enough I probably deserve a level one Brute rating, two or three with my costume on, but while I'm at the top end of human capability, I'm still _on_ the scale."

She frowned, looking a bit green around the gills, relaxing a bit as I healed her. "The way you said that, is that one of your powers? Who did you take that from?"

I shook my head. "It's one of mine, but I didn't copy it. It's one of my original set."

"That is so unfair, wait, what did you look like before?"

I looked down at myself. "A third of the muscle mass, heavyset, and I needed glasses."

"Your power fixed your vision? Why couldn't mine," she grumped.

I rolled my eyes. "I work with _Panacea_ , I'm pretty sure she'd fix your eyesight if you want me to ask. Then you could Clark Kent it up, though you'd need a lot more acting training to pull _that_ off." I smiled at her, only to get a blank look. "It would be a thing that could help hide your identity. After all The Lady Bug could never be Taylor Hebert, Taylor Hebert wears glasses!" The look continued unabated. "It's an alternate universe thing." I pulled my hand away, having healed any damage I'd done with my demonstration. Her look of annoyance told me she didn't appreciate inside jokes she couldn't get, but oh well. "So, power use. Can you get your notebook?"

 _That_ got her attention, as she jumped up, rummaging in her backpack, returning with a notebook and a pen, looking at where she had sat with trepidation, cautiously lowering herself until she rested on the invisible surface. "Okay," she started, looking over her list. "I was thinking, to start with, I could make, like, human shaped swarms that might distract my opponents, like Grue did with his darkness."

"You mean like this?" I asked, grabbing a collection from nearby and forming them into one of the bug clones I spent time working on last night.

She looked at it, eyes narrowing, prodding at it with her own power, riding my connection to them which felt. . . uncomfortably close. She looked down, hair obscuring her face as she mumbled to herself. "Oh, that makes sense, so, maybe." She called another swarm, building it like mine, before she started tweaking it, making improvements here and there which my own power gladly copied. When I made an improvement of my own, she quickly copied it as well, though my improvements were much less frequent _and_ less impressive than hers. I grabbed a few moths, turning them into the whites of pseudo-eyes if you didn't look to closely, which she copied, figuring out the positioning, which was helped when I took out my phone, turning on the front facing camera and holding it in front of her, allowing her to work on creating expressions, a technique which I in turn copied, and tweaked where I could. We went back and forth, working on the power for the better part of an hour, until we had what looked like honest-to-goodness people made of bugs. A bit disturbing if you looked closely, but definitely passable as a Case 53 at a casual glance if you could get them clothes. Or just find the right colored insects.

Taylor was practically vibrating with excitement as I sat back, impressed. This level of progress, even with my level of dedication, would've taken me _weeks_ to get right. I wished I'd nabbed Kingmaker, just so I could give Taylor other powers, and let her loose on designing improvements to _them_. "Next!" She declared, happily crossing off something from her list. "I'd tried to see through their eyes before, but it never made sense. I was wondering if you knew how?" she turned to me, puppy eyes only magnified by her glasses.

"Give it a shot now," I tried, a sneaking suspicion on what was happening.

She looked a little unsure, "But, aren't you going to tell me how." I motioned to the two swarm clones. "Ok, so, I, what!?" she sputtered, connection to her construct twisting and shaping as she raised one hand, then the other, before turning her head back to me, eyes unfocused. My own power lazily reaching out and copying her improved method of insect sight, which built the gestalt picture I normally had to build one at a time, all at once. "How did you know I could do that? How _can_ I do that?"

I bopped her on the nose. "Look at me with _your_ eyes if you can Taylor, anything else is rude." She blushed, eyes focusing as she dropped, no, _lessened_ her focus, the insects in her clone still looking at me, but not as intently. "When you were out of it back at the hotel, I was checking in on everyone through the insects in the room and your power piggybacked onto mine. I think your power learns when it sees me trying a new trick, and vice versa. Those clones, the basic ones, took me an _hour_ to figure out, and you figured out how to do so in _seconds_ , so-"

"I'm sorry!" she interjected. I looked at her, confused. "You spent all that time working on it and I just copied it in -hey!" she complained as I bopped her nose again.

"You're being stupid. You're _not_ stupid, so stop _being_ stupid. I worked on them so you _could_ copy them, and you doing so that fast is _impressive_ not _offensive_. Besides," I waved at the clones, forcing mine to wave back at us. "You've improved them so much, I feel like _I_ should be the one apologizing for copying _your_ work."

"You helped!" she countered. "No, really, I was just trying to make them person-ish, you're the ones who gave them eyes!"

Rolling my own, I kept the conversation moving. "Either way, powers with sensory components probably let their users learn techniques from other users, so I shouldn't use my air control near Stormtiger, or do this," I manifested a humanoid expression of Grue's power, "In front of the Undersiders, in addition to _all_ the questions I'd have to tell them I wasn't going to answer. You think Tattletale's bad now?" I asked, shivering, to her laughter, I checked my watch. "We've got about forty-five minutes left. Then you can travel with me to the hospital if you want to, and I'll ask Panacea to fix your eyes, but in the meantime there's something else I want your input on." I set a timer, in case we lost track of time again. "We'll do emoting lessons later. You've progressed enough that I think I can trust you with this," I hesitated. _Should I?_ I debated. _Yes, she's shown she'll listen._

"Before we start though, there's one thing I'm going to tell you that you can do, that you've already started doing, but that you need to get a hold of, and _only_ do in crisis situations, as it's one of the major things that gets you branded a villain." Turning to look at her, her eyes were wide with worry, and I pressed on. "You've been shunting your emotions into your insects Taylor, and you need to stop."

"I don't, well, not really," she hedged. "Why is that bad? It helps me keep in control. It's stopped me from- It's helped me not reveal I had powers!"

Feeling out her connection to the swarm I _focused_ on it in a way that I hadn't before, picking apart the details, the nuances of its ebb and flow. It was hard to see at first, but now that I was actively looking, the use of the technique was obvious. She was doing it even _now_ , probably having done it so much she didn't realize she was doing it anymore, though it explained how she was able to go _months_ without going out, even with her power constantly pushing her towards conflict. Inspecting it as I looked at her, she was forcing out her anger, her guilt, her nervousness, her _crippling depression_ , the emotional slurry thick as sludge and just as cloying now that I'd noticed it. Not wanting to think what might've happened to me if I'd opened _my_ emotions to the swarm when she'd been around instead of just pushing emotions across it to her, I considered my response deeply.

Sighing, moving so that I was kneeling in front of her, I put my hands on her shoulders for maximum effect. She _needed_ to understand before it destroyed her, so I looked her in the eyes, stating slowly "And if that's the _only_ time you did so, we wouldn't necessarily be having this conversation, but I've seen how things go Taylor. Things are going to get _bad_. The bombings? The bank job? Those are _easy_ to deal with compared to what's coming down the line. It'll settle down in July, but the next few months are going to be one _horrible_ situation after another. I'm working to ameliorate the problems as much as I can, but I'm _not_ going to be strong enough to stop them by the time they'll hit. Tattletale told you about Dinah Alcott?" She cast her gaze down, nodding sadly, eyes suddenly bright, the emotions of _hurt, guilt,_ and _self-hatred_ pouring into the swarm.

I kicked myself for not having recognized how bad things were, when I was easily able to read her feelings but she only could when I hit an _extreme_ level of emotion. "Taylor, _look at me_. That _wasn't your fault_. You didn't know what was going on. I'm partially to blame. I was so focused on making sure you and Panacea were okay I forgot about it, _which isn't your fault either_. Herb's more at fault, for knowing about it but not telling me because of some deterministic bullshit, but ultimately that was _Coil's_ doing. _He_ gave the order. _He_ is the one perpetuating the situation. _He_ is the one profiting from it. _He_ is the one I'll _kill_ for doing so. But think about how you _feel_ about that situation, and how easy it would be to dump _all_ those feelings into the swarm, leaving behind what _feels_ like calm determination, but it's not, it's emotional _numbness_."

Sighing, I addressed the elephant in the room, not braking eye contact. "You're doing it right now, though you probably only notice when you get rid of _everything_. At first you'll dump your emotions when things get really bad, when you get blindsided by complications, or in the middle of fights to help you plan, but as more and more of your life gets bad, without any end in sight, without anyone you feel you could trust, you'll do it more and more until you can barely feel them at all. It lets you do some pretty objectively brave things, but it's _not_ bravery, it's _sociopathy._ I know it's tempting, _I_ did it when I figured out the trick, but it's _wrong_. Our emotions, good _and_ bad, are what make us _human_. Getting rid of them, no matter the reason, makes you something _less_. _Master_ your emotions instead Taylor, control them, like you control the swarm, don't run from them because you're afraid. You're a _Hero_ , and that doesn't mean being fearless, it means doing what you think is right _despite_ the fear. Okay?"

She nodded, the flow from her into the swarm cutting off in fits and spurts as she lurched forward and hugging me around the neck, burying her face in my shoulder as she repeated "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, it just hurts so much," over and over again.


	42. Spoiler 5-3

**Spoiler 5.3**

I scooped up the crying girl from my kneeling position, her holding onto me like a limpet, arms locked tightly around my neck, and sat back down with her in my lap, patting her on the back and letting her get it out of her system. _Seriously, almost half the time I have a conversation with this girl I end up making her cry_. Thinking about it though, _maybe_ I should have advocated she pull back on it slowly, instead of her facing it full blast like this. I opened my mouth to say something, but thought better of it. _Going from dumping half of your emotions somewhere else to taking them on all at once, It's the emotional version of going cold turkey, so it'll help in the long run, but it's got to suck right now._

I waited for her to calm down a bit before continuing, "Dumping your emotions isn't necessarily _always_ bad, in combat scenarios or when dealing in high-pressure situations I'd advocate it if you can't control yourself, but it should be a _tool_ , training wheels to get used to those things and handling those situations on your own, not a crutch you rely on. For now, if you're in combat, or dealing with enemies directly, go for it, but when you're alone, or relaxing, or with me, I don't want you to. Okay?"

She nodded, not letting go. I sighed, trying to think of something that would help distract her. God knows that when _I_ was depressed all those people who left me alone to somehow pull myself out of it on my own did far more harm than good. "So, want to learn something else cool? Like the clones?" she nodded again. "So, you can also hear through the bugs, though I haven't figured that out yet, I'm pretty sure you could figure it out. What I have been working on, with limited success, is making the swarm _talk_." She stilled, and paying attention to her over the bug sense I could feel her confusion and interest. Making my clone walk over, which took a _lot_ of concentration, I implemented the technique I'd been working on, making my construct talk, but it came out "ella aylrrr, I ann rry allinng iss wwayy, ull I'm ass al ill!" I sighed. "Still working on hard consonants, I was going for 'Hello Taylor, I can try talking this way, but I'm bad at it!' It needs work, but you're better on improving stuff than I am."

She didn't move from her position, but her Swarm Clone walked over, and made a number of noises. I sat there until she herself quietly asked "Can you try some more words?" her voice hesitant and fearful.

"Of course," I responded warmly, trying various things, getting a laugh from her when I attempted to make it sing, badly. She figured out T's getting an insect to hiss in a manner which somewhat replicated the sound, which helped things a lot. We continued on in this manner, her attention focused on the task at hand until my alarm went off, causing her to jump. I dismissed my swarm back to where I'd gathered them, Taylor following suit. "We need to go, I have to go do a shift at the hospital." She shook her head. "People need me to keep them from dying, and Panacea needs me to keep her from overworking herself." She shook her head again, though not as strongly. "Taylor, Panacea needs my help, just like you do. If she told me not to help _you_ I'd do it anyways, though she hasn't. Now get back into costume and I'll see about her healing your eyes, okay?"

She got up, not saying anything, putting her helmet on and facing me. "If you want to get rid of some of your emotions when you meet Panacea, I'll understand. While she isn't your enemy, she isn't your friend either, and I understand that. Just don't do it all the time."

She took a deep breath, and I felt her once again dump some of her emotions into the swarm. "Thanks," she said, voice steady. "It, it hurts, and I didn't realize that I was doing so much of it. I don't _want_ to stop doing it, but I will." She looked up at me, voice skeptical. "Are you sure about Panacea? She _did_ try to hit me with a fire extinguisher."

I shrugged. "She was panicking, and I _might've_ just finished shaking the foundations of her worldview." I could practically feel her stare. "Yeah, I know, it's a bad habit of mine, but hey, I don't hold you trying to swarm Herb and I with bugs when we first met against you,-"

"Sorry," she interrupted.

"Don't worry," I waved off. "But by that token, you shouldn't really hold it against the healer for trying to non-lethally neutralize _you_ to get some answers. I'm not saying she'll apologize, but all that means is _you're_ more mature than _she_ is."

She nodded, happy with that, taking my hand as we took off, flying above the city. "The emotion thing, is that why you wanted me to show more?"

I shook my head. "No, I hadn't realized it was as bad as it was until I brought it up and really _looked_ , it was because once you can see, hear, talk, and generally interact with people through your bugs you'd naturally stop emoting entirely, which makes you seem inhuman. It happens because you start treating the swarm as an extension of your own body, but it meant that you displayed almost no emotion from your real body, though I suppose there was another reason for that happening. Add to that if your clones emote instead of just standing in place and talking, people will treat _them_ as more human, and yes, I know they're not, but people naturally personify things," I defended at her look. "If your clones emote people will like them, and thus you, more. So teaching you how to emote will help the entire not-a-villain thing."

We flew in silence for a minute, starting the descent when a flash of white, red, and gold caught my eye. Glory Girl, carrying Panacea, landed a dozen feet away, seconds after we did. "Hello Glory Girl, Panacea, how are you?"

Glory Girl flinched, a blip of Awe starting to seep out before it disappeared, Panacea staring at The Lady, Bug. "Been better," the girl in white and gold called back, stiffening a bit as I walked over to them, Taylor trailing behind me, dumping nervousness into the local insect population. "Um, Vej, isn't she a villain?" she asked, pointing at the girl behind me.

 _Vej?_ "Please, call me Vejovis," I responded. "And The Lady, Bug is a probationary member of my team. If you have any _proof_ that she was involved of any criminal activities I would be interested, but short of that please don't _slander_ my teammate." Glancing around at the people watching I dropped a sound bubble, miming a yawn. "Ask Panacea about her current mission, just for the love of god don't tell _anyone_ if you ever want to be included in anything that I plan in the future." Dropping the bubble I turned to Panacea, "Panacea, if I could ask a personal favor, my teammate was injured in one of the bomb blasts, and you are a better healer than I, if you could heal her, especially restore her eyes to correct working order, I would be most grateful."

She looked at me for a second before nodding, walking over to Taylor, and I dropped a sound bubble around them to keep anyone from hearing. "About that night," Glory Girl started, stopping at my raised hand.

"Don't worry about it, I don't need a _public_ apology, and as long as it doesn't happen again there shouldn't be an issue."

She looked at me, before glancing around at the crowd, phones out, and nodded. "It won't, thanks. Um, would you have time later? To talk?"

I thought about _everything_ that was going to happen, the Somer's Rock meeting in three days, and winced. "Can it wait until the entire bombing thing is over, or at least next week? My sources say things are going to start happening soon, and I need to get ready for it."

"What's going on? Can I come?" she asked as I tried to imagine the villain meeting with Glory Girl in attendance, and my mental model blue-screened.

"No." I responded, getting a pout in return. "That doesn't work on me Glory Girl, and if I told you, then it wouldn't exactly be secret, would it," I motioned to the cameras. "Come on, operational security is a thing."

Panacea and Lady Bug walked back, the healer drolly commenting, "Your teammates eyes are _healed_ , anything else you'd like me to do?"

I shook my head, "No, let's go save some lives. Lady Bug, I'll see you the same time in two days."

"Not tomorrow?" she asked, disappointed.

Tomorrow was the day _Curtis_ was going to reform, and I didn't want her _anywhere_ near that clusterfuck. "I'll be busy," I told her. "The twenty-second." She nodded, shoulders slumping a little as she turned to leave. "Remember to practice" I called, which caused her to perk up a little as Panacea and I headed inside, Glory Girl waving goodbye to her sister.

Inside Panacea shot me a look. "What?" I asked.

"Her system was a mess. What did you do?" she demanded.

"It wasn't me," I defended automatically, amending, "She's been using her powers to keep her from feeling unwanted emotions, I showed her why that was a bad idea, and the backlash from stopping doing so did a number on her. Thank you."

She looked away, "Don't worry about it." We were led to the beginning of the circuit, and fell into the rhythm of healing, our particular brand of wound repair particularly useful in healing the energy damage done by Oni Lee. Maybe it was just the repeating pattern of healing, but a couple of times I lost focus, only snapping back when Panacea poked me. "Are you okay?" she asked after the third time. "Have _you_ been sleeping enough?"

"I've been getting the rest I need," I reassured her, glad that I didn't need to sleep. She didn't look convinced, but let it go, and I forced myself to focus between healings to not drift off. After I dropped her off, I swung by Quinn's office, ready to make a _lot_ more money.

Striding inside, I was led past several conference rooms that sounded full of people, to a small chamber, a chair sitting next to one of those old-style psychologist beds, a desk at the back. Quinn popped in a minute later, giving me the procedure. "You'll stay here, with myself and an aide as a witnesses to prevent potential. . . _problems_ , and," he pointed at the corner of a room, indicating a security camera, "Everything will be recorded, only to be viewed in the case of an allegation of misconduct. My aide will send the clients in one at a time, whereupon I will provide you with a written description of the desired outcome, as well as a picture for reference. Please _only_ change them in accordance to what is written, as that is what they paid for, and after each _consultation_ , my aide will walk the client back, whereupon she will bring the next _client_. Of note, do _not_ call the clients patients, as with how the laws currently read, this is _not_ a medical procedure, and thus allows my firm to sidestep a large number of regulations, saving us time, and you money. Any questions?"

I took off one of my gloves, placing it on the desk and sitting down. "When do we start?"

He smiled, and poked his head out the door, calling for his aide to get started. A minute later two middle aged women walked in, a brunette in her late thirties and a red head in her early forties. Quinn passed me a folder, indicating that this woman wished an arm, body, _and_ breast lift. "Not easing me into this, are you?" I quipped.

He looked back, one eyebrow raised. "There is a reason we have _two_ witnesses."

Rolling my eyes, I instructed, "Please disrobe, you can leave shoes and jewelry on if you wish."

"What?" the pa- _client_ asked, suddenly unsure.

I started to talk, but Quinn cut me off. "Mr. Vejovis can heal, but for best results must be able to observe the effects. This is why he insists on working with Panacea while healing, as she can perform flawless diagnostics with a touch. For more external procedures, like the kind you have paid for, he does not require her assistance, which is how we were able to contract his services."

She nodded, hesitantly disrobing as I looked at the reference images, fixing them in my mind. "Your hand please," I requested.

"You don't need to touch. . .?" she inquired.

I shook my head, "Any skin to skin contact is enough." She placed her hand in mine and I got to work, looking at her anatomy and comparing it to the reference material, superimposing one over the other and making all the changes necessary. I required her to turn around, continuing, my work, and before two minutes had passed we were done, giving her a shot of the Get Better treatment to finish it off.

She looked at herself disbelievingly in the mirror as she redressed, commenting "I look ten years younger!"

Once again, Quinn beat me to the punch. "The changes are permanent, but please remember that you are not, actually, younger, and will still age." _Could I?_ I considered. After a certain point most aging was merely telomere degradation after all, so it _was_ possible.

She huffed. "I know that, but still, let a woman have her delusions," her wide grin belying any offense.

As the Aide led her out, Quinn asked me quietly, "Can you?"

Turning my head away from the camera and throwing up a bubble I responded. "Probably. Panacea would be the one to talk to, but I don't really see why not."

Quinn blew out a breath as I dismissed the silencing effect. "Something to think about later. _Much_ later. It is my _professional_ option that you do not mention the possibility to _anyone_. While your capabilities are generating interest, I'd rather not have my children taken hostage over the possibility of eternal youth."

"No such thing," I scoffed, "after all my power is only skin deep without help, and even then, it's _only_ healing."

He nodded in return. "Good, I'm glad that's settled." From there I handled a procession of people, men and women, for a large number of tweaks, changes, and low-level reshaping. A couple of times a client sprung an additional request on me, for Quinn to shoot them down, and only once did they take it badly, and older man who at first tried cajoling, then whining, and when he moved on to threatening to sue for not doing what he asked was security called and he escorted out of the building.

"I could've handled that," I pointed out after he was dragged out.

Quinn shook his head, "Then he could claim assault, and even with ample evidence, it would waste time and money dealing with his spurious accusations. Our security firm is trained to handle such situations, and has a working relationship with Law Enforcement that you, to be blunt, do not."

I nodded, accepting the point. Looking at my portion of today's work, I let out a low whistle. "So, we both did well for ourselves Mr. Calle."

He nodded. "Yes, I believe you're going to be bumping me up a tax bracket. Or three. Not that I'm complaining. When would work for you?"

"Is that still recording?" I asked, pointing at the camera. He turned to the desks' computer, shaking his head after a minute. "Word is the villains are going to start to move, with the ABB stirring up enough trouble to get the military involved if it keeps up. I'm planning on helping them out, spirit of cooperation and so on," I told him, dropping a sound bubble before I started, just to be sure. "Which will let me sound out any members that wish to no longer be employed in . . . extra-legal organizations. I'll be somewhat busy, but by May 4th, after nightfall, things should have calmed down, or at least have died down enough. I may need to reschedule, but it should be free."

Quinn stood up, offering to shake my hand, "Good to know. May 4th it is. See you then."

Shaking his hand, I dropped the bubble and retrieved my glove, heading out the door. It was almost eleven as I flew off, dropping down into an alley and sinking into the ground, changing my costume to Boardwalk before emerging down the street, almost coming up in a building but nudging myself over as I started to poke my head into a kitchen. "Fucking rats!" someone called, the sound coming out a thin window on the other side of the wall as I emerged. Slapping a Speed Zone on my arm and riding up to the roof, I started patrolling.

Hearing gunfire I darted off to it, and found myself watching a fight between a bunch of E88 and ABB, the second group attacking the first, the building the Neo-Nazis were defending on fire, but the Asians weren't able to make much progress. I called it in to the police, and was told they were aware of the confrontation. Ten minutes of sustained fire with no police lead me to believe that they weren't coming. With no police to try to protect I noted the location for a later date and left the two criminal groups to have fun killing each other. _I_ was trying to find somewhere I could take down with Herb and Purity.

* * *

A couple hours later, it was the dead of the night and I was deep in ABB territory, _finally_ with a possible target. The first two had been an apartment building where the group I was following all lived, and a group visiting their family who were holed up respectively, but _this_ one looked promising. The group I'd been tracking had entered the front door, followed by another squad a few minutes later. My tracking bugs had shown they'd gone inside and started moving about, doing _something_.

From the opposite building I started building a picture, much easier with the imaging trick I'd picked up from Taylor. It was a three-story apartment building, the bottom guarded, the people there not quite on alert, but more aware then guards not expecting action normally were. The third floor had been cleared out and possessed quite a few beds, and almost looked like an ad-hoc barracks, several gang-members asleep, though most of the beds were empty.

The middle floor though, was much more interesting. In addition to weapons, there were maps of the city set up, the gang territories outlined, along with thumbtacks holding up possible targets. Taking a minute to look them over, I saw the building the ABB had hit earlier as one of the points of interest. Noting the others, I looked around, seeing two of the group I'd been tracking talking to someone, making notes on another map, the other three reloading magazines.

 _Holy shit_ , I realized. _This must be an operations center_. There was even a guy with almost a dozen cell phones, calling people and getting information on things. _Damn, I wish I understood Japanese_ I lamented, not being able to make heads or tails of the garbled speech my insectile spies picked up. Unfortunately, it looked like Lung wasn't a _complete_ dumbass, as while the map detailed E88 and Merchant positions, along with Protectorate patrol routes, there was nothing on other ABB bases.

I was getting ready to move on, maybe find another base as a backup, when a windowless van pulled up into the alley next to the building, six people in full body armor and guns piling out and moving on the front doors. _They're going to steal my kill!_ Was my first reaction, stepping on a Speed Zone to launch myself across the street, landing softly on the rooftop. _Well, not my kill, but I was here first!_ I amended as I heard a flashbang go off below me, followed by gunfire. Dropping through the roof I landed as the sleeping gang-members woke, scrambling for weapons. I took the first one down with a punch to the temple, grabbing and dropping him on a Speed Zone to trip another gang member with a shotgun, riding the Zone to him to knock him out as he tried to aim at me from the ground before leaping over a bunk bead to hit a third, all while gunfire rang out below.

Clearing one half of the floor in a few more seconds, the walls between several apartments having been knocked down to form one long room, I approached the door, as they had left the central hallway intact. I emerged into that passage in full Shadow, a salvo of fire passing through me from the waiting ABB. Running down the hallway, the gang-bangers increasingly panicked fire doing jack-all, I was among them in an instant, shifting hands, feet, elbows, and knees to Light as I attacked them from within their formation, one idiot killing two of his fellows by trying to open fire that close. With them down I jumped down the stairs, a baseball bat passing through my Shadowed head as the girl hiding at the bottom of the stairs tried to take me down, only for me to yank it from her hands at thrust the butt into her nose, dropping her. The group around the set of stairs going to the first-floor opened fire as I dropped into Shadow, except for one foot that kicked the girl out of the way, taking a bullet and dissipating a shield.

Their distraction was their undoing as a grenade flew up among them, bouncing off a crouched gunman's head before detonating and shredding the guards, my own air control saving the phone station and the girl. Footsteps pounded up the stairs, the lead attacker turning the corner and opening fire, the bullets impacting the wall behind me. He stopped, looking down at his gun as I stood there, arms crossed. The person behind him tried as well, to no effect, and a third person, a woman, shot me in the head with a pistol. "If the first two couldn't hurt me, what makes you think _you_ could. Pattern recognition, ya fuckin' morons. Get some."

The second guy looked down and away, in the direction of the parked van. "Um, it's a dark dude in black. We shot him, but the bullets went straight through 'im," he reported back.

Noticing they all had ear-pieces, I grabbed the sound from one, bringing it to my ear and enhancing it, the voice distorted and tinny, "You sure it's a guy?"

I looked at the gunmen, all were in bulky body armor, the image of a clock set to midnight painted on the front, the letters F W over it and B T below. The guns they were armed with looked to be the same type that I'd seen in the ABB armory. The lead guy spoke, not taking his eyes off me, his gun lowered but ready. "Oh yeah, dark, but parts of him are glowing, all sorts of colors, and the glow moves."

"That's Boardwalk," The voice responded. "He's hit the Merchants, not sure if he's a hero."

I walked over to a chair, all of them training their guns on me, a woman from below calling, "Ya guys need help?"

The lead guy shouted back, "We're good Brenda."

"Don't mind me," I commented, shifting out of Shadow, but ready to drop back into it if I needed to. "I'm just takin' a seat while you sort this out. Also, if her name isn't Brenda, good on you, if it is, use fuckin' codenames, it's just common fuckin' sense."

They didn't really know how to handle that. "He's right," their handler commented. "We'll talk about it when we get back to base."

"Um, are you Boardwalk?" the second guy asked, not sure what to do with his gun, pointing it at me and then thinking better of it, only to think better of _that_ and point it back at me, starting the cycle all over again.

I shot him an unimpressed look. "Yep."

"Um," he asked, the leader letting him handle this. "You a hero?"

My look didn't abate. "Yep."

"Um," he repeated his favorite word. "Shouldn't you be, like, trying to take us down or something?"

"Are you villains?" I asked, wondering how deep he was willing to dig this particular hole.

"Um, we work for one!" he bragged.

"Dammnit Carl!" another person downstairs called.

I sighed, standing up. "I'm assuming you work for Æonic?"

"Yeah!" he boasted. "We're part of Bell Tolls!"

The leader corrected, with the air of someone who'd had to do this several times before, possibly today, "For Whom the Bell Tolls, we're part of For Whom the Bell Tolls Carl."

"Ah, it tolls for thee!" I responded, understanding the name.

"FUCKING _FINALLY!"_ Their handler shouted, causing the gang members before me to wince in unison, the speaker probably Æonic himself. "Someone finally fucking gets it!"

"Nice, very ominous, but a better fuckin' overarching message than most gangs when you consider it in the full fuckin' context." I added, appreciating the artistry but trying not to break character. "So, I took out the top level, you took the bottom, and we both got this one. Share the intel and split the loot fifty-fifty?"

"No way!" Carl objected. "There's like six of us and one of you!"

I laughed, "Or what, you'll shoot me? Ya already tried that dumbass. I took out the reinforcements, and distracted the guys who had you pinned. It's fair."

"We could,-" he started, stopping as Æonic interrupted him saying "Shut up Carl, do it."

Smug with my win, I was surprised as all three gang members went white, the lead yelling "OH SHIT!" Turning I saw, standing just inside of the window, the dark body suit, demon mask, and washed out grey and red flames of power of the Asian Bad Boyz assassin, Oni Lee, finger hooked on the pin of a grenade.


	43. Spoiler 5-4

**Spoiler 5.4**

"IT'S ONI L-" the leader of Æonic's strike team shouted, both myself and Oni Lee staggering as I saw a flash of Sand and Bright Blue Flame, the sounds and light changing as if someone flipped the channel on a television, the dark calm suddenly riotous with sirens and the flashing red and blue of reflected police lights. Time seemed to _crawl_ as we both _moved_. I grabbed a fistful of Light, sending a concussive blast towards him while dodging the streak of flame he hurled my way, Oni Lee pulling the pin right before my blast tore into him, blood arcing from him as he impacted the window, grenade exploding and sending shrapnel in every direction, my air control deflecting any from hitting me. The blood turned to ash, as I heard a pin drop from behind me.

Pushing Glory Girl's flight as I leapt forward, turning, another Oni Lee was behind me, one grenade primed on his bandolier of six, each one different. I'd only started to gather another shot when it detonated in an eruption of high explosives, sending me flying through the wall, my shields draining as I flew, impacting back first on the building across the street with a gasp, cop cars all over the road below me. A streak of fire heralded Oni Lee's appearance right in front of me, another streak as what I realized was the _real_ him left, the clone pulling the pin on a grenade he'd ripped from his bandolier, this canister white with a blue snowflake on it.

Hitting the clone with the Light I'd gathered, he flew back into the building, dusting, but the fucker dropped the grenade right before I hit him, the cylinder twisting in the air as I panicked, kickstarting Purity's flight as I started to rise. It wasn't fast enough as the Tinkertech went off, the temperature dropping so fast it hit absolute zero and _bounced_ , the solidified gasses closing in on me as I rocketed upwards, _insanely_ glad I'd taken temperature Immunity.

Lifting above the street he appeared again, uzi pointed at my head, teleporting away as I hit the gun, sending it firing off to the side, my other hand striking him in the throat, the clone clutching its crushed trachea as it dusted. _Fire, Acid, Lightning, Cold_ I thought, remembering the countless people he'd maimed with his bombs. _Along with High Explosive and Frag, that's his loadout, and only electricity can_ _ **really**_ _hurt me_. I was _so_ glad we'd killed Bakuda before she could give him _time_ grenades.

Grabbing Light with one hand, I felt the displaced air as he appeared behind me. Turning and blasting him back he let go of another grenade, red with a fire symbol, but I was ready. My other hand slapped the orphaned ordinance to the side, which erupted into a firestorm a second later. I could feel the heat, but it wasn't in the _you need powers to survive this_ zone, and this time I'd _followed_ the fucker's teleportation. Seeing him looking up at me from a nearby rooftop, I Saw the fire of his power streak towards me, turning to follow it as it flew past, blasting the clone with the lightning grenade as I pulled out of its range, but he'd already gone. _Why each one in turn?_ I thought, eyes following him down to a rooftop, charging both hands with Light.

He appeared, this time over me, with the acid grenade, dark green with a lime yellow water drop. I almost blasted that one, until I realized what he was doing. _They're highly visible on_ _ **purpose**_ _. Bakuda uses them to inspire fear, but Oni Lee? Fucker's_ _ **testing**_ _me, seeing what I try to dodge._ Out of all four of his special grenades, the acid did the _most_ damage, raining down on everything below him. I was currently over a rooftop, so I tanked it, grabbing onto it so he couldn't let go, the caustic cloud covering us both, melting the clone's costume and flesh before it turned to wet dust, the acid that rained down on the rooftop only eating away cement before dissipating in ash.

Following the path of his power to a water tower, I spotted him hanging onto its supports before teleporting right in front of me, knife out. His power left immediately as the clone swung at me in midair, and as I dodged it, kicking the copy to the side and letting it fall to its death, I threw Light at his new position on the ledge of a building. The double helix trailing blast of incandescence slammed into his position, detonating with a flash, a streak of power flitting out as it exploded. My second blast hit his new position almost as soon as he appeared, his power streaking out simultaneous to the explosion. My third, fourth, fifth, and sixths strikes followed suit, his teleportations ever faster, but my ability to grasp and deploy my attacks picking up as well.

With a trail of crisscrossing power he darted across the rooftops, clone after clone appearing and being blown to ash as he streaked towards me. Oni Lee appeared facing me, but I was ready with a blast. I'd hit the bastard at _least_ once, his bodysuit torn and one of the horns of his mask broken off. My Light hit him as his power streaked by me, blood blasting out from the impact, and I felt a series of hammering blows to the back of my head the instant I blasted the clone before me. Turning I saw another of him, Uzi leveled at the back of my head, smoking. I blasted him, but _he_ was long gone, the clone's blood turning to ash. _How?_ I questioned as his power bounced back and forth like a demented pinball across the rooftops.

I opened up my air and bug control to try to get some feedback as I tracked him, but he was moving too fast to tag with anything less than a full swarm. _He didn't have time to turn around to hit me that fast, so-_ but my thoughts were cut off as three of him coalesced almost simultaneously, all facing me, the displaced air from the one behind me the only warning of the third. All three swung at me with knives, targeting my neck, my back, and my stomach.

If we were land based I'd have been hard pressed to dodge all three, but with three dimensions to move in I twisted in mid-air, body parallel to the ground, dodging two while striking the third, flying even higher as a fourth appeared below me to swing at my stomach. _I need to get away_ , _I need to fight him on_ _ **my**_ _terms_. Purity's blasts, while _powerful_ , were nowhere near _fast_ enough to hit the assassin.

I pushed Purity's flight to work how I wanted, but it refused to do more than send me hurtling along, almost out of control. Cursing my lack of practice with it, another Oni Lee appearing in my path, explosive grenade pulled. Spinning myself in the air I blasted my flight downwards, having to change direction again as his power streaked by, another Oni Lee in my way, frag grenade this time, pulling the pin as he turned his head to look at me. Every time I tried to pull away, he was _there_. I pushed downwards, dropping into full Shadow, my momentum slowing as it ways did when I went fully incorporeal, and he was there, _electrical_ grenade in hand. I was barely able to shift back to Light to get away as it exploded, muscles spasming as one foot was caught at the edge. Trying to escape into a building just had him appear where I was headed, setting off a grenade and killing anyone inside. I tried shifting to full Shadow again, but _every_ time I did he pulled that fucking _electrical_ grenade. _He knows_ I realized, a sinking feeling in my gut. _He knows Shadow Stalker_ _can't ignore lightning, and that form slows me down too much_ _to escape if I'm flying!_

Trying to get away, I pushed full bore towards the ground, hoping to turn to Shadow _right_ before I hit. My chosen spot was thick with cops, guns at the ready, and I hoped _one_ of those dumb shits could pull their heads out of their asses and quit gawking long enough to shoot him _before_ he pulled the damn grenade. He appeared within their ranks, both hands pulling the pins on all _four_ of his special canisters, the police too busy looking surprised by his arrival to do anything. I pulled up, pushing both my modes of flight to get away from the blast, the screaming behind me telling me what happened. The blast wave hit me, sending me spinning as I could feel myself on the edge of panic. He appeared again, and I blasted him away, dodging his knife as the air filled with bullets from the police below. I _had_ to get away, I _couldn't_ win this fight. Worst of all, my power was at the back of my head, whispering, _pushing_ me to just _take_ his power for my own. Show this emotionless killer how to _really_ use his power to its fullest potential, and it was _really_ _fucking_ _ **distracting**_.

I flew up above the buildings, and _six_ of them appeared in a ring, each one pulling a different pin. Another ring appeared above and below me, all doing the same thing. I panicked in that column of suicide bombers, mind working frantically. No matter _which_ way I flew wouldn't be fast enough to get out, and I could only push four, six _max_ away before they exploded, killing me. In that panic, that reaching for _any_ solution. My brain obliged, something that had been bugging me about my flight clicked into place. Glory Glory's flight was Aristotelian in nature, an 'I want to go this way, so I do, and that's it' method of flight. Completely intuitive, and not how flight actually worked _at all_. Purity's however, was _Newtonian_ , 'for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction', was the name of the game, momentum was a thing, and I had to push something away from me to move. I'd been trying to fly a rocket like a broomstick, no _wonder_ I was having problems. More importantly though, that meant when I flew, I was _pushing something away_ , and the only reason I was only using my feet to fly is because I was being a _fuckin' moron_.

Snapping my hands out, I grasped the Light, pushing it out like I did with my feet, but moreso, a torrent instead of the thin stream I subconsciously used. It was almost akin to the beam I'd used to write my name in that Merchant safehouse, but a firehose instead of a faucet. Blasting similarly from my feet, I spun, spiraling out light in _every_ direction, ascending on a _column_ of Light high in the air. I could feel my reserves draining, but it brought me up, even as he grew the column again, and again, over a dozen of him popping into existence directly above me to stop my _rise_ , all primed to blow as I brought my hands up, the spirals of light blasting into them, cutting _through_ them, his power barely escaping down and out as they detonated into a firestorm I _pierced_ , twitching but whole. _I could do this, I could_ _ **win**_ I thought as I heard the screams hundreds of feet below, as he detonated more grenades, killing the police far underneath me.

I was tempted to just _leave_. I _beat_ Oni Lee, he moved onto easier prey, and I _knew_ I could kill him if I tried hard enough. I could take the win, leave and get home safe, eliminating him later on when I was better prepared. The persona I wore pushed for that, _hard._ Boardwalk _hated_ fuckin' cops, taking the power, the pay, the prestige and doing _nothing_ while criminals ran rampant, officers happy to harass people for shit they said online while _rape gangs_ acted with impunity. The fact that cops targeted vigilantes, who they _knew_ wouldn't shoot to kill them because of _their_ morals, while ignoring the criminals the vigilantes targeted out of the pigs' cowardly fear, breaking their _oaths_ without punishment _enraged_ him.

 _But_ , as I told Taylor, while Boardwalk was a _facet_ of me, he _wasn't me,_ and while some of the cops dying below were _assuredly_ crooked, and others were _just_ as bad, looking the other way because it was _easier_ , there were those that were still trying to do the _right thing_ , even if they knew they'd get passed over for accolades and promotions, because it was the _right_ _thing to do_ , and _they_ were the ones I'd risk my own life to protect. Hanging there, I knew what I was going to do even if I didn't like it. "Fuuuck," I sighed, a resigned calm settling on me as I cut my flight, toppling backwards to start falling back towards the small _war_ being waged below me.

Pulling once more on the Light I blasted downwards, distantly noting the presence of something small floating in the air as I passed it, but I focused on the task at hand. I saw him popping back and forth, almost exclusively using acid grenades, _the monster,_ raining caustic death and disfiguration on the police as most ran, but some stayed and fought. _Those_ were the ones he targeted, the ones with a spine that fought so their brothers in arms could escape, the ones I _needed_ to save.

Remembering my own pistol, I pulled it out, layering the barrel in Speed Zone after Speed Zone. I only had six bullets, never reloading it after my demonstration that mourning, and I had to make them count. He appeared in front of a young woman, probably just out of the academy, and she _immediately_ shot him in the head. She missed the second clone right behind her, Uzi leveled at her head. I _didn't_ , and my gun bucked, almost at the edge of my strength to hold, the bullet hitting the clone hard enough to throw it backwards like I'd punched it at full strength, it's chest dissolving into blood then ash. "Run!" I yelled to her, enhancing the sound, "I'll fight him! Get to safety! Break sight lines!"

She staggered, having turned in time to see me pulp the clone, then looked up at me, nodding as she bolted, running for the cover of a nearby alley. Following the chain of clones, I saw three in a row all about to toss acid grenades down into a street full of cops. I shot the grenade of the middle one, the device exploding prematurely as it tore his hand off, the burst of gas fouling the throws of the other two. Another appeared on a car in front of four officers, one older officer who'd lost his helmet being almost carried by another two as the last checked for clones in the wrong direction. My bullet almost caught the fucker as he started to pull the pin on the acid, but his power streaked out as it hit, a cloud of acid spewing towards the officers. A gust of wind was sent to push the cloud away from them as I turned to follow the trail of power, blasting with Light, almost catching him, only for that clone to crumble in the blast and I realized I'd lost track of him. Three appeared around me, all reaching for acid. I shot one of his cold grenades as I rocketed upwards, freezing all three as I rode the cold front, the cops below me dodging the sudden ice storm instead of _acid rain_.

As he appeared in front of me, pulling _yet another_ acid, police below in range to get rained on, my remaining calm shattering as I _fucking snapped_. "That doesn't work on me you _fucking moron!_ " I thundered, ripping it from his hand with one hand while I pistol whipped his mask, shattering it, shoving the stupid _fucking_ thing down his stupid _fucking_ throat, breaking his teeth in the process as it exploded around my hand, his body melting before turning into ash, sparing the cops below me.

Spotting him appear I snapped a shot as he stopped and turned, but his power moved _right_ as his head snapped back, brains turning into ash in the air. His power rippling through the air above him, leaving half a dozen clones that turned their Uzis on me, hosing me down with bullets. Reading the patterns in the air I zig-zagged through the onslaught, using air control to force a path as I followed the real him across the street, starting to keep up to him as he moved, pushing my flight faster and tighter with every second, and even though I was dropping below half on my reservoir of Light, he _needed_ to die.

Chasing him across the streets, his clones started pulling grenades and tossing them at me as fast as they could. _Good._ _Fucker's scared._ Weaving around the haphazard throws, I got a line on him, and shot at him with Light, almost hitting him, but that was _never_ my plan. Rocketing past the streak of his power as he dodged, I cut my connection to the Light, falling as he turned to try to find me now that I wasn't glowing like a small _sun_. Before he could spot me I fired my last _fucking_ bullet into that _fucking acid grenade_.

I pulled on the Light, taking flight and avoiding a rooftop as the grenade exploded, but it did so a half-second _before_ he teleported, the clones he left behind easily trackable as a series of acidic clouds. Stopping a couple dozen clones later he turned, harness partially eaten, the green grenade nothing but the top assembly hanging uselessly. His power shot forward and there were eight of them, all with knives swinging towards me, but I blasted forward, stowing my gun as I shoulder checked one of my attackers, ripping the clone's Uzis from its belt, shooting the others as they reached for _their_ guns, and hitting a few more copies before the weapon came apart in my hands.

 _I've got this!_ I crowed, buzzing another and stealing _his_ gun to kill three more, Oni Lee now moving away from me with every teleportation. "Run ya fuckin Robot!" I taunted as I chased him across the streets. The cops had taken cover and he was denied his soft targets, it was just him and me and he'd seen how that ended up for the _last_ hundred attempts. Ducking into a building I followed him, plowing through a window with a fistful of Light, blasting him as he made another clone and escaped, but not for long. I couldn't do this forever, but I didn't _need_ to do this forever, I only needed to hit him **_once_**.

Crashing through another building, following through several apartments, laughing like a madman, I was almost on him, my blast about to hit him and _end this,_ when a blue beam lanced out, knocking into him and _out_ of the path of _my_ shot, the blast detonating on a far building. Before I could track the shot my flight suddenly plowed me face-first into the ground, shifting myself to Shadow at the last second. Pulling back out and flying high, I spotted Oni Lee teleporting towards a figure in steel armor, while a smaller blonde girl in white and green made motions with her hands. _No!_ I thought. **_I fucking HAD HIM_** _!_ But as I saw him teleport next to the two, hand reflexively pulling at his ruined acid grenade to no effect, dissolving to ash as he realized what happened and reaching too late for his electrical grenade, my priorities shifted.

I could get him, I could _kill_ Oni Lee, but the assassin was _not_ playing around right now. If I didn't get there ASAP, those kids were going to _die_ , and out of all of them, Dean and Missy were the two I _didn't_ want hurt. Seeing the Ward's powers flaring, I arced towards them, but suddenly my path was disrupted, throwing me further up in the air. _What the fuck?_ I thought as my tendril of red and purple incandescence lashed out at Vista's green and yellow twisting spires of flame, ripping off a portion for myself. I saw what was happening as I felt a new power come online. The girl below me was panicking and laying down twisted space all around their position on the rooftop. Against _any_ other foe it might be an effective tactic, but against a sight-based teleporter, all it did was _trap them_ as they cut off any avenue for help _or_ escape.

With her power shooting through me I read the space like a map, plunging into it and riding the streams ever closer as I saw Oni Lee pause, glancing at me before turning his attention back on the children before him as he slowly unsheathed his long knife. Blasting hard, I twisted around, through, and _down_ , Gallant's blasts towards me pulled off course as I blitzed the pair of teens, reaching them _right_ as two Oni Lees with knives out, each pulling the pins on HE grenades, appeared ready to kill the distracted Wards. I plowed into the clones, breaking my momentum on their faces as their necks snapped, unleashing my gathered Light to blast them backwards. They hit Vista's power as they detonated, the flames of their ordinance highlighting the shaped space.

I dropped my flight to use my training in ground combat, as the situation was quickly devolving into one where I needed to fight more on instinct then planning. Gallant turned to blast me in the face, but I saw Oni Lee's power streaking in and grabbed the teen's arm, twisting it roughly to hit the newly forming clone, the ninja streaking out untouched, Oni Lee not spending any more time in close quarters than he had to, which I'd realized was a _hundredth of a fucking second_. Gallant's power knocked the copy backwards as it exploded into fire and I tagged the two Wards with bugs.

I tracked Vista as she moved to strike me, twisting out of the way as Oni Lee streaked back in, creating a clone with Uzi drawn. Pushing Vista into Gallant as _he_ tried to take a swing, unbalancing the older hero, I grabbed the Uzi's magazine, jerking it in an arc towards myself as the copy pulled the trigger, blowing away the Oni Lee in quickly ashing brains, bone, and blood. Another Oni Lee formed behind Gallant, Uzi at the ready, and I used a blast of Light to flip myself directly over the armored hero, bracing my hands against his shoulders as I swung out a flying heel drop hard enough to snap the clones neck. Pushing off him and blocking a haymaker from Gallant as I landed, I had _enough_.

"I'm on your side dumbass!" I yelled, seeing his power flare as he tried to fire another blast, while I tracked Oni Lee. Kicking Vista out of the way of a clone with a knife, I yanked on Gallant's arm to shoot the clone as it pulled a pin. _I need more reach_ I thought, trying to maneuver around the two heroes.

"You were killing people!" Vista yelled back as the blasted clone erupted into lightning, and I realized she was _utterly useless_ in this fight. If the girl had a fucking _knife_ she could do _something_ , but right now she was just a _target_.

"That was Oni Lee Missy!" I shouted back, grabbing the back of her costume and using her as a counter weight as I twisted, kicking another clone away, glancing as it flew upwards and exploded. I was surprised to notice we were only a few blocks away from the Medhall building. _How far did he run?_

"What!?" she cried out as I spun her the other way, putting myself in-between her and Oni Lee as _twelve_ of the assholes opened up with Uzis. The bullets pinged off Gallants armors and quickly overwhelmed my bodily shields, hurting like a _bitch_ as I fired a Light blast over my shoulder into the gathered gunmen, disrupting the firing line.

"He was never this bad before!" Gallant called, as I tossed Vista at him, he caught her as I shoved a glowing hand right next to his head, blasting another Oni Lee behind him. Two more appeared and I got one, but the other exploded as I punched him, fragments blasting outwards. Sound control countered some of the overpressure, but fragments stilled drilled into me as I rocked back, hurting something _fierce_.

"He was never _losing_ before!" I growled, _needing_ more reach as the clones started appearing further apart. I'd wanted to save it for Vejovis, but I needed it _NOW._ Moving on autopilot, I retrieved my TinkerTech flashlight, flicking the switch as I manifested my sword at the same time three copies appeared in a triangle in front of me, the front one pulling a knife while the back two pulled pins. I swung the sword with a roar, the flaming weapon impacting fully into the lead clone with a cannon blast of sound, reducing him to a bloody pulp in an instant, the force of what was left of him blasting the other two back as Vista swore.

Following the power, I didn't bother waiting, decapitating a clone as it formed, the next three clones sporting identical bloody slices on the sides of their necks. _Yes!_ I tried keeping my sword _in_ his power as it flowed past me, but it stuttered, dropping him behind the point of my sword before it moved on, the clone looking surprised as it darted forward, impaling itself, but that was a bust. The same thing that kept Oni Lee from telefragging others meant I couldn't do the same to _him_.

The flames started dancing along my sword as the shield recharged, and I knew we _needed_ to leave as I cut down three more clones, all trying to dodge the blade with increasing success. Infinite mobile attacker versus perishable static defense? We _lost_ unless I could surprise him again. He'd wear us down as I spent myself protecting these two _fuckin' children_ , but there was no way in **_fuck_** was I going to leave them to die. I was down to maybe fifteen percent Lightform reserves, but that would be _more_ than enough to get us to safety. "Gallant," I barked. "Call the Rig, have them drop the shields, we're getting the _fuck_ out of there. Missy, make a corridor from here to there, we need to outpace his line of sight teleportation, which means we need to move _stupid_ fast."

Gallant yelled into his comms to do just that as two dozen Oni Lee's appeared around us in a wide circle. I couldn't spiral with the two of them here, so I moved as fast as I could, cutting one down and using it's Uzi to mow down several more. Gallant blasted two, and Missy even shoved one into warped space, sending him falling over the edge of the rooftop as it sliced her arm with its knife, but the last one got its grenade off.

Gallant shoved Missy forward as the clone exploded behind him, shielding her from the blast as gouts of electricity poured out, grounding themselves through the _Hero_ as he screamed. The lights in his armor shorted out as he fell, and she rushed to him as more clones appeared to do it all again. The last of my shits now _fully_ spent, I jumped over Gallant and Vista, spinning as I let the Light pour off in cords from my hands, elbow, knees, feet, spiraling in _every_ direction but below me, ripping into the clones and destroying the roof around us, as well as the buildings nearby.

"Can't move," Gallant bit out as the building shuttered and started to come apart below us, "Too heavy." That _tore_ it, we were evaccing _now_.

"Missy, hold onto Gallant," I ordered, picking him up as I stowed my sword. She held onto him and I wrapped him, and by extension her, in my shield, blasting off in a pillar of light, manifesting invisible air blades in the glare, the rooftop becoming a _kill zone_ as I cut the remaining clones to _pieces_ , Tinkertech detonating as containment was breached. As I rocketed upwards, Oni Lees appeared one after another, but I must've done _something_ right, as every single one was distanced by me as soon as they appeared, unable to do more than stare as his power struggled to keep up. We flew high above the city, the base of the Protectorate an apple sized sphere far below us as Oni Lee streaked towards us, the oversaturation dropping as the shields fell. Space Warping less effective with more people? This should be _perfect._ "Missy! _Tunnel to the Rig!_ **_NOW_**!"

The space in front of me twisted, as I changed my grip, hands reaching around to hold Missy tight as we sandwiched the injured Dean between us. I reached into my connection to the Light, using the same thrust I'd used from my hands and feet and pushed that connection across my shoulder blades, down my legs, and covering the planes of my back, the pressure inside building to _unbearable_ levels as I forced open the connection. Oni Lees appeared all around us, pulling every pin they had, all ready to blow. The world shuddered as I let go of the pressure and _Light_ crashed out from behind me in a tide as the world around me seemed to darken, vision warping as we crossed the city in seconds, a roaring in my ears as I followed the tunnel of space right down to the front of the Rig, turning and burning Light in the other direction to slow us down as we landed in an entrance bay, all three of us sliding across the floor as I let them go, Vista on top of Gallant skidding further in as I turned, hands Lighting as I lay there, ready in case Oni Lee followed.

Looking back the night had turned to _day_ , a small sun over the city, a path of slowly fading radiance leading down from it to our current location, the floor I'd slid across scored and twisted. Medical Personnel and PRT troopers poured in as the door out slammed shut, the heavy steel stopping Oni Lee from _ever_ trying to blast his way in. I relaxed, and it was only then that I noticed that Vista was bleeding heavily, from her left leg and arm, chest, and head, and Dean's armor was streaked with blood as well, slowly dripping out of the joints.

As I thought that I should go help, the troopers formed a line separating us, pointing a line of foam sprayers at me as medics rushed over with stretchers, having to pry Vista off of Gallant to load them up and carry them away. I stared at the door they'd been carried out of as I was nearly overwhelmed by my emotions. Seeing the two of them limp and injured hammered in how _narrowly_ they'd escaped death. Gallant at least had been fully armored, but Missy had, what? A visor, a partial breastplate, along with shitty greaves and vambraces? From what little I'd seen, she obviously didn't know how to use her armor to enhance her blows or deflect weapons.

I felt concerned, disgusted, and outraged, though it was all muted by an oppressive feeling of _fatigue._ They'd put a _fucking thirteen-year-old kid_ out on patrol with almost _no_ training while a gang war was raging, the _monsters_. I'd bet that pseudo-dress she wore wasn't even fucking _Kevlar._

I was broken from my thoughts when Miss Militia came striding out, ever present gun at the ready. My power sight kicked in. It was a Projection, limited to Weaponry the User Could Carry and with a block on Tinkertech. Big surprise. Before I could think to restrain it, my own power copied it, the physical manifestation requirement satisfied as it flowed from an assault rifle to a small taser pistol in her hand. Part of me had to laugh at the stupidity of such a move. Straight electricity would mess me up if I went Shadow, but the prongs of her weapon would find no purchase on my armor until then. "Boardwalk," She called stiffly. "You are under arrest and will submit to questioning for your attack on Law Enforcement officers, and your part in the injuring of the Wards Gallant and Vista."

I blinked, sure I'd heard wrong, taking care to frame my response as Boardwalk, having lapsed back to Lee as I sat there and saw the two members of the Wards I cared the most about hurt. Reverting to my base as I'd sat there, _tired_ and **_numb_**. _This_ , though, sparked both of me back to life, though I wasn't exactly sure that was a _good thing_.

"I'm fuckin' sorry, I must have hearing damage or something, because I _know_ you didn't just say you're fuckin' arresting me for killing cops, when I just risked my goddamned life _saving the assholes."_ I tried to rise unsteadily to my feet, stumbling and falling as they stood there, _watching_. My second attempt was marginally better, wincing at the pain in my ribs. I'd never cracked one before I got here, but if I had, it'd probably feel like that. My legs were shot through with pain as well. Fuck, now that the battle high had faded, _everything_ was sore, except maybe my head, but _that_ was throbbing for an entirely _different_ reason, as her expression didn't change and the PRT goons tightened their grips on their sprayers. My last hope that I _had_ actually just misheard them disappeared like one of the dozen Oni Lees I'd just _killed_. And yeah, I killed them. Over and over, and _over_ again, until it was almost _boring._ Even if they were going to come apart seconds later, I _knew_ how his power worked, so if I wasn't a killer before, I sure as hell was _now._

I looked at the _cowards_ in front of me, willing to abuse their position and use violence against those who wanted nothing more than fuckin' help. To fuck over potential allies all because a paranoid _idiot_ commanded them to. My dislike of authority, the _cornerstone_ of Boardwalk's construction, deepened as I saw everything I _hated_ in front of me, and I felt myself sinking _deeper_ into the persona. If they'd asked me to come with them to help patch me up, they could've tried to hold me while putting on a good face, and this might've gone differently, but straight to imprisonment? Fuckin' _amateur hour_ up in this bitch.

 _Yep, this is how they're playin' it,_ I told myself, even my own internal voice reverberating with Boardwalk's growl now. _This shit never would've happened in New York. Legend would've handled this shit like an_ _ **actual**_ _hero._ "You _can't_ be sayin' that, because otherwise you'd be fuckin' blamin' _me_ for the fuckin' cops stupidity in surrounding a building where fuckin' _Oni Lee_ , armed with fuckin' _Tinkertech Ordinance,_ was stuck in fuckin' _time_ with no other plan then 'shoot him a lot', which, yeah, was fuckin' _my_ plan too, but I'm _livin' goddamned artillery_ and can take a bomb or _thirty-seven_ and only someone who was _completely fuckin'_ _retarded_ would reward the guy who _risked his goddamn fuckin' neck_ saving your _fuckin'_ _child soldiers_ when they got in over their _fuckin' heads_ with **_this shit_**!"

She flinched at that last comment. _Good_. It wasn't mine clearing, but playing storybook hero against real killers had 'bout the same fuckin' survival chances. It was only because Oni Lee was bound to Lung that things hadn't gone to fuckin' shit before, and he seemed to have slipped _that_ fuckin' leash tonight. A part of me wanted to yell at them, scream at them how they weren't even doing their fucked-up job right. Sending kids out to fight actual criminals, especially without an adult to back them was fuckin' _stupid_. To do so in a borderline conflict zone was past _negligent_ and right in the middle of _what the fuck is wrong with you_ lake, at a depth of _were you dropped on your head as a child?_ But that kind of rhetoric was Lee, maybe with a dash of Boardwalk. I'd settled into _Full_ Boardwalk, who took to heart a few lessons I'd been presented with while getting the shit kicked out of me by life even if _Lee_ didn't like it. Apologize for _nothing_ that wasn't your fault, _take_ what was owed you, and let them _dig_ their own graves.

"Your claims will be reviewed while you are in custody," Miss Militia replied, who looked like she _wanted_ to believe what she was sayin', but knew it was _bullshit_. She was getting orders from someone up the chain, probably Piggy, but I didn't give a shit by this point. I looked at the door to the outside, and the fuckin' submissive militia warned me "That door is electrified, they all are. If you try to phase through it, you won't like what happens."

I laughed, loud, long and _harsh_. "So _this_ is the Protectorate, sock puppets of the PRT. Must be why you wear the bandanna, so no one can see Piggot tickling your tonsils. I get blindsided by _two_ fuckin' supervillains, do my best to save _cops_ , save _your_ junior squaddies, but as soon as you _think_ you've got me in a fuckin' corner, out come the _threats_ , what _heroes_ you are, I hope you're _proud._ At least some of the villains got some fuckin' honor. Like Marquis. Too bad he got his ass Caged, but fuck it, who knows how long _that_ shit'll last." I wanted to say a _number_ of other things, but those were more Vejovis than Boardwalk, though that _did_ give me an idea. "Vejovis was fuckin' _wrong_ , you're _worse_ than the fuckin' pigs. I was a fuckin' _dumbass_ for _ever_ thinkin' I could join _you_." I laughed again, disappointed that even without Armsmaster present to fuck things up, they were _just_ as bad as I'd feared, the pain of my emotions making my voice raw, as the pain in my body making me cough uncontrollably.

Recovering I glared at the assembled forces facin' me. "Not only that, you aren't paying any goddamned _attention_. I'm not a knife in the dark, like Sophia. That little bitch would've peed herself and ran for cover, leavin' everyone else to die, spinnin' a line about those that die bein' 'weak prey' while ignoring her own cowardly ass because she's so used to hiding in the dark she's allergic to the Light of _Truth_. Me, I'm not a fuckin' blade in the dark, I'm a goddamned shadowed _Sun_ , and while you can hide and shade yourself from it, you can't cage the Light, you submissive _cunt_." I pulled Light from my reservoir, the pain of my injuries fading. I barely had any left, but I had _enough_. The sheepdog fired her taser, and if I was insubstantial enough for the wires to fly through me it _might've_ worked, but she'd shown her hand as a threat, and lost the surprise needed for it to work. I turned my back on the Protectorate, in _every_ sense of the word.

I could feel the sprayers activate, the containment foam reaching out to encircle, trap, and _contain_ me, but I let the Light shimmer across my back, pushing the tide backwards, and on itself. A sprayer above me tried the same thing, but another glimmer of Light from my head shoved that back, covering the nozzle in its own mess. Reaching deeper into the Light I gathered it to me, unstable and dangerous, but bending to my will. I'd shaped it once into a breaching charge, this wasn't much difference, except scale. I needed to breach barrier in front of me, a full three feet or so thick from the markings on the wall when they'd closed it. I paused, the blast needed to break through that would kill _everyone_ in here, which meant I didn't need a _blast_ I needed something _else_.

 _Fuck it_ , I thought. I managed to get myself trapped in this goddamned mess trying to help those kids, and they were safely gone. If everyone here but me died. It would suck, but I'd make it work. With that in mind, and wondering if this was the last actions of Boardwalk before I was forced to retire the identity, I busted _everything_ out. The light would blast, but I needed something more, something _better_. I need to cut, to dig, to focus my efforts for _maximum_ effect. I was aware of people moving behind me, but I didn't care, the mass of Light in front of me blinding to anyone not _of_ the Light. Using air control, I manifested a blade, then twisted it, broadening it, solidifying it with the crystallized shield from my head. I looked at the shape in front of me, pulsing with power, and started to spin it, slowly at first, then faster and faster, wisps of errant light spiraling off it and bathing the area in radiance.

"You think you can cage me, with your _threats_ , your _corruption_ , your _traps_? Fuck _all_ ya'll!" I yelled, enhancing the sound of my own voice to let _everyone_ hear what I had to say, charging forward, my footsteps shimmering with Light as they ate away at the floor. I rammed my construct into the door with a scream of tortured metal, and It started to dig, but barely. I let loose the Light, the explosive substance pushed out the tip, hitting the door and blasting a hole which the shaped blade widened, over and over again. The wisps of exotic matter not consumed channeled _down_ the ridged drill, further eating away at the obstacle before me. "My light cannot be contained, for it is the _sun_ , and my sun will burn through _anything that seeks to hold it, you motherfuckers pretending to be_ _ **heroes**_ _."_

The door continued to give, and I felt impacts against my back. Not sure if they were shooting me with beanbags, or straight up bullets. The radiance from my back lessened any blow I took. I was a foot in, and picking up speed as I went. I was halfway out of what Light I'd gathered, but it should be enough. It _had_ to be enough. _"Look upon a true hero, and quail in fear like the pussy bitches you are."_ I taunted, passing the three-foot mark and still going. Fuck it, either this would work or it wouldn't. If it didn't. . . fuck these clowns, I was going to drop them all into darkness and take out _ever_ _motherfucker who got in my way_. This was me being **_nice_** **.** I jerked as something hit me _hard,_ draining my shield and slamming into me like a hammerblow, followed by another, _then another_ , but I wouldn't stop, _couldn't stop_. With a jerk I felt the leading edge give, Light escaping in a plume before I contained it, my construct having drilled through to the other side, and I _smiled_. stepping back, enough light left for one _hell_ of a flashbang, I declared, " _My light is unquenchable, for mine is the_ _ **light that will pierce**_ _ **anything in my way**_ _!_ "

Wrapping myself in a shell of air and sound I twisted the construct, inverting to spread out the Light as much as I could, mixing with the air and reacting all at once into a _massive_ explosion, which tore the hole even wider, metal glowing as I dashed out, the Rig's shield an unpassable barrier in front of me, but _not_ an electrified one. Resolved that I'd never step back here in _any_ identity I leapt out over the waves, turning to face the hole I'd bore through their _impassible_ door. Two turrets with cameras turned on me, spewing foam, but it was fuckin' _useless_. I used the _last_ of my Light, not enough for even a single blast, to cover the backs of my hands, flipping off both cameras as I plummeted, the Light deflecting foam back on the turrets as it accelerated me towards the ocean far below. The last of my Light faded as I hit the water with what would have been bone-crushing force, had I been anything but _a Shadow._


	44. Spoiler 5-5

**Spoiler 5.5**

As I sped through the water, all I felt was _tired_. Switching to my Vejovis garb, my enhanced eyes barely spotted the shore moments before I plunged into it. I stopped, before shrugging, guessing the location of our base and heading that way. After a bit I noticed that apparently, I didn't need to breathe when in Shadowform, which was a nice plus, though the lack of sensory feedback _was_ annoying. Tapping into my bug sense and using them to scout, I found I was a couple blocks away from Winslow, _way_ off base from my target. Rising up out of an alley, careful to avoid powerlines, I solidified, leaning against the wall as I took a deep breath and collected myself.

Jumping as my phone rang, and biting back a swear at the pain, I fumbled it, catching it with Aerokinesis. Plucking it out of the air I answered it as I dropped a sound bubble over me. "Hey Taylor, not a good time," I wheezed. The pain in my chest had lessened, but whatever struck me in the back felt like it broke a rib. Or three. Maybe five.

"Oh god are you okay!? I've been calling for the past half an hour, but you weren't picking up! I thought you were _dead!_ " _Probably not that much reception underground,_ I reasoned.

"I'm fine," I coughed, correcting, "I'll _be_ fine. Protip, never step foot on The Rig unless you have a plan to escape."

" _What!?_ What happened?" she demanded.

"I got Gallant and Vista to safety from Oni Lee, and the Protectorate tried to arrest me, attacking me when I um, informed them of their failings that led to the situation in question and expressed my discontent with their response," I explained, which was _technically_ correct, if leaving out the entire cussing them out and the part where I used the F word in a similar manner to a valley girl using the word 'like'.

"Is _that_ why you blew a hole in the door and jumped out?" she asked equal parts horrified and saddened.

"I, am sorry, what? How did you know I did that?" I asked, slumping back against the alley wall, which also hurt, but hurt _less_.

"Uber and L33t recorded your fight and streamed it," she told me. "I was. . . studying when it started. I'm on their mailing list, research the opposition and stuff, not that _they_ really count."

I thought back to the thing I'd passed when I'd dropped out of the sky to save the police. "Oh, that must've been one of their camera drones."

" _That's_ all you have to say?" she demanded.

"Um," I responded, taking a breath to respond before hissing in pain.

"Are you okay? No, you already said you weren't. Do you need to go to the hospital? _Can_ you go to the hospital? Is there _anything_ I can do?" she asked, concerned but obviously feeling helpless.

"I should be fine," I responded, trying to mask the pain in my voice. "Honestly, the worst injury I have is when Miss Militia kept shooting me in the back. I think they might've been RPGs."

"MISS MILITIA SHOT YOU IN THE BACK WITH AN RPG!" she shouted.

I shrugged, which also hurt. "I'm not sure, I was kinda distracted. Don't shout, you don't want to wake your dad," I admonished, taking to the air, Glory Girl's shield carrying me up weightlessly as I started to fly towards home. "I got a copy of her power, so I kinda want to return the favor, but I won't, 'cause _hero._ "

"What happened?" she asked quietly. "I saw the fight from when the explosions started, but how did you end up trapped in time with _Oni Lee_?"

"Right, so I've recruited Purity, who hasn't been a Neo-Nazi for two years after she divorced Kaiser," I informed her, talking over her objections. "And I was looking for an ABB safehouse to hit with Herb and her, a teambuilding exercise to get her over the fact that he's black, and I found a communication center thing. But while I was watching, a strike team bust in the front door, and I figured since I was there first, I'd go in through the roof as Boardwalk and we'd split the take, share intel, all that. Turns out they were part of Æonic's gang, For Whom the Bell Tolls."

"It tolls for thee," she finished. "Better than the ABB at least. So he's a villain? People aren't sure online."

"Yeah, but maybe in the 'villain that robs villains' Robin Hood vein? Either way, we were talking about how to split the take, when Oni Lee showed up. How did L33t know to film it?" I asked, interested in something to distract me from the low-level pain even flying didn't completely stop.

"I don't know. People think someone called the cops instead of the PRT, or that it was a trap for them. No one knew _you_ were in there. I. I didn't like finding out that way," she told me.

"You're in the Undersiders, until you're fully on the team there's a lot I can't tell you." I countered. "Besides, this was a scouting mission gone wrong, I didn't _plan_ to fight Oni Lee, if you saw the fight, you saw me trying to get away."

"You were?" she asked, confused. "I thought you were faking. Why didn't you just use Brian's darkness to hide and get away? Lisa said Oni Lee's power was line of sight."

"I. . ." I had to stop in mid-air. "I didn't even think about it. It wasn't one of _Boardwalk's_ assigned powers, so I didn't even. God I'm an idiot!"

"You're not!" she protested, which was nice of her. "You just, um, got too focused. Makes me feel better actually. Not that you got hurt!" she corrected. "That you make mistakes too."

I groaned. "I'm not perfect Taylor, no one is." I spotted Herb, but _not,_ leaning casually against the doorway into the base. "I need to go take care of something, I'll be fine, see you tomorrow. It's almost dawn, go to bed."

"Oh, okay. Um, Bye. Please stay safe!" she responded before hanging up.

I stowed the phone, Seeing Curtis and following the strand of his power that pulled off to find The Hurt on a nearby rooftop. A single air blade ended the Stand's life. A second made sure, and countered the effects of the Fake Death power it had, having been playing possum, _actually_ killing it. "Curtis," I said, landing several meters away, a not-insignificant part of me wanting to decapitate him and deal with him in a week. Manifesting an array of blades, I dictated, "Here's how this is going to go. You're going to answer my questions, if I like your answers, you live. If I don't you die. If you summon The Hurt, you die. If you threaten I care about, you die. If you _hurt_ those I care about, you'll die, and continue dying for a year straight until we revisit this issue again. Understood?"

He held up his hands, smiling that oily smile, not reaching his eyes. "Cool your roll hot stuff, no need to get all _serious_. I feel you."

"When you die, what happens?"

"Nothin'" he replied with a languid shrug. At my unimpressed stare he continued. "Nah man, a whole lotta nothin'. Hangin' out in nothin', waitin's only thing a cat _can_ do. That, and think 'bout what I'll lay down when it's my time to shine."

"What do you want?"

"A _challenge_ ," he smiled all teeth. I manifested another blade. "Not _you_ man, it'll be a while 'fore I'm on _your_ level. Maybe a tussel now and then, but no claws, I _promise_. I want to _hunt_ ," he laughed. "I've _seen_ Boardwalk, you _know_ what I mean. There's no point if there's no _thrill_ , and I want the most _dangerous_ of game."

"Capes," I replied, unimpressed with what I saw before me. _What decision would lead Herb to become. . ._ _ **this?**_ He smiled again, but it was _cold_. After tonight though, I could see the use of an assassin, but he needed to be leashed. I didn't have a way to do that yet, but I'd have to treat him like Herb had wanted to handle Bakuda: give him an outlet.

I looked him in the eye, mouth quirking into a smile that matched his. "Ever been to Vegas?"

* * *

With Curtis gone, and having made _sure_ he'd gone, him and his Stand turning into cheetahs before dashing off as I tracked their path from high above, I finally relaxed. I'd sculpted him to his specifications, a mix of a young Eriq La Salle and young Michael Jackson, the Jheri Curls he asked for apparently normally needed chemicals, but whatever. I'd been surprised when he asked for Tiger eyes, and my warning that there was a fifty-fifty chance I'd screw up and blind him by accident only seemed to excite him. It worked, though they were actually just housecat eyes, but whatever.

Looking online from my phone, Taylor was right, L33t had tasked a drone with filming the fight, though it was barely able to keep up with me. It was oddly hard to focus on, and watching the confrontation Boardwalk looked a _lot_ more impressive than I felt. The fact the video lacked of ability to see that washed out streak of Red and Grey power giving Boardwalk the appearance of almost precognitively good reflexes, and the music accompaniment was a nice touch. Helped drown out the screaming at least.

Interestingly, as the fight progressed the trails of light my blasts left changed, moving from the white double-helix of Purity's power to a solid trail of multicolored light. The leading edge of my blasts were still white, but the trails almost looked prismatic, color further saturating the more I used them.

The fight with the Wards made me wince though, I'd done what I had to, to keep them alive, but I hadn't realized how hard I had to be with them. The frag grenade I'd gotten hit with in the face was the first thing that had really done a number on the kids. I'd been so focused on moving as fast I hadn't thought to divert the shrapnel from them, but the entire thing was a blur. The escape, up and out, was impressive, L33t commenting that it looked like whatever the cold grenade used, it was flammable, however _that_ worked, which combined with the fire grenade made something like a fuel-air bomb, which had in turn blown out the windows of the Medhall building, which was just a _cryin' fuckin' shame_ my inner Boardwalk commented.

The video continued, with L33t talking about the tech of the grenades and guessing at my sword. _Shaped exotic matter from my power kept in place with a magnetic field_? I thought. _It's not a lightsaber, it looked like it was on_ _ **fire**_ _dumbass,_ a thought echoed in the comments. What was interesting was when The Rig lit up with alarms, the camera focusing on the door as it started to glow red and bulge outwards, the light of my drill almost blinding it. The explosion from outside was a _lot_ more impressive than I though it's be, and they captured my jumping out and giving both barrels to the turrets before disappearing into the waves, comments arguing if Boardwalk was dead, and what had happened. _Good_. Fuckers deserved the PR black eye this was going to bring down on them.

Lowering myself down to the ground, I shifted to casual clothing as I dismissed my flight, making me feel even heavier than when I'd dealt with Curtis. I took a step towards the door, but my legs weren't quite up to full yet. I staggered as I identified myself, undoing the lock, which I'd made sure _not_ to key Curtis in. I was looking forward to breakfast, and maybe reading for an hour or two before going out and making an appearance as Vejovis as the edges of my vision fluttered. Frantically looking around for whoever was attacking me, everything started tilting crazily as I lost my balance, darkness closing in around me.

* * *

"He's coming around, and should be up in a moment. He _said_ he was getting enough sleep!" a girl said, the voice familiar. I felt someone put their hand on my head and I reacted without thinking, grabbing and twisting, as the person over me squeaked in fright, pulling them to me as I grabbed them tightly by the throat. I immobilized their hands with one of mine while the other was ready to choke, holding them fast against me and facing them away, my body moving smoothly without any input from my sluggish thoughts.

"I told ya not to do that when he was wakin' up," Herb commented blandly.

I opened my eyes, blinking at the brightness. Glancing around I determined that I was laying on the couch in our base's lounge, Herb sitting in one of the chairs looking at me smugly. Looking down, I saw that my hostage was a very annoyed looking Panacea in civilian clothing. "Um. . . hi," I said, not really sure what to do at this point. "Fancy meeting you here."

"Let me up!" she hissed back, and I let go, giving her a bit of the Get Better healing so she didn't have any. . . interesting bruises to explain to her family. I'd already had that conversation enough times already with previous female friends, thank you very much.

"I, wait, what did you, no, not important, why did you lie to me!" she yelled down at me, somewhere between hurt and pissed, though the two might've just amplified each other with my luck. "You said you never would!"

I held up a hand. "Um, I just woke up, so can you give me a sec. Also, pretty sure I haven't."

"Yes _you have!_ " she insisted. "You said you were getting enough sleep, but you had so many fatigue poisons you should've slept for _days you fucking hypocrite!_ "

 _That_ hurt. "I'm not a hypocrite, I _don't need to sleep!_ "

" _Everyone_ needs to sleep!" she countered.

"Miss Militia doesn't," I reposted, not sure if the term _Noctis Cape_ was an actual thing, or one of those WoG, would provoke negative reaction, phrases.

She looked _livid_. " _YES SHE DOES! EVERYONE DOES!"_ Herb, the asshole, sat back in his chair and looked like he wanted fucking _popcorn_.

"Wait, really?" I asked, mind waking up at this new intel. I didn't think she needed to, but Panacea _was_ the medical expert here. "You've seen her biology?"

" _YES, SHE-"_ she started to yell, catching herself "You thought she didn't sleep at _all_?"

I shrugged, this was news to me, but the story didn't really focus much on her. "No, I thought that was just an excuse so assholes wouldn't demand she works twenty-four seven."

The healer pinched the bridge of her nose as I tried to sit up, only for her to push me back down. "Stay, you still need to rest, I cleaned your body but your brain is still feeling the stress. Miss Militia doesn't need to _sleep_ but she needs to _rest_ , which you haven't been doing. Hypocrite."

I sighed, not really liking having to talk to her with my current height disadvantage. "I'm not a hypocrite" I countered. "I _thought_ I was getting enough rest, you _knew_ you weren't getting enough. But I feel that I'm unfairly excluding my partner from this _delightful_ conversation. Break, why did you bring Panacea to our _secret base_ before she joined the team _?"_

Herb snorted. "Yeah, no, I'm sorry, I found my passed-out friend right outside the door and thought, 'ya know what? I'm not gonna bring the person who he needs the most, who can heal him, because, I don't know, he might be _dying_ of some weird shit to some random hotel.' I thought, 'No, bring in my _best friend_ , make sure he's comfortable, check his vitals, and run and get the _most important person out there_!'"

"But, operation security you moron-" I started to object, cut off by Panacea.

"Hey, your friend was worried about you, don't speak to him like that!" she chided.

I goggled at the thought of Panacea defending _Herb,_ the self-avowed villain who'd allowed Dinah to. . . _Ugh!_ The asshole in question chimed in, "Yeah, don't speak to me like that. I _am_ concerned!"

Panacea waved to him, behind her, not able to see the shit-eating grin he was sporting. "See!"

There were so many things I wanted to say, but whatever, she was here now and apparently I need to rest occasionally, giving up with an "Okay."

Boojack chose that moment to come out of his room, reeking of weed. He took in the situation, before looking over at me, asking "Who's the kid?"

I sighed. "That's Panacea Boojack."

He nodded to himself. "No shit? You healed me. Thanks." Turning to me he proceeded with what he obviously _actually_ wanted to ask: "Do you have any more weed?"

I look at him. There was _no way_ he'd gone through all of it already. "I gave you a duffle bag full!" I exclaimed.

He shrugged unrepentantly, "Yeah, but it's been like _two weeks_."

"I gave you _two!_ " I reminded him.

He started to respond, an expression of deep thought gracing his features, before brightening. "Oh, right, I hid the other one! Can't remember why." And with that he moseyed on back to his room.

Panacea looked between me and the now closed door, disbelieving, finally asking, "What the hell, you gave him weed? Are you a drug dealer?"

I looked at her, offended. "In exchange for beating up Nazis? Yeah."

This, apparently, was not the answer she was expecting. "Wait, what? Isn't he a hero?" she asked plaintively.

 _Right, she's still touchy about the entire 'villain' thing_ ". . . Ummm. . . Not really?" I finally hedged, not wanting to lie to her.

Herb however, took this as an opportunity, springing to his feet and taking a strongman pose. "No, we are proudly villains!" he declared.

Panacea, if anything, looked _more_ confused. "They. . . okay. He," I tried to explain, pointing in Boojack's direction, "Just wants to be left alone, but will fight for weed, so has been working on the team, though not _really_ part of it, and he," I pointed to Herb, who was cycling through strongman poses like he was in a competition, something undercut by his wearing a suit, "Is one of those self-described villains that doesn't actually do anything evil that I told you about. I've learned not to fight him on it."

Herb, _still posing_ , retorted, "Yeah, you don't fight me because you know I'm a _villain!_ " He shifted again, turning his back to us as he showed off, I don't know, his biceps or something? Again, his suit jacket obscured most of his muscles. "I am no Shredder, but I'm sure as hell Michel Knight."

I looked at Panacea, who didn't seem to understand him either. She took the initiative on this one asking "Shredder, you mean the cartoon with the turtle ninjas from Earth Aleph?"

He turned back to face us, nodding, "Yeah, he's a dick, I'm not Shredder."

Panacea and I shared another glance, this time I bit the bullet, asking, "Who's Michel Knight?"

He looked between us, incredulous, "Knight Rider? He's actually a villain."

"Really?" I asked, only knowing he had a smart car named Kit or something.

Herb responded earnestly, "Oh yeah, Michel Knight is actually a villain. He's wanted by, like, _so_ many people."

That didn't sound like it gelled with what I'd heard about the plot of the show. "But doesn't he save people and shit?"

He nodded, "Yep."

Like a bolt from the blue, it hit me, and I had to check to see if the cause of so much friction between us could be something so _stupid._ "Oh god, is _that_ why you think you're a villain? Early eighties television? If it is, it explains _so much_."

He nodded again, like it was _obvious,_ "Yeah, we're like the A-team!"

"The A-team were not villains!" I objected, Panacea just looked confused.

Herb shook a finger at us in negation, "They were considered villains though, by all of society."

"No, they . . ." I paused, dimly recalling the opening theme, on those channels that ran _old_ shows. "'Sent to prison for a crime they didn't commit, they promptly escaped to the LA underground. Still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one can help, if you can find them, you can hire, the A-team- Damnit you're right!"

"Yeah, and then there's Airhawk!" he laughed.

"I've never even heard of that one, but fine, I believe you." I gave holding up a hand in defeat. "What was with the eighties," I started to muse, pausing, "It was the eighties and not the seventies, right?" He nodded, so I continued. "What was with the eighties and all of the vigilante heroes?" Panacea looked at me, shrugging helplessly, but the answer filtered in through my tired mind. "Oh, right there was a crime wave or something and the cops weren't doing anything, so we wanted someone that would."

Panacea looked between us. "What are you guys talking about?"

I responded quickly, not wanting to get into the alternate dimension thing, "Things from before either of us were born."

"Fall Guy! Fall Guy was the shit," Herb added unhelpfully, off in his own nostalgic little world.

"Anyways," I pressed, trying to move the conversation along. "Panacea. I'm okay, I'll meditate or something."

"Why don't you just sleep?" she asked, eyebrow raised.

I shook my head, "That takes eight hours, and there's too many things I need to do."

"Dude, you need _actual_ sleep right now," Herb chimed in.

Sighing, I looked up at him, "I think I dropped at dawn, how long was I out?"

"Four hours," my teammate informed me.

Shrugging, I started to get up. "Good enough."

Panacea pressed me back down, insisting, "No, you're still exhausted. You need to _rest_ , I've taken care of your body, but your _brain_ needs to recover as well!"

I looked back at her, trying for a more emotional argument, since she wasn't listening to _logic._ "But, but I have to go with you to heal people in an hour. And then dinner, which I enjoy. And then try find Bakuda's Lair. Just a lot of shit to do in not enough time to do it in."

"You don't need to heal with me, you need sleep," she insisted, smiling.

Well, at least she wasn't angry at me anymore. "But I-

"Reeeeest," Herb interrupted, moving to stand behind Panacea. "Listen, the healer," he started, mouthing the words 'your girlfriend', "says to sleep."

"Dude," I said, in warning tones. Giving me shit was one thing, but saying that kind of thing in front of Panacea would turn our working relationship _nine_ kinds of awkward, and I was already apparently dealing with that sort of problem from Taylor. I _really_ didn't need it from her either.

Panacea shook her head, thankfully missing the subtext, insisting "No, he's right." I glared at him as he gave her a look, and mouthed 'I know you want to fuuuuuu,' punctuated with a pelvic thrust. Panacea, unaware, continued, "You need to listen to your friend."

Herb was having a field day with this shit, adding, "Yeah, and honestly," mouthing 'the love of your life', "Really has important stuff for you to listen to. Get some sleep. Remember, she really knows what's going on _in you_." He finished patting her on the head with his gauntlet like one would child, adding in another pelvic thrust between pats.

"Okay," I said as I glared at him, manifesting an air blade behind Panacea, slowly moving it upwards. Herb, with my Power Sight, saw the rising edge and removed his hand from her head, still grinning. "I'll get some more rest, but I'll still meet you for dinner, okay?" I gave in to her, dismissing the Aerokinetic weapon.

She nodded, smiling again, before looking around. "Sure, do you feel a breeze?"

"Someone must've left a window open," I commented drolly. "Do you need me to give you a lift to the hospital?"

Herb shook his head "Don't worry, she can ride me." I glared, that one wasn't even _subtle_ and he was over _twice her age_. Not even the kind of thing you should joke about. "Have you ever rode a dinosaur lizard thingy? It's quite awesome."

Panacea gave me a questioning look, obviously not really sure what he meant of if she should be offended. "He can turn into Dinosaurs. It's one of his powers."

"How does that work?"

I shrugged, "Powers?"

"You could find out as I do it," Herb added, as he turned and walked out the door.

"See you tonight!" Panacea waved, starting to follow, "Get some rest!"

A moment later I heard her surprised voice calling, "How do you get that big?"

I laid there, considering that comment. _I hope he's actually turning into a dinosaur, or I'm going to beat the_ _ **crap**_ _out of him_. A moment later I heard a saurian trill. _Oh thank god._


	45. Spoiler 5-6

**Spoiler 5.6**

Laying there, trying to do nothing while my brain healed, was _boring_. Explosions were still going on, and time was slowly ticking down to the inevitable Endbringer attack. Thinking of the things I _could_ be doing was frustrating. I considered playing around with Aerokinesis or my newly acquired Space Warping, but Panacea had been clear, I needed to rest both my body _and_ my mind. Ugh.

Getting up from the couch I headed towards my room. Other than walking through it to use the shower, I hadn't had any cause to be in here, and I looked over at the bed, which looked comfortable enough. The small wave of dust that came off it when I flopped down _was_ a bit much, I groused internally as I laid on top of the covers, trying to relax and meditate, finding my center and all that fun stuff.

I stayed there, focusing, body relaxed, as I lost track of time, keeping my breathing slow and steady. A noise rang out and I jumped as my phone rang the instrumental of 'Sharp Dressed Man'. My thoughts were sluggish, but quickly picking up leaving me feeling oddly refreshed. "Good," I checked the bedside clock, surprised to see it was three in the afternoon, "Afternoon Mr. Calle, what can I do for you?"

"I've been contacted by the PRT," he started. My stomach sank, _did they figure out that I was related to Boardwalk?_ "They've decided to reach out to everyone they can, given last night. . . _events._ Would you be interested in helping them in their efforts, and if so do you have a preferred role?"

I sighed in relief. "About time, I believe that both myself and The Lady, Bug would be quite proficient in bomb detection, and disarmament, provided we were furnished with someone to walk us through the process."

"But how. . . Ah, yes, I'd forgotten your _other_ abilities, my apologies. You can control insects _that_ well? In that case you should definitely be of use, and paid commensurate with your use of course. From what I've seen The Lady, Bug appears to be young. Do you wish to set up a similar situation as you did with miss Panacea?"

I nodded, then stopped, remembering he couldn't see me. My brain wasn't _quite_ up to one hundred percent yet. "Yes, but with the ratios reversed as she is the junior partner."

"Of course," he responded smoothly, a couple of questions followed confirming my availability.

Not even five minutes later I got an e-mail, asking for me to show up at the PRT office in half an hour to start working. I called Taylor, who answered it on the first ring. "The Lady, Bug, would you be available to assist me in finding where Bakuda has hidden her bombs? From a safe distance of course."

"You mean going out during the day with you?" she asked, suddenly nervous. "But what about the entire undercover thing? Won't us both going out doing hero things ruin that?"

"With the Truce coming, all it will do is make you look ahead of the curve," interrupted by her question of "What truce?" I stopped and thought, this week was just kind of skipped over by the time skips that happened in Worm cutting down on my foreknowledge, though I wondered how much last night's fight had thrown off everything. "The villain groups are all meeting the day after next to discuss a truce, putting aside their personal problems to eliminate the ABB before the National Guard comes in. Brockton Bay is worse than most cities when it comes to gang-fighting, but it's gotten to the point the national government is going to get involved soon, well, soon for the government, but even then that's two or three months before the Bay is put under martial law, which would be bad for _all_ the villains."

"Oh," she responded. "Yeah, the video has over a hundred million views already."

I winced, _oh yeah, that's going to affect things_. "Regardless, can you be in costume and meet me at the edge of the commercial district in fifteen?"

With her affirmation, I started to go talk to Herb, but hesitated. He'd be of more use with the rest of the regular heroes, but knowing him that's exactly where I _didn't_ want him. Not only would they not take his "I'm a villain!" performance well, the chance he'd say the wrong thing, if only to needle them, was _far_ too high. Leaving a note that I was going out and would be back tonight, I grabbed some cold pizza from the fridge and wolfed it down before flying out the door in Vejovis guise.

From the air I scanned the insect population, drawing out the gnats from below me in a grey cloud that struggled to keep up with my moderate pace. Spotting Taylor suited up I swooped down, smirking, and grabbed the hand she was waving, pulling her up with me. She gave a strangled squeak as I did so, shifting her to be flying parallel with me. She reached over and smacked me with her free hand. "Don't _do_ that!" she rebuked, voice softening. "I'm glad you're alright Lee. Do you have a self-healing power too? Who'd you get it from? It couldn't be her, everyone says Panacea can't heal herself."

I shook my head. "No, Panacea's the one who patched me up."

"Oh," she responded, "Um, so finding bombs? Is that why you have the swarm Lee?" Her power overlaid mine, taking control of the swarm in much finer detail, smoothing out the flight patterns and doing something that let them move together faster after a few seconds, which I gratefully copied.

I nodded as we flew, getting a few looks from below. "We're using them for identification of devices, and we can grab some beetles for manipulation if we need to. Remember Taylor, from here out I'm Vejovis, and _you're_ The Lady, Bug." She apologized, and we continued on, slowly flying over the city, the swarm growing at a slow trickle until it was several thousand strong, enough that I could _maybe_ fit them all in a van if needed. As we entered Downtown I remembered what I'd grabbed on my way out, handing her a new cell phone. "Here you go, since Bakuda anti-blew up the last one." She gave an embarrassed "Thanks," as she stowed it.

While we descended in front of the PRT building a few minutes later I compressed the swarm, keeping them a hundred feet above the street as we touched down. The officer at the front nodded to me as I walked up. "Vejovis, Lady Bug, if you'll come with us." He looked upwards at the dark cloud hanging in the air, the sound of buzzing barely perceptible, but still perceptible. "Please leave your," he paused, "Insects outside." I smiled and nodded. The Rig might've been quite difficult to break out of, but _this_ building? I wouldn't even need to break character. Taylor, looked to me, concerned as she hesitantly started to release her nervousness into the swarm. I nodded to her, trying to convey that both we'd be fine, and I understood why she was leaning on her swarm to manage her emotions. If all I had was insect control, and no insects, _I'd_ be nervous.

Following the officer inside, we were led to a meeting room where we waited. Taylor started to say something, but I shook my head, mouthing 'wait'. It was another few minutes when a different PRT officer in full combat gear walked in. "Sorry," he said perfunctorily. "You're early. I've been told you can help us find bombs?"

I nodded, "It'll look like a biblical plague unfortunately, but we both can perceive the insects we control in three dimensions, so by having them carpet an area, we can see in all the nooks and crannies, finding anything that would normally be hidden or hard to see, as long as it's not borderline airtight. We can also control beetles to dry to defuse things if someone can tell us what to do."

He stood there, black helmet masking his facial expression. _Whoever thought that was a good idea obviously never read the Evil Overlord List._ "That would be very effective. I'll get the team. How long can you do this?"

"Till nine tonight, and dawn until nine in the morning tomorrow," I responded. "After that it'll depend on how things develop." Taylor nodded behind me. The officer, who I realized didn't even have a name tag, just a tag that read PRT ENE, told us he'd go assemble a team, leaving without saying anything else. A moment later another officer opened the door, leading us back outside. Minutes later a team of six came out, the lead one _probably_ the one who said he'd get a team. _Is it to stop villains from identifying individual members and hunting them down?_ I mused, looking at the team of six, along with the four door guards. Other than height and _slight_ differences in build they were nearly _identical_.

We stood there, looking at each other for a minute, before the leader, who _sounded_ like the same person, though the mask muffled his voice, asked, "Are you going to begin?"

I looked around. "Right here? Sure." I glanced at the crowd, jerking a thumb towards them. "But shouldn't we warn them first?" The trooper gave me a blank look, or, well, just didn't say anything. I sighed turning to those assembled. "Greeting good citizens!" I boomed, calling on what my little brother had called my 'teacher voice'. I winced, thinking about how I'd probably never see him or my mother ever again. Or _any_ of my family outside of maybe my father, now that I really thought about it. I must've been projecting my emotions, since I felt Taylor's concern, but waved a hand at her.

"I, Vejovis, and my teammate, The Lady, Bug, are working with the Parahuman Response Teams to help track down un-activated TinkerTech devices that may have been hidden in the area. As such, we shall be utilizing our insect control to attempt to feel out the surrounding area. They are harmless, but if you'd rather not be touched by a hundred gnats, please head inside until we have moved on with our search. Thank you for your cooperation!" I lowered the swarm, not expanding the mass to make my point. Quite quickly the street emptied, except for a brave few souls, phones out.

I took the swarm, and directed them, the mass moving like a slow grey explosion as they covered everything in front of us, building a picture. Extending them out in every direction for about a hundred feet, I blinked as I felt something with wires and metal. Feeling it out, I felt an inscription in part of it which read "Bakuda" with a little picture of a cartoon bomb, circle with a line out of the top, the top of the line with slashes not touching surrounding it. I put my face in my hands as Taylor commented, "Really?"

"What is it?" the PRT goon practically barked.

"Found one," I shrugged, sighing as all ten started looking around, as if it were easily visible. "This way," I commented walking down the street, crossing the crosswalk, then walking over and down and alley, pointing at a cardboard box halfway down. "In that."

The officer looked back, maybe incredulously? His body language was generally unhappy and hostile, but I wasn't the best at determining that sort of thing, so I had no clue. He didn't say anything, so I couldn't even go on _that_. I thought about offering to have some insects remove the top of the box, there weren't any connections from the bomb to the box, as far as I could tell, but if he was going to be a jerk about it, I wasn't going to offer more help than was asked for.

 _At least I'm getting paid_ , I comforted myself, and Vejovis happily and actively working with the PRT after Boardwalk told them to sit and spin would help separate their identities. With this kind of treatment, I might've said screw this and just gone and done this on my own. _Which might be the point_ , I realized. The PRT worked _against_ capes. With the exception of the Protectorate, who reported to _them,_ they might've been trained to see parahumans as the enemy. _Lovely._

He checked, yelling "Shit!" when he found it. _Really hurt by the lack of confidence._ He spoke into his comms, which the gnats picked up as "Burrows, ge- -er he-!" My powers copied Taylor's as she listened in, clearing up the communication, and I gave her a thankful nod. Burrows knelt down over it, talking to someone over comms, she walked him thro- _Holy Shit is that Dragon?_ Yeah, listening in it was. _Cool_.

Dragon walked the officer through the disarmament process, which took a few minutes. Deploying the swarm, keeping them within a hundred or so feet of me at all times. Underselling my powers to potential foes? Just common sense. Did the PRT count? Absolutely. As both of them walked back, calling in a pickup of the device, I cheerfully asked "Ready for the next one?"

Both men froze, Burrows asking uncertainly "Next one?"

I nodded. "Yeah, it's in the undercarriage of a car the next street over, parked close to the intersection."

The commander, who never gave me his name, grunted. "Two, four, five, go with Vejovis. Three, six, you're with me, while ladybug shows us the bomb.

I blinked. _I'm sorry, you give me the metaphorical stink-eye, lead me to have to come up with a policy on what to do on the spot, and then_ _ **after**_ _I've shown you how you haven't even done a_ _ **cursory**_ _search around your_ _ **main building**_ _you think to both give me orders_ _ **and**_ _try to separate me from what is effectively my_ _ **sidekick**_ _? You sir, can go_ _ **fuck yourself**_ _!_ What I said instead was, "Ah, No. _The_ _Lady_ , Bug and I work together. We shall listen to you, of course, as you are the relevant authorities, but we shall not be splitting up."

His stance became aggressive. Well, _more_ aggressive. "Are you questioning my orders?" he growled.

I smiled coldly. "Are you presuming to _give_ me orders officer? I was under the impression that we were working as outside consultants, to better help you and the city, _not_ sworn officers under your command." _Even when I'm trying to be_ _ **fuckin' helpful**_ _, they're pricks_.

"Sir," one of the other officers spoke up. "The briefing."

The commander stiffened in anger, before leaning back. "Fine, _consultants_ , what do _you_ suggest we do?"

 _Must've been one hell of a briefing,_ I pondered. He wasn't getting off that easily though. "As long as it does not split us up, put us in danger, or would put us in a position where. . . _misunderstandings_ might happen, I'm more than willing to follow whatever procedures you might have. You, or whoever you were talking to on comms, is the bomb expert," I smiled coldly.

The leader struggled with himself, before snapping out, "Show us the bomb, find the next, if there _is_ another, then wait for us."

Smile not moving an inch on my face, I nodded and then strode past him, Taylor on my heels. We pointed out the next device as the swarm spread out, keeping clear of sidewalks and roads after giving them a once over. There wasn't one in range, so I started walking down the sidewalk, Burrows and the one who spoke up left behind to defuse it. After a block I found something affixed to the bottom of a fire escape, turning down and pointing at it when it was in visual range. The commander looked like he wanted to say something, but held it in. Waiting for Burrows to come back, I scanned the area, finding nothing else, so worked on forming words with bugs on the roof. 'Sorry about this,' I spelled with a bit of effort. 'I expected them to be nicer. At least we can get some practice in like this.'

Taylor looked at me and I smiled widely, and fakely, to everyone. "Well, this is quite the experience, isn't it!" I chirped, irritating of the commander who was watching me like a hawk. The bugs formed words under her control. 'It is okay. This is not your fault. We are just trying to help. Are they always like this?'

'No, the last time I talked to the PRT they were rather nice and respectful. I assume that just like regular police, or, for example, _teachers,_ you have some bad apples that spoil the barrel.' I had to stop my head from tilting when I tried to make italics.

I got a sense of sad discontentment from Taylor as her bugs spelled. 'That blows. I thought since they worked with the Protectorate they'd be better.'

Thinking in three dimensions was a bit difficult, but was becoming easier in time. I made a hand with the index finger extended, waving in a chiding motion, causing her to giggle. "Something funny?" The commander growled.

"Someone on the next street wasn't looking and walked straight into the insects. He didn't react well," I lied easily.

Again, I got the sense he wanted to say something, but held himself back. 'You should know that just because they work for the government doesn't mean they're good people. Dauntless and Battery are probably nice, but don't trust Miss Militia or Assault.'

'I can't believe she shot Boardwalk! ヽ(ಠ_ಠ)ノ Who does that? :(' she wrote.

I rolled my eyes, _teens and their emoticons_. Technically I'd started it, but still. 'She'll follow effectively _any_ order her superiors give her. They say to arrest the person that saved the Wards from dying? She does it. They say to stop him from leaving, no matter what? After a taser and bullets don't work, time to bust out the RPG and hope it doesn't instantly kill, and if it does, _she was just following orders_ , which is amusing, because she doesn't _look_ like a Nazi.' After a second I dismissed the wall of text. 'Sorry, still annoyed.'

She responded ' **RPG!** I'd be more than just annoyed. How can you work with them the very next day? I wasn't even there and I want to swarm these Jerky McJerkfaces!'

'Jerky McJerkfaces. Really?' I critiqued. Feeling her rightful embarrassment at such a weak insult, I continued, 'A) Their leadership is the problem, not necessarily the rank and file.' I dismissed that point and made another, trying not to congregate too many bugs in one place. 'B) _Boardwalk_ has a beef with them. I, Vejovis do not, and even if I was trying to recruit him, he hasn't joined the team so I don't have grounds to be outraged on his behalf. C) While we do have to deal with these assholic evil minion rejects who have the personality of a statue, except for their leader who is like one covered in pigeon droppings, the bombs we find save lives. D) we're getting paid to do this. Yes, that includes you, no, you can't get to it until you're in control of your own finances for legal reasons.'

'Can't you give it to me now, just under the table? :)' she pleaded.

I sighed. "Waiting for the other two to come back," I informed the commander. 'No! Bad Lady Bug! That way lies villainy! Besides, if you need something, ask. You have a discretionary budget for heroing-related needs.'

'Wait, I do!?' she wrote, pushing excitement into the swarm to keep her body language neutral. 'Can I get some Darwin's Bark Spiders, they ha' was as far as she got before I took control of the swarm.

'Yes. Thank you for reminding me, I was going to get some so you could have them weave some silk and have Parian, the cloth Rogue, help you design a suit that's more PR friendly for things like this.'

I struggled not be affected as Taylor practically _dumped_ giddy happiness into the swarm, spelling out in five-foot-tall letters **'** **THANK YOU!'** Her happiness, practically infectious, helped the time pass quickly until we called it a day, finding over fifty bombs as we meandered across downtown.

Dropping her off in the commercial district, I sent her new phone the pictures I'd taken of useful contacts, as well as forwarding her the account information for her budget. "How much can I spend?" she asked.

I shrugged, "There's five grand in there, but if you need more just ask. I trust you not to waste it."

Her eyes went wide, "That's more than I got from the Undersiders for helping fight Lung!"

"Yeah, but it's not that much when you start hitting and clearing safehouses." She stared at me. "I wasn't in danger. Anyways, you could deposit the money they gave you into that account. Money from villains is spoils of war for heroes, just walk-oh right, you robbed them. Hmmm. Use the two grand for personal purchases, and I'll handle the finances until the entire undercover thing comes out. Yeah, that'll work." She was still staring. "Are you okay?"

She shook herself, giving me a quick hug. "Thank you so much. I couldn't say anything there but, just, _thanks._ "

I patted her helmet. "Don't worry about it, you're my teammate, and I take care of my friends." With a wave I flew off, heading towards Good Samaritan to make Panacea got a decent meal and someone she could talk healing with, letting her de-stress after the clusterfuck of injuries my last fight had probably generated.

Landing on time, and looking around she was nowhere to be found, so I waited. After ten minutes I finally went inside, asking the front desk for her they said she was almost done. Half an hour later, she walked into the lobby, yawning. Seeing me she straightened, striding over, stating, "We need to talk."

After a moment of Déjà vu, and wondering if there was a class or something that all women attended, I motioned for her to go ahead. "In private," she clarified.

We left, her taking my arm as had become habit and I took off. High above the city I turned so her back was towards the PRT HQ and the Rig, and dropped a sound bubble. "What?" I asked when she seemed to be second-guessing herself.

She took a deep breath, looked me in the eye, and informed me: "I know you're Boardwalk."

AN: Darwin Bark Spiders are ridiculous. Question for the readers, are the webs actually gold colored like Fanon says when you spin them into fabric, or is that just someone getting it confused with Kevlar? https:(slashslash) (slash)203881407


	46. Spoiler 5-7

**Spoiler 5.7**

I took a second to process Panacea's revelation. "Okay, I'm going to neither confirm nor deny that, but why do _you_ think so?"

"Someone showed me the video, and I _know_ how injured you were. You'd already healed some, but you had electrical burns on your legs, more one than the other, _just like the video_ , and that's in addition to your bullet impact shaped contusions, though they were already healing, hairline fractures in your arms and legs, bruised organs, and on top of that half your ribs were broken!" she declared. "Why didn't you tell me? What were you thinking getting into a fight like that!?"

I nodded. "Yeah, that'd do it." I considered the difficulties of having this conversation in a restaurant, and made a snap decision, starting to fly towards home base. "I'm making dinner."

"That's not an answer!" she contested.

"No," I rebuked. "It's what I'm going to do _while_ I give you the answer." That it let me consider my answer on the way back was _also_ a plus.

Landing and walking into the base, mind spinning, I considered the hard sell, the entire 'I need you to join if I'm going to tell you my secrets' gambit. _No_ , even thinking on how I'd do so left a bad taste in my mouth, so honesty and trust it was, but first, "Burgers work?" I asked her, checking the fridge.

"Fine," she agreed, impatient.

I considered taking my time getting ready, but maybe I shouldn't tease her right now. A few minutes later they were sizzling away and we both had a glass of water. I turned, leaning against the counter. "Okay, before we start, I won't lie to you, but if you tell people what I tell you, it will turn out badly." I saw her eyes narrow, "Panacea, you should know by now that I wouldn't threaten you. _I_ won't be doing anything bad, but Boardwalk had to fight his way out of the Rig _after_ he saved the lives of Vista, Gallant, and countless cops because they were going to throw him in a holding cell, and who knows _what_ would've happened to him after that. If they find out where he is, let alone if you effectively _unmask_ him, I'm not sure what they'll do, but from what I've seen, it won't be good."

She struggled with herself, finally saying, "Heroes wouldn't do that Vejovis."

"So you're calling me a Liar. Nice Panacea. Nice." I waved away her protest, grabbing a laptop and accessing the base's intranet, getting the cleaned-up copy of the Armsmaster confrontation Quinn had sent me. Putting it down in front of her I pressed play as I finished making dinner. Plating the burgers as the video finished, I slid hers in front of her as I sat down. "So. Heroes wouldn't do that, but what makes you think the Protectorate are _heroes_? I sent the director of the local PRT this video, as well as the video I have of the Bay Central fight, if you want to see it, and absolutely _nothing_ has happened. Armsmaster is still officially the head of the Brockton Protectorate," and hadn't _that_ been a shocker when I looked it up this afternoon, "and while it's stopped them from going after us officially over _his_ actions, The Lady, Bug hasn't received so much as a single _apology_ for being attacked by the then _leader_ of the government-backed 'hero' team. _You're_ a hero Panacea, would you really put yourself on the same level as _him?_ "

I ate my burger, hurt and angry. I knew breaking Panacea's years of conditioning from Brandish was going to be difficult, but I seemed to have made almost _no_ progress whatsoever. She stared at her meal, not touching it. _What,_ I thought, _my food's not good enough because I'm not a perfect hero like you think you are?_ The sheer _pettiness_ of that statement broke the mental line I was on. _No, that's unfair. She's being unfair too, but that's no reason to-_ "I'm sorry," she said quietly, interrupting my thoughts. "You've never lied. I wish you _had_ actually, but you haven't."

I put my burger down, pleasantly surprised, but masking my thoughts. "Alright then. You have questions? I have answers, but as you said, I won't lie, even if you'd prefer me to."

"You're Boardwalk." It wasn't a question. I waited until she gave me annoyed look, realizing it as well. "How?"

I shrugged, switching out costumes and personas. "How do ya think Panny?"

She blinked, nonplussed. "You're. . . a shapeshifter?" she guessed.

I chuckled, popping off the mask and putting it down, smirking. "Only the threads, try again."

Her brow furrowed, "Multiple personalities?"

I dropped the Persona, laughing. "Not everything is powers Panacea, it's just acting."

"But you had different powers!" she protested.

I turned my hand to Shadow, poking it through hers. "I have quite a few powers."

She rejected that, "But no one has more than three!"

I turned my other hand to Light, "I do, Break does, I think there's a villain named Circus that does as well. Let's not even get started on the _Triumvirate_."

"Are you a Tinker? Is your power linked to your costume? Different suits have different powers, and _they_ are your power?" she queried, trying to find a way for me to confirm to her worldview.

I blinked. I hadn't thought of that, and it would make an _excellent_ cover story if I needed one. Unfortunately, I'd made a commitment to stay honest, even if I was the only one that'd know I broke it. Shaking my head, I shifted my costume to my civilian garb, dismissing and summoning the Light and Shadow, before doing the same thing as Vejovis.

"Are you like Eidolon? You can only do three at once?" she tried plaintively, trying to understand what I was doing in the context of what she knew to be fact.

I winced. "Please don't compare me to that idiotic glory hound," I responded, keeping Light and Shadow going as I levitated off the ground, Glory Girl Style, while manifesting a speed zone that moved my chair back.

She looked at me, before shaking her head. "How-No, I don't want to know. So you're both. Why?"

"Deniability," I replied, motioning towards her dinner. "Eat before it gets cold." Sitting down on a layer of air I continued, smirking at her noise of frustration as I did so. "I'm a _Hero_ , but as we've seen, those who claim the title abuse it, and there are those who would seek to stop me, either because they have evil intentions, or because they are scared of the darkness in their _own_ hearts. They think of what _they_ would do if given the same power and see the same intentions in all others, ignoring that by acknowledging and controlling that darkness one can overcome it, instead of running from it like a scared child. The fears manifest in different permutations, but it all stems from those two sources."

"Because of that I needed two identities," I waved, one hand in Vejovis' white cloth glove, one in Boardwalk's black studded leather. "One to be the hero who helps those in need and is allowed to do so, and one to be the hero who walks in the shadows to fight villains in ways that those with villainous tendencies have made socially unacceptable. Hookwolf, Oni Lee, and others have unequivocally killed enough civilians that, if they were tried for their crimes in our justice system, _as our laws say they should be_ , their prison terms would be in the triple or quadruple digits. Honestly, those two should have been tried in abstentia, as much as I dislike the concept, and the only reason they _wouldn't_ have a death sentence is that New England is extraordinarily far left on the political divide. In a fair world, they would have _kill orders_ on them, though after last night's fight Oni Lee might, but I'm not holding my breath."

"If Vejovis went after them _half_ as hard as they go after _unpowered_ people, there'd be cries for _his_ head. Of note is that villains go _easier_ on heroes, since they know the kind of response say, killing a Ward would provoke, but if some unpowered kid pulls a knife, let alone a gun on Hookwolf, and _didn't_ back down, he'd kill them, but the media here cares nothing for _those_ people. Normal people fighting villains? There are quite a few in positions of power that have effectively made such a thing laughable, borderline _unthinkable_ ," I nearly spat, "and if someone in their desperation makes a final stand and dies, they're just considered _stupid_. If they make a stand and Trigger though, _that_ gets attention, and they'd probably survive as fighting someone with unknown powers is a risky proposition, causing their would-be killers to back off until they're sure they could still defeat their victims. "

I subsumed myself in Shadow, letting the Light shine from beneath. "Boardwalk though, he'll never be accepted as a hero, and that's just as how he likes it, even though he _is_ one. He wouldn't be a crazed vigilante, doing the ' _all criminals deserve one thing, death'_ bullshit, but he'd be willing to match his foe's level of violence. He'd capture the Undersiders, maybe rough them up a bit, but after Skidmark tries to shoot him in the head with a pistol, Boardwalk might capture him, might permanently maim him, or might just kill him depending on the circumstances. Vejovis has no such options at present, and thus can be caught up by the 'surrender or I'll kill this hostage' scenario. Boardwalk would just kill the bastard, _and_ try to save the innocents, but if they die, he'll disgustedly state that their deaths are on the people who _killed_ them, not the people they were being used to _leverage_ , and anyone who claims otherwise is a _fuckin'_ _moron._ "

Panacea replied after a moment of thought, "I couldn't do that."

 _Yet_. "I'm not asking you to," I assured her instead, letting go of the power and sitting there in my Vejovis guise, sans mask, "and if I felt like I had to, and you said no, I wouldn't force you to."

She sighed. "What _happened_ last night? I saw the video, but that was just the fight, not what led to it." I got her a coffee as I covered the lead-up, leaving out the part about recruiting Purity, knowing how much _that_ would _further_ derail the conversation. I finished with my escape, and sat back, waiting for her response. "Thank you," she finally said, continuing at my confused look. "For saving Gallant and Vista. Vicky was-, I'm not sure how she'd take it if he died. You didn't have to, and with what you said about Boardwalk, you, I don't know, had to go against what he was supposed to do when you did it, but thank you for doing it anyways."

I nodded, "Dean and Missy are _Heroes_ , and saving heroes is _my_ mission, not that of any identity I might use to further that end. I was willing to throw away the work I'd put in building Boardwalk's identity to make that happen, and would again, if needed."

She started to smile, before a frown crossed her features. "Wait, is Vejovis another identity?"

I shifted to civies as I smiled. "In public, yes, but when we're just hanging out, I'm just me, Lee Elric, the man who will save the world."

She blinked at me, not sure how to respond. "That's nice?" she tried. "How? That's, the whole world? How are you going to do that _yourself_?"

I shook my head. "Not by myself, no. That's why I'm trying to find and help true heroes, people I can trust to have my back, people like you. It's why I'm recruiting for my team, and the only reason I haven't asked _you_ yet because there were things you needed to figure out before it would be fair _to_ ask. That being said, the offer _is_ open once you're sure it's what you want. As for how?" I shrugged. "I'll get by, with a little help from my friends."

* * *

Dropping Panacea off back at her house, as Vejovis, we didn't talk, her sister having called her as we left the base and Panacea reassuring her that she was fine, and we'd eaten dinner someplace a bit out of the way, and how did she know that anyways? I was tempted to listen in, but that would've been rude, and didn't seem like something that was mission critical. Hanging up she informed me, blushing, "Apparently there's a _blog_ about us."

I shrugged. "We're healers, and that gets attention. There's like, what, a dozen of us in the world? It's a rare but incredibly valuable power. Heck healing, or the appearance of, is one of the things that a lot of _religions_ are built on."

She shook her head, turning a beet red. "No. I mean it's about _us._ "

It took a second before I understood what she meant, and I tried not to blush in turn. "They are aware that you're a minor, and I'm obviously _not_ , correct?" I inquired dryly.

She took a breath, matching my tone as we landed, "They don't seem to _care_."

I facepalmed. "Perverts, the lot of them. Wait, how does _Glory Girl_ know about them."

" _That_ is something that I'd like to know," the healer agreed, sighing as she looked at her house, where her sister was once again unsubtly watching us from a window. "Thank you again for being honest," she said turning to face me. "And sorry, it's, it's hard to believe the Protectorate would do that when. . ."

"The media is all about how great they are?" I asked. "Yeah propaganda is insidious like that. Don't worry, you wouldn't be the first to accuse someone of lying instead of believing a harsh truth, and I doubt you'll be the last. No hard feelings. See you tomorrow for healing?"

She nodded, smirking, "Only if you get enough rest! I'll be checking!"

I waved her off, laughing, "Fine _mom_ , I'll get to bed at a descent hour. See you then!" Flying back with a wave towards Glory Girl, I headed to home base to try my hand at Space Warping. Considering it came with a sensory component, I knew I couldn't use it anytime soon, as Vista would be able to sense my work if she came in range. The uses for it I'd copied from seeing Vista in action last night were automatic, as was par for the course with replicating uses of a power I'd directly seen, and reshaping the twists only took a few seconds. The long tunnel was also useful, if cumbersome, and I worked on shrinking it from a passage leading north far out of the city into something a bit more useful. After only a few hours my alarm went off, and I grudgingly headed to bed for three hours of meditation. I'd figure out the specifics of it soon, and hopefully I'd only need a couple hours every week of rest if I wasn't constantly fighting, but for now better too much than too little.

This time instead of just relaxing into near-unconsciousness I focused on my power, trying to relax into it and focus around it. After a while I started to gain the sense of it. Fire, burning deep within, flickering against unseen wind, but before I got more than just a general impression my alarm went off, prompting me to get breakfast and head to meet up with Taylor for another morning of bomb clearance.

The officer leading the team, who introduced himself as Officer Garnett, was much more respectful, though he was confused on one point. "I was reviewing your previous day's work Vejovis, and I don't see the underlying method to your coverage."

I shrugged, "We were given no instructions other than, 'go find bombs', so I warned the people around us, then we did."

Garnett looked at me for a moment before swearing under his breath "Fucking Galston" and looking at his phone. "We'll start by clearing the City Hall, and we'll work from there on clearing Downtown. Rivers, Beltran, I want you at the one and eleven of perimeter of the swarm, warning people." He turned to look back at me as two of the officers jogged off. "We had complaints, now I know why. If you would?"

From there we moved on as we had before until we found the third device, this one booby trapped to go off if you opened it up, if I was understanding the mechanisms inside well enough. Pointing it out got Garnett swearing, prompting me to offer the use of our beetles. "You can do that?" he asked incredulously.

I nodded, as did Taylor. "I informed the previous fellow before we started. Grumpy chap, never got his name." Turning to my partner I motioned in front of us. "Lady Bug, you're better with detail work, do you think you could create a model of the device?"

She shrugged, "Sure." Waving a hand in front of herself insects gathered, forming the inverse of the shape that we could see, the gnats holding in place unnaturally to create the structure. I looked at it, and realized that to someone who _couldn't_ sense insects, all it looked like was cube of bugs. Grabbing the top layer and sending them back into the greater swarm, I pointed out the pull line now suspended in the air.

Garnett hesitated before crouching down to get a better look at it, the gnats we used small enough that they were almost impossible to pick out individually from a distance, the entire thing a seemingly solid grey mass. Taking a flashlight, he shone it in and around the model, highlighting the structure. Calling for their expert on his comms, he soon had Dragon helping him, using a camera to see the structure of what we'd made. After a minute, he pointed out a strand of insects near the bottom. "This one, can you cut it?"

"The red one?" Taylor asked, "Sure." She grabbed a few cockroaches from a nearby restaurant and had them chew through it. "Want me to open it and see if it worked?"

He double checked that the rest of his team had cleared the area before nodding. "If you can." She gathered the swarm and pushed the inside open, the hinge swinging smoothly, pulling the wire in the process. Nothing happened. We waited a few minutes, and still nothing. He sent one of his troopers over, shaking his head when I asked incredulously why they didn't send a drone, responding "I was informed that these were not technically bombs, and thus we had no need for such."

He laughed at Taylor's indignant "That's stupid!", nodding in agreement. The squaddie he sent, a woman by the name, or codename, Peterson came back, what looked like a Tinkertech scanner in hand, reporting that it was dead.

Officer Garnett nodded, "This makes our job much easier. Thank you."

'Do you want to be helpful, or be safe?' I wrote with bugs in the vent of the building to our left.

Taylor looked at Garnett, before writing 'Helpful', adding a moment later, 'He's not a jerk'.

"If it helps, we can split up, though I insist we stay in Comm contact," I said tapping my ear while spelling 'which for us is the range of your control Lady Bug'. "Ours are short range, but we can cover more ground that way."

The commanding officer nodded, calling up the PRT for a few more officers, sending most of his current team with Taylor. With that we spent the next few hours clearing half of downtown in its entirety by the time we called it quits, over fifty devices defused, with only a handful of detonations, and no casualties. I did have to support a building that had a load bearing wall turned to gas with my strength for ten minutes until the PRT was able to get some supports to prop it up. It might've been longer, but after five minutes I claimed that I was tiring, and didn't know how much longer I could hold it, my strength "failing" as they set up the supports, which got the lead out of the people doing so.

Dropping Taylor off, I confirmed that the Truce was meeting tomorrow at Somer's Rock, but she didn't know _when_ other than "After 4". Making it in time to meet Panacea, I noticed that Glory Girl, looking oddly nervous, wanted to say something. Holding up a hand and pointing upwards, she followed suit, the two of us coming to stop several hundred feet up. I stopped the wind when she came level, I wrapped us in a sound bubble. "Okay, we won't be overheard. What's up Glory Girl?"

"Amy said you could get in touch with the guy from that fight, Boardwalk?" I nodded. "Can you tell him thanks? For saving D-Gallant. After what you said that night, I couldn't stop thinking about it, and I don't know what I'd do if something happened to him." She held herself as if cold, eyes cast downward.

I floated towards and put a hand on her shoulder. Her head snapped up, looking at me. "Glory Girl, Dean is a Hero who deserves the title. I, _or those who may be under my employ_ , would go out of their way to save him and people like him. Even if it means I, or he," I corrected, "Have to let Oni Lee get away to do so." She nodded, eyes bright. I dropped the bubble slowly released my hold on the wind, nodding back as I dropped down, slowing my fall right before I hit the ground, Panacea waiting.


	47. Spoiler 5-8

**Spoiler 5.8**

Panacea didn't make small talk as we healed, though when someone mentioned my mornings' activities I did get a raised eyebrow. "I got a few hours sleep. It'll be enough for now!" I defended, to the laughs of the people we were healing. Afterwards we had a quiet dinner out, during which Panacea visibly noticed, and was aggravated by, the people paying attention to us. Being under the spotlight killed her interest in conversation, and I couldn't help but ponder, _did she really not notice the attention?_ On the way home she finally asked what her sister wanted to talk to me about. "She was under the impression I was in contact with Boardwalk and wanted to send her thanks," I explained. "I told her that people who may or may not be working with me would save heroes like her boyfriend."

"Oh," she responded looking relieved. "Good."

I gave her a questioning look, but she didn't elaborate.

"I didn't ask before, but Vista and Gallant, you've healed them, right?" I asked. I assumed the answer was yes, but it was better to confirm than work on bad info.

She nodded. "They were in bad shape, but they're fine now. Vista had some of the tendons in her arm severed and only had operationality of half the fingers on her left hand, Gallant had localized spinal damage from the electrical blast." I felt a dropping sensation in my gut, _had I paralyzed Gallant?_ "Thankfully the damage didn't extend upwards, and as their brains were fine, I was able to heal them completely." While relieved I subconsciously growled in anger, prompting her to ask "What?"

"If they'd trained her to _use_ her armor, that wouldn't have happened. Without you she'd've been maimed for the _rest of her life_ , because she was trying to be a hero when she should've been in middle school." I didn't bother to hide my sneer, "It's _worse_ than if she was independent, because then she would've _known_ she had no real support. Sorry," I apologized automatically. "I'm not upset with you, it's just." I sighed, looking for the right words.

"People who have accepted responsibility, not have it thrust on them, or taken it because they're just trying to make the best of a bad situation, but actively _sought_ it, and are rewarded for it, but then don't even _try_ to do what they've promised to do, been _paid_ to do, with gold and glory, _that_ is behavior that is lower than even most who call themselves _villains_."

She didn't have anything to say in response, so we finished our flight in silence. Dropping her off, I told her "I can't heal with you tomorrow, and after that I can't promise anything."

"Is it because I told Vicky tha-" she started, sounding hurt and guilty.

"No, there's a villain meeting that I'm attending." I interrupted.

She blinked. "What."

"Things've gotten bad enough that all the gangs and villain aligned groups are meetings to work together to take down the ABB. Kaiser, Faultline, The Undersiders, Coil, well probably his double but he'll be there in spirit, and some others. I'll be there as well, under the banner of truce to help them stop the killing. _They'll_ do it to stop the Feds from taking over the entire city, _I'll_ do it to save people, but hey, common goals, different reasons."

She bit back her first response before nodding. "Okay, be safe, okay?"

I smiled, surprised that she'd accepted it at that, the eight probable conversational paths, and my responses to each, fading unused. "Don't worry, if I needed to I could take them all on and escape. I'll still be careful," I added at her glare. Taking off I called, "I'll tell you what happens over dinner!"

Getting home, I found Herb cooking for himself, having just gotten back from another Cauldron mission. "Beatin' down some dumbass drug-dealers in a jungle somewhere. Might've been Peru." I had him clear his schedule tomorrow, his eyes lighting up when he realized tomorrow was the meeting at Somer's Rock, one of the more useful stations of canon that we could twist to our advantage. "Fuck yeah, this is gonna be awesome!"

I nodded, "And we're meeting up with our newest team-member tomorrow for lunch, before heading over." I'd texted Purity, and while her grammar was atrocious she'd agreed to meet up with Break and me before the meeting, a meeting she _hadn't_ heard about this time around.

He smiled slyly, "Finally corrupted Panacea, huh?"

 _What?_ I thought, before glaring at him. "No, it's not Panacea, _and what do you mean corrupted?_ "

"Well, she'd be out consortin' with villains an' shit, something she'd never do before." He frowned in confusion, "If it's not Panacea, then who? Her sister?"

"No," I snapped, suddenly feeling a lot less charitable. "I wouldn't bring a kid to this! If I could I'd convince Taylor to sit it out in case it gets bad. No, they're an adult, and that's all I'm going to say! you'll find out who they are when they meet us tomorrow."

I walked past him, ignoring his call of "Come on man, I didn't mean nothin' by it!"

* * *

Meditation didn't come easily, taking over an hour to even begin to center myself, trying to understand _why_ I'd snapped at Herb. It wasn't until I'd fully calmed and tried to think of something else that I realized that it wasn't the _corrupting Panacea_ comment as I'd originally though, as that was him being his normal crude and incredibly inappropriate self. It was the suggestion that I'd bring her to the villain meeting. With how _badly_ that had the possibility of going. It reminded me too much of the Protectorate fielding the Wards with insufficient training, and that was a parallel that _offended_ me. If not only had Panacea joined, but had been combat trained, was comfortable with the use of violence, _and_ was using her power to go full Guyver then _hell yes_ I'd love to have that support, but as she was now? It would have been reckless to the point of _negligence_ to bring her along. That wasn't even considering that _Glory Girl_ would've invariably tried to follow and sneak in, and _that_ would've gone as well as a fireworks exhibition in a distillery.

I'd barely dealt with that and found my center when my alarm went off, signaling the end of my three hours of meditation. Stretching as I got up, I _did_ feel rested, though had I the time I might've reset the alarm for another few hours, but I had work to do. What I _wanted_ to do was work on my Boardwalk set, but he needed to lay low for a few weeks, and the power testing I wanted to do had the possibility of being. . . explosive. Maybe if it was day I could risk it, but at night using Purity's power would tell _everyone_ where I was.

Reviewing the battle again, when I _wasn't_ on the edge of passing out from exhaustion, I still looked borderline precognitive, which would be good for the intimidation factor, but tactically I was a fucking _mess._ I had _three_ powers, but for most of the fight I'd only used _one_. From the very first second I'd been screwing up. Oni Lee behind me? Speed Zone his ass away. Hit the side of a building and needed an out? Drop a zone up the side and press myself into it while I flew, blasting off even faster. Purity's speed combined with the acceleration of my Speed Zones should make me _crazy_ fast, but I hadn't thought of it. _Actually, speaking of speed. . ._ I paused the video and headed to the workshop, building an ad hoc target as I muted the room and tried to pull the smallest blast I could. A pea size piece of light formed in the palm of my hand, shifting unstably, before shooting out in a rainbow line. Streaking across the workshop it impacted the target, blowing out a chunk of the wood.

Walking over to the target and checking the damage, if I had to guess it hit like an someone had hit it with a blunt pick, the force blasting across a quarter inch diameter area. Walking back and layering Speed Zones down the inside of my middle and pointer fingers, I formed another tiny ball of Light, sending it down the track I'd created, feeling the _slightest_ of kickbacks as it accelerated. The projectile moved more than twice as fast, digging a larger whole in the target, concentrating force without increasing area. Doubling up on the zones I tried again, the kickback noticeable, the trail lacking the bright greens of the previous shot. This shot punched a gouge out of the two-by-fours I'd used to make my target, and the time from firing to hit was almost instantaneous. Doubling up again, Zones shifting from cerulean to azure, I formed another, took aim, and fired.

My hand was jerked back by the unexpected kick the same time as the center of the target exploded, a hole punched through the two-by-four, sending shards of wood against the back wall. The trail lacked any greens whatsoever and had flown fast enough to possibly rival a pistol. I checked the clock. If I'd spent a single _hour_ training, and half of that was just making the target, I would've _had_ Oni Lee, shooting him too fast for him to realize what was happening. _Mind you_ , I mused, pulling on Miss Militia's power and creating a copy of the pistol I had in a holster on my back, unloading it on the target, _it's a moot point now._

A flicker of light caught my eye and I actually looked at the gun in my hand. The 1911 I held was a slightly glowing blood red, the image of an Entity in purple inscribed on either side of the slide. Turning it into a revolver resulted in a similar problem, only the spiked snake was coiling down the barrel. _Cute_. Taking out my real pistol and trying to get it to copy the hardware only resulted in getting my first result. Switching to a twenty-two, an assault rifle, a shotgun, and a sniper rifle in turn, each one had a similar coloration and design. Changing to melee weaponry, I had no better luck. Be it knife, machete, warhammer, or katana, each on had the _exact_ _same_ coloration and motif. Sighing I changed back to a copy of my real pistol. As useful as it would be, this was a power that would _never_ see the light of day.

My costume's emblazoned Entity was close enough to a Caduceus that it was overlooked, but with _this_ it'd be a theme, and start gaining more attention then I'd like. It also just looked unearthly, and I had enough powers from this city without being absolutely _flagrant_ about it. Shooting both, real and projected pistol, guns akimbo style, was fun even if I would've missed most of the shots if I hadn't cheated with Aerokinesis. As I was reloading my real weapon, I frowned. My pistol was enhanced with a Speed Zone, but it had the same kick as the projection. Pulling my projection to hand and opening the slide, inside the barrel sat a Speed Zone, just like my real weapon, which I could dismiss and reestablish independently. Setting that mystery aside, I dismissed the power, only to have it change into a knife at my belt. I tried again, and it wavered, before turning into a swiss army knife, the crest showing an Entity.

I groaned, just like my Arthropod Control, which I tended to leave on rather than deal with the hassle whenever I wanted to use it, Weaponry Projection didn't want to be let go. Concentrating on it and forcing it down, back to wherever my power stored its copies, the weapon vanished in a puff of red and purple smoke.

Wanting to practice, but not wanting to leave, _and_ needing to clean up my mess, I decided to kill 3 birds with one superpower, taking a seat while I tried to use Aerokinesis to pick up and move the individual pieces in a pile with targeted gusts of wind, getting the gusts stronger and tighter as dawn crested the horizon. It was. . . suboptimal to say the least. Grumbling I cleaned up most of the mess by hand, made breakfast for the base, and ignored Herb's begging for a clue about our new member. Just to get out of the house, er, base for a bit I dropped by PRT HQ, asking for officer Garnett and then working with his team to help them clear another chunk of Downtown. Overall, it just felt like killing time more than actual progress, but the people's who's lives I probably saved helped stave off the encroaching feelings of wasting precious hours.

* * *

Herb and I walked into the café in downtown, one that I'd actually cleared of a device that morning, in civilian garb. Herb wore his suit, sans mask and gauntlets, which were packed in a messenger bag at his side. I was in business casual, grey pants with a dark purple shirt, which seemed to give my skin a slightly different tone than my red and white costume. We were shown to our seat, our reservation under the name Anders, though I kept Herb from hearing the name as he glanced around the place, and we ordered an appetizer and drinks while we waited. I kept an eye out, spotting the short almost mousy-looking woman as she was shown to our table, her power obvious to my Sight. I waved, smiling behind my sunglasses, and she started to wave back, smiling, before seeing Herb sitting next to me, looking for who I was waving at. She froze, before taking a breath and coming to sit next to us, smile now forced.

"Please," I said, "before we start, figure out what you want to eat. I'll cover it as a business expense, as this _is_ a team meeting." She glanced at Herb before picking up her menu, hiding her face behind it.

Herb looked between her and me, brow furrowing, before his eyes started to glow white for a second and he hissed, "You asshole, why didn't you tell me?" she stiffened and I saw him panic, continuing, "You never said our new teammate was beautiful!"

She further stiffened behind her menu, before relaxing slightly, putting it down. "I'm ready to order," she informed me. Waving over our waiter we gave him our order, and I took out a small jar I'd faux-Tinkerteched. Pressing a button to turn on the LEDs, I wrapped us in a sound bubble while slightly muting the outside noises for theatrical effect.

"Purity, first name Kayden, this is Break, first name Herb. Herb, Purity," I introduced, pausing so that _one_ of them would take the initiative and get the ball rolling and I could sort out our problems _now_ instead of having it blow up at Somer's Rock.

Purity took the bait first, pointing at Herb. "You never said he was black!" she accused, realizing herself and glancing around, but no one so much as blinked an eye at her racist statement, having never heard it.

I quirked an eyebrow, not commenting on her moment of weakness. "Should that matter? I thought you quit the E88 years ago."

Before she could respond Herb waved me off stating, "I'm, I'm, you, some white," tripping over his words.

I turned to gaze at him in disbelief, wondering if he was having a stroke, as Kayden look at him as well, more confused than offended. "Are you trying to do that crude 'would you like some black in you' line? If you are, you've got it turned around."

It took a second, but I understood, explaining, "No, he's trying to say he's half-black, half-white."

Purity, still confused, replied, "Oh, well that's. . . better?"

Herb nodded to this _very_ racist statement. "Yeah, there's um, cream in my tea?" he smiled encouragingly.

I sighed, rubbing at my face at his pitiful display. "Coffee Herb, cream in your coffee is the phrase you're looking for."

He froze, obviously mentally berating himself, "Yeah, yes, that. Um. You are amazing, you know that, right?"

Purity just looked even more confused. "What?"

"Sorry, yeah," he winced again. "Wow, um, I lo-, no not that, yet, you're special. That's what I was looking for."

Looking to me for help, she asked helplessly, "I'm sorry, what?"

"You know, stuff. And things," he added.

I needed to stop this train-wreck, for _my_ sanity if nothing else. "Right, so ignoring my suddenly non-erudite friend, he was the one who was telling me about how you'd quit the Empire and that we should recruit you onto our team." I said, embellishing a little to try to throw my friend a bone. "Apparently, he's more nervous about this then I'd thought he'd be, but whatever."

"When you meet the sun," Herb elucidated. "Course you're nervous, it's the bringer of life." We both turned to look at him, as he bit his lip to stop himself from saying more.

"Um," I added, "How about you just let me talk for this bit?"

"Yeah, sorry, just. . ." he trailed off, a wistful expression on his face.

"So, how are you doing?" I asked her, turning to exclude him from the conversation until he got his shit together.

Purity, obviously desperate to have _some_ normality in this conversation quickly replied, "I'm doing fine." Our food arrived, and I toggled the 'device' until he left, going over the general plan, and expected parties, finishing with "If things go really bad, l want the two of you to fight your way out with those that don't want to fight. As they are right now, I can hold out until you're clear, then I could escape. I'd probably get hurt, but nothing that's not fixable. You two being there would negate the threat though, as while _I'd_ want you to get to safety, they might think you'd immediately join the fray."

Purity frowned, "No, if I'm on this team I'll fight with you!"

I shook my head emphatically. " _No._ You get to safety in the air and blast our foes from afar or you don't fight _at all_. You've got _kids_ to take care of Kayden. We don't."

"He's right," Herb said, looking her in the eye. "You've got people who need ya, and you need to be able to go back to them."

"Why go at all, if it's going to be so dangerous?" she asked, not addressing what we'd just said, something I was beginning to believe was an endemic trait in Brockton Bay.

"Kayden, _you're_ a hero, but I'm also trying to redeem those branded as villains who have accepted the appellation, even though it isn't true. As far as I know Kaiser, Hookwolf, and Alabaster are irredeemable assholes, but can the same be said about _everyone_ in the E88? Night and Fog are programmed by Gazelleshaft, or whatever they're called, and I'd help them if I could, but I don't have the resources to do so _right now_. If I'm going to in the future though, I'll need bargaining chips to use on the PRT. Their cooperation with helping to end a city-wide threat could open the door to doing so, let alone adding legitimacy to the truce being across the standard battle lines, and not just the villains being villainous jerks. The fact that I'll release a statement to the press afterwards will reaffirm that and add a sense of safety to the situation that this city desperately needs, since the _government_ heroes haven't said a god-damned thing other than claiming 'we're working on the issue.'"

"We're doing the best with what's available to us," Herb added, finding his eloquence. "but at the same time, actually, no, we're just straight up doing the right thing!"

"Exactly," I agreed. "And if you can think of anyone in the E88 that might want to come to the side of the angels, or even _could_ be convinced to turn over a new leaf, I'd be grateful. I know some of them, like Rune, weren't there when you were, but maybe you could talk to them where I couldn't." I shrugged. "I'm not demanding results, just that you try your best."

Purity looked down at her lap, nodding. "I can do that. Yes, I'm in." I saw Herb's eyes light up with excitement and quickly silenced him as he mouthed 'Group Hug!', only to realize that he'd been muted, glaring at me accusatorily, mouthing 'asshole!'


	48. Spoiler 5-9

**Spoiler 5.9**

"With how tense things might get, I need you to be professional," I told my companions, now in costume as we approached Somer's Rock.

Purity frowned, offended, an expression that I could only read as my Power Sight dampened the Light from _her_ power. "I don't know what you think I'll do, but I can be professional."

I blinked in surprise, pointing, "What? No. I was talking to him."

"I know. If you need me to be professional, I'll be professional," Herb nodded sagely. I gave him a _look_. "No matter how much of a fuckin' dumbass they are," he amended. "I'll try to swoon this wonderful morning sun another day."

"You do that," I responded, ignoring Purity's somewhat uncomfortable "Um?" Walking in, the inside was as dingy as the outside, and I was glad my powers made me disease-proof. A large table was set in the center of the floor. Waving happily to the bartender, who scowled in return, I took a seat at one end of the table. The waitress walked over, pushing a notepad at me, on which I wrote down 'cola'.

Looking to the other members of my team Purity shook her head. "I don't want anything. Thank you."

Herb smiled at Kayden, reaching into his bag, producing a bottle. "I brought water. Fiji."

She looked at him, surprised, before nodding, taking one as she visible realized that he too could see her, giving him a tentative smile. The waitress plopped my drink in front of me, looking at me in confusion when I handed her a twenty and held up a hand when she moved to give me change. Her expression didn't lighten, but it might've un-soured. Maybe. A little.

A minute later the Undersiders walked in as a group, Grue and Tattletale at the front, both freezing when they saw us. Grue recovered first, moving with most of his team to take seats at a side table, starting to glance at Taylor before stopping himself. Tattletale didn't move, staring at me before wincing, turning to look between Break and Purity. Kayden was keeping an eye on the teenagers while Herb tried to make small talk, both of them standing, leaning against the bar. As Herb made a comment on how he wondered if Kaiser's power to create blades was a comment on how he felt like he needed to compensate for something and Purity tried not to smile the Thinker loudly declared: "Bullshit. No. This is just Bullshit!"

I smiled as Herb finally noticed the Undersiders, checking that no one else had showed up before giving them a smile and a wave. "No need to swear," I gently but firmly rebuked.

Tattletale looked at me, motioning towards my teammates, "But. She's!"

"Tattletale, she hasn't been a member of the E88 in two years, that's why she's sitting next to her teammate, who happens to be African-American." I looked at her, narrowing my eyes but unable to suppress a smirk. "Tattletale, are you a _racist_? Is this a _tale_ that needs to be told? What would other people," I looked significantly at Grue, "think about how your racial bigotry might affect your teammates. Do we need to be worried about Grue, or anyone else that's covered in black? Does the red of my costume make you think I want to open a casino?"

"You need to shut up," She ground out, pointing at me.

I put a hand to my chest, sighing in mock sadness, "Honestly, it's you that needs to, or do we need to revisit what _happens_ when you _speak_ before you _think_?"

Tattletale gave an inarticulate noise of ill-repressed rage before stomping over to her teammates. I looked at Purity and nodding my head towards Taylor, indicating her as the person on our side and someone to protect if things went bad. A few minutes after that I heard the clanking of steel from outside. Sure enough the metal man himself walked in, twin models on his arms, with a cool confidence which shattered as soon as he stepped through the doorway, armored in an interlocking lattice of blades. My Power Sight Saw the Iron and Steel flames of his power as Metal Creation, with the same warp and weft that my power informed me meant the ability was Safety Locked, just as Vista's power was. His face was mostly covered, but the parts that weren't were red with rage as he saw Purity sitting next to and conversing with Herb, likely easily reading her repressed amusement and blatant dismissal of him. As he struggled with himself the blades of his costume grew slightly, causing the twins to let go, which was all _my_ power needed to grab a copy.

He stepped fully into the bar, turning away from my teammates, freezing once more as he saw me casually sitting, likely in the spot he had planned to take. Turning to the other end of the table he strode over in what I'm sure he thought was an imperious stride, but just looked like a metal peacock strutting to me. He sat smoothly, commenting "I didn't expect to see any _heroes_ here," making the word sound like a slur. The rest of the E88 contingent came in, all of them looking between Purity and Kaiser in confusion before settling in the seats behind him.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I was under the impression that this was to discuss a _truce_ , which is why I'm present, even if the Protectorate are too _stupid_ to send a representative themselves," I commented blandly.

Kaiser looked like he tasted something sour, but only said, "I'm glad to see you were wise enough to answer _my_ call," causing Herb to laugh.

He didn't attempt any additional sophomoric power moves and sat there in silence, ordering a drink. Looking over the Neo-Nazi contingent, I Saw their powers. The twins in fantasy Valkyrie armor both had Personal Size Manipulation, which allowed them to either grow themselves, and Projectile Size Manipulation to shrink incoming missiles, changing the strength of the affected item accordingly. An older man in a simple costume had a Friction Field paired with low level Personal Force Enhancement, the field smoothing and enhanced the motions of his allies while hindering his foes. Hookwolf had an alternate form, the name of the power not translating smoothly into English, giving him a core he could generate metal from, which he then controlled, and could stow his body into. With this versatile power he chose to make a wolf made of hooks, and _nothing_ else. I looked at this waste of potential and was sadly unsurprised. No wonder Stormtiger and Cricket were his followers, all three had awesome uncapped powers they did _nothing_ with.

The last woman in their group was clad in a black cloak, hood, mask, bodysuit, and high heeled boots, leaving only her eyes exposed. Her power turned her into a #####, the word if it _was_ a word, not registering in my mind, only getting the sense of screeching clicks and the sensation of feeling something on a sense I didn't possess. The ##### form was limited to prevent identification, forcing her into a human form if observed. Her opposite number was dressed similarly, except male, lacking the heels, and in greys. His was the power of Physical Dispersal, manifesting as a particulate cloud, along with a sub ability to convert matter into more particulates to heal himself. These two, who must be Night and Fog, didn't seem to care much about what was going on.

As Kaiser and I sat, and he did his best to ignore my presence like a small child, a man in a full-body black & white costume strolled in who had no powers whatsoever. The costume's only decoration was a white snake pattern that started around one ankle before wrapping up and around him as it seemed to coil- _oh, I get it._ Anyways, it coiled itself around his body, resting itself over the top of his face. I stared at the actor pretending to be him, and hid a sigh of relief.

I'd known Coil was going to send a double, but I had been worried that he'd equip his stand-in with a camera and comms, allowing him his usual shenanigans, but from the skin-tightness of his costume, to the point where I could see the man's _ribs_ , that wasn't going to be an issue. The double looked between Kaiser and I unsure, before moving to take a position in the middle, probably trying to pull off the whole 'Last Supper' thing. Given the way the table had been set up, diagonally across the floor, it didn't work. Not-Coil nodded to me, which I returned pleasantly, and to Kaiser, who gave the barest of nods in return. I rolled my eyes, _more positioning bullshit_ , though I could just barely hear Herb behind me, enhancing the sound to listen in as he quietly gave a blow-by-blow commentary to Purity on all the social dominance moves as they were made.

Next in was a woman who looked to be about my age, wearing an interesting mix of armor and cloth, a welding mask on her head, but pushed up revealing her face with a long black ponytail. From a combat perspective, I could see the design choices. Her armor was practical, and her gloves looked weighted, which would help enhance any hand-to-hand combat she got into. The cloth, giving the illusion of a dress, was cut in a way that wouldn't hamper movement, but possibly hide the positioning of her legs. The design would've been indecent had she not been wearing armored pants underneath, but it gave the entire thing a feminine appearance, which I appreciated. Her Blue and Red flames of Severance blazed around her, peering at it further my Sight informed me she was limited to non-living matter as a safety precaution, just like Missy and Kaiser. Faultline stepped in, her team behind her, and she, just like everyone else, froze when she saw me.

Actually, I realized, it wasn't _me_ she was staring at, but _Herb_. She gazed at him, eyes narrowed, before turning and walking to sit to the right of Kaiser, giving a half-hearted sneer at Tattletale. The four that followed her were interesting. First was obviously Newter, the Orange and Yellow Aura around him giving him Physical Enhancement as well as the ability to create Hallucinogenic Slime both based on the fire-bellied newt. Gregor the Snail had the Grey and Brown aura of Chemical Manipulation, limited to his own internal structure, as well as Physical Enhancement of his own, patterned off snails. I had to wonder if this was the Thinker Entity's hand at play, making her powers take after themes found in our planet's ecosystem, instead of the Warrior Entity's 'Go fight stuff!' approach, or if it were just coincidence.

The other two were Scion Triggers, a woman in a red and black fire suit wearing an odd gas mask had the Yellow & White flames of Pyrophoric Chemical Projection, and the smaller blonde girl in a mask holding the first woman's hand had Green and Blue flames that burned in fractal patterns that were hard to look directly at. The girl's Pocket Dimension held tight around her, constantly rewriting reality around her feet but retracting as she moved. My power wanted to grasp onto it, but I held it back. As far as I was concerned, copying villain powers was fair game, but copying hero powers I didn't need was something I wouldn't do now that I had my identities set up. Faultline and her crew, despite their mercenary nature, where at least _possibly_ heroes, so I'd afford them the benefit of the doubt for now. Looking at her, I noticed Labyrinth staring at me behind her mask, her secondary power of Dimensional Sensing a spotlight latching onto my costume. She started to walk towards me, but Spitfire herded her to the table Gregor & Newter had claimed.

Next was someone who could only be Æonic, confidently striding in as if he hadn't a care in the world. Thankfully his head _wasn't_ a clock, but instead a full-face helmet, the front white with a clock design, hands set to midnight, two dark spots where his eyes were, the sides of the helm textured to look like oak. He sported a full Victorian suit: Black jacket and pants, with a closed silk vest patterned with pocket watches, under a clean white shirt, a white jumpsuit under it covering his neck and hands. Seeing his power made my eyes water, the strength and intensity of the flames something that I'd only seen in Herb. The inferno his power made was Electric Blue and literally _Sand_ , flashing into a new position every second _exactly_. Not only that, but he appeared to have _four_ powers, which should've been impossible, whatever I told Panacea. He had a Temporal Bubble, which was what Boardwalk probably got caught in, Glimpse, which was detailed as combat precognition, Schrodinger, which was medium-scale quantum super-positioning, and-

 _What. The. Fuck._ My thought process crashed to a halt as the words "Peak Condition" flashed across my mind, a power I was _very_ familiar with as it was the _same_ power Herb and I had! I missed whatever he said to the villains gathered, casually sitting to my left, commenting in a voice that seemed oddly familiar, "Didn't expect to see heroes here. Awesome."

"If it's a truce to stop the city from getting blown up, I'm all for working with the other side," I responded automatically, trying to process what I'd just seen. "The Protectorate would be here if they weren't _complete_ morons." At my comment he turned to look at me sharply, before shrugging, waving off the waitress. As he did so I shot a glance to Herb, who was also staring at him in thought, but shook his head at my look. Grue moved and sat to my right, looking between Æonic and myself. I shrugged back, not able to answer whatever his question might be.

Before he could ask anyways I heard a familiar voice calling, "Sup Bitches! The Merchants are here so we can get this party fuckin' _started!_ " Standing in the doorway was Skidmark, and Squealer, along with what looked to be a goblin with pink skin. The Pink and Grey guttering flame of his Adaptive Armoring barely present, his Enhanced Malleable Physiology almost nonexistent. I looked at what _must_ be Mush, and as I peered deeper into his power I Saw that nowhere in his power was there the form-locking component that Gregor and Newt had. As far as I could tell, staring at the components of his power, he looked like that because he _expected_ to look like that, and his power complied, which was just _depressing_.

He caught me staring and shied away from my gaze, looking ashamed, and the sound of a chair hitting the ground broke my focus. The 'track'-star pointing at Grue and demanding to know why he was there.

Faultine, expression bored and neutral though with an undercurrent of hidden attention, directed a hand towards the head of the Undersiders and responded, "His team hit the Brockton Bay Central Bank a week ago. You could just ask Vejovis." I smiled broadly and nodded, which got odd looks from several of the capes. "They've gone up against Lung several times in the past and they're still here, which is better than most. Not even counting the events of a week ago, he knows about the ABB and he can share that information," her eyes flicked to Herb, before she focused back on Skidmark, "with the rest of us."

"What about this shit felcher?" Skidmark asked, pointing at Æonic, who just laughed. Again, I got a sense of Deja-vu, the sound just felt _off_.

"I've hit ten of the angsty baby boy's strongholds this _week_. All you shits have done is hide in your hole and run away from your problems, but nothing new there. Bitch." The crude language was at odds with his refined costume.

"What'd you call me ya fucking knob gobbler!?" Skidmark demanded, fists going up.

Æonic laughed again, shaking his head. "If I wanted I could take you pissant junkies down in less time it takes you to _blink_. But we're here under truce, so I won't." With his power he _could_ I realized, casually commanding my costume to invisibly cover my exposed skin, just in case things went _bad_.

Skidmark, with what few braincells he had left, pointed at me instead, trying his luck a third time demanding, "What about you! I _know_ you shouldn't be here ya scrotum-licking fudge-packing wanker!"

On one level I wanted him to keep going, as he was getting increasingly inventive, but we needed to get down to business. _To defeat, the Huns!_ my brain completed, which wasn't _exactly_ wrong. I smiled, making sure to show more teeth than was necessary. "We're under truce, as Æonic said, and if we _weren't_ I would immediately try to take you down, as people who peddle drugs to children are just above _rapists_ to me," I commented pleasantly. "And if, by some miracle, I _wasn't_ able to subdue you, I'd just kill you, which is the _far_ easier proposition. Though given that none of you have managed to pass through the revolving door that is our current legal system _yet_ , I'd rather not."

I opened my arms, indicating those gathered. "But that's not why we're here, so take a seat like a civilized person, or slink out the door like a coward. Your choice."

As opposed to _sitting next to the white supremacist_ , and just taking the _very next_ seat down the table, which sat across from Coil, _like I'd meant_ , he muttered about this being bullshit and sat at a booth. I rolled my eyes. _There was no reason for him to try that in the first place unless he wanted to start shit, or as a power move against Kaiser, which was just_ _ **stupid**_ _as the man has the ego of a spoiled toddler. Now fecal-stain's whining about racists. I bet if he were a woman she'd be bitching about 'The Patriarchy'._

As the waitress put the chair back and took everyone's orders, I sipped my watered-down soda and waited. Right as it looked like we were _finally_ going to get started a smug voice called out "I'll be taking a chair, I think." Glancing over I saw a man in a red mask and top hat, the Eggplant Purple & Seafoam Green aura of Transposition surrounding him. As he walked in, his three companions followed him in, all clad head to toe in red and black. There was a girl with stylized sun decals. Her main power was Stellar Creation, with a secondary of Stellar Negation, capable of normalizing heat and radiation to earth normal levels within five feet of her if she tried, the Bright Yellow & Burnt Orange of her aura dimly extending in that range around her.

The other man, whose costume was bulky and angular, almost like an old video game character, possessed the Brown and Grey aura of Momentum Infusion, safety locked to inorganic matter, which I hadn't seen in a Cauldron Cape before. Behind all of them was a six-armed gorilla, who didn't appear to have any powers whatsoever. I _knew_ it was Genesis, but my Power Sight, for better or worse, didn't work on projections. Sadly, the fact that I couldn't follow the trail of power from a projection back to the Master who created it meant that The Siberian wouldn't be as easy to neutralize as I'd hoped. As I considered this, I didn't pay attention to the byplay Trickster had with the man pretending to be Coil. It was even odds they were already in his employ, and this was all a show to announce their presence to the city and to explain why they were working with Coil at a later date.

Not-Coil took the Gendo Ikari pose, which wasn't nearly as effective without glasses, and spoke smoothly from behind interwoven fingers as if he were an actor reciting lines, which he probably was. "That should be everyone. Seems Lung won't be coming, though I doubt any of us are surprised, given the subject of tonight's discussion."

"The ABB," Kaiser added _completely unnecessarily_ , which, flexing my Acoustokinesis, I could hear Herb explaining to Purity that her ex-husband was doing so because: "God forbid someone else in the room talks without _him_ getting the last word in."

"Over four hundred individuals confirmed dead, and well over a thousand hospitalized," Not-Coil paused, voice losing a bit of his smoothness as he improvised, "And the death count being as low as it currently sits, as well as the populace not understanding the impact of how bad the situation could otherwise be, is solely due to the efforts of Vejovis, as well as Panacea." _I was still going to put a bullet in Coil's brain, but this actor seemed like a nice enough dude_ , I mused, giving him a thumbs up.

He nodded to me, continuing with his pre-prepared lines, "We have armed presences on the streets. Ongoing exchanges of gunfire between ABB members, the E88 defending themselves, and the combined forces of the police and military. They have raided our businesses and bombed places where they even _think_ we might be operating. They have attempted to seize our territories, and there's no indication they intend to stop anytime soon."

"It _is_ inconvenient," Kaiser added, and I could pick up a snort of laughter from Purity at Herb's "Told you."

Faultline agreed with disgust, "They're being reckless," which wasn't wrong. If they'd gone for some gains and then pulled back they could've taken a bit more territory and waited for their next opportunity, using their explosives frugally. Instead they'd gone all or nothing, and it's what would lead to their destruction as a power in the city, just as in canon.

Not-Coil nodded to Faultline, "Which is the real concern. The ABB can't sustain this. Something will give, they will self-destruct sooner or later, and they will cease to be an issue. Had things played out differently, we could look at this as a _good_ thing. Our problem is that the actions of the ABB are drawing attention to our fair city. All of the new Triggers are also flocking to the Protectorate instead of taking more _reasonable_ offers. As they are mostly minorities, and given the _disposition_ of the most visible criminal power here, this is not unexpected." Kaiser smiled unrepentantly. "All of the new Triggers, with one _notable_ exception." He nodded to Æonic who gave a careless shrug, gaining the surprised attention of those assembled. _They assumed he was just hiding until now and seized on the opportunity,_ I realized. _Not that he went from 'I have powers' to 'I'm running a gang' in a little less than a week._

Not-Coil sighed dramatically, continuing as Kaiser tried to comment, a move which again caused Purity to suppress a laugh. "But it is worse than just an influx of bothersome heroes. Homeland Security and the military were establishing a temporary presence to assist in maintaining order. Heroes were flocking to the city to support the Protectorate in regaining control of matters. It was making business difficult. Then, _the confrontation_ happened a few nights ago, which I'm sure you've all seen. The PRT are on high alert, and there are rumors that one of the _Triumvirate_ will be coming if things don't improve soon. Not only that, but we have _ten days_ before martial law is declared."

I blinked. _This was new_. "Bakuda is at the center of this," Grue added, the two of us having discussed this, and how it would be better for _everyone_ if they didn't know that the Penumbral Defenders and the Undersiders were responsible for her death. "Lung is the leader, but this is _her_ doing. She 'recruited' by orchestrating raids of people's homes while they slept, subduing them, and implanting bombs in their heads. She then used those bombs to coerce her victims into kidnapping more. She had no less than three hundred in total, before something went wrong. Every single one of her soldiers knows that if they don't obey, then as soon as Bakuda solves whatever went wrong, she can detonate the bombs. Any who haven't fled are willing to put their lives on the line, because the alternatives are either certain death or watching their loved ones die for their failure. Taking her down, and whatever is controlling them, is our ultimate goal, but she claimed she's rigged her bombs to go off the second her heart stops, so it's a little more complicated than a simple assassination."

He grabbed something from his jacket, the details obscured by his darkness, and I resisted the urge to tap into his power to see it. Withdrawing a set of CD cases he continued, "She videotaped the ambush she pulled on my group a week ago and left it behind when she ran. I've made copies. Maybe you'll find it useful for getting a better understanding of her." Motioning for Taylor, she handed out a disk to everyone at the table before taking her place. Æeonic's body language showed surprised amusement, Faultline looked approving, Trickster looked bored, Not-Coil showed nothing, and Kaiser accepted it like a king receiving tribute.

"So," Not-Coil said, cracking each knuckle on his right hand individually. _That seems. . . odd._ I observed. _Does Coil do that and the actor copied him, is the actor embellishing, or was the actor told to do that, with Coil setting that up as something that Thomas Calvert doesn't do so Coil can't be him_. "We're in agreement?" the actor asked. "The ABB cannot be allowed to continue operating."

Everyone agreed in their own way. I half-considered giving an "of course!" worthy of M. Bison, but simply nodded.

"Then I suggest we establish a truce," Not-Coil proposed. "Not just everyone here, but between ourselves and the law. I would contact authorities and let them know that, until this matter is cleared up, our groups will restrict our illegal activities to only what is absolutely essential to our businesses, and we will enforce the same for those doing business in our territories. That would let police forces and the military focus entirely on the ABB. There would be no violence, infighting between our groups, grabs for territory, thefts, or insults. We band together with those we can tolerate for guaranteed victory, and we ignore those we cannot cooperate with."

"Just saying my group won't be getting directly involved in this without a reason," Faultline spoke, ever the mercenary. If she fought me I'd try not to kill her people, but I had a feeling she was just angling to get paid. "We won't be going after the ABB unless they get in my way or someone pays my rates. It's the only workable policy when you're a cape for hire. Also, just so we're clear, if it's the ABB paying, my team's going to be on the other side of things."

"Unfortunate, but you and I can talk after this meeting is done. I'd prefer to keep matters simple," Not-Coil immediately responded magnanimously before anyone else could get a word in, as he'd surely been told to, "You're okay with the other terms?"

"Keeping on the down-low, not kicking up a fuss with other groups? That's status quo with my group anyways."

"Good. Kaiser?"

"I think that is acceptable," Kaiser agreed, head held high and not _quite_ looking down his nose at us.

"I was talking to my group about doing something not too different from what Coil just proposed," Grue spoke, nodding a head towards me, "Yeah, we're cool with it."

"Sure," Trickster said, "not a problem. We're in."

"I can spare some _time_ ," Æonic quipped.

Those assembled looked at me expectantly, though Kaiser was trying not to be obvious about it. I smiled, this time warmly. "If those with power wish to act as _heroes_ , I will _always_ help them." I grabbed my business cards and tossed one to each of the leaders present, only cheating with air control a little to get them to stop in front of each person, placing a small stack in the center of the table.

Everyone shook hands with everyone else, Kaiser making a show of _not_ shaking my hand, the little bitch. I made a point of walking over to Skidmark and shaking _his_ hand, to his surprise, though I was glad my glove was self-cleaning.

As we all took our seats, Not-Coil moved to close the meeting. "Then that's our major piece of business concluded tonight. Anything else before we go our separate ways? Offers, announcements, grievances?"

The E88's uninspired guard dog decided to bark, "I've got a complaint." Hookwolf waited until everyone's attention was on him before continuing. _Drama Queen._ "My complaint's with _her_ ," he announced, looking towards the Undersiders, which considering that there was only a single guy at their table, didn't help in the _slightest_. He probably wasn't referring to Imp, who I couldn't see drinking Alec's soda, but still, that left three other girls.

"What's the issue?" Grue asked calmly, subconsciously producing more darkness.

"The crazy one, Hellhound, she-"

"Bitch," Bitch interrupted him, establishing social dominance _like a boss_ , "only the panty-ass heroes call me Hellhound. It's Bitch."

"Don't fucking care," Hookwolf growled, probably only subconsciously aware of what just happened. "You attacked my business. Set your fucking dog on my customers. Lucky I wasn't there, whore."

 _Really. Whore? That's the best you got?_ I wondered, then chided myself, asking for originality from _Hookwolf._ The guy who named himself _literally_ the thing he was. That would be like Kaiser calling himself Steelblade, or Purity saying her name was Lightblast.

From Grue's look he had no idea what Bitch was doing, another mark against his leadership skills. While Herb went off and did stuff all the time, _he_ wasn't my subordinate, as Grue obviously considered Bitch. "That's the kind of risk you run, doing business in Brockton Bay," Brian remarked. "Capes can and will get in your way, hero or villain."

Hookwolf glared at him. "It's a matter of respect," he said, like he would give _anyone_ that wasn't white the very thing he was asking for. "You want to fuck with my business, and we're not at war? You let me know if you've got an issue, first. Let me decide if I want to move shop."

I cut off Bitch before she could escalate this. "Oh, does this mean you asked permission of all the other groups before you set them up in the first place? You get the respect you _give_ Hookwolf." I informed him, ignoring his growl. Honestly, the only reason I didn't call it cute was I knew he'd lose his shit. "Besides, Snake-man _just_ finished talking about how during the truce we'd strip down to the minimum of criminal activities. If you're asking for _complete_ compliance and cessation of activities, does this mean that you'll stop harassing gays and minorities. Or the Merchants will stop selling drugs. The truce is on general crime. I won't go out on patrol, but if I see you trying to make some strange fruit, I'm going to beat your shit in."

I looked around the room, addressing everyone, ignoring his schoolyard "I'd like to see you try." "Individual capes are known for having some things they can't abide," I explained capturing their attention. "For me in particular, it's rape. If the Wolf and the Bitch want to duke it out on their own, fine, but with the truce we won't be bringing our teams to the fight each other, and let's not pair up people that can't work together. Now, given that we have about a _week_ we should abide by the very terms of the agreement _we just shook on_. Everyone got that?"

As most of those present nodded, Kaiser, who had been getting increasingly annoyed how Not-Coil and I seemed to be running the meeting, ground out, "You're not in charge here, _hero_."

I looked at him as if he were particularly thick. "Neither are _you,_ dumbass. Hey Skidmark, you get the jist of the truce?"

"Fuck you!" he called, but his response was lacking in the victimized anger he normally mainlined.

"Not my type, but did you get it?" I volleyed back, smiling.

"Fuck yes I got it you shit-sniffing hobo-wanker!" he called, sounding surly.

I smiled wider, _this was too fun._ "See, even the meth-head got it. I'm sure your people will figure it out, being the _superior race_ and all. Do we have anything else to talk about that _wasn't already_ covered by the truce?" No one said anything. "Good! When you guys, and gals, get ready to raid something, gimme a call. If I find something, I'll try and get word to your organizations." I beamed a sunny smile at everyone, standing up, the other leaders standing with me. Kaiser, probably not wanting to follow my lead or something, remained seated.

Not-Coil walked over to Trickster, who'd joined the rest of the Travelers. For a second, I considered walking over and trying to pre-empt him, but I don't have anywhere that could hold Noelle, much less help her, so that'd be something to take care of the future. Seeing Æonic beeline for the door, I followed him, Herb and Purity falling into step behind me. I needed to find out _who_ he was, and why he was breaking what I had assumed were rules of the world the same way _we_ were.

"Hey, Æonic!" I called, encircling the four of us in a sound bubble, "I need to ask you something."

"Yeah, what is it?" he responded, turning around, and what was bothering me about him finally clicked.

"Charlie?" I asked, narrowing my eyes. "Charlie Rycroft?

"What the fuck!?" he sputtered as an accent I didn't realize he had been faking dropped. "How the fuck do you know my name!?" my little brother demanded.


	49. Spoiler 5-x (Interlude Chuck)

**Interlude 5.x (Chuck)**

Charlie Rycroft sighed as he got up, stretching. The injuries he'd picked up during his first night in Brockton Bay still hurt, even three days later, though popping a pill helped, and he had enough for the next month, easily. He busied himself around the apartment he'd rented deep in in E88 territory as Benjamin Franklin the 8th. Having to shill out almost a grand to avoid a background check had been painful, but he had a _lot_ more, though he wasn't going to be repeating the experience he'd gone through to get it if he could afford to. He laughed to himself at the pun.

A quick shit, shower, but still no shave, dammnit, and he was ready to face the day. He was tempted to spend another day hiding out, but if he stayed inside for another day with no one to talk to he was going to go nuts, well, _more_ _nuts_. He still had no idea how the hell he got here, and why the hell this world was so _messed up_. Sure, superpowered villains, but come on, no one thought to snipe? That was like, combat one-oh-one! Camping was the move of a total newb, but this game was _rigged_ , so why the fuck not? Opening the drawer he'd stuck a small armory in, covered by a few t-shirts he'd picked up, he considered taking along a weapon. _Go out without a weapon, or run the risk of getting harassed by the cops._ Chuck snorted, grabbing an SMG, slinging its harness to be covered by his jacket. _I'm in_ _ **Nazi**_ _territory, the cops aren't gonna do_ _ **shit**_ _._

Half an hour later, surrounded by skinheads, he couldn't help to remark to himself, _Well, I wasn't_ _ **wrong**_. "Who the fuck do ya think you are kid, carrying a piece in _our_ city!" the lead baldy asked, shoving Chuck back, only for another to shove him forward back into the center. He was surprised that he wasn't as scared as he should be. A part of that was the fact that he was six-foot-five, and the thug, _might_ be six feet, so he had to look up to threaten him, but it was more the lack of firepower. The thugs somehow knew he was carrying, but they seemed to think it was pistol. A couple of the thugs had pistols, but other than that it was knives and sticks, making Chuck the heaviest armed person here, and ever since he'd gotten here, all the lessons on martial arts and marksmanship his brother had tried to teach him had just _clicked_. _Pfft, I can take 'em_ , some part of his mind observed, as the rest of his mind screamed _ARE YOU HIGH!_ to that _suicidally_ overconfident voice.

"I don't want any trouble," he said instead, raising his hands to chest level, ready to grab his gun if he needed, but he _really_ didn't want to. This was the last safe, well, safe _-ish_ part of the city, and he had a feeling that if he wanted answers, he had to stay here. Gunning down a bunch of the local gangsta's would probably be the _opposite_ of helpful.

"Then give us your piece, and your money, and we _might_ let you go. Be glad you aren't a nigger." The thug peered at him. "You're not a Jew, are you?"

 _Like I'd say yes if I was!_ Chuck thought, mind spinning to try to find a way to de-escalate the situation. _Maybe if they think I'm part of their tribe or something._ His face screwed up in disgust. "Do I look like a fuckin' kike?" He just _felt_ dirty saying that, but if it let him walk away, fuck it.

"Fine, give us your gun and your wallet and you can go," the leader informed him, as if chuck was just going to do that.

 _Like I can believe that_. _Shit, I need to go on the offensive._ "Fuck you Dumbass, I thought this was E88 territory, and you're shaking me down like I'm some fuckin Jap? That a tan, or are you just a particularly _creamy_ ape?" Repressing his gag at his language, Chuck glared at the leader. As the other Nazi's started looking at their leader thoughtfully, he had to congratulate himself, deciding to study that database of racial slurs _was_ paying off, even if half of them made _no_ sense. Like, Darky, yeah, they had dark skin. Unoriginal as fuck, but what did you expect from racists? Their powers of observation were _literally_ skin-deep. Coon though, that made _no_ sense. Racoons were just as white as they were black, if not more, though they were mostly grey. Did they think black people were really inventive, had a lot of dexterity, or maybe stole stuff from trash cans?

As the leader started to sputter incoherently, one of the other Neo-Nazis was staring at Chuck in a way that worried him. Grabbing his phone, the thug held it up, looking between it and Chuck, before his eyes went wide. "Holy shit it's him!" he yelled, showing the guys on either side of him, who looked at the phone before looking back at Chuck, happy about it.

"Fuck, it is! That's BadBoySlayer888!" one of them yelled, the phone getting passed around. Chuck repressed a wince. He did _not_ want to get connected to _that_ clusterfuck. The leader looked at the phone, before _he_ looked at Chuck, impressed and a little scared.

"Fuck, I'm sorry man, I didn't know. Why didn't you say you were one of us," the asshole actually goddamned _apologized_.

"I'm not!" Chuck said before he could help it. They looked confused, and some looked hurt, and what did hurt racists do? Nothing good, that's for sure. He clarified, "I haven't joined E88, but I don't need to, to kill some fuckin'," he paused, trying to think of a good one, "Ching Chong Chinks!"

As the crowd roared in approval he had to keep himself, from just grabbing the gun and opening fire on these pieces of human _filth_. _What kind of person thinks what I just said is_ _ **good!**_ Though he had his answer, _fucking Nazis_ , and the almost worshipful ways a couple looked at him made him want to vomit. The worst part was the fact that the adulation was _still adulation_ , and made him feel good, which just made him feel _worse_.

"Ya mean you did that without _anyone_ backin ya?" one of them asked, impressed. Chuck's uncaring shrug just made them like him more. _Yay?_

* * *

The next afternoon Chuck was back in his room, trying to lay low. On the bright side, he now knew he was safe here. On the other side, he couldn't walk more than three blocks without some asshole happily saying hello to him, which just made him feel worse every time it happened. For the third time that _hour_ someone knocked on his door. Somehow they'd found where he'd lived, and kept dropping by to _congratulate_ him for killing people for what they thought was the color of their _skin_.

He _didn't_ grab a shotgun, mostly because he was worried he'd _shoot_ the Darwin Award contestant who came to express their _amazement_ at his disgusting act of racism. He growled as he opened the door; " _Wha. . ._ " He trailed off, staring at the three _distinctive_ Nazis in front of him. To the left was a guy dressed in _only_ baggy pants with vanity chains like some emo teen and a tiger mask. To the right was a really fit blonde chick covered in scars with a metal cage over her head, mostly obscuring her face. Front and center though, was a greasy looking guy, also shirtless, wearing jeans, boots, and a metal wolf mask. From his research, especially focused now that he seemed to be skinhead catnip, Chuck recognized the E88's heavy hitters, Stormtiger, Cricket, and Hookwolf. "Hi?" he squeaked.

Hookwolf stared up at him, and Chuck realized that being taller than the crazed killer _might_ not be a good thing. "Heard a bitch here said he was the one that made that video. You him?"

 _Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit._ "Yes?" Chuck hazarded, voice breaking a little.

Stormtiger snorted. "Doesn't sound like it."

"You show me proof, or I show you your heart," Hookwolf informed the teen, there was a growl to it, but almost a bored one.

"Um, sure, gimme a sec?" Chuck asked stepping back, Hookwolf following before he had a chance to close the door. Not like that would help versus someone who could turn into a _wolf_ made of _hooks!_ Mind you, as far as names went, it was one of the stupidest goddamn things he'd ever fucking heard. Stahlhund, Kettensage, hell Direwolf would have been better, since his form was as big as one, and if you fought him you were in _dire_ circumstances. He wasn't going to tell the crazed killer that to his face though, but still, where's the creativity? At least Stormtiger was a kind of tank AND he could kinda make storms. Sorta. He finished his critique as he found the blood-stained jacket and panda mask, hidden in the back of his closet. Bringing it out Hookwolf grabbed it, sniffing it before tossing it to Stormtiger, who did the same, nodding. _Do they have super smelling or something?_

"What's your power?" Hookwolf demanded.

Chuck froze, thinking if he should lie, but then he'd have to show off, so it wasn't worth it. He shrugged instead, trying to make his voice sound tough. "D-Don't have any." _That_ got their attention, the two men glancing to Cricket, who nodded.

All three looked at him, impressed. Well, probably. Their faces were covered. He _hoped_ they were impressed. Chuck felt like he should say something. "Didn't need powers, just shot 'em and they died like," he paused, about to say dogs, but that guy called himself a _wolf_ so that might not work, "the yellow bastards they were."

"We could use people like you for the cause. Join, and we could get you healed and killing Coolies by tonight," Hookwolf offered.

 _Fuck, Fuck, Fuck, Fuck, Fuck!_ He panicked. _They're dragging me into this, and this feels like an offer I can't refuse. Fuck._ _ **Think!**_ _Why did I choose a_ _ **third-floor**_ _apartment? Can't jump out a window. Not that it would help, dude turns into a_ _ **wolf**_ _made out of_ _ **hooks!**_ He tried to figure out how to get out of this situation. _Dudes look like they're the 'noble white warrior' types, let's go with that._ Settling into _that_ mindset, the response was obvious. "I'm honored, but I gotta ask, the healing, does it leave scars?" He knew it didn't.

The chick took out a _fucking kama_ from her back, but instead of attacking him flipped it over, pressing the base to her throat, buzzing "No, it doesn't".

 _Jackpot_. "Then I'll have to turn you down. I took these wounds in _battle_ , and I want to feel them heal, and remember what I did wrong so I won't make the same mistakes _next time._ " He doubled down, noticing the scars all three were almost proudly sporting. "And without scars, how will people know I am _a warrior_."

They exchanged looks, and he hoped to god he hadn't overplayed the part. "Take off your shirt." Hookwolf demanded.

 _Well, if they're gonna kill me, doesn't matter if I'm shirtless_. He complied, Hookwolf almost negligently reaching down and ripping off the bandages as Chuck fought not to make a sound at the pain. The killer looked at his wounds before nodding.

"Not bad. You'll be fine to fight in two weeks. You'll join then," Hookwolf announced, sounding like he was smiling. With that he turned and stalked out the door, Stormtiger following him, trying to look bored just a _little_ too hard.

Cricket lingered, giving him a once over. "You're out of shape," she buzzed, "But I'll get you _fighting fit_ soon enough. Then we'll have _fun._ "

She left as well, which was good as Charlie wasn't sure if he should be offended because she called him fat, or, well, that almost sounded like flirting, and he had _no_ idea how to take _that_.

* * *

Chuck walked down the darkened street, frustrated, the panic that had been growing for the past few days at the back of his head making itself noted. He'd had two weeks to get the hell out of dodge, but as soon as he'd left the next morning, he'd noticed he'd picked up a tail. They were making _sure_ he was around to join, or they'd probably kill him. To get away he needed to _Randy Newman_ this bitch. Unfortunately, finding friends who _weren't_ Neo-Nazis was proving to be _fucking impossible_. This night he'd managed to shake his tail, heading downtown, going to a club to try to meet someone who could help. The first red flag should've been when the bouncer had stopped him from getting in line to get in, but instead of telling him to scram told him instead to go right inside.

"What the hell, you're letting a fifteen-year-old into the club?" one of the women in line had complained.

 _Fuck you too!_ was his immediate response, but before he could say anything the bouncer shot back, "When you've killed half the people he has, you can bitch, bitch." _Fuck, that dude's cool!_ Chuck thought, heading inside.

Turns out, he found, the club was _not_ somewhere to make friends. Between the bad lighting, the loud music, and the drunk people, friendly conversation _wasn't_ gonna happen. Most people wouldn't give him the time of day. Those that would. . . well, while the offer to get blown in the bathroom was tempting, and he was still seventeen, _not fifteen_ , but she only wanted to do it because of the entire killing Asians thing. He knew, because she nearly _panted_ it, which killed the mood _pretty fucking quickly._

After two hours, and _increasingly_ disturbing offers, he'd left and headed back to his apartment. It was the early hours of the morning, not even twilight, and the streets were pretty empty. He started to head to the crosswalk, but he noticed the power-box on the sidewalk was blinking. It stood out to him, because he'd never seen them have any light on them _whatsoever_. When it started _beeping_ he started backing up. The ground rumbled and he thought _Fuck this,_ turning and running. A moment later he heard a deep grinding and ran faster, the ground shaking, the stone of the sidewalk starting to come apart.

Leaping over part of the sidewalk that had split open, cracks appearing, he ran like hell as his footing started to loosen and disappear, the cars on the street sliding back the way he came, before a small thunderclap went off behind him, the force of whatever it was picking him up and tossing him down the street.

Landing and rolling, burning off momentum in that weird way his body sometimes moved in this place, he sprang to his feet and looked back. Where used to be an intersection was a deep hole, Rubble, steel, and even some cars were tossed in every direction, destroying the buildings closest to the blast and riddling everything around the site with debris. He heard a tinny ringing, but nothing else at first, his hearing slowly coming back as he started to hear the screams of people in the buildings, and from elsewhere in the city as he heard explosions, whooshes of flame, cracking noises, and a whole lot of other things.

Deciding he wanted _no_ part of this he took another street to go home. As he ran he passed people coming out of their homes, looking around, and generally _getting in his way_. He ran out of breath after a couple blocks, stopping to pant as his chest hurt. As he bent over, he noticed a light under the parked car he was leaning against. It shown for a second, a brown light, and then started blinking.

 _Blinking lights are never good_ , was his thought as he pushed himself to run again, pushing harder as it started _fucking beeping_. He yelled "Run!" as he fled, his legs felt leaden, but he pressed on, pushing past confused people and cursing his hatred of PE. After a second the beeping stopped and there was a great _squelching_ sound. Turning to look as he leaned against a light post he saw the cars, walls, even the _people_ that had stopped to stare behind him had lost all color three inches above the ground, the affected area having turned a dark brown, and looking to be made of the same material. The phenomena had spread out from the light in a hemisphere, the asshole he'd had to push past a few feet back's legs were affected, the man's face scrunched up in confusion. The entire street seemed to freeze before it all _collapsed_ , everything losing cohesion as the smell of mud hit his nose. The building nearest the, _fuck, was that even a bomb_ , collapsed, stone and masonry collapsing into the street, splashing mud in every direction as the man started screaming, his bottom half liquid. As Chuck fell backwards something bounced by him. Reaching over to see what it was, the man's screams of pain petering off to nothing, he brushed off the mud to find he was holding a woman's foot, cut cleanly above the ankle and bleeding into the mud.

Dropping it Chuck vomited, unable to handle what the _fuck_ he was seeing. After a minute where he _didn't_ break down, just wanting to go back home, to a place where there weren't _bombs_ that turned people to fucking _wet dirt_ , he picked himself up, took a deep breath, and turned on his heel to _go back to his fucking apartment_. He spared a glance for the man, but he was dead, whether of shock or blood loss, he wasn't sure, but it didn't really matter now.

Deciding that apparently the streets were a _fucking deathtrap_. He started taking alleys, another building collapsing into the mud behind him. That seemed to work, and he was two blocks away before he tripped on something that he couldn't see, a beeping coming from right beside him. "Fuck me!" Chuck swore as he _bolted_ , pushing everything he had to get away as he heard a soft _foomp_ and gravity turned sideways. Lunging to the side he clung onto a dumpster, he looked down at a black sphere hanging twenty feet in the air in the middle of the alley, pulling everything to it. The loose trash was drawn in, a trashcan bouncing off his head, making him see stars as he held on. After a second, the pull increased, and the dumpster started to slide backwards, towards the _fucking singularity_. Climbing to it's top, side, whatever, Chuck jumped to hold onto a pipe, the dumpster picking up speed before it lifted off, crushing with a horrible sound as it fit itself into the basketball sized sphere.

The metal beneath his hands started to bend, bolts popping loose as Chuck climbed to the right, up, _away_. Part of the pipe gave way, tearing and falling into the sphere, the mooring coming loose faster than he could climb as he heard breaking masonry and screaming. The pipe finally gave, and he flew back, flailing arms catching hard on a fire escape, which shuddered and started to groan and deform. His arms were on fire and his entire body felt heavy, his legs like someone was squeezing them all over. The fire-escape tore itself out of what was left of the wall while he tried to climb it, not even getting more than a few feet away. As he was pulling back towards the hole in space, feeling his body squeezed, _knowing he was going to die,_ the bomb cut out, and he was sent flying, landing on the concrete alley and skidding as he heard something **_thunk_** like a dropped anvil, only worse. He laid on the ground, laughing, and crying, and just _so done with this fucking place_.

Shakily getting to his feet, his legs felt like they were one massive bruise, but he could still walk. Gingerly stepping towards where the sphere had been he saw a tiny circular hole in the ground, maybe the size of a golfball, the concrete around it shattered. Taking out his phone he shone a light, and it went _deep_ , farther than his light could carry. Finally looking around he saw the walls had been ripped away, as had been everything inside that wasn't tied down. He heard sobbing, and the groans of the building on either side and decided that he didn't want to stay there any longer than was necessary.

 _The universe does things in threes,_ Chuck reassured himself. _That's three. I'm safe. I just need to go back to the apartment and go to_ _ **sleep**_. Getting home, he pushed his way towards the front door. People were in the streets, moving everywhere. On one level that was fucking stupid, but apparently staying home could make you just as dead. He entered his apartment building, cursing the fact that it was on the _third fucking floor_ with every step. Fumbling with his keys, he opened the door, wearily locking it behind him. Stumbling in, he relaxed, glad to be home. _Finally_.

He sat down at his desk, turning on his laptop to find out _what the fuck was happening._ Taking a deep breath, he was interrupted as his phone rang. He started to check his cell, only to realize the sound was coming from his bed. He let his landline ring, _they could leave a fucking message_ , only to freeze as he realized _he didn't have one_.

Turning to look, he saw a black box sitting on his bed, the source of the sound. A holographic display appeared over the box, stating:

For: BadBoySlayer888, The best of hugs!

From: Bakuda, The best part of the ABB!

Then the box started **_screeching_** _._ A horrible tearing, angry not-noise that dragged nails across the chalkboard of his sanity. From the box emerged. . . His brain refused to see exactly what they were, just going: _It's a_ _ **Tentacle**_ _. Let's call it a_ _ **Tentacle**_ _, and_ _ **nothing else**_. The **_Tentacles_** reached out from the box, grasping at everything. One raked across the wall, dark blue fungus springing up wherever it touched. Another **_Tentacle_** grasped onto his pillow, wrenching it back into the box, which wasn't a box anymore. _Yes it is!_ his mind told him. But if obviously wasn't, it was a- _It's a_ _ **BOX**_ _, just like those are_ _ **Tentacles**_ _._ He started to get up, to run, to get out, but his bed was between him and the door, as the **_Tentacles_** reached out towards him, questing, _screeching_ , **_Staring_**. _I should have just gotten eaten by that fucking black hole_ was his last thought, as certain death reached out to grasp him.

* * *

Charlie found himself floating in space, but not _outer_ space. He hung, bodiless, in a place with no beginning or end. Prismatic clouds drifted all around, twisting, and changing, but in a kinda peaceful way. _Am I dead? Did it get me? Is this, well, it isn't hell, is this Purgatory?_ Not having to run for his life was nice, but in an hour or two, this was going to get boring _fast._

After a minute, or maybe an eon, he had no frame of reference, something in the distance moved, the clouds flying past him away from it, or he moved towards it, again, no way to tell how. _Something_ happened, and he reached a break in the mist. It was an open column in the clouds, and he passed over a mountain range that encircled a lake, the hole in the fog extending eternally upwards over it. Either he was tiny, or the mountain range was _fucking huge_ because it took a _while_. Eventually, he passed it and flew out over the lake, which was glowing, full of shifting blues and greens, with hints of reds, yellows, and every other color in it, including ones that he'd never seen before, and couldn't think of words to describe.

He flew on, formless, looking around without eyes, until he reached the center, slowing to a stop. He waited, for an immeasurable age, and felt more than saw something moving. The mountain range started to move, spinning and shifting. As the largest mountain moved, rising into the air his mind reorganized what he was seeing, and if he still had breath, it would've caught in his throat. The mountains, the coils of a spiked snake so big he couldn't understand, shifted, a head, the size of a moon, a planet, _the sun_ , **_the goddamned solar system_** _, rose to stare at_ _ **him**_ _._

 _Jörmungandr?_ He thought, getting a sense of bemused negation from _everywhere at once_.

As it stared something absolutely _tiny_ , detached itself from its head, so miniscule he could barely make it out. It moved towards him, slowly, with painstaking care. As it inched towards him it grew, slowly, from something the size of a speck of dust, to a blue stone he could hold in his hand, to something as big as he was. It grew, larger and larger, as it slowly moved towards him, only he realized it wasn't taking it's time, it was rocketing towards him so fast it was _blueshifting_. As it came closer he felt the air around him shaking, his vision blotting out before the crystal big enough to kill the _dinosaurs_ , and _growing._

He wanted to scream, to run, to escape, to laugh hysterically this _ridiculous_ amount of overkill but he couldn't move, just float in this prismatic hell as a snake the size of the _universe_ killed him with a rock big enough to _destroy the sun!_ Just as the crystal, shifting from blue to a prismatic riot of multicolored _death,_ was about to impact him, the world was consumed in flames of Neon Blue and Sand, and he felt a sense of _amusement_ , mixed with **_anticipation_** _._

The flames cleared, and he froze, a **_Tentacle_** an inch away from his face, but completely still. The **_screeching_** had stopped, and everything in the room was unmoving. Sliding away from it from where he'd fallen, he got to his feet, feeling _good_. Far better than he had any right to. Glancing out the window, he saw a distant bolt of lightning reaching up from the city into the sky, but heard no sound. Walking over to it he looked out and saw that everything, and everyone, out in the street was frozen in place. A flicker of movement caught his eyes and he saw people at the end of the street milling about fearfully as they stared at the frozen people. One guy was actively pulling at his arm, held in the air in front of him, completely motionless.

 _Holy shit. Did I stop_ _ **time?**_ Looking at the **_Tentacles_** , hanging in the air, he grabbed a wooden spoon and approached one of the limbs, poking it. Immediately the spoon started to sprout blue mushrooms. Jumping back and letting go of the utensil. It hung in the air where he dropped it, fungal growth halted.

 _Okay, What I'm holding still has time. Good._ He stared at the **_Tentacles_**. _I'm fuckin' leaving_. He wasn't sure how long this was going to last, so, ducking around and under the things that tried to _kill_ him, he made a circuit of the room, packing as much as he could. Between two duffle bags and a backpack, he stuffed them full of money, weapons, and the things he didn't want to leave behind like his laptop. It only took a few minutes according to his phone, which had no signal. Bags packed, he looked at the **_Tentacles_** and they **stared** hatefully back. Shuddering, he unlocked the door, leaving, and locking it behind him, knowing there was _no_ way he was getting his security deposit back.

Climbing down the stairs two at a time, he was almost at the front door when the sound came back, making him jump. The **_screeching_** was back, and if anything, it sounded _angrier_ , if that was possible. Running out the front door he looked up, seeing long, thick **_Tentacles_** , teeth gnashing in rage as they whipped out the window of his room, growing quickly.

People outside were stumbling, looking up, standing still while screaming in fear, and generally doing everything you _weren't_ supposed to do in the horror movie tonight had become. Chuck ran as the tentacles flailed, gabbing a woman who shrieked out in pain so hard he thought her voice was going to _snap_. Another tentacle flailed down and he dodged it, only for a third to **_grab_** him around the arm and he _knew_ why she was screaming, for he was as well. His nerves blazed in **_fire_** as he was dragged upwards, _inwards_ , the **_Tentacle_** _tearing_ and _worming_ its way **_in_** him, **_devouring_** him as it pulled him back to his room and the **_BOX_** which opened it's maw and _-_

He stumbled, arms flailing, as the third tentacle missed him, grabbing an old man as he screamed with a pain Chuck _knew_. Blinking, heart hammering, he started to run, only for another **_Tentacle_** to wrap around his throat, **_devouring_** it's way up into his brain, eating his _thoughts,_ his _mind,_ his **_soul_** -

Falling on his ass the **_Tentacle_** whipped by, grabbing a metal pole and ripping it from the ground, wires sparking as fungus started to sprout along the paint, but not the rusted metal. Getting up, he swayed, but started to move again, dodging one **_Tentacle_** as it whipped by. _They were going after him!_ He dodged a second and a third, only for a fourth to spear through his chest, **_Devouring_** _-_

With a force of will he broke from that reality, vision, _future_ , twisting out of the way of the spearing **_Tentacle_**. _I get it! I'm leaving!_ Running out of range of their growing limbs, running faster than he believed was possible, passing between people and vaulting over cars, the thing's **_SCREECHING_** reached a fever pitch before cutting out, leaving only the blessed sounds of explosions, chaos, and screaming.

He needed to get somewhere safe, as he'd gotten his second wind, _and then some_ , but didn't know how long it would last. As for safety, that hotel he'd stayed at his first night seemed to be something straight out of John Wick, and if anyplace had checked for bombs, it would be _there_. He jogged in that direction, breaking into a bounding run, body light as he practically loped along, heading downtown.

Downtown was, if anything, worse and in a fit of _why the fuck not_ he turned down an alley, taking a few steps up a wall before jumping onto a fire escape, swiftly climbing to the top. Running across the rooftop he reached the edge, following his instincts and pushing off as hard as he could he took a flying leap, near effortlessly crossing the thirty feet of street, foot smoothly landing on the ledge of the building as he continued on with a laugh and a smile.

After what _he'd_ just survived, this was _nothing._

* * *

He'd checked in, though they hadn't recognized him. The fact that he was grinning like a madman probably didn't help. He couldn't _help_ it, this was the best he'd ever felt in his _life_. It was no wonder people got addicted to near-death experiences if _this_ was the payoff! Humming to himself he checked in, dropped his bags on his bed, and stretched, bouncing on the balls of his feet, _bursting_ with energy. Taking a deep breath, he centered himself, heading into the bathroom to clean off some of the mud, concrete dust, ash, and general grime from his face.

Washing it off, the water turning brown and red as it ran off him, he finally calmed. Looking into the mirror though, his heartrate spiked. He wasn't, well, _him!_ The face that looked back at him appeared to be chiseled from stone, jawline sharp enough to cut steel, and not an ounce of fat to be seen. Stripping his shirt, which he realized was practically painted on, having to rip it to take it off, his gut was gone, replaced with. . . _is it a six pack if there's eight?_ No wonder he was feeling good, apparently Super Space Snake Scales were like ultra-steroids. That or some of the drugs he'd taken had _been_ steroids. And had taken a week to kick in. Without exercising. _Is it bad that Super Space Snake Scales are the_ _ **more**_ _likely answer?_

Shaking his head, he sat down, shirtless, at the room's desk, taking out his laptop and turning it on to try to find out what the _hell_ was going on. He took out his phone to try to do the same thing. He put his face in hands, exhaling at the ridiculousness of all of this. He checked out his muscles, because honestly, he'd never had muscles like _this_ before. He stretched his arms out, releasing the last of the tension. He looked outside, seeing his reflection in the window. All six of them.

He was sitting in his chair, but he looked like something out of the Matrix, one of him leaning forward and looking up news sites, which had _no_ idea what was going on, doing the same on his phone to similar results, feeling his muscles which felt solid in a way that he hadn't expected, putting his head in his hands, stretching, and looking out the window, all of him merging into each other like he was noclipping. The other five of him stopped what they were doing and turned to look at his reflections, merging into a single _him_.

 _What. The._ _ **Fuck.**_

He heard a chiming sound, three of him looking around for it in different directions, the sound coming from nowhere and everywhere at once. " _ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?"_ he demanded, ready for the next bomb, but nothing happened.

There was the sound of the chime again, and he heard someone female exhaling. 'Installation complete!' the voice, sounding somewhat British, informed him. 'Good evening Sir!'

"Um, who are you?" he asked the air.

'I am your A.I!' it responded cheerfully, a window opening in the air showing an attractive woman in black rimmed glasses, business attire, dark red hair contrasting with her bright green eyes and pale skin. Turning his head moved the window, and moving his hand in front of his eyes showed it was not actually in the air, but somehow overlaid on his vision. "You're a computer program?"

The woman laughed good naturedly, covering her mouth as she did. "Oh, no. I am an _Abaddon_ Intelligence. Where are my manners? Introductions are needed. I am temporal shard, designation: Centauri, here to assist my user in the Primary's mission. In particular the destruction of Entity, designation: The Warrior!'


	50. Outreach 6-1

**Outreach 6.1**

Looking at my brother, who was apparently _Æonic_ , I couldn't repress my grin. "Dude, it's me! Lee!" I jerked a thumb towards Break, "And that's Herb!"

He stared at me, hard, before shaking his head. "No way, you look nothing like him. You're too SWOL!"

I laughed, wondering where the hell he'd come from, but happy to see him nonetheless. "One, go fuck yourself. Two, like you have room to fuckin' talk!"

"Holy shit it _is_ you!" he said, more to himself than me.

"What's going on?" Purity asked confused, looking between us. "Do you know each other?"

"Yeah!" I responded, slinging an arm around his shoulder. "He's my little brother!"

"Who got fuckin' ripped, high five!" Herb added, holding his hand up, which Charlie stepped forward and hit after a moment's hesitation.

I looked around, noting the stares from the villains starting to leave. Dropping the bubble, I told Charlie, "This is not the optimal place to discuss things, why don't you come with us to a more secure location Æonic?"

He hesitated, before nodding, accent back as he too saw the villains, "Of course, where should we meet?"

I held out a hand. "We'll show you, it'll be faster."

He grasped it, going taut as I levitated us an inch off the ground. " _What the fuck?"_ he hissed as he looked down.

"The three of us can all fly, it's easier," I commented.

Herb winked at Purity, "Shall we?

Purity nodded to him professionally, taking off, Herb giving me a thumbs up before turning into a pterodactyl, following her. I lifted my little brother, and we took off into the sky.

Landing a few minutes' walk from the base, Charlie looked at me, asking "So you're the-"

"Yeah," I cut him off. "I was training."

He nodded to himself as Purity looked around. "Where are we going?" she asked unsurely.

"Back to our humble abode madam," Herb responded, grinning.

She looked around, expression skeptical, "In the railyard?"

"It does mean we can't get delivery," I responded.

"But I am a decent cook, so that's no big!" he reassured.

I agreed, "He is, better than I am." Charlie nodding, adding, "Same."

She quieted down, but as we approached the base, the outside a rusted wreck she slowed again.

"Vejovis, unlock" I commanded, a light playing over my face before the door opened, revealing the homey interior. Walking inside without waiting, I headed towards the meeting room we'd never actually used before, the other three looking around as they followed.

"Just this floor?" Charlie asked, snorting at my nod. "Mine's better." Rolling my eyes, I shifted my clothing to business casual, taking the chair at the head of the table. "Okay, _that's_ cool," Charlie admitted, taking the seat to my left, as Purity and Herb sat to my right. My little brother looked at me, before shaking his head. "Fuck, it _is_ you," he commented, reaching behind his head, the full clock helmet opening up as he took it off.

He looked like he'd aged five years, but in a good way. All of his baby was fat gone, leaving a _very_ different face, though the mouth, nose, and eyes were still the same if you looked for it. Sighing he ran his gloved hand through his hair, messing it up from the uniform dome it had compressed into. Herb popped his mask off, and Purity, looking to me for confirmation, dropped out of Lightform after I nodded. "Okay, I gotta ask, how did you get minions?"

He smirked, "Craigslist." I stared at him in disbelief. "Nah, just fuckin' with ya, I've been recruiting people I've helped. Figured if they come in liking me, they'd be more loyal."

"Wait, you got a gang?" Herb asked. "How long have you had powers?"

"A week," he shrugged, laughing at Herb's "Fuckin' white people."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Purity asked, glaring at him.

"What? No!" he responded, holding his hands up. "Um, what I mean is, sort of, normally, he really went fast and just got everybody around. Like seriously? Seriously?"

Charlie shot a me a look, and I motioned between the two mouthing 'He likes her'. He nodded, before stopping and frowning, mouthing 'Nazi?' I shook my head, "She left two years ago." He shrugged as Herb continued covering his ass. "So, you've gone villain?" I asked, not censuring, just interested.

He gave me a disbelieving look. "Have you seen the cops here? They make Chicago look clean! Besides, here you can actually make a gang and _nothing happens_. Fuck yeah I'm doing that!"

"Have you claimed territory yet?"

"Not yet," he shook his head. "Not sure where to start. And how."

I shrugged, "I might have some ideas."

"Aren't you a hero?"

"Okay, so, yes, but no," I started.

"Oh, thanks! Now I understand!" he snarked.

"Shut the fuck up and let me talk," I responded without heat. "Hero is a _massively_ loaded term, especially here. Villain is almost as bad, but not quite. When someone says _hero_ , it could mean a _lot_ of different things. It could mean the Superman, Batman, Dudley Do-Right super good guy who'd never do _anything_ bad, let alone _kill_. The kind of moron who would capture a mass-murderer and turn him over to the cops, even if they've _already_ escaped before, and somehow considers themselves blameless when the asshole breaks out and does it all _again_." While this universe didn't have a Joker, it had people who were arguably _worse_. They weren't going to have another Christmas, if I had my way.

"It could mean those 'go out and punch bad guys in the face' types who abuse their power and piss away their potential," I continued, waving around us. "Like most of the heroes in this dimension, who-"

"Hey!" Purity objected, having been listening. "I don't waste my potential!"

I gave her a bland look. "You can fly and fire off blasts of Light. Have you done _anything_ to try to figure out new applications after you figured out how to 'move fast and shoot stuff?' When things calm down I'm going to be working with _everyone_ to find new ways of using their powers to increase their combat potential, and possibly find non-combat applications."

She looked confused, "Non-combat?"

Suppressing my desire to snort derisively, I reminded myself that it wasn't her fault, both her shard _and_ this world's views helped shape that _particular_ blind spot. "Yeah, off the top of my head I could be the best exterminator, _ever_. Herb could help scientists understand how dinosaurs actually worked, let alone the uses one could find for an intelligent T-Rex. Charlie can _stop time_. I really shouldn't have to explain the _dozens_ of ways that could be useful. If we can find a non-combat use for your power, even if you decide to retire from fighting, you'll be set for life."

My little brother appeared to be deep in thought. "How could his power be useful?" she asked.

"Seriously?" I asked, incredulous. "Okay. Firefighting, Bomb-Defusal, Surgery, Three-Dimensional Construction, Art, Search and Rescue, Entertainment, Prison Guard, do I really need to go on?"

"No, I understand," she replied, a little chagrined.

"Right, so, where was I?" I asked, mostly to myself. "Yeah, the meaning of the term 'Hero'. It could mean those self-sacrificing types, who take the blame for things that they didn't really do, like Hercules, Spider-Man, or Anakin Skywalker. With great power doesn't come great responsibility intrinsically, but they get god complexes. Then when shit happens that they couldn't have known about, they get some messed up martyring 'it's my fault' philosophy that destroys their lives."

"It could mean the older type of hero: someone who's human, and tries their best, though their faults constantly undercut them, like Iron Man, Sigurd, or King Arthur. Though most of _their_ problems could be solved by open and honest communication." That could be said about most things, but so many people refused to just _talk_ because of their own fear.

I shrugged. "For me though, and this might be hubris, but I'm the kind of Hero from the Myths of _old_. The kind that has the power and the will to do what needs to be done, ultimately beholden only to myself. Musashi, Beowulf, hell, the original hero, Gilgamesh are all those, and while I'm not there yet, _give me time!"_ I proclaimed.

Purity looked between Herb and Charlie. "Is he always like this?"

"Yes!" the chorused.

I winced. "Sorry, bad habit. I like to give out my complete thoughts so as to avoid misunderstandings."

"He preaches," Herb translated.

"No I don't!"

He nodded emphatically, " _Yes_ , you do."

" _No, I-_ "

"Not to interrupt your lover's spat," Charlie interrupted. "But I need to get back before someone on my crew does something stupid."

"Right," I responded, understanding. "Carl."

He was taken aback by that. "How? Fuck it, I don't want to know." He sighed, turning to fully address me. "Before I leave, the final boss, The Warrior: It's fucking Scion, isn't it?" I nodded as he leaned back. "Fuuuuck."

"What?" Purity asked. "Final Boss?"

I considered how to put it, before shrugging and just told her straight; It'd been working out so far after all. "Eventually Scion will go crazy and try to kill _everyone_. Not for the next two to fifteen years, according to precogs who can see him. But yeah, take how hard it is to kill an Endbringer, and then, like, five times that bad. Maybe twenty."

Purity stared at me, going pale, " _WHAT!?"_

"Jesus man!" Herb rebuked.

I didn't quite get the problem. "What? By next year, tops, we'll be able to kill Behemoth."

 ** _"WHAT!?"_**

Herb looked at me, wide eyed, hands up in a cringing position.

Charlie however nodded, smiling, "Oh, okay. Good."

She looked at us like we were both absolutely insane, turning to Herb, nearly begging, "Please tell me he's joking!"

Herb winced. "I'd like to, and I'd like to reassure you, but he's not _wrong_ , just a little too explain-y today."

She looked at him before she took a deep breath, centering herself before looking at me. " _How?_ "

"Well, first of all you need to understand the Endbringers themselves," I started. "They're multiversal constructs. It's why they can tell physics to go screw itself. They're actually made of crystalline layers, with every layer _supposedly_ five percent tougher than the previous one, and at their core we're talking two hundred layers." Charlie cocked his head to the side, thinking with a frown.

"Yeah, we're talking galaxy level mass if that _was_ true, and supposedly even the arms, which only have a three percent increase per layer, would need thirty _trillion_ atmospheres of pressure to damage fully. That's why _that_ intel is complete _bullshit_ , and an excellent reason why you can't rely on Thinkers to fight things created by powers they share a source with. Those facts _might_ be true, from a certain point of view and leaving out a _lot_ of important details."

I shrugged. "Are they multiversal? They'd have to be, and they _are_ crystalline so they've no real biology to take advantage of, but the same source that confirmed the _first_ Thinker's intel that gave the hard numbers on the layers said a glassing orbital strike could take one out, so their exponentially increasing toughness _couldn't_ be a thing. Even if it _was_ I've got at _least_ three ways to kill one, but we don't want to take one out 'til we're ready for the next one. So-"

"The _next one!?"_ Purity demanded.

Herb looked at me pleading, "Please don't dump it all. Not right now."

I looked at him, considering his words. If this had been day one, or even before the bombing I would have deferred to him. Purity _was_ his project, but after Dinah, I _couldn't_ trust him. For all I knew he'd do something like let Jack Slash get to Theo, _just because it happened in canon_. He said he was going to st- my thoughts froze. _He didn't actually say he was going to stop doing that._ He said he had his reasons, he expressed regret, but he _never said he was going to stop_. **_Oh Fuck Him_**.

I repressed a sigh and growl as Purity looked between the two of us. If this was Bakuda, or someone like her I'd let him screw up with her, but Purity was a _hero_ , a latently racist one, but at her heart she was _good_ , and I wasn't going to let him screw her up like he had Dinah. Let him flirt? She was an adult, she could handle that on her own. If she _really_ didn't want him to she'd tell him to stop like an adult and he would, because he was like that. When it came to _important_ things though, I was going to do what was _right_ , and if Herb had a good reason why, I'd listen, but I was _done_ doing things just because he asked.

I looked at her, a sad grin tugging the corner of my mouth, and shrugged as Herb's eyes went wide. "What? Did you think there were only three?" Charlie looked like he was going to say something, but shook his head. "Yeah, there's a bunch, but we only have intel on the first _six_ , so we need to be ready for anything by the time we start _that_ ball rolling," I explained. "Hell, after some training Purity, and if your powers work like I think they might, _you_ could be able to, if not kill, then fight off Khonsu, the fourth one, on your own." I grinned, looking around at them.

" _He'd_ definitely need some Tinkertech assistance," I jerked a thumb at my little brother, ignoring his smiling objection, "But each _one_ of us could fight off an Enbringer _solo_ once we're at our peak." I pointed at Herb without looking at him, "Behemoth, and maybe Leviathan," Charlie, "Tohu, the fifth, and maybe Leviathan." Purity, "Khonsu, and Bohu, the sixth, if Tohu's tied up, they work together," and finished with a thumb to myself, "The Simurgh."

"You're crazy. You're all crazy. I've joined a team of _crazy people_ ," she commented helplessly as she sat back in her chair. "How do you _know_ all of this?"

" _That_ answer is long and complicated. The short version? We're time travelers from another dimension," I bullshitted, though from a certain point of view it was true. Then again, from a certain point of view Anakin Skywalker was killed by Darth Vader. "A dimension where the golden age of heroes never happened, where there are no powers, where Reagan broke the USSR with _economics_ , it didn't fracture with infighting as its mid-level members sought to secretly use parahumans to take over their own territories. Some of the people where we live heard about what happened, _will_ happen from your perspective, long after it was over, and are incapable of helping. _Something_ happened, and Herb and I found ourselves here, as well as apparently my little brother and my father. We-"

"Wait, Dad's here?" Charlie asked, looking around like our father was waiting to pop out from behind a chair.

"I'm pretty sure, but he's being cagey about meeting. You know how cautious he is. Besides, he's got like _no_ combat related powers," I responded. "It's probably making him even worse than usual. Imagine if I said I wanted to meet, but you weren't sure I was _me_ , and you _couldn't_ stop time."

He nodded, "Point."

"So-" I started, only to be cut off by Purity this time.

"Wait, you saw what happens? How far? Were my kids okay?" she asked, unsure.

I sighed. "Okay, so, first thing. Herb and I, and Charlie now, and maybe our father, have already derailed the regular timeline, possibly irreparably, which is a _good thing_. The ABB isn't making nearly the same progress, Coil's assets are being undermined, and the confrontation between Boardwalk and Oni Lee _never happened_ in the version of the future we saw. Oh, side note, Boardwalk straight up _didn't exist_ before. He's not on the team at this time, and after what he said the Protectorate tried to pull, he's _never_ joining them, but he'll assist us if he's free."

"I'd like to have a few words with him," she stated menacingly, sidetracked as I'd planned. "I've heard rumors that he's claiming to by my child with, _Skidmark,_ " she looked ill at the thought alone. "As if I'd ever have sex with. . ." she stopped herself, looking around. "And I'm not that old!"

"With Skidmark? I don't blame you!" Herb agreed. "That foul-mouthed junkie scum isn't fit to lick your boots!"

She nodded quickly. "Yes. Exactly. Junkie. That's what I meant."

"From what he's told me, he's been asked about that, and has denied it every time. Wherever that rumor started, it wasn't with him." Suspiciously specific denials _were_ denials after all.

"Fine. Sure. But even if it won't happen now, what happened to Theo and my little Aster in that future?" She asked, trying to stay on topic. Herb looked pained. "That bad? Please, tell me," she pleaded.

Sighing, I did as she asked. "Okay, so in the way this _originally_ played out Scion, um, _triggered_ after two years, as those with the power to see the future knew that if they waited the full fifteen years, we'd lose against him. The world _is_ currently breaking down Purity, those out there who could stop it can't or won't, and without us interfering, they don't. In fifteen years, things would've gotten so bad you would have had _no_ chance of beating him, so they kickstarted the apocalypse."

"In the short term, after the ABB is taken down, Coil unmasks the _entirety_ of the E88, which he's probably still going to do, so you need to move your kids _right_ after the truce ends, if not before. They can stay here if you want, but CPS is going to do some downright _illegal_ things otherwise, and it'd be easier to keep them out of the way then have to kill some people following bad orders to get them back." I looked to Herb, who nodded, smiling comfortingly at her.

"But things in _that_ timeline got _bad_ , and after Kaiser fell, the group split into The Pure, led by you, because you took his poisoned offer, and Fenrir's Chosen, led by Hookwolf. You were forced to abandon Theo, so he'll Trigger, for reasons that _aren't going to happen_. He does, taking the name Golem and joining the Wards. After that . . . are you sure you want to know? It's _not_ going to happen. _We won't let it._ "

She took a deep breath, nodding. "Yes. Even if it isn't I _need_ to know." I looked to Herb, who was subtly shaking his head no, but this ultimately wasn't _his_ decision.

"So, you know the Slaughterhouse Nine?" I started, her eyes went wide. "Yeah, they come here recruiting. Still will, but we're going to _kill_ _them_ _ **all**_." I stood up, pacing, not wanting to look at her, knowing this was going to be bad. "In _that_ timeline though, Jack Slash, Bonesaw, the Siberian, and Hookwolf, who've they've recruited, escape. They grab a Tinker and get _cloning_ , emerging out of hiding a year and a half later as the Slaughterhouse Nine- _Thousand_ , with just short of three hundred members. They have nine clones of _every_ member they've ever had who's died, with the exception of Gray Boy, who they can only make one of for some reason. _He_ traps you Kayden, in an endless, torturous loop, with Jack Slash taking Aster to raise her and mold her into one of _them,_ to twist her into a _monster_. Aster dies _instantly_ in the attack on their cloning facilities, before they can get started on her." I looked at her, and instantly regretted it.

Kayden stared at me, face white, mouth open in horror, tears streaming down her face, emotions laid _bare_. Herb reached out to grab her hand, and she flinched, but didn't pull away. I stood there, looking her in the eye and _promised_ her: "Kayden, that's _not going to happen_. In the original timeline humanity _barely_ squeaked out of _complete_ destruction, and was reduced to a borderline _feudal_ existence. That was because almost everyone looked out for themselves first, _last_ , and **_only_**. When Zion started his purge, only a _tiny_ fraction grouped together to fight, the rest sure that if _they_ were the ones who were attacked, they'd somehow do what no-one else could and win, letting that monster in golden skin destroy their _competition_ first, so complete was their _arrogance_ and _self-delusion_. The Birdcage was opened, and a _lot_ of heroes _and_ villains fought to try to stop him, dying in the process because no one would _lead_ , every _single_ one of them either trying to offload the responsibility to someone _else_ or so concerned with their own _egos_ they refused to work with others to _save the world_."

" _Billions_ burned Kayden, turned to dust in golden light as Earths in _multiple_ realities were _scoured_. Over _half_ of the people on Earth Bet lost their lives in the first _day_ of his rampage. In _that_ timeline a hero, not even yet an _adult_ , had to sacrifice themselves, their _sanity_ , throwing open the gates of their power and mind-controlling _thousands_ of parahumans in an _all_ or _nothing_ battle as their brain _eroded_ under the stress of their own unbound abilities, losing the ability to read, then understand speech, then faces, degrading farther and farther, losing everything that made them, them, made them _human,_ as they struggled to hold on just long enough to _kill_ the _golden god_ before he killed **_everyone_** **.** "

I grit my teeth, anger at the atrocity that was the canon ending fueling my words. " ** _I will not let that happen!_** I will _save_ this world if I have to drag it _kicking_ and _screaming_ to do so. I am a **_Hero!_** I have the power to save the _world_ , and the _will_ to do so, even if I'm _damned_ by those I protect _._ _ **That**_ _is what we're here to do. Not fight in some stupid dominance game over race, creed, or nation, not make a profit, not just save the people around us, like_ _ **Aster**_ _and_ _ **Theo**_ _, but making a world that_ _ **all**_ _children can grow up safe in Kayden._ _We are here to save the_ _ **world**_ _, nothing more, nothing less, and in that we don't_ _ **need**_ _your help, for even if you walk out that door we'll still do our damndest to save you, but_ _ **with**_ _you we could_ _ **do**_ _so much more!_ _ **Save**_ _so many more!_ _ **That**_ _is what the Penumbral Defenders are, for even in the shadow of an_ _ **impossible foe**_ _we'll stand, fight, and_ _ **win**_ _, because if we don't,_ _ **No One Will!**_ _"_

Herb stood up and slammed his hand on the table angrily. "That's _enough!_ "

I looked at him, not understanding what the hell he meant. He _knew_ that's what we were going to do, or at least I _thought_ he did. Shelving that worry, I focused back on Purity. "It has to be."


	51. Outreach 6-2

**Outreach 6.2**

I left the room to recompose myself, Herb talking quietly to a shell-shocked Purity. Charlie followed me after a minute, holding his helmet loosely under his arm. "So, we're in Worm. Kinda wish I read it now."

I gave a short laugh. "Yeah, but I didn't expect _this_ to happen when I asked you to." He nodded. Taking a deep breath, I turned to face him. "What I don't get, is _why_ you're here, not that I'm upset by that, but it ruins my only working theory. Herb and I did a silly Choose Your Own Adventure prompt, and dad did as well, and while it's a stupid thing, it's the only one we all had in common that no-one else did." He froze, eyes going wide. I continued on, suddenly suspicious, "Our powers are straight from that, and from what I can tell reading between the lines, dad's powers matched what he chose, though he's lying about it to the public, pretending to be a Thinker instead of a precog. You didn't though, so do you have any idea what happened?"

He gave a nervous laugh. "Yeah. About that."

I stared at him. "What did you do Chuckles?"

"I _may_ have done the same thing when you and Herb went to go get dinner. Allegedly." He winced, defending himself, "You left your computer open and it looked interesting!"

I gave him an unimpressed look. "What options did you choose, I already know your powers." It was more of a demand than a question.

He scratched the back of his head. "I don't really remember?" He winced again at my glare. "Okay, um, I took some of those bad start things, and the powerless start, because it had the whole 'nothing to something' thing I like, plus it gave _so_ many points."

I put my face in my hands, groaning, "You took the 'the world wants to kill me' option _with_ the 'no power' option. Do we need to talk about your latent suicidal tendencies?"

"Hey!" he objected. "It turned out okay!"

"Dude! You took the 'I have no powers and I must scream' combo!" I buried my face in my hands again. "Okay, let's go down the fucking list, if I can remember them, _since you don't_! Do you have a nemesis? You'd have to build them."

"Nah man," he reassured. "That was way too much work."

"Thank god for your laziness then!" I growled. "Is your ass being hunted by anyone?"

"Not from the villain part, but there was the rainy slenderman and the blonde girl who was missing part of her face. They gave a lot of points, but I can _stop time!_ " he smiled.

I looked at him. "Endbringer Target and Slaughterhouse Nine?"

"Yeah! That's it!" His face fell, "Oh, oh shit."

I sighed. "Yes, 'oh shit'. Okay, uh, what do you remember from what you've read of Worm."

He shrugged, "Just what you told me. I told you I didn't read it"

I groaned again. "I thought you meant you hadn't _finished_ it. Okay, you said you had a base?" he nodded. "Okay, did you take the thing that made you part of the overall plan?" He shrugged. "The one with Tattletale." Another shrug. I sighed. "The blonde chick on the tightrope."

"Oh, her. That's Tattletale? Nice bod," he grinned. "Yeah, took that!"

"She's underage!" I rebuked.

" _How_ underage?" he asked. "'cause I'm seventeen, _and_ a villain."

"Her power makes her Sherlock Holmes on crack. More crack," I amended. "Did you get Cauldron vials?"

"Three of 'em. No idea who I'm going to give them to though. Any ideas?"

I shook my head. "Sorry, just be careful, those will be _damn_ powerful, and only work on people who have no powers. Did you get Blindspot? The one that hides you from precogs."

He nodded, "Yeah, I read what that 'Path to Victory' thing did! I don't want any of that!"

Breathing a sigh of relief, I asked, "Did you get Negentropy? The eternal power option?"

"Fuck no, did you see how much that cost? What kind of retard would pick that one!" he responded instantly. I just _looked_ at him. "Oh. Sorry. Really? You could've gotten an awesome power, another vial, and a follower for that many points."

"I think long term," I ground out.

He shrugged. "Can't think long term if you're dead." He flinched at my glare. "Sorry, but it's true."

I motioned for him to put his helmet on, shifting back to Vejovis guise. "Come on, I'll fly you back to your base."

He followed me out, taking my arm, the two of us lifting off into the sky. "So, don't take this the wrong way," he said once we'd risen above the city. "But I really don't want to join your team. I mean, I have my own group, and I just realized that maybe saying this when we're this high up was a bad idea."

I laughed, waving him off. "Like I'd drop you." He looked at me. "Like, for real instead of just messing with you," I clarified. "Nah, that makes sense. Probably better this way. We can work together, but the PRT wouldn't take 'heroes' claiming territory that well, even if we _literally make life better for everyone in the process_. Keep your crime to the Amsterdam model and I won't have a problem."

"The what?" he asked, confused.

"People want to do a lot of the things that are illegal, because the laws that are regularly broken were mostly made by authoritarian virtue signalers, just look at the 'war on drugs'. If you set up places where people do illegal things, but in non-stupid ways, there shouldn't be much of a problem. Standardize your drug trade, making sure the product is clean and uniform, and don't sell on credit while _only_ selling to adults," I explained.

"Provide places to get high with medical staff to administer the harder drugs and make sure that everyone's safe. Similarly, don't let people gamble on credit, and don't gamble yourself, making sure your organization is neutral in the process. Prostitution? Needs to be voluntary, which should go without saying. Past that, provide them medical care, keep the girls safe, require the use of protection, and an inspection of the client to avoid disease. Also, again, _no credit_. Providing a safe, reliable way for people to feed their vices will cut down on regular crime and make you a _lot_ of money."

I considered a few general rules, settling on, "No kids, no violence for anyone who isn't an actively consenting party, like a well-regulated fight club or something, and no putting people in debt cuts down on almost _all_ the problems you could have. People will still do stupid illegal shit, but with you there, they'll be minor nuisances _at best_."

"The cops and the PRT are corrupt as all hell, but love themselves some status quo, so after the initial uproar things should quiet the hell down. Take some territory and lie low. Leviathan is coming here in the middle of May, not sure exactly when, and after _that_ the city will unfortunately be wrecked enough that swooping in and claiming it'll be child's play. After we fight off the Slaughterhouse Nine in the beginning of June, it'll be a lock, and we can look into expanding both of our organizations, probably into Boston." I finished. "So where's your base?"

He pointed to a church almost at the top of Captain's hill. "You've thought about this a lot, haven't you?"

I shrugged, descending. "Not really."

* * *

Dropping him off and exchanging numbers I found out that the church had been closed and he'd re-opened it as a Universalist place of worship, which honestly kind of fit. I was introduced to the priest on duty, who I'd recognized as the leader of the raid that'd gone bad. After a somewhat awkward conversation as the leader got his head around a _hero_ knowing what Æonic was doing, and being cool with it, I left, returning back to base. Herb and Kayden were gone, which left me free to relax.

I spent an hour typing up the bare-bones of a press release I wanted Quinn to release for me, detailing the truce, why it happened, why a hero was going along with it, and what to expect. The return e-mail exuded resigned acceptance but promised it would be out in a few hours. After making dinner, I was surprised to find that I'd received a missive from The Neutral Party, asking to meet, with a time and place to do so the next morning.

After a couple hours of meditation, I settled in to continue reading the Base Manual, and tanking shots, my Weaponry Projection easing the slowly growing need to scrounge more ammunition for me in order to continue training that power. None of my shields split, but not only had I found the armory, a hidden switch in the computer room needed to be pressed to open it, I'd finally found what looked to be what was supposed to be the first chapter of the document, _just_ in time to leave for my meeting shortly after Dawn.

Heading to the location, I found myself in front of a skyscraper downtown. Handing the receptionist the information I'd been given, I was shown to a meeting room on the twenty-sixth floor. Walking inside there was a man in a black suit, leather gloves, and what looked to be a motorcycle helmet sitting at the end of a conference table, flanked by a pair of very large men in suits, concealed pistols evident by the bulge in their jackets.

I Saw the Black and Silver flames of his power, similar in intensity to Herb or my little brother, confirming who he was. The Likelihood of someone else having the combination of the astral projection of Trance, the inability to be tracked of Recordless, and the advanced precognitive direction of Destiny Weaver, were so small as to be insignificant.

"Hi!" I waved, not sure how to address him. Physically he didn't have the same body type as my father, lacking the broad-shouldered build, but from the CYOA he chose to drop-in to a pre-existing person. It was honestly an odd feeling.

He flinched, before giving a deep sigh, turning to one of the guards. "Please guard the door. This discussion needs to have utmost privacy." The man nodded, he and his opposite walking past me, closing the door behind them, a green light turning on over the door a moment later. "I suppose the name 'Jack Rycroft' means something to you?" he asked, voice somehow unmuffled by his helmet.

I nodded, "He's my father." He made no motion in response, so I took a risk. "Aren't you?"

Sighing again, hanging his head, he acknowledged, "In a manner of speaking." Reaching up, seeming to fight himself, he took off his helmet, the face that stared back at me unfamiliar, but the resigned look of annoyance _all_ dad. Grinning back, I took off my mask with a 'ta-da' motion. He stared at me, looking me over before focusing on my face. "Your mother was right," was his only comment. "You do look better without all the fat."

I winced, but that kind of statement _was_ the kind of thing he did. Blunt, and meant to be a compliment, but my father only noticed subtext when he focused on something, never noticing his how his own subconscious warped his phrasing to be cutting. Honestly, while I appreciated the fact that he tried not to lie, he didn't need to be such a _dick_ about it. I dealt my own harsh truths liberally, but at least _I_ did so on purpose. Mostly. I walked over, taking a seat next to him. "So?" I started, waving at him. "How does the whole 'Insert' thing work?"

He sighed, shrugging. "It's. . . odd. I took over someone's life. I'd almost say I killed him, but he's still here," he tapped his forehead, "Which I'm not sure how I feel about. I think if I wanted to, I could have gotten rid of him, but. . . no. I avoided killing anyone in the service, thank God I never had to. It makes me wonder how much of what you see is. . . me." He paused, looking at me. "You've already had to kill, from what I've seen. I. I'm sorry."

I matched him, shrugging and sighing, though mine was less tired resignment and more of an uncaring negation. The Rycroft sigh was a complex method of communication, almost on level with the Uchiha 'Hn'. "They were men and women who lived by preying on the weak. The Merchants sell drugs to children, the ABB have forced prostitution brothels, and the E88 are _literal Nazis_. They've made their choice. I have the ability to stop them," I finished, the rest of the sentence obvious.

It was his turn to wince, sighing in unfortunate agreement. "and while it isn't your responsibility, that wouldn't matter to either of us, because we're here. And you're here now to ask me to join your group?" I nodded. "I don't think that's a good idea," he told me, "I know how to run coffee shops, not capes."

I froze, the words of grateful welcome dying on my lips. "I'm sorry, what. _Why?_ "

He looked at me, face grim. "I can do more to help by remaining The Neutral Party, and I have no way to fight. As much as I'd like to help, it's an unacceptable risk for almost no benefit." He sighed with sad humor. "And that's how I know Medhu is still in there, but he's got a point."

I didn't let my disappointment show. I'd hoped he would've joined, but my father _wasn't_ the frontline type, or even the leadership type. It was a damn shame, because he was far better than I was at balancing logistics and strategy, but _only_ if he had time to think. The only way I could beat him in RTS games was to harry him, hitting him on multiple fronts faster than he could respond. Given enough time to plan, and if he could control the flashpoints, I lost almost _every_ game.

Together though, we were a **_force_** _._ Growing up there was a game we played, _Urban Assault_ , which had a cooperative mode that let two players control the same faction. He'd stay back, managing the larger strategy, minding the base, preparing defenses while I took control of our forces, piloting the ships directly while managing the offence. Even on the highest difficulty, when the computer just said, "screw it" and _cheated_ , we still won four times out of five. I leaned forward, knowing that while he was resistant to a direct confrontation, he could be redirected as long as you didn't go against his underlying reason for choosing a position. "Okay, then use your precog to help direct us," I tried.

His flinched, "How did- Right, you're the one who helped me choose them. Sorry," he waved a hand. "There's still a lot of Medu's personality coloring, tainting, shading? The person I took over, Medhu, went through a lot to try to keep that a secret, even if he didn't think things through." A statement that was a _damning_ indictment from my father. He frowned, nodding to himself. "That could work."

"You cou-" I started, cut off by his raised hand.

"A minute please." I waited the full minute, as he'd asked. "Yes," he said, looking up, a wry grin pulling up at his features oddly. "You're going to hire me, as The Neutral Party, to contact a paranoid precog for help. The Nazis think I have one on payroll already, thanks to Medhu's. . . overreaction. As such he- no, _she_ will pass on information to you. You will, of course, negotiate an exclusive contract with _her_ , and if the E88 had done so in the first place, instead of demanding her contact information, she would have of course have been amenable, but," he shrugged with a 'oh well' sigh, "They choose not to pursue that track at that time. Pity." His grin was all Jack, before settling into the more neutral expression he'd been reverting to.

I nodded, seeing where he was going. "And given that _she_ is a precognitive, any attempt on _your_ person to try to force that information she would pre-empt, or have the situation reversed in short order. That works. What's this precog's name?"

He grinned, mischief in his eyes. "Ms. Voyant."

I looked at him. "Her first name wouldn't be Claire, would it?"

"You must have a touch of the sight yourself!" he fake congratulated. I gave him a gimlet eye. "Okay, how about Ann?"

I frowned. "Ann? Is that short for something?"

"No."

I gave the sigh of the long-suffering, knowing this was a trap. "What's her last name?"

"Ticipation, of course!" he laughed.

I gave a groan, the cranky uncle of sighs. _This is why we don't let him name things,_ I reminded myself. _Might as well cut off **that** future a bit more. _"How about Weaver. Like Fate Weaver, the name of _her_ power, not that anyone else will get it," I proposed.

He shrugged, still laughing. "That works. You've negotiated a deal with Weaver, and thus will be the only one who has secured her services. Information which I will only share if someone asks."

"Okay, that works. Now, have you heard about the Truce?"

He nodded, "I read this morning's paper tonight. You sure you can trust them?"

Snorting, I shook my head. "Hell no, but I won't turn my back on them, and it'll help me recruit any who aren't there by choice. But because of that, we need to find the ABB Safehouses. Your precog, can you see the future where we find Bakuda's base and then direct us there?"

He shook his head in reply. "That's not how it works. I can choose options, but I see how things will turn out twelve hours later. I can't choose completed tasks that require information I don't have. But. . ." He paused as he thought, steepling his fingers, and I leaned back to give him time. "I can use the results I see to better choose paths. I could. . . No," he frowned. "I can't _see_ you or anything you do. There's someone else I can't see either. It may be Boardwalk."

"Oh, right. I'm a Blindspot, as are you and Charlie, so tha-"

"Wait, Charlie's here?" he asked looking around. "You didn't say anything about him in your e-mail!"

I nodded. "Yeah, along with Herb, but Herb's not a Blindspot. Chuckles is Æonic, though I didn't find out until yesterday. He didn't come in the same way we did. But that's not important, right now. I, hmm. . ." I thought trying to find a way around the problem. "Right, so, possible futures. You call Herb and have him get everyone together, sans Charlie and myself, and have them go explore," I paused, pulling out my phone and pulling up a map of the city. "These blocks in destructive detail to find ABB Bases, to report back to you, without our involvement, the results, which you see. With that information, you do the same thing with the next sector on the map."

He nodded, pulling out a pad of paper from his suit and a pen. "That could work." As he looked into the middle distance, the blacks of his pupils expanded, covering his eyes entirely, a silver star sparking to life in the center of his now dark orbs. His power expanded as well, in a wave that exited in every direction, curling oddly around me. As I leaned back, I created a larger void in his power, which increased again when I poked the thin bubble of Black and Silver fire all around me. After few seconds it faded, and his eyes returned to normal, scribbling down something on the paper.

Leaning over to read he explained. "Here, four-fifty-six Oak. Kaiser finds a location, one of their Brothels, and Sundancer dies, whoever that is. Two of the teams find nothing, one of which is captured by the PRT. The fourth doesn't stay on track but finds an armory at thirty-seven Hale road, and fights Lung. Purity is killed by Hookwolf, and Break and Enter kill Hookwolf, Crusader, and Lung, setting the city on fire. Less than optimal."

I shook my head in agreement, noting the locations. "One which won't happen. Alright, next set of blocks," I requested.

He objected. "First, some coffee, this might go on for a while."

He ordered and we remasked, a nervous young man wearing a jacket from Mahatma Grindy entering a few minutes later with a cardboard tray of coffee and a bag of pastries.

After the repast, over which my father took pride in the quality of the coffee, as he apparently _owned_ the company, we moved to continue the search. Finding five more locations in the next four 'dives' as my father called them, I made note of where and what they were, along with the response from the ABB. After the sixth, he emerged from his trance, eye clenched in pain as he wrote out what he'd seen. "Are you okay?" I asked, looking at him worriedly.

"Never done more than three or four dives at once. I think I found _why_." He gritted out. I waited for him as he took a deep breath, shaking his head. "Hokay, ahhh, yeah." After a couple more deep breaths and he opened his eyes, his pupils large and the hint of something silver in the center. "Do you recall how you warned me not to buy that disadvantage, the one that hurt if you pushed your power?"

"Yeah," I nodded. "That it?"

"I'm about to find out!" he informed, eyes going black once again. The fire in the center of his eyes had grown, from pinpricks of flame to circles nearly as big as his iris, each seeming to send inch long threads of flame out like tentacles that quickly were pulled taut. "Gah!" he cried, his eyes mostly returning to normal. "Mother-fracking piss bucket! That was a mistake! That's it for today, and maybe tomorrow. I need some downtime." He growled, hand snaking out, writing down three more locations, even as the other pressed hard against his eyes.

"Alright Jack," he told himself. "Stop at six, unless you want to feel like someone broke open your skull with an ice-pick through your _eyes_." I gave him a minute to collect himself. He motioned to the notes, eyes still covered, his free hand shaking slightly. "Have we given you enough to work with."

I looked at him in concern, nodding, before catching myself and telling him. "Yes! Definitely. More than enough!"

"Alright, _I'm_ going to go home and lie down. If this passes I'll be able to help tomorrow, but not this much. I need to pace myself." He groaned, holding his eyes. "Okay?"

I hesitated, offering, "I can heal you a little, see if that helps."

He waved a hand. "Sure. Give it a shot."

Reaching out and exposing a fingertip, I touched the back of his neck. As I gave him the _Get Better_ treatment he sighed, uncovering his eyes. His pupil had overtaken his iris, a small point of silver eye in the middle of each dark circle. "Thank you. That helps. Now I just have a migraine instead feeling like I headbutt a pack of rhinoceroses. Rhinoceri? You understand what I'm saying." He put on his helmet, wincing as he reached up and pressed a hidden switch. "And that's better. I believe our business has concluded for today. Weaver will be in touch with you again tomorrow if she feels better. Thank you, for your business." He hesitated, "And thank you for finding a way I could help. I want to do more, but. . ."

"You have no fighting powers," I finished. "Don't worry dad, this will be a _massive_ help. Don't push yourself too hard tomorrow either, and definitely not past the pain point. I'm going to have enough trouble getting all the villains to work together, these locations will be more than enough to get us started."

I started to get up to leave, but he held up a hand. He had a final question. "So, we've come here, but what about where we left? Are they missing us, or is this a situation where time runs differently? Like the Witch and the Wardrobe. Narnia. Will we live a lifetime here and go back to where we left off with our lives? I just. . . I just don't want to think of leaving Laura alone."

I shrugged. With as much as I had to do, that had been a line of thought I'd been _studiously_ avoiding. "If there is a way, when things calm down we can look into finding mom. There's cross-dimensional powers out there, and one might get us home. For now though, we have to worry about more _immediate_ threats."


	52. Outreach 6-3

**Outreach 6.3**

Intel in hand, I was ready to start gathering people together to start the ball rolling on this Truce. There was only one problem: out of the six groups, only two of them had actually sent me an e-mail. Grue's e-mail was the uninspired "This is my e-mail address." along with his e-mail address, which was the same as the address it was sent from. Trickster's was "Thus I invoke myself!" whatever _that_ meant. Unfortunately, I now needed to get word out to Coil, the Merchants, Faultline's Crew, _and_ the E88. Of the four, I had _no_ idea how to contact Coil, and honestly didn't want to bother. Starting with the easiest, I headed northwest towards the Midway, finding a group that would've looked homeless if it weren't for their tacky clothing. Bums had a certain aesthetic after all, even if it was accidental.

Dropping down in front of them, they froze. "We weren't selling drugs!" one of the women squeaked. She looked anywhere between mid-twenties to mid-forties, depending on when she started using. I just floated there, not actually touching down.

"Suuure, you weren't. Have you heard about the truce?" I asked, getting blank stares in return. Sighing I looked around, spotting a newspaper box. _Those are still a thing?_ I thought, before shrugging. Front and center was the story "Heroes and Villains Work Together to Save Brockton Bay!" which I pointed at it. It took them a full minute to read it.

"So, you're working with us?" an older man asked, teeth rotten, face scrunched up in confusion.

I shrugged again, "Don't sell to kids and I won't care for now. What I really want to know is where Skidmark is. I, through my sources, have found myself in possession of intel he has great need of." I received blank stares. "I have information he would find most useful?" Still nothing. I sighed, "One of my friends told me something cool, and I want to tell Skidmark."

"Why didn't you say so?" the man asked, giving me directions. "Ya wanna buy somethin'?" he asked hopefully.

I rolled my eyes. "Sorry, I don't do drugs." I did reach into a pouch and pull out my wallet, handing him a twenty. "For the help. Thank you!"

He just looked at it, surprised as I took off to follow his instructions. Finding the location took a bit, but, "The warehouse across from the broken up seven-eleven with the tag that Jimmy left on the side," was easy enough once I figured out it was the abandoned convenience store that was tagged, and that Jimmy spelled his name with a g, two i's, and only one m.

Walking inside I felt the swish of air, barely catching a baseball bat that was headed for my skull. Looking at the person who swung with a raised eyebrow, I casually crumbled the hollow metal in my fist. "Oh. Um. Sorry?" the girl, who must've been all of _nine_ said, smiling at me from her position on top of a milk crate. "I heard there was a Hero, and I thought it was one of the bad ones!"

I blinked at that. "Shouldn't you be in sch- right they closed. I'm looking for Skidmark, I have information for him."

"He should be back with my cousin Sherrel!" she chirped.

I had to ask, "Does your cousin know you're guarding the door?"

She shook her head. "I'm supposed to be helpin' her, but that's so booooring! The guy who was supposed to be here said he was going to smoke some weed. Why would someone smoke weeds?" she asked, tilting her head in confusion. I tried to think of a way to tell her why when she started laughing. "Oh! Your face! I know he's getting high. Still makes him a poopy guard though."

"Poopy?" I asked, words coming unbidden as my brain restarted.

"Well, I'm not supposed to say swears like Sherrel's boyfriend! That's what my mom says!" she informed me disapprovingly, as if I should be ashamed for just asking.

Sighing, I handed her the bat back, Crushing the top evenly to make it a long cudgel. "That makes perfect sense. Check who you're hitting first, just in case it's someone who won't go down, like Aegis or Armsdi- Armsmaster."

She looked at me like she knew what I almost said and was judging me, before smiling brightly, revealing that she was missing a few teeth. "Okay mister Vejovis!"

I patted her on the head, walking deeper into the warehouse, following the sound of power tools and swearing, both equally high pitched. As I walked closer, I found myself facing the _gaudiest_ looking armored van I'd ever seen. The swearing was coming from below it. "Isabella Ann Bailey!" the voice commanded in tones that sounded like someone had gotten a whiff of helium. "I know you're out there, hand me the three-fourths torque wrench!" A greasy feminine arm waved from below the front. Looking over I found what she wanted, handing it to her. " _Thank_ you!" she replied huffily, quickly using it to do _something_.

I couldn't resist. "No problem my dear," I responded calmly, _maybe_ deepening my voice a tad for effect. "Is there anything else you desire?"

The ratcheting immediately stopped. "Isabella?" the woman who must've been Squealer asked, fear tremoring in her voice.

"If you mean the young blonde girl, she's still guarding the front, the original guard left to get high. She tried to cave my head in with a baseball bat, the little scamp. She apologized, and I believe is still there, trying to protect you," I reassured.

"Oh, okay," she said, slowly sliding out from the car, revolver trained on me. "Isabella!" she called out, voice shrill. Shriller.

"Yeah?" came the faint reply.

"Why aren't ya here, _like I told ya!"_ Squealer, well, squealed.

"It's borin'!" was the faint reply.

I sighed, as the Tinker got ready to try to pierce my eardrums again.

"Little miss, if you could come over here, you won't have to shout." I called, enhancing my voice a tad.

"Okay!" came the call, the sound of small feet running up as she turned the corner, skidding to a halt, baseball bat held behind her, but listing to the side over her shoulder.

Squealer went pale as she saw the smushed end of the bat. As she looked at me, I shrugged. "I crushed the end, it was only fair to make it a better weapon once the misunderstanding was dealt with."

The Isabella nodded as she told the Tinker, "Yeah, he was really nice! Not like your boyfriend at all! Maybe you should date him instead!"

Squealer went red, "I could neva' do that to Skidsy!" she glanced at me, and I accidentally met her eyes, which just turned her redder. Having never considered the possibility I truly _looked_ at her. While I did have a bit of a thing for Wrench Wenches, the ability to truly focus on objective tasks and the ability to prioritize projects over social niceties when the second was not needed both appealed to me, and the fact that she was well built were both points in her favor. However, the voice, the drug addiction, the lack of forethought, or _any_ discernable intelligence whatsoever, and the _abysmal_ taste she had in men all made that a _hell to the fuck no_.

I glanced back at Isabella, who had seen me looking and smiled encouragingly, turning to a pout when I shook my head no. "I'm actually here to talk to him," I informed the Tinker, getting her attention. "I've gained information on the location of ABB strongholds we could strike. However, I haven't received an e-mail from the Merchants and thus have no means of contacting you, so I came in person. If you could please send me a message on the email on my card, I could help coordinate everyone's efforts."

I realized I'd done it again and was about to simplify when Squealer nodded. "Oh, right. Sure!" Raising my estimation of her, slightly, she flounced over to a plastic case, opening it up to reveal a laptop. Closing the diagnostic program, she reached into one of her belt pockets, pulling out one of my cards and typing up a quick e-mail.

Receiving it, I read aloud "Thanks for being nice to my cousin!" I smiled. "No problem, she's adorable. Thank you for your assistance. Once I'm in contact I'll send everyone a message on possible locations." Squealer looked red again, probably upset that I read the e-mail out loud, and I walked out, ruffling Isabella's hair as I passed her.

The little girl started to follow when Squealer yelled, "Isabella! You stay here where I can see you!"

"But you're under that stupid car all the time!" she responded.

"It's _not_ a stupid car, it's my baby and ya know what I mean!"

The girl asked, with a tone of fake confusion hiding mischievousness "If that's your baby, then why does Momma say that Aunt Clara's surprised you don't have one already?"

"ISABELLA!"

* * *

Looking online as I flew over the city, I found Faultline's Crew had an e-mail address, so I sent one off to them asking if this is the one they'd like to receive mission intel on. Waiting for a response I stopped at a downtown restaurant to get an early lunch to kill time. The waiter asked if I was really working with villains, so I shrugged responding "To take down a group who, by the amount of death and destruction they've cause, should all have kill orders? Yes. If that's what it takes to protect this city." I glanced at the other people listening in. "My people should've released a press statement. If you have further questions, please ask them."

I _still_ hadn't received a reply, so I called Taylor after I took to the air once more. "Hey Lady Bug," I told her as soon as she picked up. "How's things?"

"Oh, um, pretty good. . . You?" she asked, stumbling a little over the social niceties.

"Pretty good. I found some Intel on the ABB, but I'm having some difficulties in getting everyone to communicate. Can you ask Tattletale where I can find Faultline?"

"Oh, sure." She responded, the sound of her walking and asking faint. "Um, she says it's a club called Palanquin," I couldn't quite make out what Lisa was saying, but it sounded like a lot more than that.

"Anything else?"

"Um, no. Not really," she reassured, walking away from the ranting Thinker as I tried to hear what she said. _Was that my name?_ "Do you have time to train today?"

"Probably not. We'll see about tomorrow, but we'll probably be going after the ABB then."

"Oh. Okay." The obvious dejection in her voice tugged at my heartstrings, rearranging my schedule.

"I'll drop by the Undersider's hideout this evening, I need to drop some stuff off there anyways."

"Oh, okay!" she echoed herself, this time hopeful.

"I'll see you later, stay safe."

"I will!" she promised. I hung up and found the address, heading over to it and landing out front. The club was closed, sign dark, but after knocking on the door for a bit I heard the lock slide. Newter opened the entrance, looking at me. "Hey man, what's up?"

"Newter, right?" I asked, and he grinned and nodded, happy to be recognized. "My contacts have found the locations of ABB bases, but your boss never sent me a message, so I need her to, to help organize everyone. Also, if she could ask Coil to do so as well that would be great."

He blinked. "It's been, like, a day dude. How did you get those so fast?"

"Hired a precog," I shrugged.

"Aren't they like, super expensive?" he asked, scratching the back of his head. "Or, like, work for the government?"

I smiled. "I know a guy who knows a girl. I was waiting for the PRT to get their heads out of their collective asses, but they appear to be stuck, so that means _I_ need to step forward, so I am. So, ask your boss to contact me? And Coil as well?"

He smiled. "Sure thing bro!"

I held out my hand, "Thank you."

Newter looked at my head in trepidation. "Um, my power is pretty heavy-duty drug sweat."

"And my costume isn't permeable," I told him, still holding my hand out. _And I'm immune to all poisons, but let's not share that anytime soon._

"Oh!" he smiled wildly, giving my hand a firm shake. "Cool! See you around!"

"Same," I responded, taking off.

* * *

I received an e-mail from Faultline a few minutes later, along with Coil's contact information, which wasn't _exactly_ what I wanted, but worked just as well. That left the E88. _Joy_. I toyed with the idea of just walking into the Medhall building and asking to speak to Max Anders, but with Purity on the team, and his narrow, narrow mind he'd assume that she told me, ignoring any evidence to the contrary.

Landing instead in front of a bunch of skinheads, who glared at me, I jovially requested, "Hello, I have information for Kaiser and he has neglected to give me a way of contacting him. Can one of you," I almost wanted to say 'fine fellows' but that was too much, even in jest, "Members of the Empire Eighty-Eight either put me in contact with him, or with someone who can?"

They spread out a little, weapons coming out. _Did they not get the memo that I was a Brute?_ "You can tell us, race-traitor," one of the morons told me.

I sighed. "I am currently working under Truce, so I will not strike the first blow. I will however, strike the last one you will ever have. Either tell me where to go or call someone." One of them pointed a pistol at me. I rolled my eyes, pulling my own out, layering five Speed Zones inside it. "Mine's better," I replied blandly, shooting a trashcan, which promptly jerked back, the back exploding, peppering the wall behind it with debris.

"Shit," one of them swore. I looked blandly at what I assumed was their leader, given how the others looked to him, who glared, trying not to gawk at the trashcan like some of his men. "Make the call," he told someone else, who took out a phone. I stood there, waiting, until from down the street walked two men, the second heatedly discussing something with the first, whose voice was firm and displayed absolute calm. The first, Kreig, was the older man I'd seen at the Truce meeting. The other man, with tight Yellow and Red flames, had the power of Skill Theft, Via Eye-Contact, Physical Contact, and Observation of the Skill.

What must have been Victor, a designation which would have been only uninspired if it also _wasn't his actual name_ , thus pushing it into _dumbass_ territory, was clad in black pants, black and red boots, and a black breastplate over a red shirt. He also had black fingerless gloves and a black and red mask, the eyes and top open to show off his Aryan blonde hair and blue eyes. Looking at him, he looked back, his power trying to make contact through my eyes but bouncing off.

 _Must be the mask_ I thought, not really angry, just disappointed. _Not even a single damn day and people are already trying to test and break the agreement. This is why heroes never work with villains short of **Endbringers.**_ I gave a mental sigh, _Fine. Cross him off the list of possible redemption. He thought my Hero status bound me to act with honor, but the restrictions of honor only extend to the honorable. You want to play Villain? Let's play, Outlaw._

"Try to steal my skills Victor, and I'll kill you for breaking the Truce," I called cordially, though I didn't smile. Kreig shot him an angry look and the thief shrugged like it didn't matter.

"You started it," he called, "Harassing our men."

"I came to ask how to get in contact with your organization and haven't touched them. If a simple _question_ is what you consider harassing, you must have awful luck with women," I retorted, annoyed that my own agreement to a Truce they seemed to not honor brought me here to deal with scum as equals instead of giving them what they obviously deserved. His antagonistic actions were so incredibly petty and short sighted, I honestly was hard pressed to understand _why_ , he'd do it _._ Then again, the same could be said of racism. I hated using labels to explain actions, but he _was_ a _Nazi_.

As his power reached out to me again, starting ever so slightly to leach my manual dexterity, I levelled the pistol at his head. He seemed unimpressed, though his confusion at the gang-member's scared reactions did still the miniscule drain. "If you try to steal another of my skills, I shall shoot you once. If you do so again I shall reclaim it from your brain _physically_ , and I shall be in the right, as you broke the Truce your leader agreed on."

Kreig quietly but forcefully rebuked the younger man, though I didn't flex my power to fully listen in in case Cricket was hiding nearby. The older man waved for me to lower my weapon, which I did. "What do you want?" he asked when he was a dozen feet away. Victor smiled as he looked at the ground between us. If I had to guess he was sure that he'd, I don't know, take my ability to fly, leaving me confused and defenseless while he closed the distance before I could shoot. Dumbass.

I stood straight and formally informed the older villain, "I have been working to help end the ABB, as per our Truce, and have leveraged some of my assets to gain intel on the location of ABB strongholds."

"Then tell us and get the hell out of here, _Bug Boy_ ," Victor sneered.

I didn't look at him. "Kreig, please tell your thin-skinned thief to mind his manners. I will not go out of my way to antagonize him but blebly-" my tongue caught on itself as Victor's power lashed out, lessening my ability to speak. My power flashed through my body and copied the immoral ability, the physical effects plain enough for my own power to activate. I whipped my gun forward, shooting him in the hand, blowing it off, along with part of his forearm. The flesh pasted as it was hit by the equivalent of an anti-tank weapon, most of the force continuing on to break the pavement which was spraying red as he fell to the ground in shock.

The thugs watched, frozen, as Kreig looked between us, unsure. The older man got ready to fight as I strode forward, towards the moron who was screaming and holding what was left of his arm while he writhed on the ground.

"Sobby, but he thtole an abilbty, and I beplied as I plomised. I'm baking sube he doethn't die." I stumbled over the words, and I was tempted to shoot him in the head. Just like Regent, he couldn't control himself, and now I had _another_ power I would _never_ use. Unlike Regent I had _no_ qualms killing _this_ mad dog. 'Pulling' off a glove with my teeth, I touched Victor's arm, covering the bloody ragged stump of his forearm with skin, stopping the bleeding, and giving him enough _Get Better_ to keep him of dying of shock or blood loss, though he was still moaning like a bitch.

Stowing my gun, I put the glove back on, running through exercises like 'Toy Bot" and "She Sells Sea Shells" for several minutes until my ability to speak clearly returned, having only had the slightest of drains. I looked disdainfully down at the pathetic excuse for a cape whining at my feet. "Oh pull yourself together you petty little thief. Your wife will heal you when you get back. And for the love of god, get thicker skin. I don't know, steal the social armor off a streetwalker or something. I couldn't even get through telling you that I wouldn't resort to violence or powers first, and would not be the one who, so upset that I lost a social battle that I would lash out like a _child_ , when you went ahead and did so, ruining the entire point what I was trying to say! Oh, and just so you know, if you steal skills from me or any of my team again, I _will_ kill you, Truce or no."

I looked at Kreig, who was watching me like a hawk, his power already wrapped around me, but while the air resistance was primed to kick in, it was not actually active enough for me to copy. "You, I have no problem with. You seem professional, and that I can admire. If you ever decided to change sides, you should give me a call. In the meantime, as I said, I found the location of ABB bases. If you, or someone in your organization could send me an e-mail, I could start coordinating everyone. So far, the only people I haven't heard back from are the E88, and Coil."

I reached into a pouch and he stilled, relaxing minutely when I took out another of my cards. "In case Kaiser did something silly like shred his in a fit of pique, here's another. If I have not heard back from him or his people by," I checked my phone. "Six tonight, I'll start making plans without him or your organization, which would be a shame considering the firepower they can bring to bear." I glanced down at the still moaning villain at our feet. "Not counting him."

Kreig shot me a resigned look, "You aren't going to give me the addresses, are you?"

I shook my head, smiling. "I would, but then Kaiser would rush in for glory or to look like he's the strongest or something silly, which would ignore the entire point of the Truce. Sorry, no, once we've determined the strike teams I'll supply the information. Not before."

He nodded. "Had to ask. Do you have any other business here?"

"No, telling you this was the only reason I visited your territory. Have a nice day." I held out my hand, and after a moment he shook it, his grip strong, but not 'I'm so macho' crushing like I'm sure Victor would have tried.

Generally happy with this interaction, I took off, flying back to base to take a shower and wash off the scent of idiocy I might've picked up when Victor bled on me.


	53. Outreach 6-4

**Outreach 6.4**

After a _thorough_ shower, I was surprised that it wasn't even noon. Then again, the meeting with my father had happened at seven o' clock. The man was a _ludicrously_ early riser, and I wasn't really sure what to do. I could go heal, but I had a feeling my public statement about working with villains would attract unwelcome attention, or even worse, _the press_. I shivered theatrically as I toweled off. They would still get in the way, though that nixed that option. However. . .

"Hello Vejovis, what do you want?" my friend the flesh-sculptor asked intently, picking up on the first ring. She sounded a bit annoyed and I had a feeling it was my fault.

"Hi Panacea," I answered, ignoring her implication that I only called her when I needed something. She wasn't _wrong_ , but addressing it now wouldn't help anything. "It won't be today, but I've got information on ABB bases and we'll be striking them tomorrow. If we need your help, can we come to you for healing? I can keep someone from dying, but more than that is beyond me right now." A waited a beat, but she didn't answer. "They might be villains, but they'd be working with me to help stop the bombings."

She hmm'd. "I will, but _only_ because they're helping. And only if you're there."

"Deal. I was going to do that anyways," I promised. "Sorry about not being there today, I-"

"It's fine," she cut me off in a way that said it wasn't. "I understand. Just. . . be careful."

I smiled. "I will be, see you tonight." Hanging up, I thought about what I could do. Looking around the base I couldn't find Herb and I doubted I could convince Boojack to train so that left training myself, something which I could do just as easily at night with less chance of attracting attention. I paused in my pacing as I remembered my promise to drop by the Undersider's base, and got to work with a smirk. Five hours and a short shopping trip later I'd gathered everything I needed. The look on Tattletale's face when I answered the door to their base with a backpack and two duffle bags packed with supplies was _well_ worth the effort.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" she demanded, obviously hating herself for having to ask.

"Merry Christmas!" I smiled.

She just blinked at me. "It's _May!"_

I shrugged, "Meh, close enough. I bring _presents!_ Come on, let me in." She stepped aside, glaring at me, not saying anything. "I'm not a vampire Tattletale," I commented stepping inside and rustling her hair, letting go of one of the duffle bags to do so. I kept it up with a Glory Girl's power, having figured out I didn't need to touch something with my hand to surround it with a Lift Field.

Ignoring the bag she smacked my hand away, huffed, "I knew that!", and pushed past me, leading me to their common room. "It's Vejovis!" Taylor was waiting for me, relaxed and without her helmet, while Imp and Regent played an FPS. Grue stood in the entrance to the hallway that held everyone's rooms, not relaxing, and Bitch was nowhere to be seen. As Tattletale moved to stand next to Grue she turned, arms folded, and addressed me, "Well?"

"Where's Bitch?" I asked, looking around.

I got a shrug from Taylor, the others not responding, though Regent was complaining that Imp had paused their game, looking at an empty chair instead of where her power was, right next to him. "She's out," Tattletale informed me.

Nodding, I replied, "Oh, in the warehouse with her dogs. Makes sense." Ignoring Lisa's growl of annoyance, I unslung my backpack, dropping it next to the duffle bags on a table that still held the remains of take-out. "So, we're going to be hitting some of the bases I found today, tomorrow, but you guys need an upgrade. For your previous cops and robbers play-fighting you were fine, but this is going to be _war_ , or the closest you'll hopefully see for. . . let's say a month and half."

Tattletale started to ask a question as soon as paused for breath, but I talked over her. "As such, you need to step up your game. After this is over I'll be wanting Taylor to work with Parian to get you all some _proper_ armor, but these will have to do. They won't last more than a month, but you should all have replacements _well_ before then."

Reaching into the bag I pulled out the copies of the Undersider's costumes I'd extruded from my own. I figured if I could make discrete parts of my own costume, I could make others as well. It'd taken a while, and I had the nagging feeling that if something happened on one of the pieces, they _all_ might be affected, but we were fighting gangbangers, not capes for the most part. Any weaponized exotic effects the ABB might have had died with Bakuda. Packaging the costumes in snowflake adorned wrapping paper however was just to mess with them, and I had the feeling most of them might not've had too many proper Christmases anyways.

I tossed Grue a large package, which he opened carefully. He hesitated before taking his helmet off, weighing it and the new one he pulled out of the box in either hand, the only difference was mine came with vents to channel his darkness like he'd wanted. He frowned. "It's too light."

"But stronger," I promised. He looked at me skeptically. Motioning for him to put it on a table, I took out my pistol and drew down on it, firing once to impact the eye covering, the theoretically weakest part. The helm went flying away to impact the far wall and deflecting off, getting enough distance from the bounce to hit another, before finally landing and rolling along the ground with a clatter.

Tattletale picked it up, turning it over to show Grue the undamaged helmet. She focused on it, brows knitting as she studied it. Seeing her power, I watched as it tried to contact the helmet, pushing straight through it as if it weren't there. Lisa made an angry sound, glaring at the object as her tendrils of power retracted before they carefully wrapped themselves around the helmet, almost but not _quite_ touching. She looked at me, her power passing through me, before doing the same thing, but as I shifted position it lost its hold. She growled cutely, focusing on my weapon instead.

With an idea what she was doing I put it down on the table and stepped back. She repeated the process she had previously, some of the tendrils of power finding purchase, but most having the same luck, especially along the barrel. I looked deeply at her power, my Power Sight Seeing it in as fine detail as I could push it. She was building a model with what she knew, trying to use her power to figure out the rest, using the facts that blind spots in her power existed _as_ information and trying to cover them with her own guesses. _Clever Girl._

"If I shot that pistol," she finally asked. "What would happen?"

I couldn't repress a smile. "You'd break your wrists. Everyone in this room would, except for me."

She took a step towards it, stopping herself. "Can I see?"

Grabbing the weapon, I popped out the magazine. Clearing the chamber and catching the round, to Grue's small nod of approval, before tossing it to her. She squawked as she tried to catch the unexpected projectile with one hand, tossing up Grue's helmet to free her hands. She fumbled the weapon and took an extra second getting a hold of it. Twisting around like a dancer, she barely caught the helm with her extended foot before it hit the ground, freezing in that position. Regent gave a polite golf clap while the power that was Imp whistled in appreciation. Giving Regent the finger, the Thinker reached down and grabbed the helmet with her free hand, tossing it back to Grue.

Looking it over, weighing it, she hit the slide catch absently, taking it apart, muttering to herself, "Needs to be cleaned, odd wearing." Managing the pieces, she checked them individually, freezing when she looked down the barrel. "Bullshit."

"What?" Grue asked. "Is it TinkerTech?"

"You keep on using that word," I added, smiling at her. "I don't think it means what you think it means."

Absently putting the gun back together she shot me an accusing glare. "You know Boardwalk!"

I shrugged, "It could have been Skidm- who am I kidding, he doesn't have that much inventiveness. Yep! He won't join my team, but we help each other. He's gone dark since he had to break out of the Rig after the Protectorate tried to imprison him for saving Vista and Gallant."

"How does that work?" Imp asked, speaking over Regent's "Well that's rude."

I shrugged, responding to both: "He pissed someone off in power, not sure how, and they decided that was worth breaking their own rules, as well as common decency and the rites of hospitality, so he blew open their door. Miss Militia apparently shot him in the back with an RPG, or so he says. Had a few cracked ribs that were probably from it. I wouldn't expect to see him until this all blows over, but he did me a few favors before he dropped out of sight."

She handed me back my gun, which I stowed, handing her a present. She gave me a look that read as ' _really?'_ I grinned unrepentantly as she unwrapped it, frowning as she looked at what I'd given her. She held one piece of it, the design of her domino mask embedded in what looked like clear cloth with three holes in it, only visible when it folded in on itself. She gave me a look and turned around, mentally debating with herself before taking her mask off so I couldn't see her face, putting the new mask on hesitantly. Pressing the clear portions to her skin, she froze as it stuck, taking it off and putting it on before fully putting it on, wrapping around her head and neck.

Turning back around she looked as if she were wearing her old mask. Touching what looked like her skin she frowned. "What _is_ this?"

"It's hard to explain, but it's cut-proof, and pierce-proof, so while a shot to the head might crack your skull and maybe give you a concussion, it won't be an instant kill anymore. Now you won't die like you would've tomorrow. That and whatever team you're on won't be hitting _that_ location," I added, to try to put her at ease. It didn't seem to work. "Don't worry, I wouldn't go through with a future that would end in your death unless I absolutely have to."

"This is the shit!" Imp crowed, distracting me. Glancing over I not-saw Aisha, black leather armor embellished with dark red and white flame designs covering the girl who I was _pretty_ sure had stripped in front of me while I was distracted. _Hopefully_ she'd just forgotten I could still somewhat see her. She was holding a mask I'd patterned off those of the Vizards, red and black tribal designs over a grinning white kitsune face. Placing it over her face, the mask formed a seal with the hood of her armor, completely protecting her. "This is like fuckin' Christmas plus my birthday with a kickass Sunday on top!" Giving me a quick hug, she ran off to Regent's room to stand in front of his full-length mirror, making "Hwah!" and "Kapow!" noises.

Rolling my eyes, I tossed Regent his costume, who, when he found it to be a one-to-one copy of his own with clear material to cover exposed skin, shrugged. "You have good taste at least."

Nodding over to Taylor I said, "Your costume is better than these, so I didn't get you one." _That and if something goes wrong, I don't want you hit by it._ The fact that it _also_ let me track the Undersiders down if need be was also a plus, the ethereal threads of my costume pointing out from my chest towards them if I focused to See them.

She shrugged, "It's okay."

Nodding, happy that she was showing maturity I had a thought. Checking with my Bug Sense she was dumping disappointment into her swarm, as well as a bit of what could be jealousy. _Ah, oh well, she's still a teenager._ I sent her feelings of comfort as I opened up my other bags, pulling out the rest of my presents. "So, you guys know the unwritten rules, right?" I waited for the chorus of nods, manfully not jumping as Imp giving a snort from my elbow. I might be able to See past her power, but she was still _damn_ sneaky.

As everyone looked to my right and my eyes could focus on her she said, "Yeah, they're bullshit!"

I waved a hand in a maybe gesture. "Day to day, they're actually a good idea, but they're guidelines, not laws, and like the Geneva Conventions, they only work as long as everyone follows them. The way to keep people following them is to have them enforced by everyone else by having _everyone_ break them when taking down the ones who broke it originally. Kind of a MAD scenario."

Imp looked up at me, expression hidden, "But those assholes are always pissed."

"It stands for Mutually Assured Destruction," Tattletale chimed in, obviously happy to be the one explaining something. "You don't do something that would kill someone, because you'd get killed at the same time."

The Stranger nodded, "Oh right, like Nukes. Okay."

"Anyways, as the current standard of conduct are in abeyance-" Imp elbowed my hip. "Since no one is following the rules and everyone's trying to kill everyone else, holding back is _stupid_. As such, it's time for an _upgrade_. They're gonna try to kill you, and you need to be able to, if not return the favor, then put them down harder than you usually do." I could feel Taylor's trepidation through the Swarm. "I'm not saying you have to kill people, but you'll have to injure them more than usual, since they think _they'll_ die if they don't kill _you_. It's a messed-up situation, so I'm providing you the tools to make the best of it. First of all, Grue." I pushed the large box with his name towards him.

He frowned, taking off the wrapping paper and opening the box. "Grenades? No. Flashbangs? My power does the opposite of this."

"Which lets you use them effectively!" I told him. He looked confused while Taylor and Lisa both had looks of understanding. "Place your Darkness around someone, then toss one of those in and create a hollow in it right where they are. They get hit, but everyone outside is fine, then you either drop the Darkness and let the rest of the team hit your disoriented targets, or plunge their disoriented asses back _into_ Darkness."

"Or," Taylor chimed in. "Do both." I gave her a confused look as Tattletale grinned widely. "Well, he can make people _out_ of his power, so he has that level of control, and if he can see his opponents he can cover them with it, which blacks them out and still gives us a target to hit!"

"That's brilliant!" I responded genuinely. "Or the opposite, as the case may be." Imp hit me in the arm for my pun, grumbling about dad jokes, but it was worth it. Brian looked at the case with new eyes, considering them. "Don't waste them, but if you need more I can get them, I've got a contact." _Cauldron_ did technically, but it was the same difference at this point.

"What about me?" Imp asked excitedly. "Do I get something else? It's cool if I don't, this costume is bitchin', but. . . please?"

I patted her hood. "Puppy dog eyes work better if I can _see_ your eyes Aisha, but yeah, there's something else." Grabbing a long package, I handed it to her, smiling at her inability to repress her excitement as she practically vibrated. Wrapping paper went flying as she stopped holding back her power, making it seem to appear from thin air to my senses. "HOLY SHIT YOU GOT ME A FUCKING SWORD! YOU'RE THE FUCKING BEST AND I'LL STAB ANYONE WHO DISAGREES! I CAN DO THAT NOW 'CAUSE _I'VE GOT A FUCKING SWORD!_ "

I maneuver myself subconsciously to avoid the un-seeable blade as she tackled me in a hug. "Watch the edge," I warned, unable to stop from smiling. She repressed her power to show everyone her new weapon, the sight of her waving it caused everyone to take a step back. I caught the edge, thankful that my costume was cut-proof. "Don't swing it around like that Aisha. It's not a toy, it's a weapon, and you need to treat it as such."

Looking her in the eye as I let it go, she nodded vigorously. "Why is it glowing?" Regent asked.

Imp looked down at the weapon, having not noticed the Speed Zone I'd laid on one side, running down the spine of the blade. "Did you get me a _magic sword_?" she whispered. "'cause if you did. Fuck. I don't know what I should do, but it won't be fuckin' enough!"

I shook my head. "No, it's a Speed Zone. Grab one of the knives."

"You got me knives too! Best. Day. Ever." She reached into the box, taking out the scabbard I threw together and the three knives I'd formed. It'd taken a bit to create the blades correctly with Kaiser's power, but I'd been able to try some of the things I'd read about how to arrange the crystalline structure of the alloys exactly how I'd wanted and choose the exact materials. It took far too long to use in a fight, but the fact that Kaiser _hadn't_ taught his men how to fight with European-style blades he himself created seemed like a _massive_ missed opportunity just for the branding alone. Not that I'd mention it to him. The irony of using his power to arm a black girl was amusing though.

Returning with the sword and knives I took both from her, placing the smaller blade into the space right above the sword's guard. It slid neatly into the groove cut into the Jian, and aiming it at the wall I pushed it forward, hitting the Speed Zone and firing it off like an arrow, the only sound a faint scraping of steel followed by a loud _thunk_ as it buried itself in the drywall. Aisha gave a high-pitched squeal before falling backwards, unmoving.

"Um, is she okay?" Regent asked, looking at her. "Because if she's not can I have her sword?"

"I will _cut you!_ " Aisha called up, lifting an arm and flicking him off. "I'm just too happy to stand. MAGIC SWORD!"

"It's not-" I paused, considering it.

"Knew it!" she crowed.

Laughing, I continued, "No, it's powers. It's another Speed Zone, like my pistol. I was considering how the term _magic_ may or may not apply to what we do. Just be careful pressing it against something large, because it'll move the sword, and you, instead."

Aisha sat up immediately. "Gimme!" Leaning down and handing it to her, she immediately rolled over as she pressed it into the ground, being pulled off along the linoleum with a "Wheee!"

Shaking my head, I took out Regent's present, walking over to him to give it since he didn't seem inclined to get up himself, _lazy bastard._ I had to step over Imp as she skidded back the other direction, riding the sword, her cut proof costume allowing her to do so easily as it levitated over the ground like a deadly hoverboard. Handing him the package, he looked at it skeptically, trying to figure out what it was. He casually unwrapped it, though his motions _were_ oddly controlled. frowning in confusion, he looked at his gift. "You gave me books? Boring."

"Anatomy books," I clarified. "So you could find all of those little things that could do a _lot_ of damage if they just. . . _twitched_ the wrong way. Also, consider this. Good trigger discipline is to keep your finger off the trigger until you're ready to fire, but most thugs don't have that. If they don't then all it takes is a single pound of pressure, a single _pull_ of the finger to fire the gun. Combine it with an unexpected noise and a _slight_ arm movement and as long as they don't know you're there? Suddenly the thugs are arguing because Carl shot Bobby and there's chaos in the ranks."

He nodded, smiling, "I like the way you think. You know that makes you a shit hero, right?"

I smiled back, showing my teeth. "I'm a hero because I _want_ to be, not because I _have_ to be."

He shrugged, opening one of his new books, "Whatever lets you sleep at night."

Rolling my eyes, I walked back, giving Tattletale her package. She opened it up, revealing a bare metal case. Looking at me she flicked it open, before gazing down at the contents and stiffening. "This is a sniper rifle. You are giving me a collapsible sniper rifle."

"Yes it is," I affirmed. "Check the barrel."

She cautiously pulled it from the foam it was seated it, looking down it, seeing the Speed Zone sitting innocuously inside. Carefully, it was replaced in the with slightly shaking fingers. "Are you insane?" she asked calmly.

"Coil's going to be fielding sniper teams, so any stigma will be overlooked, and with your power you'd be one of the best out there. You'd know the gun, how your target's going to move, all the conditions. It just seemed natural," I shrugged, not seeing the problem.

"This will _kill people_ ," she reiterated.

"Then don't shoot them in the chest or head. Also, just pointing it out, they're going to try to do the same thing to _you_ Sarah. Lung _might_ not because he _could_ consider you not worth it, but the rank and file, let alone Oni Lee, are going to do their level best to _kill_ you."

"I don't. . ." she stopped, struggling with herself.

"If you don't want to use it against people, fine. With your power, trick shots should be easily doable. Use it to take out cars, enemy weapons, whatever you want to. I'm not telling you how to use it, just that it's yours to do with as you wish. If you sell it off to help fund one of your contingencies, that's fine too. I'm giving you the tools I think will help you survive. I'm not going to make you use them if you don't want to," I reassured her, which apparently solved her internal debate.

"Okay. Thanks." Her response was an off mix of relief and grudging respect as her attention was drawn back to the weapon. I turned to Taylor, giving my teammate her present.

Opening it, and seeing it was a long knife and pistol, Taylor looked up at me. "Same thing I told Tattletale," I confirmed. "The pistol has one level of enhancement, so it'll hit harder, but won't hurt Lung when he gets going. Remember the three levels of fights?" She nodded. "What we'll be heading into will be the third. If you're captured and not saved before the fight's over they _will_ rape or kill you. It's a when, not an if. I'll be there as fast as I can, but depending on the situation, that might not always be fast _enough_. You can rely on me to come to help if I can and know you're in trouble, but all it takes is _once_ for things to go irreparably wrong." The seriousness of the moment was ruined as Aisha came flying by once again, going "Wahooo!"

We both watched her ride past. "Right, so, new trick for your powers. Grab the pistol." She did so, looking at it cautiously, almost as if it might bite her if she wasn't careful. "It's unloaded Taylor, Lisa will show you how to use it. Now, I want you to pay attention to your insects." Grabbing two tiny spiders, I dropped one on either end of the slide. "So, think of where these two are in space. Think about it making a line. Now," I moved the gun, aiming it at the wasp, which I'd moved to land on the far wall. "See how the spiders make a line that intersects with the wasp?" She nodded as I held the weapon steady. "Good, now I want you to look down the sights. Get all three dots to line up in a row."

She did so moving around me and shifting her head to get it just right before blinking in surprise. "It's aiming right at it. How?"

Letting go of the pistol I smiled. "You know how. Your bug sense lets you see things perfectly in three dimensions, which is far better for aiming firearms then the mark one eyeball. There's more to it, like having to worry about bullet drop and things like that, but even without any training you're a preternaturally good shot. You never really pursued it, but as long as you can tag something with an insect, you've essentially got super-accuracy with any firearm. It was probably your dislike of their innate lethality that stopped you, but in a _real_ fight like this, any pure advantage you can get is one you need."

She sighed, nodding. "Okay. But, don't I need ammo?"

I facepalmed. "I knew I forgot something!" Laughing at her unamused look I reached into my bag, taking out several boxes of rounds for both her weapon and Tattletale's.

* * *

Getting back to base, having left behind Rachel's presents, I checked my e-mail. Coil _still_ hadn't sent me anything, and Kaiser, or someone working for him, sent me a textless email, the subject only reading "Vejovis". I shrugged, at least _they did as I asked._ Sending out a general e-mail to everyone, I laid out my information in general terms, asking for possible team configurations. A few minutes later I received reply from Kaiser to everyone demanding restitution from me for my "unprovoked attack" on his minion.

'Either you were lied to, or you are being deliberately obtuse.' I replied, including everyone in it just as he had. 'Victor attempted to steal my ability to speak. Be glad I did not kill him outright. What is it your people say? 'The Jew cries out in pain as he strikes you'? While I believe that to be untrue, the point still stands.'

He swiftly responded that it was the Polish who had that phrase, though he didn't call them _Polish_ , along with the team rosters as a fait accompli. Considering he put together a team consisting solely of himself, Hookwolf, Stormtiger, Cricket, Crusader, Alabaster, Night, Fog, Purity, Gregor, and Bitch, my response of "Ha. Ha. Ha. No." should have been obvious.

His angry response that they were non-negotiable I ignored, leaning back in my chair to try to consider _good_ combos. Newter, Gregor, and Sundancer would all work well with Herb or I, both of us immune to heat and poison. If I could finagle it I wanted Trickster on my team so I could try to de-Ziz him, breaking whatever future the Simurgh had planned for and left hidden commands to trigger upon reaching. I doubted it would be as easy as just talking to him once, but I had to at least _try_. I couldn't see if her power still affected him unless I saw her as well, and that was a. . . _less than optimal_ option. No matter what, Taylor _was_ going to be on my team, and Purity was going to have Herb as backup. Also, Victor wasn't going to be teamed with either of us. The kind of arrogant stupidity he'd shown meant it was a _certainty_ that he'd pull something to try to soothe his fragile ego, and then I'd have to kill him, because _I_ kept my word.

As I shuffled names around for the better part of an hour, Coil deigned to enter the conversation. I had to admit, he provided a much more politically balanced team spread, with at least two high ranking members each. Team one combined Kaiser and the twin Valkyries with Newter, Bitch, The Lady; Bug, Sundancer, and myself, along with a Sniper team from Coil. Team two was Herb, Purity, Crusader, Kreig, Rune, Genesis, Gregor, Mush, Coil's snipers, and Regent. Team three consisted of Æonic, Victor, who of course spelled his name with a k just to be edgy, his wife Othala, Trickster, Faultline, Spitfire, Squealer, Hookwolf, Stormtiger, Cricket, and a squad of six mercenaries from Coil. Team four was Skidmark, Grue, Tattletale, Alabaster, Night, Fog, Labyrinth, Ballistic, and another squad of mercenaries from snakey.

A couple of e-mails later Bitch was moved to Herb's team, as he'd be able to put up with her dominance shit better than I would; Spitfire moved to watch Labyrinth's back, though Faultline had the professionalism not to outright say so; and Squealer moved to be with Skidmark, for _obvious_ reasons. I asked for Mush to be on my team, which provoked confusion, but he was moved anyways. Finally a message was sent to Grue alone, suggesting that the midget ninja watch Tattletale's back, which would keep _both_ of them safe and out of trouble. Happy with the teams, I sent each group a location to hit. Remembering that Bakuda's workshop was hidden in a drug distribution center, I made sure _none_ of us hit that any of those, as _every_ time my father had seen a team hit one, someone died. While this would mean the bombing would continue for a few days longer, the teams _needed_ a shakedown raid to iron out the problems in working together.

We also all needed locations that we wouldn't be able to steamroll, as that would ignore the entire point of this exercise. I gave Herb's team the address to a warehouse casino they'd turned back into a storehouse: somewhere they couldn't just blast to bits, and tight quarters on top of that. Charlie got a barracks which was too widely distributed for him to just freeze completely. Grue got a brothel, which was still operating as one, which would mean civilian targets they couldn't just blow away; it would be a good test to see who on the team would flinch from killing innocents. My team got an armory, the firefight something that'd hopefully pin down the close-ranged fighters and make them think in different directions. I'd warn Herb, but otherwise going in blind like this would help me get a better read on everyone's abilities while the people I gave a damn about would still be protected.

 _It'll be a trial by fire, but to reform villains, that's what's needed._


	54. Outreach 6-5

**Outreach 6.5**

Meeting Panacea for dinner out, the only comment she made on my plans was "So, you'll be fighting soon?"

I placed a sound bubble for my response as I mimed a silent yawn, dismissing it immediately after. "Yeah, tomorrow is the first, but we probably won't find what we're looking for on our very first mission." Which was true, at least in part because I didn't _want_ us to find it on our first outing.

She nodded, turning the conversation back to her work healing, describing the techniques she'd had to innovate to reverse the process of pseudo-petrification one of Bakuda's bombs had inflicted, turning those affected into living statues that would die in a few weeks from starvation if Panacea hadn't brute force reversed the process.

That night, after a few hours of meditation and more shield practice with a projected rifle, I now had _four_ malleable force fields in addition to the one crystallized barrier. The various villain groups had arranged to strike our targets at ten that morning, each team meeting ten minutes prior to the start of our combined operation to try to hit them simultaneously. Before heading out, I stopped by one of my old practice sites, gathering the torn up and blasted remains of a train car into a pile, using my strength and my shields to blunt the ragged edges with my gloved hands. Trying to grab them all with my power to help me lift it didn't work, forcing me to realize that I could affect only individual pieces if they touched me, so short of just rolling in the rusted metal _that_ wasn't going to work. Tearing the side off another abandoned car I beat and warped it into a bowl, piling the loose metal inside, glad I'd planned on arriving half an hour early so I wasn't late.

 _That_ I could lift, and did so, careful not to tip it as I flew over the city, landing in the location Kaiser had dictated: E88 territory a few blocks from our target. I was still twenty minutes before the arranged time, but two men, one carrying a long bag, both wearing military grade armor with a patch of a white snake on a black background stood waiting. Nodding to them, as they looked at the truck-sized bowl I was carrying, I reached out with my Bug Sense, finding Taylor hiding in an alley a few blocks away. Grabbing a bit of swarm to spell 'I'm here!' she nodded, starting to walk towards me.

Turning the corner, she looked at the mass of rusted metal and stopped, looking between it and myself. 'Mush' I spelled underneath an air-conditioning unit, causing her to tilt her head in thought, before nodding, walking over to stand next to me. "Vejovis," she greeted, trying to act professional.

"Lady Bug," I nodded back. A minute later a shape leaped down from a rooftop, Newter rolling as he landed. The snipers started and I had to stop myself from flinching, but Taylor didn't seem surprised in the slightest

"Hey guys!" he waved, walking over to a wall and leaning against it. "Wasn't sure this was the place. What's with the wreck?"

"I'll explain when we're all here," I deferred. He shrugged pulling out his phone and played a game while we waited. Sundancer was next, walking smoothly up to us, hesitating when Newter and I waved hello, giving us a firm nod in return, saying nothing. A few minutes before we were supposed to all be here, A kid in a hoody walked up to us, my Sight informing me that it was Mush.

"Hello!" I called friendly, causing him to jump as he pulled the hood tight. He looked up at me warily, not saying anything. "Your power, it lets you collect loose matter into armor, right?"

He shrugged glumly. "Yeah. I guess." Taylor and Sundancer, looking down at him in surprise.

Reaching up I grabbed the edge of the bowl, casually bending it down to the sound of tortured metal. "Could you use this? I blunted the edges so it wouldn't cut you."

Mush looked at me suspiciously, before looking at the pile of scrap. "Wouldn't cut me anyway," he muttered, maybe to himself, maybe to me, I wasn't sure. Edging towards the pile, he slowly reached an arm into it, the limb stretching and deforming into tentacles that attached themselves to the pieces, bringing them over to him and across him. My own power casually reached out and copied it, just in case I needed it later. I had a feeling that if I completely repressed it I'd turn back into myself into what Mush was, but it would probably be best to nab that one Traveller's human shapeshifting power first, just in case.

He gathered more and more into himself, quickly growing into an amorphous pile of shifting rusted metal. "Okay, can you control your shape this way, or is it just a general thing?" I asked, peering at his power and knowing the answer, but interested if _he_ knew it.

The pile shrugged. "I can control it," he said, tone sad, voice coming from the center of the mass.

I rolled my eyes behind my mask. _God save me from uninspired pessimists._ "That's great!" I replied warmly, pulling out my phone, my _original_ phone. The one that had all my D&D and Pathfinder books on it to reference, as I'd not found the equivalent here. "The armoring should make you effectively bulletproof, and if you can control the shape, we can do all sorts of interesting things, but let's start simple for this first run. Let's go humanoid, since it's the form you're used to." I pulled up an image of an Iron Golem, turning to show him. "Something like this, probably no more than eight feet tall so you won't have to hunch indoors, and enlarge the fists a bit for better striking."

He did so, slowly, moving the metal around, a large mass of metal still on his back making him look hunchbacked. "Drop the extra material Mush, I eyeballed it so if you don't use it all, that's perfectly fine."

The metal behind him sloughed off, falling with a loud clatter. I flew around him in a circle, looking at the effect as he leaned away from my gaze. "Good job. Now, how fast can you move like this?"

The golem hung its head. "Not very fast."

"Lift your right arm," I commanded, and he did so slowly before letting it drop. His power was flexing, but it wasn't anywhere near its limit, though I had no idea how I knew that. "Again, faster." He did, noticeably faster. "Mush, we're going into combat, and you'll be fighting _side by side_ with me. Move with _purpose_. Now again, as fast as you safely can." He lifted it, about as fast as a normal person could, which considering he was eight feet tall and made of _steel_ , was _more_ than enough. "Okay, good! Now-" I paused. "This is going to be loud, so you might want to cover your ears."

Newter shrugged, doing so, as did Taylor and Sundancer. Looking over at Coil's snipers one of them nodded to me, tapping the part of his helmet that covered his ears. I turned to the metal bowl, ripping off a long metal strip, three feet by eight feet, and straightened it out. Covering it with a shield I plunged it into the torn-up street at our feet, driving two feet of it underground.

Stepping back and dusting off my hands, I turned to look at Mush, ignoring Netwer's wide eyed look. "Okay, so, do you know how to box?"

Mush shook his head as his body language sagged. "No. Sorry."

"Good," I told him, causing him to look up at me in confusion. "As you are now, you'll be better with a momentum-based style that doesn't work well with standard human physiology." I took a fighting stance, pulling my fist back behind me exaggeratedly. "Copy me." He did. "When you strike, do so like this," I instructed, shoving my fist forward as I twisted my hips, putting my all into the blow, almost overextending myself.

He copied my move, having to take a couple of steps forward as his trash-can sized fist almost pulled him off his feet. "Exactly!" I congratulated. "Now, do the same thing to the target. Again everyone, going to be loud."

Mush took position, copying his earlier stance, driving his fist forward into the metal with a sound like a car crash, the metal shearing from the impact and hitting a nearby wall shattering a few bricks. The Merchant looked from his fist to the wrecked metal in wonder. I walked up behind him, slapping him on the back, causing him to jump. "Good job! I knew it was right to want you on this team! One last thing."

"What?" he asked, sounding almost fearful for some reason.

"I know you're called Mush, but it just sounds, well, _insulting_ ," I commented without scorn, scratching the back of my head. "Skidmark I can _kinda_ understand, as he lays down 'marks' that make things 'skid' across the ground, and Squealer is the squeal of tires, but is there something _else_ I can call you? Like, Golem or something?" I asked, motioning between the image on my phone, him, and his reflection in the glass of the nearby building.

He looked at his reflection, not saying anything. "Golem?" I asked, trying the name.

"Huh?" he said, turning back to me. "Yeah. You can. If you want."

"Golem it is then," I confirmed holding out my hand. He just looked at it dumbly, before I stepped forward, grabbing his, and giving it a shake.

Hearing something clanking down the road, I looked over to see Kaiser and the twins, Fenja and Menja, walking towards us.

"If you're done making a racket, we should get on with this." He commented, looking scornfully at Mush. "And who's _this_ pile of rust supposed to be? The Merchant's trash-thing?"

As the man beside me slumped, shoulders forward, I smiled at the tin toddler. It didn't reach my eyes. "Ah, Kaiser, only five minutes late! This is Golem, and he'll be helping us today," I said with false cheer. _He couldn't let anyone have a moment? Really?_ "Weren't your people known for their punctuality? Oh, right, my apologies, that was the Italians. Well, better late than Nazi! Sorry, Never. Well, we better get going if we want to make there in time."

He sneered at me, before turning his back, striding off towards the location. "Don't get in my way, _hero_."

As he strutted away imperiously I motioned to everyone to form up. Taylor trotted over, Newter and Sundancer following, the sniper pair behind them. I pulled insects in from around several blocks around us, causing most of the party to stiffen as the Swarm curled around them, not making contact. "If they want to go first and attract fire, we'll let them. From what I know all three have powers that let them deal with small arms fire. Newter, I know you're not bulletproof, so I want you to stay near Golem, and use him for cover if you need to, as he's essentially a walking tank right now. If there's an innocent, _and you can get to them without getting hurt,_ I want you to hit them with your hallucinogens and get them to safety if you can. Lady Bug, screen yourself with Golem as well, and take the Swarm, you're on scout duty and communication." She tilted her head in confusion. "Listen with them and use bug speech to keep everyone informed."

"Bug speech? I don't speak beetle, bro," Newter commented, raising an eyebrow.

" _Will do_." The swarm buzzed around us and he jumped several feet in the air, looking around.

"Sundancer," I continued as if nothing out of the ordinary happened. "How comfortable are you with this level of fighting?"

I looked at her intently as we started walking far behind the Nazis, waiting for her to respond. "I'm not," she admitted.

"Violence at all or just killing?" I tried to clarify.

"Killing. But if I have to-," she started.

"-I'll plan so you shouldn't have to," I cut her off, her helmet turning towards me. "You create suns, right?" she nodded. "Not the best match up with Bug Controllers, but I'll see if we can find something for you to do. Stay close to Lady Bug and we'll use them as deterrents for now. After this we'll work on something else."

I turned to talk to the Snipers, and one waved me off. "You guys have a location you want me to drop you off at?" I asked anyways. The one without the rifle leaned back and whispered something to his partner, who nodded.

"Sure," the spotter said, "If you can." Flying over I grabbed them by their jackets, lifting them effortlessly up above the rooftops, following their directions to a building across from our target. Dropping them off I could distantly hear the heavy footsteps of Golem, and the guards outside of the Pawnshop they were using as a cover for their armory were looking around, several swatting at the insects that were starting to fill the air.

I flew high, taking an overwatch position. Kaiser and the twins were thirty feet ahead of the others, striding like he didn't have a care in the world. Turning the corner onto the street, he made it a few steps before the guards spotted him and opened fire, bullets sparking off his full plate of blades, the other two seemingly unaffected. As the women in Valkyrie armor shrunk the bullets to insignificance, my own power copied theirs. The two women shared their power, so even though it took from both, I only received one version myself.

Golem turned the corner, the other three behind him to avoid the fire. Piggybacking off Taylor's power I saw inside as the ABB scrambled to get weapons, setting up a heavy machine gun inside the lobby while the three customers scurried for cover. Those further inside stopped reloading magazines and doing maintenance, picking up weapons and grabbing grenades.

" _It's a weapons storehouse " _The swarm buzzed to everyone, the Nazis pausing for a moment in surprise before continuing on, Kaiser informing Fenja and Menja to be ready. The ABB were focusing fire on Kaiser, but another group was moving to head out the back entrance, the interior wall separating the pawn shop from the apartment building behind it having had doorways cut into it.

"Taylor," I said to the insects around me. "Relay my orders. Sundancer, take the alley to your left. The building on the other side of the store is a front. Drop a sun in front of the door to stop them going out that way and circling around. Newter, watch her back."

I dived down as the two of them split off, putting myself between them as the guards uselessly pouring fire at Kaiser took shots at them. Tanking a couple of bullets that drained my shields, allowing one that would have impacted my costume to be shrunk, my wind control made sure the two of them weren't shot in their dash for the alley.

Pulling myself back up, I resumed overwatch. As Kaiser walked in range of the machine gun it opened fire, the twins stepping forward growing slightly and taking the shots, metal clad arms raised to cover the exposed parts in their chest armor as even the reduced projectiles drew pinpricks of blood from the skin not protected.

I grabbed both Fenja's and Menja's growing power as Kaiser raised his arm, a wall of iron springing up from the sidewalk and blocking the fire. With a wave of his hand the wall sprouted spears, extending into the store, killing over a dozen people within, including the civilians that had taken cover. As someone on the second floor opened a window, pulling the pin on a grenade to toss it down, Coil's team took the shot, killing the woman who fell backwards. Her grenade exploded and killing two more in the room, the other four at least injured.

Sundancer was almost at the end of the alley, waving Newter to back up as the ABB got ready to head out the back door. Grabbing a portion of the Swarm I shoved it inside, sending the flies into their eyes as I stung their necks with wasps, causing them to waste time as they flailed. I could feel Taylor's power make minute corrections to keep them on target and was thankful for it. Sundancer's power flared as fire blossomed in her hands, my power reaching out and capturing Stellar Creation, trying to also grasp her secondary power but sliding off, it's passive nature giving it nothing to latch onto.

The baseball sized star drifted over until it was hanging over the sidewalk outside the door. Growing to beachball size, it set the trash on the street on fire and the sidewalk directly below it shimmering as the stone heated while the asphalt bubbled. Pulling the swarm off the squad and sending them upstairs to harass the people on the second floor, the first group got up, one of them reaching for the door and pulling his hand back with a cry of pain as he grasped the suddenly hot doorknob.

One of the gunmen pulled open the curtain on a window only to stumble back as light brighter than day flooded the room. Another one started shooting out the window, trying to hit whatever was out there, just wasting ammo. They all flinched as the window shattered, flooding the room with an _oppressive_ heat, a couple of the insects on the windowsill dying as I pulled them back.

Kaiser was inside now, summoning spears and blades to kill his opponents in the store, The twins screening him from front and back. "Relay message to all inside," I commanded. "Surrender and you will be arrested. Use lethal force and we shall respond in kind."

"Are we really going to kill them?" Taylor asked, unsure, behind Golem, who'd reached the entrance. Coil's Snipers were busy killing anyone on the upper floors they could see.

"We won't but Kaiser will unless we can get them to stop, and the only way we can is if the ABB surrender," I told her quickly. "Relay the message, _now._ " I'd do it myself, but I could only get a single group of insects to talk if I wanted to follow the rest of the fight, lacking the multitasking skill the 'voice from everywhere' required.

As she did so, an ABB squad left a nearby building, moving straight for the alley Newter and Sundancer were in, guns drawn. I dropped down, pushing hard to increase my speed, yelling "Take cover!" to my teammates as I landed on the lead element, crushing his skull with my heel as I did so. Sundancer hid behind a dumpster while Newter climbed the wall in a few seconds, escaping to the roof.

The ABB were shocked by my presence, letting me kill another two with strikes to the head that drained my shields before wrenching the weapons from the last pair. Grabbing them both by the throat I lifted up in the air, clearing the edge of the building. Holding them towards Newter as they reached for their knives I commanded, "Spit." He blinked before doing so, splattering both of them in the face. As their terrified expressions slackened I dropped them on the roof. "Strip of them of weapons, I'll have more.

He nodded and I dropped back down into the alley, landing next to Sundancer who eeped. "Can you do two?" I asked.

She nodded, "I normally don't, but sure."

"Put another deterrent at the other end of the alley."

" _Some are surrendering on the third floor_ " Taylor relayed to us, Sundancer glancing my way.

"Tell them to drop their weapons," I instructed, lifting up and following her connection to find them, sunward in the building. Heading over I pulled my arms in, flying feet first into the window, those inside crying out in fear as the glass shattered. Looking around there were seven people, six women, varying ages, and a boy. "Tell Kaiser to wait on hitting the third floor," I instructed as swung out at the wall, draining a shield to blow it out, leaving a gaping hole as the people inside cowered. "Let's get you out so you live," I told them, grabbing the closest two, an old woman and the boy who clung to her.

Ducking back out over the star I saw through the bugs as Kaiser glanced upwards from his position on the second floor as Taylor told him " _ABB surrendering on third floor_. _Vejovis is pulling them out_. _Hold position_."

Spears shot up from the floor around him and his guards to pierce the ceiling and skewer the people on the floor above as he snarled "You don't command me, _girl_!" Luckily, he hit the wrong room, one the snipers had mostly cleared, only killing a woman with an assault rifle who taken cover behind a fridge and had been trying to shoot Coil's men. The Nazi gave a viscous grin as he heard the cry of pain and blood ran down the spears from the corpses he's pierced, thinking he'd killed those I'd been trying to save.

 _Right, the lead Nazi doesn't play well with others_ , I reminded myself, glad I hadn't gotten those surrendering killed, but by how he picked up the pace as he cleared the floor, I didn't have time for two more trips. Dropping the two next to Newter who looked ready to spit again I shook my head. "They surrendered, watch but don't incapacitate." He shot me a questioning look, but I'd already taken off. Looking back towards Taylor, she'd taken cover behind a car as Golem was taking care of _another_ squad that'd shown up, having shoulder checked the car they'd tried to ram him with, hitting them as they spilled out and raked him with fire. His blows were hard enough to either incapacitate or kill, but he wasn't going for directly lethal head blows.

Flying back in the room with those surrendering, I landed, seeing Kaiser ascending the stairs with only a single wall separating us. "Everyone grab onto me!" I ordered. A couple moved towards me, the other three hesitating. The leader of the E88 heard me, head turning to look as he waved his hand, the wall between us sprouting spears that shot towards us. Pushing my Aerokinesis I knocked them off course, thudding into the walls to our sides. Kaiser's head tilted, as if confused before moving his hand again.

More spears appeared, but by this time the last of them had grabbed onto me and I flew back through the hole, weapons extending and hitting nothing but furniture. Flying to Newter I dropped them with the first two, Kaiser reaching the third floor and having Menja bust the door down, breaking the spear that had grown out of it that was holding it shut. As he looked in the room I'd evacuated, an ugly expression stole across his face, deepening when he looked in the room he'd speared from below and seeing the bullet wounds from the snipers in the skewered ABB. "Stay here, stay quiet," I told the frightened people I'd pulled out, flying down to the front I waited as Kaiser stalked out.

"Where are the prisoners?" he demanded, twins flanking him.

I looked back at him, wearing a smile as a mask. "Secure."

"I'll be the judge of that," he sneered.

"No, you won't," I pleasantly reposted, minutely turning my head to look down an empty alley down the street.

He waved a hand and the wall of the alley rippled, blades filling it. I snapped my head back to glare at him, my stance hostile. "There, best to make a clean sweep of the filth," he told me, a vicious smile in his voice. After a moment, where he seemed to be waiting for me to do something, he snorted in disgust, "You should've known better than to go against _your betters_." With that he sauntered off with his minions.

Golem stood next to Taylor, the two of them watching as he turned the corner and walked off. The insect I'd tagged him with kept moving, picking up his comment of "See my dears, the poor fool was powerless to stop my might," the two of them tittering in obviously practiced unison.

Rolling my eyes I flew up, carrying the people I'd captured down while Taylor gave Sundancer the all clear. After my third trip the snipers waved at me, and I brought them down as well. They gave me a nod of thanks and headed off, not saying anything while they were still in my insect's range. Bringing down everyone I looked at the two incapacitated members. "Newter, how long will they stay out?"

He shrugged, "I don't know, an hour? I got 'em pretty good." He gave me a chagrined grin.

I waved him off, reassuring, "Don't worry about it, you did what I asked." Turning to the group I inquired, "Is there anything you could tell us, other locations, where Bakuda's lab is, Lung's next target, things like that?"

A couple of them gave up addresses, all but one of which I already had, but thanked them for anyway. Not really knowing what to do with them, I called up Tattletale. "R Pea," I told her, giving her the all clear through the cypher she'd come up with.

"How? Ugh, never mind. L Kiwano. What do you want?" was her annoyed response.

"Outside or inside?" I asked, wondering if she needed help.

"Inside. What do you want?" she growled.

"So, I've got some prisoners, and I'm not really sure what to do with them. Do I call the PRT or the cops, because I'm not the biggest fan of either in this city."

"PRT, because of the bombs. Obviously," was her biting reply. "Is that it?"

"Pretty much," I smiled. "How did things go on your end?"

There was the sound of a rifle firing. "Still going. You?"

"Just wrapping up. I'll leave you to it," I told her, hanging up. The insects inside had found the stores of cash, along with the weapons and ammo that were still intact and were carrying them all out into a pile in front of us. The three villains watched the materials flow out, Newter grinning as the cache grew.

Turning to those that had surrendered, I grabbed a phone from one of the blissed-out gunmen. "Call the PRT, have them come get you. They'll be able to take the bombs out of you before Lung realizes your alive and detonates them in retaliation, assuming he even has that capability." The fact that we'd had a full assault without a single one of them blowing suggested he _didn't_.

Once I'd gotten everything out, I had Taylor divide the cash up five ways while I motioned towards the weaponry. "Spoils of war people, if you want anything, go for it. Just don't grab explosives if you don't know how to use them." Newter smiled, claiming a shotgun, while Sundancer took a pistol. Golem looked at the light machine gun they'd had packed away, looking to me for permission. I nodded and pressed his hand to it, fleshy tentacles reaching out and pulling it into his palm.

"No man," I said, and he started to put it back. "Put it on the top of your forearm." He stopped extruding the gun, shifting it instead. He moved it so the top of it was sticking out, barrel pointing down his arm. "Exactly, that way the hot spent shells won't get stuck and you can still punch things!"

He nodded slowly. "Huh, never thought of that." Grabbing a box of ammo for it, he pressed it into the bottom of the arm, disappearing into the rusted steel. His metallic face frowned in concentration as thin vein-like tentacles moved over the top of the weapon, threading the belt of ammo into the feed. When I he stepped back I rolled my eyes and tossed him the other six boxes of ammo which quickly disappeared into him.

Taylor finished, grabbing a box of ammo as I directed her insects each give us a bundle of cash bound by spider silk. "And this is our bonus for a job well done and not walking away like a complete asshole. It's almost lunch, you guys want to get lunch and talk tactics for next time? This was pretty touch and go, and I don't want things to get as risky as they did today."

"I'm not sure," Sundancer hedged.

"Do you have somewhere you need to be?" I challenged. "We're doing this again tomorrow, we have more locations, and we need to figure out synergies. Kaiser Soze and his arm candy will do their own thing, and the Snipers are opportunists, but we could figure something out that will let us stop problems before they _become_ problems. Besides, I'm buying."

"Well, if you're buying, _I'm_ in!" Newter laughed, shoving his bundle of cash in his pocket along with a box of shells as he slung the shotgun across his back. Sundancer sighed, nodding as well.


	55. Outreach 6-6

**Outreach 6.6**

Having taken everyone's orders for Fugly Bob's and gathered the unclaimed loot, I took off, leaving Sundancer, Newter, Golem, and Taylor behind to make their way to the place Taylor and I had trained. Dropping the assorted weaponry off back at base, I got everyone lunch, along with a bag of supplies, and landed in the trainyard only a few minutes before everyone showed up. Putting down my TinkerTech looking jar, and flicking the switch, I dropped a sound bubble and waited. As they walked around a train car and saw me sitting there on my phone, food laid out on a table, Sundancer and Golem, formerly Mush, froze.

I looked up, having seen them through the insects, and waved. "Come on, before it gets cold."

"Um," Sundancer said, motioning to her helmet. "I can't eat without unmasking." I motioned for her to come closer, taking out one of the items I'd extruded from my costume out of the bag I'd brought. I passed it to her, a masquerade mask, black with a red sun corona all around the outside edge. I tossed Taylor one as well, this one red with black spots. "Really?" the Traveller asked. I shrugged grinning.

"Just walk out of sight and change Sundancer. You're a white girl with blonde hair and blue eyes, but not stupid enough to think that means something special. There, everything that would have been revealed already is. Now come on, your foods getting cold, and cold burgers are just kinda meh." She stood stock still staring at me. "I do research on everyone. You're not the only one far from home, but _important_ secrets should not easily be revealed. Now go change so you can eat." Her stomach growled and she slowly walked behind a train car to change.

Watching her through the bugs, I saw her start to lift off her helmet and stopped paying close attention, happy that she wasn't just going to leave. Instead I focused on Golem, who was looking at the folding chair in trepidation. "Just drop the metal off to the side, you can pick it back up before you leave if you want to." He did so, reverting to man-goblin form, looking unhappy about it. "Question: when you're all armored up, can you still eat and everything?"

He shrugged. "Um, Maybe. I don't know. Never tried."

"Well, if you don't like how you look, grab some of the gravel and make a body you like more," I suggested.

He immediately did so, forming a body similar in size to mine, sitting down and opening the box with his name on it, looking at the burger. "You actually got me a challenger," he observed, stunned.

I shrugged. "You said you wanted one."

"This isn't your handwriting," Taylor observed as Golem stared at his meal. "Did you actually order for us by our cape names?"

"Yes?" I asked, not really seeing the problem.

She sighed into her hands, "What if someone did something to it because they're villains?" she asked.

"I didn't order Kaiser one. Sundancer is new here, so no worries there," I started nodding to the girl in question as she walked back. "People _like_ Newter, plus I think he's immune to poisons and stuff because he's a 53. I'm a hero, you're a hero, and I ordered the last one for Golem, not Mush, and I'm pretty sure he's immune to all that stuff too. There's no problem here. Go get changed so you can join us for lunch Lady Bug." She nodded at my words, heading off to switch out her helmet for a mask.

Eating in companionable silence, it was easy to forget I was breaking bread with people that, if things went _really_ bad, I may one day need to kill. As they were right now, they were weak enough I'd never be pressed that far, but it was a cruel irony that, to keep them alive through this, I was going to train them to make them dangerous enough that I might be forced to remove them if things got bad enough.

Finishing up, putting my leftovers off to the side because that burger was _ridiculously_ large, I walked over to the area I'd cleared, everyone else looking at me from their seats. "So, power optimization, contingency planning, and maximum survivability in a full combat scenario, which do you guys want me to start with?"

Newter raised his hand, "I'm for surviving!"

Getting nods from the rest, I took a teaching pose. "Okay, so, versus street level thugs you have to worry about four attack types from three different vectors. You have close quarters, where you have to worry about blunt force trauma; from fists, baseball bats, hammers, and other bludgeoning weapons. Slashing weapons, which are mostly knives, and piercing from guns."

"You're talking about this like it's a video game," Sundancer commented, frowning and crossing her arms.

"Most games need conflict and competition, and thus pull from _real_ combat. Art imitating life doesn't make it any less true," I countered. "There's long range, which is mostly guns, from pistols to rifles with shotguns and apparently machine guns in the mix. Luckily we're not dealing with bows, so th-"

"Why is that a good thing?" Newter interrupted. "Wouldn't that make things easier?"

"Arrows are quiet flying knives. What blocks bullets might not work on arrows and vice versa. _That's_ why it's luckily, it narrows down the things you have to worry about defending against." I paused, "Though the nickel nazi seems to be pretty free with friendly fire, but you should be able to see that coming. Either way, third vector of attack would be area of effect weapons, which seems to be limited to grenades, but we can't trust that's all we'll find. On the bright side The Lady, Bug is the best trap-spotter you could ask for. Golem," I called causing him to jump. "The only one you might need to worry about is grenades when you're armored up. You found that when you were taking on that entire squad single-handed, right?"

He looked down, nodding to himself, the barest of grins on his pebbly features. "I did, didn't I?"

I nodded, "You did. I'm not sure how the overpressure from a grenade will affect you, but if you pull the pieces tight, you _should_ be fine. _Your_ weakness will probably be energy dama-"

"Seriously?" Sundancer snarked. "Are you actually gonna talk about it that way?"

"Like you have room to talk miss 'I have fire immunity'!" I shot back.

She frowned. "I don't, I just don't get burned by my own suns."

I sighed, Seeing her secondary power which did _both_. "Why doesn't anyone in this dimension use fucking science!" I groaned into my hands.

"What was that?" she asked angrily while Taylor frowned and Newter laughed at the byplay. Golem was off in his own world.

"I said did you ever test that?"

Sundancer looked at me like I was stupid. "How would I test that? By getting burned? I'm not going to do that!"

I walked towards her, taking my lighter out of its pouch. "You don't have to burn yourself." I flicked it on, putting my hand high over the flame, lowering it until I got the 'this is enough to hurt, but you have powers' sensation extreme heat gave and yanked it away. "Just to the point where it _starts_ to hurt. Also, _I'm a healer._ You'd be fine in a second even if you _did_ burn yourself." Flicking it off, I tossed it to her.

She caught it, looking at it warily. "You'll heal me?" I nodded. She took off her glove, flicking the lighter on after the third try. Hesitating, she slowly put her hand two feet above the flame, lowering slowly, her look of apprehension growing as her bare palm got closer and closer to the flame. Her expression gradually shifted from wariness, to confusion, to wonder as she placed her skin directly in the fire, flames playing between her fingers, and nothing happened. As I watched her do this, playing with the fire, my own power reached out, carefully, almost tenderly, wrapping the aura of her power with my own, but as she pulled her hand away it dissipated into nothing. She looked up at me, "What?"

I shook myself, wondering what the heck was happening with my own power. "So I was right," I responded smugly.

She tossed the lighter back, pouting, "No need to be an ass about it."

I caught it, smiling. "Sorry, didn't mean to come across that way." Taylor was looking between us, frowning. I had no idea why, so I got back on topic. "Right so, Golem. Golem!" He looked up at me. "Physical damage you can take pretty well, but things like heat, cold, and lightning damage might hurt you." Sundancer just shook her head. "It'll probably be effected by whatever your armor is made of. For instance, if you sucker-punched Lung after he'd lit himself while covered in steel, you'd probably have a bad time, but stone? You'd probably be okay for bit. Got that?"

He nodded, then caught himself. "Me? Fight _Lung?_ " he marveled.

"Not for any length of time. Once he gets strong enough to break your armor or start breathing fire, you'd lose, but at the start of the fight as a one-and-run? I don't see why not," I proposed.

He was off in his own little world, so I turned to Newter. "Are you tough versus anything? Blows, cuts, bullets?"

He shrugged, smiling at the show, taking a sip of the soda he was holding with his tail. "A bit of all of the above, but not by a lot. Once I've dried out I'd probably burn, unlike Ms. Sunday."

"It's Sun _dancer_ ," she asserted, glaring at him.

"Okay hot stuff," he winked, smiling when she started growling at him.

I considered what I should do. Making the masks I'd started to feel like I was getting close to the limit on how many things my costume could make, but I should be good for two more full sets, maybe three, but I'd have to check a few things first. "Children, behave," I chided. "Newter, you don't wear armor because you use your own sweat as a weapon, right?"

"Yeah, I'm so awesome even my sweat is useful!" he boasted.

"More like slime," Sundancer murmured. Newter pretended not to hear her.

"Okay, Sundancer, your costume, what is it made of?" I probed.

She deflected, "That's kind of personal."

"So, leather with a thin cloth underlayer, right?" From her reaction I was spot on. "So, minor blunt, little slashing, and almost no piercing protection," I sighed. "I can go talk to some of my people to see if I can get something for both of you. It'll only last a couple weeks at max, but it's the same stuff I use. Can't be cut or pierced short of Tinker bullshit and I'll see if I can work in some bludgeoning protection. And also check if she can make something that lets your. . . fluids through Newter."

"I'm not gonna say no to free stuff, but why?" Newter asked. "You just met us."

"We're on the same team and you guys don't seem like villains," as he opened his mouth I clarified. "You don't seem _evil_ , or even generally dickish. I don't _really_ know you, which is why the stuff I'll give you has a time limit, but yeah, I'm a hero. I take care of my teammates, even if it's just temporary."

He shrugged. "Whatever floats your boat bro. I've made more today than I have in, like, a month."

"So, that covers survivability, moving on t-"

"What about the bug babe?" he asked, jerking a thumb towards Taylor, who shrank under the attention.

"We've already had this discussion, since she's on my team. My real team," I amended

Sundancer looked over at her confused, "I thought you were with the Undersiders?"

"I am!" Taylor protested.

"How does _that_ work?" Newter frowned.

"She doesn't do anything _evil_ , and if she robs the occasional bank, _allegedly_ , then as long as it can't be proven I don't care," I supplied.

"You sure you're a hero?" he asked incredulously. "'cause that sounds pretty not-heroic."

Rolling my eyes at the increasingly familiar question, I dragged the conversation on. "Yes. Next thing, power optimization. Newter, you've volunteered. You're generally tougher, climb up walls, have a tail, and hallucinogenic bodily fluids. That it?"

"Pretty much," he nodded, tapping a claw against his chin.

"How sharp are those?" I asked, pointing at said claws.

He waved, "They're good for if I don't have a fork, but that's it."

"Can you make fluids on demand?"

"Can't everyone?"

I rolled my eyes. "You know what I mean. If you're like, 'I need to spit a lot', can you keep doing it?"

He shrugged. "Yes? I'm a Case 53 man, I don't have anything to compare to."

"Well, that's a bust. Costume colors and any design requests?"

"Black and red!" he declared. "What? They're good colors!" he defended at the Traveller's accusatory glare.

"Sundancer," I called, getting her attention. "I'm assuming you want black and red as well?"

She gave him another glare before nodding. "Yes please."

"Will do. So, strategy. If Lung shows up, run, but cover each other. Golem, if you can hit him hard and fast do so, but I'd rather have you safe then him punched. Newter, he burns out poisons pretty quickly, but they can be useful, just ask The Lady, Bug."

He turned to give her a considering look. "You took on tall mad and scaly?"

"Alone," I added, getting a quick glare from her, "And she won."

"I had help!" she objected.

"By help she means one of Bitch's dogs knocked him down for twenty seconds to let him succumb to enough poisons to kill a herd of elephants, getting the dosage _just_ right to put him down without doing so _permanently_ ," I explained to her annoyance. "I was all ready to step in, but I never needed to."

Now all _three_ villains were looking at her with respect. "And you had her _scouting?_ " Newter asked, looking at me as if he doubted my sanity.

"When she gets going, she fights less like your normal cape, and more like a biblical plague. Kaiser wanted to take point and would've pitched a fit like a tired toddler if she upstaged him that easily," I commented calmly, which did nothing for her blush. "That being said, Golem, if Lung shows up he'll go straight for her, since she's the reason he was in PRT custody in the first place. I need _you_ to get her to safety and protect her. She has a _lot_ more range than he does, but doesn't have your toughness. Will you do that?"

"Are you sure I can?" he asked doubtfully.

"I wouldn't ask if I didn't think you could."

He took a breath, nodding slowly. "I'll try."

"Not good enough. You _will_ or you _won't_. Pick one," I rebuked sternly.

He visible steeled himself. "I will." He looked up at me, taken aback at my smile and thumbs up.

"So, Lung shows up, Golem might punch him but will protect The Lady, Bug. Newter, if you can, slime him, if not get to safety. Kaiser will be doing his own thing, so just don't get in his way. Sundancer, you and I will take him on." She looked at me incredulously. "His heat protection ramps up as he does," I told her, remembering her hurting him with one of her suns in canon. "As such, you can lay down more heat than he can handle. I'll handle the physical side, using hit and run to keep him occupied and from charging you. We don't need to beat him, we only need to hold him long enough for our reinforcements to show up. Break might not look it, but he could take Lung, and with Purity, you, and I supporting him, even if he goes full Rage Dragon, we can still put him down."

"What about Oni Lee?" Taylor asked, looking at me in concern.

"Less straightforward, just as doable," I replied without hesitation. "In this case, Lady Bug, Golem, your roles are reversed. We'll both swarm him, and I think that as his gear travels with him, if we put ants in his pants, they'll move with him."

"So they move with him, what about it?" Sundancer asked, "They're still just bugs."

I laughed, "Spoken like someone who's never fought The Swarm, though most people can't just make the most overpowered bug-zapper in existence. The important part is that we can sense the insects around us in three dimensions. Lady Bug, if you'd take out your firearm."

She did so, holding it a little awkwardly. I grabbed my empty soda bottle, directing six insects to sit inside in a line. Sundancer looked unimpressed by the weapon and Taylor's obvious inexperience with it. "The Lady, Bug, six rounds rapid as it drops, if you will." I spelled out 'shoot it six times after it starts to fall' with insects so she would understand.

Casually tossing it in the air, she stared at it with laser intensity, gun held loosely, pointing down at the table. As soon as it started to fall the gun snapped up and she shot it again, and again, and again, until every insect inside it was dead and the shredded remains fell to the ground. Newter let out a low whistle. "How much did you guys practice that?"

I smirked, "We didn't." I considered telling them that this was probably the first time she'd even fired a gun, but that would've been too much for the _anthropomorphic newt_ and the girl who _casually created stars_ to believe.

"So, Oni Lee, as I'm sure we've all seen, goes for sudden overwhelming firepower. Golem could probably tank his knife, uzi, and frag grenade, but the fire, cold, and lightning grenades would mess him up. As such if we can tag Oni Lee, then The Lady, Bug can snipe him as soon as he gets close, and even if it's already just a clone by the time the bullet hits, he'll die before he can do anything. Newter, you have _no_ defenses against him, so lay low or get to Lady Bug. Sundancer, make a star _immediately_. He has no protection against fire, and if he can't get close, he can't bomb you. Kaiser will do. . . whatever Kaiser thinks will help himself, and while he's failing completely I'll harry the ninja while we set him up to get sniped by the Lady. Fighting Oni Lee is like playing Rocket Tag: all it takes is a single good hit to win, but he can do the same thing to you. We'll fight to drive him off, but if we take him out, awesome. Priority one though will be making sure he doesn't kill us. So, sound like a plan?"

I got a round of nods, Newter mock complaining, "But in all your plans I don't get to work with the _hottie!_ "

I sighed as Sundancer looked like she was trying to set Newter on fire with the power of her mind alone. _Without her shard_ , to be specific, as I realized I had to be.

"So! Figuring out powers!" I announced, standing up. "Sundancer, I can probably do more with yours then I could the walking drug factory. Come over here so you don't melt Newter," she hesitated. "Or The Lady, Bug, who _hasn't_ been hitting on you."

That got her walking over, Newter whining, "Come on man, don't be like that."

I shook my head. "Dude, you need to find a woman who's immune to your power, or even if you _could_ get in her pants, you're likely to overdose the poor girl."

Both female's faces screwed up in disgust as he thought, nodding sadly. "Damn, never thought about that. That blows."

"Sorry," I shrugged, walking a good fifty away from the rest of them. I turned to face Sundancer, who had followed me, stepping back a couple dozen feet. "Go for it, nothing big, any idea we want to try we need to do so on a small scale first." She nodded, putting her hands together, forming a golf-ball sized star.

I could feel the temperature spike intellectually but wasn't bothered by it as my own Immunity kept me comfortable. My own power once again extended and wrapped around hers, not pulling a bit of it off like it did when I copied a power. It was almost as if it was trying to get the shape of it, similar in manner to Tattletale's when she was trying to get around my Blindspot ability. Focusing on the task at hand I asked, "Do you have to do that to create a sun?"

"Huh?" she asked. "What do you mean?

"Every time you make one you clasp your hands together. Is that something you _have_ to do or just something you've just started doing?" I inquired.

"Um, I'm not sure," she admitted. I waved for her to try again and she started to clasp her hands again.

"No, try it one handed," I insisted. She closed her hand and when it opened she held a tiny star in her palm which she moved up to join the first. "Now with an open hand." She gave me a questioning look, before looking down at her hand. Her aura pulsed, gathering at into a single point before seeming to spark into another sun.

I walked closer without meaning to, my power having almost completely surrounded her, but I looked past that at the stars she made, trying to figure out exactly how it worked. She focused on her hand, doing it again and again, levitating the burning motes up, each new, tiny star forming on a different part of her hand to float up and away before she tried again. As she continued she formed each one faster and grew them more quickly as well from spark to a softball sized sphere. As she formed one on her pinky she looked up, startled. "What the hell!" she practically yelped.

"I know, right?" I asked, considering all of the implications of what I was seeing. In canon Sundancer creating or moving a sun always seemed slow and ponderous, but like everyone else in this _stupid_ place it looked like she'd only used her powers when she had to and never _experimented._ She killed Echidna, but if I remembered the story she only could because they had it trapped. If she could learn to do so _faster_ , the speed not being dictated by a preset within her dead shard but her own _skill_? This definitely had _possibilities. Possibilities on the scale of an Endbringer_!

"No! How are you so close!?" she demanded.

I looked up at her, my own face only a foot away from hers, broken from my thoughts by her panicked tone. I took a half step back, "Oh, sorry, was I in your personal space? Sorry. I get focused sometimes."

" _NO!_ " she cried, "You. . ." and words failed her so just pointed at me. Well, not me, but right beside me.

Looking over I realized I was standing in her impromptu constellation of over two dozen orange sized stars, something in the back of my head informing me that I should have _ashed_ by this point if I didn't have Immunity, now that I was paying attention. I also noted that I had been unconsciously floating over the bubbling rock below me as I 'walked'. "Oh, right. That." I went to go rub the back of my head, elbowing one of the suns accidently and finding it somewhat solid. _Screw it_. I casually leaned on a star, "You're not the only one with fire immunity. Why do you think I knew how to test for it?" I quipped.

Reaching over I pushed on one of them, moving it out of my way with a bit of effort. "So. You can make them in different places, and you were getting faster. That's interesting."

"No! you don't get to just, I don't know, _push a sun_ like it's _no big deal!_ " she fumed.

"It's a _small_ sun, practically minuscule. Not even a stellar phenomena, more like an astral peculiarity."

" _Not the point!"_

Looking over at the other three, Newter was grinning as he watched this, Taylor looked interested, but not really surprised, and Golem was staring at me with wide eyes. Checking the bug sense Taylor was dumping her panic, concern, and _frustration_ oddly enough. "There's a reason _I_ lead my team," I replied enigmatically.

The girl in front of me looked lifted her hands in an aborted strangling gesture. "I am so done with today. Do you have any _more_ revelations on the power that I've had for _years_?" Sundancer entreated, head in her hands.

I paused in thought, "Well-"

 _"I WAS BEING SARCASTIC!"_ Looking at her I gave a 'sorry' shrug. She let out something between a sob and a laugh. "Fine, lay it on me."

"Well," I started. "Why do you only make spheres?"

"Because suns _are_ spheres?" she enunciated looking at me as if I was being stupid.

"And?"

She growled, "And _what?_ "

I shrugged, "What does that have to do with my question?"

She extended her palms upwards, fingers slightly curled in the universal sign of 'how can someone so stupid exist?' "My name is _Sun_ dancer. I make _Suns_."

"Says who?" The other three were looking back and forth between us like watching a tennis match.

She held out one hand, created a cue ball sized star and pointed at it. " _I_ do!"

"So you just made it up," I nodded.

"ARGH! Did someone _else_ name you Vejovis?" she demanded.

"No, but I _know_ what my powers are, by trying to do other things and _failing_. You've gone full confirmation bias, thinking the first thing you did was the _only_ thing you could. You can make stars right? Have you tried other stellar phenomena, like a black hole?"

She looked down at her palm, frowning, and her power started to flare and invert. I had a moment of complete panic as I launched myself forward, slapping her hand down and breaking her concentration. " _ARE YOU HIGH? YOU DON'T CREATE A BLACK HOLE IN YOUR HAND IF YOU WANT TO **KEEP THAT HAND!** "_

She looked hurt, "But you just said-"

"We are _surrounded_ by stars. Grab one of the tiny ones, push it up as high as you can, then try to invert _that_!"

She froze, slowly nodding. "That's probably safer." I manfully resisted the urge to shout _No Shit Sherlock!_ watching instead as she lifted it high above us before concentrating on it. Her power flared, inverting, but nothing happened. She shook her head, observing, "I can't, maybe if it were bigger?"

"Hell no," was my immediate command. "I don't know the exact compression rate, but if it was pinprick size you could probably control it before it got out bad. Is that the edge of your range?" she shook her head. "Keep pushing it up until you hit the edge and expand it to bowling ball sized, that should be still in the safety zone. If the black hole is too big, and you're _not_ immune to its power, it will _instantly_ kill you." _As well as everyone in the city._ She paled, staring up at the distant light.

"I think that's as far as I can get it," she announced. "I still can't reverse it."

"Okay, now shrink it down to golfball sized and see if you can make it explode."

"What?" was the cries from both her _and_ Taylor.

I looked between the two of them. "If she can supernova them, that's a _very_ powerful weapon, but that's why we're doing it at minimum size and maximum range." 'And I can use aerokinesis to shield us' I spelled out for my teammate.

Marissa frowned up at it, power once again flaring. It expanded in size, before shrinking and expanding once more. "I don't think I can."

"Then just dismiss it," I suggested, the distant faint light winking out of existence. "But back to my point. You only make spheres. Why not try a rod?"

There was a beat before Newter called, "That's what she said!" adding, "Ow!" when Taylor bounced a can off his head.

She sighed, "Okay, but this is the _last_ thing I'm going to try."

I nodded, "Sure, today."

She gave me a death glare before looking down at her hand. I wanted to suggest she didn't need to start there, but I'd given my word. Another star sparked, this one growing to an inch in diameter before it started to bulge. It was slow going, but the top expanded out farther and farther, petering out as a four-foot-long cylinder. "And now you have a sword made from the sun itself," I informed her with a Cheshire grin. She immediately grabbed it, swinging it at me and smacking me in the arm, before dropping it in shock where it floated in place.

As she looked at it my own power finished whatever the hell it had been doing for the past half hour, and pulled back with the power of Stellar Negation in its grip. I blinked as I realized I'd just copied not only her active power, _but her passive one as well._


	56. Outreach 6-7

**Outreach 6.7**

I covered my shock fairly well, though I did get a spike of concern from Taylor. _I shouldn't be able to copy passive powers, they have no physical effect_ , I thought. _Even Victor's thinker power had the physical effect of causing low-level brain damage. Could I get them if I just spent time watching them in use? If **that's** true then there's so much more I could do. If I watched a Tinker work, could I gain their ability? Dear god the combos I could make. I could see Tattletale's ability trying to make sense of me, if I just watched her do her thing could I get that ability?_ _That's practically **cheating!** I love it! _I tended to use my Power Sight sparingly, the lightshow was generally distracting, and my shard warned me if I really needed it. _Maybe I could-_

"Vejovis?" Sundancer prompted, looking up at me in concern as I jumped. "You okay? You were staring at nothing for a couple minutes."

I shook myself, "Sorry, lost in thought, but I promised I wouldn't say anything else today, so I won't." Taking out my phone from a pouch in my costume, using Sundancer's passive power to keep the unshielded device from melting, I checked the time. "It's only two, but we're probably going to be doing this again tomorrow, so we should probably call it quits for today."

"The fighting or the training?" Newter called, well out of range of the field of small suns we stood in.

"Both," I replied, using my hand to move a thumb-sized celestial body aside to walk back to Taylor, Golem, and him. "Can you dismiss these?" I asked the star-creator, dropping my flight when I was over hot gravel instead of melted stone.

She did so, following me. The ground she'd been standing on was two perfect circles of gravel in a smooth puddle of melted stone, the stone cooling, darkening, and solidifying in circles right before she stepped on it. As soon as she stepped off the gravel it glowed before melting into lava. _She must not realize she's doing it,_ I mused. It was something to bring up later. Turning to the rest of my team I continued, "Everyone should be long done by now, and I'll see what my precog can tell us about the locations we got, as well as any other she can rustle up. We should be at it tomorrow, even if the other teams are content to rest on their laurels, though that's doubtful. Villains are such prideful creatures after all," I smirked to them.

Newter looked like he was going to say something, but probably realized that doing so would just prove my point. "Will our duds be ready by then? Those things normally take a while if they're more than a mask."

"Powers defy common supposition, which might be why parahumans act like they do half the time. Actually, that's a thought. Is it the wizard paradox? Oh well, discussion for another day," I shrugged, "See you all tomorrow. I'll send you all the location, be there at ten-thirty so we can get you outfitted before we start."

They nodded to me, Taylor hesitating. 'Can I stay?' she spelled, relaxing when I nodded. She settled back into her chair, and Golem looked between me and the pile of rusted metal, his weapon poking out.

He sighed, starting to get up and walk away before I called, "Golem, aren't you taking your armor and weapon with you?" He looked surprised, before heading over, assembling himself into his iron golem shape, gun back on his arm before stomping off east towards Merchant territory.

Taylor started to say something, but I held up a hand. Newter had doubled back and was watching us. "Something you want?" I called in his general direction.

He scurried back, moving on all fours _surprisingly_ fast, coming within spitting distance to us. Glancing over at Taylor, he stood up, looking at me, before shaking his head and smiling. "You can spot me too? Yeah, thought so. You trust her?" he asked, jerking a thumb towards my teammate.

"With my life," I responded instantly, not even needing to think about it. "Why?"

He nodded, satisfied with the answer. "You didn't hear it from me, but Coil told boss-lady he'd give us, or anyone else, a bonus if we offed you, Break, or Æonic. She didn't say _no_ , because he seemed like he'd get all 'how dare you turn down my offer' and we aren't gonna, but I thought you should know."

 _Not entirely unexpected, we're completely new and upsetting his plans, but I didn't think he'd be that aggressive about it this early_. "Thank you," I told him, considering. "I appreciate it. In return, when this all calms down, ask your boss to set up a time I can come by and talk. I've been researching powers, and I have some intel she might find interesting." His eyes widened as I grabbed insects to form the Cauldron symbol in the air.

"Fuck, really?" he swore. I gave a single sharp nod and he grinned. "Glad I did this then, see ya Vejy, Bug Babe!" He scampered away quickly, making a bee-line (newt-line?) for Faultline's club.

"Do you really?" Taylor asked, interested.

I nodded. "Yeah, but because I'm a blind spot to Precognition, _I_ can talk about it, but you couldn't without them noticing. The people that are responsible for it have an omniscient cape and a powerful precog on staff, which is how they've stayed hidden the past few decades." I stretched, getting ready to move onto my next project, looking over to ask Taylor her opinion on what to start with only to see her staring at me. "What?"

"The Illuminati is real?" she demanded, before her eyes went wide and she clapped a hand over her mouth, looking around.

"Essentially yes? Not really Illiminati. They're not that. . . competent? Well staffed? Coherent? But they won't care as long as you don't mention their _actual_ name, so let's just call them the. . . Cape-inati." She gave me a look of exasperation. "What?" I asked, "The stupider the name, the better in this case." I waved a hand in negation, "Don't worry about them. Herb does some jobs for them occasionally, and they're _trying_ to do the right thing, they've just got the combined creativity and long-term planning ability of a cumquat. We'll talk about it later, right now I want your help designing costumes for Newter and Marissa."

"Who?" she asked, still struggling with what I'd just said.

"Newter and Sundancer."

"Did you just. . . ugh," she groaned as she started to pull her emotions out of the swarm. Her shoulders slumped and she leaned against the table. "How can you handle this?" she inquired, sounding more tired than anything else.

I blinked. "Handle what?"

"This! Fighting! Killing people! People trying to _kill_ you! Working with that _bastard!_ _Everything!_ " she cried out hands raised in frustrated anger.

I sighed, sending feelings of comfort over to her. "Fighting is something I've always been good at," I disclosed, chuckling. "For a bit I was convinced that I was _evil_ , for that and a _whole_ bunch of other reasons, but that's not the point. I got into _so_ many fights in high school it wasn't even funny. Never started a single one, but you know when two kids go at it, or a group goes after someone, and everyone just stands and watches?" She gave me an angry nod, having been the target of just that. "I didn't. Never did. Got into _so_ much trouble for interfering and not letting that shit just go. For not letting the 'proper authorities' take care of it, even when they were blatantly not doing that. It got to the point that I studied a bit of law, I started pointing out legal precedents for my actions, and like magic, the administration no longer had an interest in steamrolling me."

"One time in high school, these two girls got into it in the cafeteria before school, which is where I'd hang out. They were pretty equally matched and started fighting. As long as people are matched, I honestly don't care, half the time fighting it out makes things _better_ for people, especially teenage boys _._ This was like that, until one got the other on the ground and started slamming her head into the floor. Everyone was just watching, but I got up and pulled her off before she could get more than another couple hits in. She _then_ tried to scratch my eyes out, but she was frenzied, and I had technique, so I had her hands secured behind her back and sent someone to get a nurse while I marched her down to the principal.

The psychopathic bitch was screaming rape most of the way there, and if I'd not been as big as I was, or had my rep, I probably would've gotten attacked because of it, and she would've gotten away to lay down her narrative _first_. You _know_ how bad that can be Taylor. Also, you need to remember that no one wants to believe _they're_ the bad guy, so the people who attacked me would've backed almost anything she'd said to justify their _own_ violence, no matter how stupid it was." I shook my head. It'd taken me a while to understand all of that, and it wasn't a fun experience learning.

"We got there, and she made up this huge story about how I beat the girl _she'd_ beaten unconscious and was dragging the bitch off after promising to rape her. Worst part is, at first, they _still believed her_. However, it was her word versus her victim, when she regained consciousness, myself, which only had weight because of all the times I'd stopped fights before, and a couple of other kids who stepped forward. The other _thirty_ in that caf refused to say anything and got pissed at _me_ when I named them as being there. I'm well aware that if I hadn't established a track record of handling things aboveboard, and if the others hadn't spoken up, I would have been _screwed_." I'd dodged a bullet there and it was one of the steps on the path that led me to understand just _how many_ people refused to do their job, and how such corruption compounded. Standing up like that was risky, and I knew that every-time I did it, there was a chance it'd ruin my life because evil people needed to think of themselves as good, and would attack anything that provided evidence to the contrary.

"Day to day life stuff, I worry and second guess myself something fierce. Social shit, if I don't have a plan in place I'm not that great. But direct conflict? Then I stop caring about what ifs like that. I still feel fear, but it didn't stop me then, and doesn't stop me now. It's why I can't stand people that do nothing. That's why I handle things like this well. Because I have to," I sighed.

"People trying to kill me? That sucks, but I refuse to do _nothing_. Killing people? I'm not gunning down innocents Taylor, I'm killing people who _would_ gun down innocents, or _worse_. It's only those that are conditioned to emotionally react instead of thinking that can't tell the difference between a person defending themselves from a murderer. Working with Kaiser? It'll let me save more people, but with the things he's done, after things calm down, and if he's still alive, I'll try to bring him in to justice. If that's not possible, I'll kill him. I don't want to, but I will, but that's months away."

She looked at me, not exactly fearful, but full of trepidation, and I smiled to try to break the ice. "In the meantime, I can do small things that completely undercut him to help negate the aggravation of working with such an unmitigated douche nozzle. Do you know Kaiser's power?"

"He makes blades," she hazarded, not seeing where I was going. I held my hand over the folding table and lifted it, one of the stylized knives I'd made for Aisha lifting up blade first from the rippling plastic surface. "No way," she breathed, smiling. "That's just, the best."

I finished pulling it up, breaking the thin wire extending from the pommel into the table as it finished, offering it to her, handle first. "She'll probably have lost one by this point," I observed. "Here's a replacement." Leaning back, I sighed. "I don't like _hurting_ people Taylor, and if I didn't need to fight anyone, I'd be a lot happier. So, let's work on something better instead of brooding over it. Kaiser's power isn't blade creation, it's _metal_ creation. Golem's power lets him take material and build a body out of it, and he was doing okay with scrap, but can you imagine how effective he'd be if he had _purpose-built_ armor?"

I extruded a small iron golem figurine out of the table, tossing it over to her, smiling. The corner of her mouth quirked as she looked down at the model, and slowly nodded. "I've got some ideas," she admitted, grin spreading over her features.

* * *

It took us until the sun was starting to set, but we, and by we I mostly mean Taylor, had designed new costumes for the rest of our team. She accepted my explanation of why I hadn't made _her_ a new costume fairly easily, though she did reaffirm that I'd get her a costume from Parian. The lack of limitations on materials let her design some pretty out-there suits for the villains as I utilized hardened air constructs as mannequins. As we finished and were putting the costumes away, she stopped, looking at me. "Did you copy their powers?"

"Whose powers?"

" _Everyone's_ powers. Or, everyone on the team."

"Well," I coughed into my hand, pulling on the twin's powers to grow to eight feet tall. "Mostly."

She grinned for a moment before tilting her head to the side. "Not Newter's? Is it because he's a Case 53?"

"Yes, but not because of that. Faultline's crew don't seem to be actual villains, and I try not to copy the powers from Heroes if I don't need to. Copying yours lets me support you, and while I have more power, you have _far_ more skill." I ignored her blush as I considered, "Not sure if I'd copy Netwer's form, or just the effects on my fluids. I need a physical effect to copy powers, so I'm pretty sure I can't do Thinkers or Tinkers, but a lot of things are up in the air. Master's and Strangers are pretty hit or miss. Glory Girl's weird fear/awe aura isn't something I could grab, not that I'd want to, but when Regent tried to mess with me I picked it up for my own."

"So you could?" she gestured to herself.

"Would you like me to?" I retorted.

She immediately gave a slightly panicked "No!"

I held my hands up in a 'there you go' gesture. "Then I won't, it's not a power that I wanted, nor one that I'm going to use if I can help it."

She frowned, debating with herself. "If, if you need to, to practice, that's okay," she volunteered.

I shook my head. "No Taylor, it's a power I have, but not one I even want to consider getting used to. Powers that directly control people, either their minds or their bodies completely, it's not something that I approve of, nor is it something I want to be tempted with. Other powers however," I manifested a softball sized star in my hand, "I have no qualms with."

She looked at it, blinking. "It's. . . cold, and. . . purple?"

I smiled. "Nope, Sundancer has _two_ powers, one to make the star, another to lessen the effects." My brain caught up to what she had said. "Wait, purple?"

Looking down at it I saw that instead of the reddish orange of the sun that I was expecting the star in my hand was _indeed_ purple. Specifically, it had a blood red core with purple flames coming off it as it, I don't know, _cooled?_ That _wasn't_ how fire worked. It contrasted nicely at least. "Well. . . Shit."

"Is it supposed to be like that?" she asked cautiously, looking concerned.

I dismissed the oddly colored star, making another while focusing on creating Sundancer's sun, only to get another blood red and purple sun. The third through sixth attempts yielded similar results. "Not again," I moaned into my hand.

"Again?" she asked, yelping as I projected a pistol and tossed it at her. Looking between the coloring of the pistol in her hands and the sun hanging in front of me as I slumped on the table and groaned she asked. "Are those your favorite colors, and you're using those by accident?"

I shook my head. "Not really, it's the color of my power. For some reason it likes to use those when it can. For certain things I _can't_ make it like the original, or else _that_ would be green and black."

She looked down back at the pistol, eyes wide. "Is this _Miss Militia's gun?_ "

I shrugged, head still buried in my hands, "My copy of it, but yeah." I shifted it to a revolver in her hands with a snap of my fingers, eliciting a sound of excitement.

Looking over at her with an eyebrow raised, she looked away. "Just never thought I'd get to touch it, even if it isn't _really_ hers." Rolling my eyes, I tried another star with the colors reversed, which took a little effort, but was possible. It didn't seem to affect the usefulness of the ability, but felt a little odd for a reason I couldn't describe. "Wait," she called. "The color of your power? How do you know that? Can you _see_ powers?"

 _Whups._ "Yep, but it lets me unmask _anyone_ in their civilian identity, so I don't exactly _advertise_ it," I admitted.

She paused, nodding to herself, before shaking her head and asking the question I assumed was next. "What do _my_ powers look like?"

"Grey and yellow," I replied, and she looked incredibly disappointed. "Listen, I'm not sure _why_ certain powers have certain colors. Trickster's was eggplant purple and _seafoam_ , what does _that_ have to do with transpositioning? Yours is the color of chitin, along with a wasp yellow. Hints at your insect-based power with a bit of an understated danger display. It looks nice," I reassured her, not sure _why_ I had to, trying to find something to distract her.

 _Powers, something about powers._ "So Sundancer's second power," I started, manifesting a sun and pushing it ten feet away and growing it to beachball size. "It lets me protect things from heat and radiation, and has a range of five feet, try throwing this." I grabbed one of her scrapped designs for Golem's new armor, balling up the paper and passing it to her. She looked at it considering, before tossing it at the star. As soon as it left the range of my power a few feet away from the sun it burst into flames, the ash blowing away before it hit the ground.

"Oh," she commented, eyeing the 'safe' distance around me. "Good to know, you had ideas for it?"

I started to respond, before I checked my phone. "We can work on power testing for two hours, but after that you need to go home and I need to go have dinner with Panacea. Without me there to assist she's probably stressed by the increased workload healing people."

She shrugged, "I could come."

I raised an eyebrow. "Wouldn't your dad worry if you didn't come home until after midnight?"

"I'd say I was sleeping over at my friend's house," was her defense.

 _It would let me leverage her creativity for power use,_ I considered. _And it might help her and Panacea get to know each other. Taylor really needs friends her age. **Non-villain** friends,_ I amended. "I'll ask her," I told Taylor, to her annoyance. "I'd ask _you_ if she wanted to be here for _your_ training, it's only fair." Texting Panacea I quickly got a response of 'I'd rather not.' Shaking my head, I told her, "Sorry, she says no. When you're not seen as a villain the answer will probably change, or maybe we all could do something else. So, powers."

I waved for her to get up and follow me to the flat area of glassy black rock that had formed from Sundancer's experimentation. "Less things for me to worry about protecting," I explained as I pulled upon her power. Creating a star on a fingertip like Marissa had was step one, dismissing it to leave a clean area to work on. Flipping my hand over, I concentrated, forming one on the back of my hand instead. "Is that what you were going to ask next?" Taylor said from beside me, watching. I nodded, trying to make another one farther away from the back of my hand. It took a bit more effort but was doable. Clearing and trying to make a third even farther took even more concentration. The fourth, a foot away, was the hardest by far, and a fifth a foot and a half had me almost sweating in concentration.

Dismissing it I sighed, sitting on hardened air to think, and gesturing for her to do so as well. "First data point, It feels like it gets harder to create the farther away it is from me."

She nodded, "Can you only make them from your hands?" Thinking about it I stick a leg out, creating one just above my toe, and making more in a line up my leg, with four circling my knee, before going up my thigh. "Um, Lee?" she asked, breaking me out of my concentration. Looking at her she motioned below me as the rock underneath my leg started to glow from the heat.

I dismissed the suns, using Marissa's power to cool the ground, which looked like a shimmering dark hole beneath us as the obsidian melted and reformed. Concentrating on the Stellar Negation I could feel it wrap around Taylor and I, letting everything else to be affected normally. "It's starting to get dark, and this will attract a _lot_ of attention, so I want to try one last this with this power." I stood up, wanting to step back to keep her away from danger, but with Sundancer's power being used correctly, next to me was ironically the _best_ place to be.

Creating the long shaft of star that Sundancer had, I concentrated further, giving it detail and shaping it into a scimitar of flame. "Wow," she breathed, looking at it intently, the weapon looking to be something made of pure _magic_. Wanting to show off a little, I folded it backwards on my arm, creating a segmented gauntlet incasing my limb in stellar armament. I took a few practice punches with it, my star-clad arm swiftly striking the air. I smiled as I looked down at my new weapon. This was the power that one shot _Echidna._ Thinking of an excuse to use when I brought it out would be difficult, as it was _obviously_ power created, and in _my_ colors, not Vejovis's, but with _this_ I might be able to fight an _Endbringer._


	57. Outreach 6-x (Interlude: Purity)

**Outreach 6.x** **(Interlude: Purity)**

Trigger warning: The ex-Nazi is racist. Shocking, I know.

Kayder Anders, safe in the purifying light of her power, paced on the edge of a rooftop as she waited and worried. She was at the location Lee had sent her, where the rest of the group of _villains_ would be meeting. She didn't like the image that presented, having worked so hard to try to distance herself from that life only to now be working together with them again. Even Herbert called himself one, though she couldn't find anything that he'd done worth the title. She supposed it was a sign of his black blood, that he wore that title with pride would fit in with his people's brutish nature. It was his superior white heritage kept him from doing anything vile, obviously.

Herbert Winslow. _That man is a walking contradiction_ , she thought, torn between frustration and interest. Yes, his non-white parentage showed in far more than the color of his skin, but at the oddest times it _didn't_. Take for instance his interest in her. She wanted to say it was obviously because of the. . . tendency for blacks to lust after white women, god knows she'd heard enough about it back when she was married, but that wasn't what Herbert was doing. While what he was doing was more pleasant to deal with then the lewd suggestions she'd been expecting, it left her unsure.

Kayden knew that she wasn't the most attractive of women, it's why she had been so taken in by Max. His piercing blue eyes, disciplined body, and just the man himself had surprised her by his interest. That someone _that_ attractive would even give her the time of day let him blow through her emotional defenses like they weren't even there, and she hadn't even noticed. It's what had taken her almost a decade to get over, realizing that Max didn't see _people_ , he saw tools and assets. Back then it hadn't even crossed her mind that he mainly wanted her for her powers. She'd been so foolish. Looking back on it, that knowledge of his coldness, something that was so hard for her to keep in mind when she was around him, that's how she knew his offer to let her take over a year was as empty as his heart. He was arrogant, yes, but he'd have a plan if she held fast to her convictions when the time ran out. Max always had his _plans_.

She knew she lived moment to moment, day to day, and she knew it wasn't good, but it was just the way she was. You couldn't fight your nature, really. It had taken her getting pregnant with her little Aster to look where she was going, and to leave the Empire, though it didn't come easily. She supposed she saw some of that present-ness in Herbert as well, _maybe that's why I get along so well with him despite his race?_

She shook her head as her thoughts turned back to him. Large and muscular to Max's aristocratic strength, and she supposed he was attractive, _in their way._ Herbert liked her, that much was obvious, and his attempts to woo her were. . . refreshing. Max's compliments were beautiful fakes, like those buildings they would build for movies. You believed them, and they warmed your heart, but were completely meaningless. Herbert's . . . weren't. They were over the top, but she had _so_ expected to hear the crude come-ons his people spoke that the earnest, almost childlike compliments he paid her affected her just as much as Max's poetic flattery.

 _No,_ she thought. He didn't give her compliments, expecting something in return like Max did. It was almost like he was saying something that was just true. Like it would be silly to even question it, and she _wasn't_ sure how to feel about that.

Two of the group had arrived; Regent and Hellhound, who called herself Bitch of all thing, from that children's gang, and she still was uncomfortable with idea of such a thing existing. The boy she wasn't sure about, but the girl, despite her distasteful name, was dangerous. Her dogs, transformed into large, dangerous beasts, stood around her, sniffing the air.

Kayden felt like she should go down there and talk, but she wasn't sure what to say. These were _children_. Teens, yes, but she had been their age when she Triggered, and it wasn't something that kids should go through without an adult to help. _That's not quite true_ , she reminded herself. Herbert had talked about how he and Lee had taken them under their wing. He had admitted that he had made a mistake when first introducing himself, and they looked to Lee more than him, but took responsibility for it. She sighed, his people were _supposed_ to be prideful brutes. Then again as she kept having to remind herself, he was only _half_ black, so that might have been why. She sometimes wondered if Brad had Black heritage as well, or even worse, Arab, given how he liked to use those hooks of his.

She turned as she saw something flying towards her in the distance. She hoped it was Herbert, as there were only a few minutes before they were supposed to start, and she had hoped that he wouldn't be like the rest of his people, constantly late. She was somewhat disappointed when she saw it was instead the group she used to call allies, and still hoped to call friends. James and Justin were standing on a large flat piece of concrete, between them stood the girl who went by Rune. The young girl had joined after Kayden had left and could apparently control large objections if she put her symbol on them, which Kayden could see the strength of. A traitorous part of her wondered what it would be like to work with her, as Kayden had been the only flier the Empire had. Eric could glide with his air control, but it wasn't really the same, no matter what he said.

Justin gave her a wave, and she responded with a professional nod, stepping off the ledge, flexing her power to slow herself before landing with almost no outward effort. Looking over she saw a pair of men standing underneath an awning, obvious Coil's. From an alley came what must be Gregor the Snail. She always felt pity for the people whose bodies had been changed by their powers, even more so for the ones who lost their memory. To not even know one's _race_ wasn't something that she would wish on anyone, even the Asians.

Rune landed nearby, a large glowing symbol beneath her feet as the thick concrete slab settled on the asphalt. "Good to see you Purity!" Justin called, voice only slightly muffled by the knight's helmet he wore in costume. "I heard you didn't join us, but I guess I heard wrong. I'm glad your back, it hasn't been the same without you."

She couldn't help but smile. Justin was always so nice. She hated to ruin his good mood, but better from her than from someone else. "I'm sorry Crusader, but I turned Kaiser down. I'm a hero now, and I'm only here because we have a common enemy. I joined Vejovis' team."

His tone darkened, "Oh, is that why he said you were with a nigger? I'd heard about that, but I didn't believe it. I know you and Kaiser had some disagreements but that's no need to fuck a-"

"I'm not!" she objected, offended he would even _suggest_ such a thing. She'd see too many girls dirty themselves just to hurt their exes and she'd sworn never to do something like that. Doing so hurt them even more then it would hurt the man they used to be with, and worse made all those barbarians think that _all_ white women would sleep with someone else just to get back at the person they used to love. "How _dare_ you think I would ever-"

"Peace," James stepped in, raising a hand to them both. "He didn't mean to suggest that, right?" he gave Justin a significant look, and Justin nodded, though with his helmet on Kayden wasn't sure if he really meant it. "And you _know_ how this looks Purity."

She sniffed, "I thought you'd know me better than that Krieg," but she could understand what he was saying. "I'm sorry though. I joined _Vejovis'_ team, not Break's. I didn't even know his team had a black until the morning before Somer's Rock. The fact that he was only half-black is the only reason I didn't walk out immediately." That and she'd already turned down Kaiser, but a woman without her dignity had nothing.

"And where is the porch-monkey?" Crusader asked, looking around. Purity crinkled her nose in distaste. Racial slurs like that were something that spoke of low intelligence, which is why the inferior races used them. Kaiser had understood that, but it was something that most of the Empire disagreed with her on. From a nearby alley a six-armed gorilla came out; Genesis, Herbert had called it, her, she corrected.

"I didn't mean that literally," Crusader said.

Krieg sighed, "This is Genesis, she's from The Travelers." He checked his watch. "It looks like it's time."

Kayden could hear the smirk in his voice as Crusader announced, "Should've expected as much from a coo-"

He cut himself off as a dark shape shot down between them, yelling "Wazzup my niggahs!" _He didn't_ , Kayden thought as Break, fully in costume, touched down in front of them, cracking the sidewalk with the impact, and smiled broadly. How he landed that hard without even seeming to notice mystified Kayden. _Even if he was a Brute he should've still had to bend his legs. He went from falling to standing without any problem. What **are** his powers?_ "Everyone's here? Awesome! Let's get this party started!" he stated, turning on his heel and striding off towards their target.

* * *

It was almost three blocks before Justin spoke up, getting sick of following Herbert, even if Rune was the one moving him. "What the fuck makes you think you can lead us?"

Herbert turned and blinked, still smiling, sure in a way that seemed similar to Kaiser but lacked the inherent pride her ex held. She'd've said that was a bad thing, as it was right to be proud of being better than your inferiors. On Herbert though, it seemed right. "Because I am?" the half-black man asked, as if he didn't understand the question. Kayden would've tempted to believe it, if she hadn't spent a not quite _un_ -enjoyable few hours with the man as he calmly pointed out the social dominance moves her ex-husband had tried to make, badly. She was ashamed to have found them impressive, when she was younger.

No one with Herbert's ability to read people would miss what was being said to him. If it wasn't for his insistence that Lee was in charge of the Penumbral Defenders she might have worried, but some part of him recognized his own inherent failings and let his superior take charge, and while she might have difficulty respecting _him_ , she could respect that he knew his place.

"I meant who put you in charge. nigger?" Justin pressed. Rune looked like she was going to say something as well, but James put a hand on her shoulder, his face neutral, but it was obvious he was paying close attention to the byplay. _I wonder why he did that?_ The others just watched.

"You did, when you followed me," was Herbert's immediate response. "And we're almost there so I guess we could talk strategy here. Good job."

Kayden could swear she could _hear_ Justin's eye twitching, like it did whenever he got upset. "What would an ape know about _strategy_?" he challenged.

Herbert nodded solemnly, "You're right," he agreed. Crusader was taken aback, but just as he was about to respond Herbert turned towards Genesis. "Next time, more Butterfly."

Completely surprised by this unexpected statement, the ape-person responded with a woman's voice, but with an unidentifiable accent, "I don't know what you're talking about."

Herbert just nodded. "Sure ya don't. Next time, Butterfly," he repeated completely in control, having the air that Max always had when he showed he knew something you wanted to keep hidden. No, he was lacking the sharpness, the dangerousness that was hidden if you weren't his target, but was all too obvious if you were. _Was the ape, girl, thing a shapeshifter?_ Kayden wondered, looking at it. Now that she stared, the creature's features weren't _quite_ what they were back at Somer's Rock. The eyes were a bit smaller, and the fists just a bit bigger, but if she hadn't been looking for it she never would've noticed.

 _Did he see that, or is this something they knew from the other timeline_? She thought, but as Hellhound stepped forward Kayden broke herself from her thoughts. "What makes you think you're strong enough to lead?" the teenager demanded. "Vejovis I'd follow, but not you."

Herbert smiled at her, but it was. . . off. Maybe it was that odd see through mask he wore but his mouth just seemed a bit too wide, and his teeth a bit too sharp, and it unsettled her. The three dogs around Hellhound growled and closed in around her. Another, deeper, almost reverberating growl came from Herbert, who hadn't seemed to move a single muscle, staring back at Hellhound. It caused the hairs on the back of her neck and the sheer animalistic _malice_ of it caused her to take a half a step back, along with everyone else.

Hellhound looked down and away, her monsters backing off from what some part of her said was a _worse_ monster. That, like everything else in the past few days, was _such_ a disconnect from what she thought she knew about the man that she was just _confused_ , and she didn't like it. How could the barely leashed _predator_ in front of her, the kind that Brad _wished_ he was, be the caring man who'd been there for her in the face of her future daughter's death? How could he be the man who was actually tongue tied by her beauty, and truly meant it?

She wanted to write it off as his being just insane, but she'd _met_ insane, heck, she'd _worked_ with insane for a few years, and she was glad Dorothy and Geoff weren't on this team. _Whatever_ Herbert was, he wasn't insane. She could see his reasoning whenever she talked to him, or afterwards when she thought about it, but that just made it _worse_. As Hellhound backed off he relaxed, the growling stopped, and his grin seemed to shrink to again be happy, warm, and _human._

That broke the tension, and Justin stepped forward. Kayden winced. Justin never liked looking weak, something Kaiser had taken into account, and now he was going to react badly. She wanted to do something but wasn't sure _what_ to do. "You're nothing more than a beast," he accused.

Herbert cocked his head like a dog, confused, which didn't help the comparison. "Well, of course I'm a beast. A beast of a badass!" Crusader looked like he wasn't sure whether to yell at the man or give up and walk away as not being worth it. The sheer _childishness_ of Herbert's statement made it _so_ easy to forget that just a few seconds ago a part of her had been frozen in fear of him. Looking around it was clear that while Justin had moved on, no one else had.

"Place we're hittin' is right around the corner," Herbert said, clasping his hands together. "Looked like a warehouse from above. We should get into teams, so who's grouping together?"

"We're good," The two men who were probably from Coil said, heading for an alley, one boosting the other up to the fire escape before kicking down the latter for the other.

"We're a team," James said, indicating the Empire. He shot her a glance, not quite looking right at her and she shook her head. He nodded subtly in reply. She always liked that about James, he was always a professional.

No one else said anything so Herbert announced. "Regent, Bitch, you two are together along with. . ."

"Me," Genesis said, clearly not wanting to be on the same team as Herbert. A part of Kayden couldn't blame her, as he seemed to know her secrets and was willing to share them openly. She knew what that was like from working with Max.

Gregor nodded to himself as he walked over next to Herbert and her, "Then I believe I am with you two." His voice wasn't slug-like like she expected. He almost sounded like her Nordic uncle, so he was probably originally white. She realized that with the exception of Herbert, and possibly Genesis, the entire team was white. The thought comforted her. "I can-,"

"Mix chemicals and spit 'em, I know. Just go for containment if you can. Can you do the foam the PRT uses?" Herbert interrupted the Case 53.

He blinked, before nodding and responding as if nothing odd had happened. "I cannot, and without the counter-agent that would be ill advised. I can do my own version of it though."

Herbert nodded, "Then do that. Try not to get shot, but if ya do Vejovis can heal you no prob." Gregor nodded to that and the half-black man turned to address the Empire. "You three hit the far side while-"

"We're not going to the back of the bus nigger, that's _your_ place," Justin interrupted, tapping Rune on the shoulder and directing her up. She hesitated before lifted their platform and flew them towards the front entrance.

"Uh, okay," Herbert told himself as gunfire started from their target and Purity could make out Crusader's ghostly clones falling through the bottom of the platform, ten-foot spears leading as they dropped on the Asians below. "I guess _you_ guys go through the back and use the loading bay doors to get in, since they're not using them."

 _This_ , this was what Kayden was talking about. He wasn't crazy and wasn't being disrespectful even when others were, like the rest of his race would've been; he had a reason for saying what he did. He had seen Rune's platform and figured out a way for her to get in, but Justin didn't even _bother_ asking like Herbert said Lee did. Hellhound just nodded, turning and jogging off, Genesis lumbering afterwards as the boy, Regent, whined, "He didn't say we had to _hurry!_ "

"Hurry!" Herbert called to Regent's groan of frustration. He looked to Kayden and Gregor. "Okay, we'll go high. We'll go high and go in through the skylight. So, Gregor, Enter and I'll carry you in and you stay up in the catwalks."

"Enter?" Gregor asked, only to jump backwards along with Kayden as an eight-foot-tall _brute_ appeared behind Herbert as if he'd been standing there all along. The man, creature, _thing_ , was terrifying. Its dark skin was actually scaled, just like the dark green alligator skin pants it wore, and the smile it gave seemed to be nothing but canines.

"Stranger?" Kayden couldn't keep herself from asking.

"And more," It growled back confidently, the sound reverberating from her skull straight down her spine. _This_ she believed, could be the source of the growl from earlier. Or they both could, but the taller one was closer to that primal state. She looked between them and wondered if they were half-brothers, the taller one fully black, lacking the civilizing influence that Herbert had. Yes, that would make sense. Of course, he wouldn't have the decency to admit he was there and skulk about, though looking at the. . . man in question part of her wanted to say _stalk_ instead.

Herbert glanced up at his half-brother, annoyed, and continued, "We'll be carrying you in Gregor." He moved to one side of the snail-man, Enter taking the other, the two of them easily lifting the smaller man. Without saying anything they leapt as one, easily jumping the four stories to the top of the building next to them as if they had just stepped onto a curb.

Kayden stood there for a moment, looking at that. Nothing that she'd heard about him, and she was realizing how little that was, told her he could do that. She shook herself, immersing herself fully in the purifying light, letting it carry her up to follow her teammate.

By the time that she'd caught up with Herbert, his half-brother, and Gregor they'd already made it to the top of the building and were looking at the dirty skylight. Rune had lowered her slab to the ground as Justin had killed the guards, something that she hated they were forced to do, but understood. They wouldn't stop, and wild animals needed to be taken care of. There were sounds of gunfire from within, from the back entrance where the roar of Hellhound's beasts reverberated. Enter's form rippled as he turned around, shifting to something she vaguely recalled from one of Theo's books when he was younger. It was darker than it should've been, which seemed appropriate, as it swung its hammer-like tail down, destroying the glass and sending shards flying down. From the screams that came back up at them, he obviously hit something.

Herbert grabbed Gregor and jumped in, a dark shape following him in, the dinosaur gone. Flying in after them, Kayden spotted Gregor on a catwalk, taking cover as he lobbed a glob of something at a group of ABB firing towards the back. As soon as it struck it expanded into a greenish mass, covering them completely.

Her attention was called off to the side as Herbert shouted, "Double People's Elbow!" Both he and his half-brother fell faster than should be possible, landing elbow first on two different Asians who collapsed with a crack. More opened fire on them and Enter staggered as he was shot several times in the chest, Herbert staggering from shots as well, but unlike his half-brother he wore a _shirt_ which seemed bulletproof. Both of them launched themselves forward, breaking their momentum with their biceps on the ABB's necks. When they turned around, she saw Enter's chest was once again unblemished.

A bullet whizzed by her head, reminding her that she was in a fight. Taking off, she started to rain down blasts on the uncivilized barbarians below her.

* * *

As the battle wound down, Kayden was impressed. She'd never seen most of the people she was working with in action before, but they were worryingly effective. Justin and James had worked together like the professionals they were. Rune had torn open the front of the warehouse, allowing the snipers to work freely, though from the girls' reaction when they shot past her, that had been accidental. The ABB had used the maze-like structure of the warehouse to their advantage to take cover, but Justin had turned that against them, his ghosts freely able to pass through them to kill those beyond. Regent had joined Gregor on the Catwalks, sweeping his arms to divert the ABB's fire into each other below himself. Hellhound and Genesis had worked together, Gregor directing them as they prowled the corridors.

Kayden worried about the shapeshifting girl, who looked heavily injured, but she was sure Lee could patch her up, so that was alright. Krieg was favoring one side as well, a hand pressed to his side, but Monica could heal him as soon as he made it back to Medhall. One of Hellhound's dogs was limping, but its master didn't seem concerned, and the girl was _notorious_ for caring for her beasts more than _people_ , so Kayden wasn't worried either.

Herbert though. . . he _had_ worried her. He seemed to not be taking this seriously at _all_. He'd gotten more and more violent as the fight had progressed, getting more exuberant as he had done so. He and his brother had also shown off their ability to turn into dinosaurs with brutal results. She still felt green remembering how he'd turned into a four legged one with spikes covering it's back before tucking itself in and rolling down a corridor, impaling and crushing ABB, the six corpses stuck to its back when it straightened out, falling to the ground around him as he turned back to being human.

As the dust settled, she landed on a catwalk, overlooking the battle as she let her hold on the light lessen. A part of the wall she didn't realize was a door opened up, an ABB with two smg's snarling "Die nyeon!" drawing down on her. Time seemed to slow as Herbert shouted "No!"

He launched himself across the warehouse, but she'd seen how fast Herbert moved during the fight, and he'd never get to her in time. He could change direction mid-air, or speed up, but she'd been keeping an eye on him and he could only do it once a jump. As she blasted herself backwards and up with what little Light she had as she scrabbled for more, she hoped she could get enough distance to be missed by the spray of fire, but that was more luck than anything else.

Herbert accelerated, as she knew he would, but it still wasn't going to be enough. She was shocked when he got faster and faster, blurring from the speed until it was hard for her to follow him. He hit the gunman as he was about to fire with the sound of a meaty explosion, Herbert stopping instantly as the Asian seemed to explode into gore, the metal wall opposite Herbert being torn to shreds.

Kayden continued flying backwards in shock, missing whatever Herb said to the splattered meat that was all that left of her possible murderer. He lifted his mask and spit on it, before sliding it back down and smiling, but it seemed forced.

Motioning for everyone to gather, he took a step off the catwalks, landing easily and walking towards the front. There was no sign of the snipers; she assumed they left once the fighting had appeared to end. "Good job team!" Herbert announced, clapping his hands together. "Bitch, your dog's okay in there, right?"

The girl with the distasteful name nodded once. "Good," he continued. His eyes flickered over Genesis dismissively before seeing James' injury. "Krieg, you good enough to get to Othala?" he asked, concerned.

Justin, not liking how Herbert seemed to be taking the leadership role again, challenged, "This is why we don't listen to niggers. If I was running this he wouldn't've been hurt."

Herbert cocked his head in what Kayden realized was a practiced show of confusion, calling Justin's bluff, "Wait, you listened to me? I musta missed that part."

He looked angry and started to take a step forward, but James put his free hand on his shoulder, "Remember the Truce."

Justin, embarrassed at losing his composure like one of the inferior races, turned his back on Herbert and walked away. Kayden could understand his position, but he _did_ ignore Herbert, so he couldn't exactly blame the man for James' injury. Rune, poor girl, just looked confused, following Krieg who gave Herbert a single nod and walked away as well.

Herbert turned back to the group, and Kayden realized that Enter had disappeared again. _Did he leave or is he just hiding again?_ She hated Stranger powers and was glad the Empire didn't use them. It made everything so much more difficult. Herbert was giving Genesis a significant look, and she was glaring back at him. Kayden originally pegged the shapeshifter as white, but the way the girl had thrown herself into battle, that kind of temper and lack of care for oneself meant she was probably Hispanic. That wasn't _too_ bad she supposed.

"Oh wow," Herbert commented blandly, looking at Genesis' torn up body, which was bleeding onto the concrete. "That form's all wrong now. Butterfly next time. Remember, butterfly."

She bristled at this proclamation, "How did you know I was a shapechanger?"

Herbert did that head cocking thing. "Noooo, you're not a shapeshifter." _She isn't?_

Genesis stilled. "Yes I am."

"No, you're in a wheelchair somewhere, this-" Genesis disappeared, as if she had never been there in the first place, no trace of her but the bloodstains left behind. _What? Was she an illusion?_ But she couldn't be, since she left the blood behind. Kayden dimly remembered hearing about powers that could let you make things that didn't last. _Did she make a puppet body?_ Herbert sighed, as if he expected that to happen, "Sheesh, I wish they'd just listen." He looked at the four of them that were left considering.

Regent shrugged back, "So what's next boss-man?"

"Hmmm. Hungry. Bored. We got this down." Herbert announced. "Not too many people dead. Ya'll had fun. Definitely can't wait to do this again, but we got to do it better, and the truth of the matter is, we're gonna have to make sure they listen to us. Thank you guys very much by the way."

Hellhound shrugged modestly, "You follow the leader, it's how the pack works. Empire's dumb shits."

Kayden wanted to say something. While Justin had been. . . assertive, he meant well, and Rune and James had done a very good job. Herbert nodded in agreement with the girl, "Pretty much. We'll make them follow next time. We'll all have to work together, 'cause we're gonna need to break them out of that before they get someone killed."

Again Kayden wanted to speak up, but she could see his point of view. It's not like he was asking them to follow _Enter_ after all. While his white blood might be diluted, it was still _there._ Looking out how he'd lead the rest it was obvious to see. The boy, Regent, gave Herbert a look while motioning to the dead and unconscious Asians around them. "Someone important." Herbert amended, though he really didn't need to. It was obvious what he meant. "The two of us will get everybody something to eat, then we chill out, take care of your puppies."

Hellhound hesitated, before nodding and giving Herbert the address, Gregor begging off to return to his group, which was polite of him. _He definitely must have been white before he changed_. Once it was just her and Herb heading to Fugly Bob's, a place which served good food once one got over the borderline obscene name, she spoke up. "You did well," she said, starting off with a compliment. She was still surprised by the broad grin and open, honest, joy at that simple comment. _Kaiser wouldn't've even said so much as a thank you,_ she thought, not really listening as Herbert praised her own performance. "I was a bit put off by how you didn't seem to care about any of our side's injuries though."

Herbert, jumping rooftop to rooftop, and sometimes on nothing at all, waved away the criticism. "Kreig's gonna go see Othala, Bitch's dog was fine, and that wasn't really Genesis, it was her projection. No one's dead, no one's dying. I'm fine, you're fine, the kids are fine. Next time I'll make sure no one gets hurt at all."

The looks they got ordering were odd. There were the normal hostile stares she had gotten used to from being allied with the Empire for so long, but as they waited many of those changed to confusion as she made small talk with Herbert. While she knew it wasn't something she should do, she couldn't help feeling a bit of a vindictive thrill at seeing their consternation, especially when the two of them left together.

She was surprised where they landed. An ordinary looking warehouse showed itself to be full of dogs of all sorts, but not feral as she feared. They started to swarm the pair until a quick whistle from Hellhound pulled them off. With as many animals as were living here, uncaged, she was taken aback by how _clean_ it was. It was nothing compared to a professional facility of course, or at least what she thought one would look like, never having been in one, but with this many animals and only a single teenage girl to take care of them there wasn't the waste strewn about that she expected.

Walking over the girl was unmasked and didn't seem to care. The boy, Regent, was as well, playing a game on his phone. He perked up, "Foods here? Nice."

Sitting down to eat, it was companionable. Herbert unmasked as well, and she lowered her light, keeping it enough to still obscure her features. No one commented on it, and she was thankful. Herbert might trust these children, but they _were_ still children, and as such couldn't be trusted with secrets if she could avoid it. "Will Enter be joining us?" she asked. She'd noted Herbert hadn't ordered anything for his half-brother, which would be rude if he were around, but she supposed he was somewhere else.

Herbert blinked before shaking his head. "Nah, he's got his own thing."

She frowned, "So he left without saying anything? That's rude." _But not unexpected, given his heritage_. If anything, it showed how much more civilized Herbert was. Herbert, obviously not wanting to speak ill of his half-brother, merely nodded.

Things continued nicely until she took one of her chicken fingers and made to offer it to one of the dogs, only for Herbert to quickly and firmly to reach over, grasping her wrist and lifting it back up to the table. He was being gentle, but firm enough that she couldn't stop him as he said, "Nonononono! Ask."

Kayden started to object but was cut off by Hellhound, who shook her head, "They don't eat people food, says the wrong thing."

She wanted to object, but she could see the girl's point. It _was_ why most minorities couldn't understand fine dining after all. She rebuked herself from getting upset. Herbert was right, he just was more physical than she was used to. She sighed to herself, it did make sense. He _was_ Lee's lieutenant after all, and he was _definitely_ a step up from Brad. Settling herself in to watch the byplay at the table, she was glad she'd joined the Penumbral Defenders. They were _very_ different from the Empire, but that was a good thing.


	58. Outreach 6-8

**Outreach 6.8**

In a good mood, I dismissed the Star Fist, folded fire wisping to nothing around my arm. With my negation I could wield the construct's heat precisely, so a miss wouldn't do anything, but being struck by it would be like getting punched by the sun. "So!" I told Taylor, turning to face her. "What do you want to work on? For the next," I checked my phone, "one hundred and two minutes, I'm yours. We could focus on something of you could do, or we could try to figure out one my powers, just nothing that makes light."

"How many powers do you have?" she asked incredulously, eyes widening at what she just said, "If you don't want to tell me, I understand."

Rolling my eyes, "There are a few I'm never going to use, but on the docket for things I want to get better with, or at least find uses for, right now? There's Skidmark's Speed Zones, Stormtiger's Aerokinesis, Cricket's Acoustokinesis, Shadow Stalker's Shadowform, your Arthropod Control, Glory Girl's Forcefields, Grue's Shadow Propagation, Kaiser's Metal Control, Vista's Space Warping, which I needed to copy to save her-"

"That's how you got to her!" Taylor exclaimed, thumping her fist on her open palm, "People just thought you got lucky!"

I nodded. "Yeah, but I have a feeling if I used it near her, she'd be able to feel it like you do with your power, or something to that effect," I explained. "Lastly, I've got the Twin's Personal Size Manipulation, but I can't do too much with that without drawing attention, I-"

"Can it make you smaller?" she interrupted. I started to shake my head no, before taking out the power and giving it a shot. Nothing happened. I shook my head no to her "oh," of disappointment. "Wait, why didn't you mention Miss Militia's weapon, what about that?"

I shrugged. "Lift it up in front of you." She complied, having held onto it since I'd given it to her, and I cycled it through a variety of weapons, all with the same color and motif. The battlehammer did maker her stumble, as I'd forgotten she didn't have my strength, but I shifted it to an escrima stick so she didn't get hurt as she righted herself. "First of all, there's not much I can do with it that isn't just research. It's _really_ straightforward, more than almost any other power I've heard about or seen. Second, the colors are _distinctive_ which means I can't use it in an identity if I ever want to use it in another, and if I were to use too many of the same colored powers in too many different identities, it'd lead to a common thread between identities I _don't_ want linked. Third, see the design?"

She looked down at the shortsword in her hands, Purple Entity etched to coil around the Blood Red blade, "Yes? It's the same thing as your costume. It looks. . . familiar, but I'm not sure why."

I frowned in confusion, wondering why she'd say that. _Trigger visions_ , I realized, wondering if Miss Militia would recognize it. It was something to worry about later. "There's effectively a world-wide Stranger effect by something that looks like _that._ If it gets broken Taylor, _bad things will happen._ Because of that, my version of her power isn't going to see the light of day. I can get away with the fake Caduceus, but Boardwalk has no such decoration."

She nodded to herself. "Okay, I won't ask. Um, do you have anything else my power can do?"

Looking back at her I raised an eyebrow, "Last time wasn't enough?" I cut of her stuttered apology, leaning over and messing up her hair. "I'm messin' with you Taylor. Relax. Honestly, not really. Pair spiders with things that can carry them and use their thread to tie things up, down, whatever. Also, if you cover a bug with a substance, you can use them to deliver it. You used Newter's slime to drop Lung, and later on Vaseline and Pepper spray worked pretty well, and I think there might have been a few others but I can't remember. Other than that, I've got nothing. If you want more, you'll just have to figure it out on your own, though I'll be here to bounce ideas off of if you want."

She put a palm to her forehead, "Why didn't I think of that!"

"You did," I smirked, "just later."

"Shush you," she groused. "Vejovis is your main, um, cape?" I nodded. "Then we should work with that."

I took some time to lay out what I knew about the force fields I'd taken from Panacea's step-sister. Taylor had a few ideas, such as extending a force-field onto someone, like I'd do to lift them, and then letting go while keeping that shield over them to control their flight remotely. However as soon as I broke contact the field around them dropped no matter what. We did find a few unexpected things, like how my Lift field also could block an attack while holding, but If used to enhance a blow physics would kick back in and it'd drop. Nothing new we tried worked, like her suggestion that if I used my 'weapon' configuration on something living, it might lock them in place, the beetle we tried it on easily still moving.

As our time started to draw to a close, Taylor was disappointed. "Nothing we did worked!" she huffed.

"Yeah, but we've learned a lot of stuff that won't!" I replied cheerfully. At her glare, which probably stemmed from her believing me to just be humoring her, I elucidated, "No, really! We've tested a lot of theories and collected a good bit of data. Imagine if I was in the middle of a fight, desperate for an advantage, and I tried to cover someone in a weapon field, hoping that it would paralyze them. Instead all it would do is give them an opening to hurt me. I wonder if it would enhance their own strikes?" I shook my head, refocusing on trying to make her feel better, "We can check that later. My point is, now I won't do that!"

She sighed as she nodded, mollified, helping me put away the table and chairs in a nearby train-car. As I flew her back to a location she could fully de-costume she asked, "When should we meet tomorrow?"

I thought about it. "I'll pick you up at ten-ten, and I'll plan for the raid to happen at eleven. That should give us enough time to swing back to our training area and collect Golem's new armor. Should we arrive together? Yes," I decided, nodding to myself, "You're publicly on record as part of my team, and having us arrive separately won't do anything positive. Ten-ten work for you? If it's earlier I'll call you, okay?"

She shrugged, "Sure, but what if we're not going after the ABB?"

"Then we'll do group training with anyone who wants to come," I replied easily, adding to address the feeling of concern I was getting from her, "Kaiser won't. His idea of team tactics is 'everyone support _me'_." We landed were she pointed, and I turned my back to her as she grabbed a hidden backpack, looking through the bugs around us. "Stop," I held up a hand until there wasn't anyone on the street. "Okay, change, no one's coming," I informed her, pulling my power out of the bugs in the alley.

I waited patiently as she swapped uniform for Civvies. She stopped making noise, and I waited for a couple seconds, about to ask if something was wrong when she said, "Okay, I'm done." Turning around I saw she was in baggy jeans and a sweatshirt that hid her frame. "Um, I'm a little sore from everything we did today, could you heal me up a little like you did from our spar?"

She didn't _look_ injured, but maybe she fell awkwardly during the mission and found she was bruised when she changed? It wasn't so late that she'd get in trouble getting home, hopefully, but strange bruises _would_ raise questions she might not have answers to. "Sure," I answered, mentally retracting the palm of my glove and grabbing her hand. I focused on the general 'Get Better' treatment for a moment, giving her enough to have healed any bruises she might have looking up to see her leaning forward oddly. "Um, See you tomorrow?" I asked, not sure what she was doing.

She just blushed for some reason. "Yes, uh, tomorrow, see you then."

I took off, trying to put whatever the hell that was out of my mind.

* * *

As I started to descend in front of the hospital a few minutes early, my enhanced hearing picked up someone speaking, almost as if they were behind me, saying, "Have you seen the Healer? Lung wants her." Looking around as I halted my decent. There was no one near me.

 _What the hell?_ I thought, turning. "There she is," the voice said, sounding male, with a trace of an Asian accent. Looking down I spotted four men coming from an alley down the street from an alley close to the hospital entrance. As soon as I spotted them the sound cut out, but I quickly reestablished the connection. "Grab her quick and look out for her boyfriend."

 _I'm not her boyfriend, she's like sixteen!_ was my first thought, quickly followed by _oh these guys are so dead._ I got ready to divebomb them like a fuckin' hawk before I paused. _No, this is going to turn into a PR thing._ It _had_ been somewhat freeing, working with the villains to take down scum _hard_. A certain clarity of purpose and tactics, as dead opponents couldn't shoot you in the back. However, while Taylor was uncomfortable with real violence, but acknowledging the need for it, I doubted Panacea would be so understanding. Looking at the front of the hospital I already saw a couple people with phones out. _On one hand, these people need to get a life, on the other, good._

I hovered above, watching the ABB squad get close, the leader pulling out a pistol, while another pulled a rifle, the other two pulling knives. Rifle-dude started looking around, but not up for some reason. _Did they forget I fly?_ The four of them broke into a jog towards her and I started my drop. Panacea looked up at the men, confusion on her features, taking a step back as the pistol-wielder reached for her, pistol pointed at her chest as he yelled: "You're coming with us Gaijin!"

I landed foot first on his hand, breaking it as the pistol went off and hit the thin layer of air I'd put in front of Panacea. Seeing where it crumpled it would've missed her, but I wasn't going to take any chances with her getting hurt. The thug pitched forward as I hit the ground, the force from the blow pitching him forward into my flight assisted rising knee, which sent him backwards and hopefully knocked him out.

The rifle wielder turned his AK-47 towards me, and I caught the front with my hand as it was pointed at my chest, placing a plug of air in the end of the barrel. The ABB thug, identifiable by his colors, pulled the trigger, the gun thudding as the bullets were stopped before the barrel cracked, fire escaping out of the break in the gun. Yanking the weapon from his hand I stepped forward and punched him in the gut, causing him to fold as I felt ribs crack, but not snap. _Careful Lee._ I didn't want to pull a Glory Girl here, even if they deserved it.

Turning, gun in hand, I used it to block a knife, raising an eyebrow. "Really?" I asked, backhanding him as he went down in a heap. Looking at the last thug, he glanced down at the four-inch blade in his hand and turned to run. I tossed the gun at his legs, tripping him as I followed, grabbing his hands, just _after_ he hit the ground. I wasn't in a rush. Picking him back up, ignoring his useless struggling, I floated back to Panacea who was looking down at the downed men.

"Why?" she asked me in disbelief.

I assumed she meant why they attacked her, so I shook my head sadly, half speaking for her, half speaking for the cameras, "Because they were ordered to. Because today was the first day the ABB's started to lose. Because you were vulnerable. Bad people do bad things Panacea. They always have a reason, but it's rarely a good one."

As the hospital's security rushed out, far too late, I motioned for them to cuff the thug I'd captured. "Panacea, please don't heal them fully, but can you make sure nothing I did was lethal? I was in a hurry."

She nodded, moving between the three, each one passing out as she did so. "Nothing they'd die from, I put them to sleep." The Security staff cuffed them as well.

Turning to them I asked the man who looked to be in charge, "Do we need to stay here? I'd rather not have more show up when they find out the first group failed."

He looked around, before nodding, "That'll be fine. We'll post someone out here."

"You couldn't have known this was going to happen," I reassured, to which he gave a small, grim smile of thanks, expression turning serious as he looked at the ABB. Turning to Panacea, she took my arm and we left. Flying higher to avoid detection, I brought her back to base.

She sat while I cooked spaghetti, seemingly in shock. I broke her out of it a little as I pushed a cup of tea into her hands, murmuring "Drink Panacea, you'll feel better." She did so almost robotically, looking up at me after she finished the Chamomile.

"Why?" she started, before shaking her head as if clearing it. "No, how did you know they were going to do that? Did it happen. . . before?"

 _I picked being where things happen, and an interdimensional space snake gave it to me? Yeah, that's not gonna help._ "No, I was just at the right place at the right time. You've set up a predictable schedule and there are those out there that would exploit it Panacea."

"Amy," she said, "Call me Amy." I shot her a questioning look. "I talked to Vicky, she told me about. . . after, after that. . . call me Amy."

I pushed her plate in front of her. "Then call me Lee, Lee Elric, but only in private please." She started to say something else, but I held up a hand. "Eat, then we'll talk."

The garlic bread was a bit crispier than I was going for, but it was a decent meal. Finishing up, I cleared the table, getting us another round of tea. Panacea accepted hers, sipping it. "I'm sorry for freezing up," she said. "I, I'm just not used to, to that." She shook her head angrily. "I was better at the bank, I should've done something!"

I sat down across from her, "Well, how many fights have you been in before?"

"What?" she asked, my question taking a second to process. "A few, but I was better last time!"

Quirking an eyebrow, I asked sardonically, "You mean when you knew who you were fighting, knew you had back up, and had several minutes to psych yourself up? I'd hope so." She glared back at me for that. "Ambushes work because most people don't react that quickly to sudden violence and are caught flat-footed. Unless you've got that innate fighting instinct, which you _really_ don't Amy, which _isn't_ a bad thing, you need to train to get used to it."

Sighing, I leaned back and took another sip of my Earl Grey. "The training sucks, and if you want me to when things calm down I can help you with it, but it's not something to be ashamed of. The guys that tried to jump you _did_ have a bit of that, through probably informally, and even then if I _really_ wanted to I could've killed them all before they had a chance to hit me _once_. Unless you have a power set up specifically to do non-lethal take downs, it's a lot harder to do a soft take-down than a hard one."

She looked at me, brows knitting in confusion. "If your power's anything like mine, can't you put them to sleep?"

"I said I wasn't going to use my healing offensively, and I won't without a _damn_ good reason. Besides, the time they spend healing from their injuries might help them reevaluate their life choices."

Taking another sip, I waited for her to respond, but she was lost in thought. I continued, "I think, for the duration of hostilities, it would be better if Glory Girl were to stay with you. She'll deter any more attempts and could get you to safety if Oni Lee or Puff the angsty dragon decides to visit personally. If they do though, call me! Break and I, along with anyone else we could get in a hurry, will come fight him off."

"You aren't going to tell me to stop healing? It'd be safer," she inquired, gazing at me intently, trying to read my response.

I made no effort to hide it, giving her an incredulous look, "Would you do so if I asked? No Amy, you want to go help people and it _is_ a thing worth doing even now, especially now. I'll try and make sure you're not vulnerable, but I'm not going to tell you not to do something unless the negatives would outweigh the positives. You want to heal, you still like to heal, and you're doing a lot of good in doing so. If you could get the rest of New Wave to protect Good Samaritan, that would be best, and it's not like they're actually doing anything _useful_ , but I doubt they'll go for it. Glory Girl though, I know we can depend on."

Amelia nodded, smiling a little. "Yeah, we can." She sighed. "So, today you started fighting. I healed some of the. . . survivors."

"Which team?" I asked. "Probably wasn't mine." She looked over at me, question clear on her features. "The people that surrendered to me were unhurt, and Kaiser did his best to kill everyone we fought, especially the people that surrendered."

She looked aghast, "What!?"

"He's _actually_ evil Panacea." I shrugged. "Dude's an actual _Nazi._ He's on team one, same as me, and wants to establish dominance, so he's doing so by being as reprehensible as possible," I explained tiredly. "At least, I _hope_ that's what he's doing. If I had to guess I'd say he's trying to show how I won't do anything, because he's more powerful." A second option clicked into place as I spoke, "Or he's trying push me until I try to take him down, which is a fight _he's_ sure he'll win." Giving a low chuckle, I informed her, "He wouldn't."

"But why work with him in the first place?" she demanded. I just looked back at her. She sighed, "You told me, to recruit people. Is _that_ happening at least?"

I nodded, "I believe so, though not entirely on purpose. I was just trying not to be an ass. you know Mush, from the Merchants?"

"No. . . oh, wait, the trash guy?" Amelia looked confused. "Why?"

"The _Adaptive Armoring_ guy," I corrected. "I've started calling him Golem, at first because calling him _Mush_ just sounded insulting, but now that I'm thinking about it, it's also building an identity other than what he had with the Merchants. Skidmark probably won't take it well, which will just push him away towards someone who _doesn't_ treat him like shit, which is me."

"As far as I can tell he's only with them because he's uninventive, and when all he was doing was grabbing whatever was closest, that was mostly trash, and that combined with his appearance lead to only the Merchants giving him the time of day. His base appearance was changed by his power, a look which is. . . unappealing, but druggies don't care about that sort of thing. I don't give a shit about that either, just his character, which, while depressed, doesn't seem to be actually _villainous_. I'm giving him another option than working with drug dealers, setting myself up as the other side of the coin."

"That's. . . good?" she commented, seemingly not sure what to say.

I shrugged. "Honestly, most of it was me trying not to be a dick and showing him a way to better use his power to be more useful to the team. The rest is stuff I thought of after the fact." I got a disbelieving look. "No, really. I knew he could grab things to make a body, so I grabbed a bunch of scrap metal and asked him some leading questions to test my theory. After that it was a few questions to make him into a pseudo-iron golem." I showed her the picture of him I'd taken, then of the drawing of the Iron Golem I'd used as a base.

"That and a few pointers and boom, Mush is a force to be reckoned with. Combine with the fact that I'm not gonna call someone I'm working with _Mush_ , and I suggested Golem, which he agreed to, though now that I think of it he might've possibly just done that because he didn't want to disagree with me or something. Either way, I'm not calling him Mush. After that, he was effective, and received the respect his contribution was due. I'm really just guessing, but worst-case scenario, Mush turns on me, and I have to take him down. Even at his increased efficiency it'll be easy. _Best case_ , Skidmark overreacts, and that's not a longshot, which means that Golem is pushed towards people who _don't_ treat him like, well, garbage." I opened my hands in a 'what comes will come' gesture, trying not to smirk at my accidental pun.

"So you're recruiting a villain _by accident?_ I really shouldn't be surprised. Who else is on your team?" She asked, shaking her head and accepting another cup of tea.

"The pewter peacock brought his twin Valkyries, Fenja and Menja, as his bodyguards. The three of them are essentially a sub-team all their own. Coil sent a sniper team, but they seem like okay people. I took command of the rest, there's Ta- Lady, Bug, of course."

Amelia shot me a questioning glance, but then did a bad job of concealing the roll of her own eyes, echoing my "of course," for some reason.

Ignoring it, I continued, "Along with _Golem_ and we also have Newter from Faultline's Crew and Sundancer from the Travellers, and they're both, um, okay?"

She didn't say anything, just gave me a _look_ , obviously not believing it.

"No really," I defended. "Hell, if the PRT had gotten to Newter first he would probably be part of the Protectorate, or the Wards, not sure how old he is."

"And Sundancer?"

I winced. "Dimensionally displaced and prioritizes trying to get home with her friends over saving people. If someone could offer her what she wants, she'd do pretty much anything. All the Travellers are like that. Coil is offering it, but he can't deliver and _that's_ going to go _badly_ later. She's a good person, I think, just. . . unattached to this dimension, like most of her group."

She folded her arms, "Oh?"

I shrugged, "Um, probably? I've only been working her for a _day_. She's not _Kaiser_ , but that's not saying much. I'll probably get a better read on her later. She's probably not going to join, but hopefully I won't have to fight her." Shrugging, I disclosed, "I'd win, easily, but she isn't evil, and I'd rather not hurt her if I don't have to. Same for Newter and Golem."

Amy sighed, nodding. "Okay. Just, don't trust them. They're villains, and not like Break."

I smiled, glad that she'd gotten to the point that she was comfortable with the concept of my working with 'villains'.


	59. Outreach 6-9

**Outreach 6.9**

Panacea and I flew back to her house shortly afterwards, landing just short of midnight. As she turned to me to say goodnight the door to her house slammed open, Brandish in full costume striding out. "Get away from her!" she barked, glaring at me with open hostility.

Panacea's head snapped towards her adopted mother, the girl taking an unconscious step behind me. As I watched Amy's adoptive mother's expression turn uglier, I Saw her. White and Orange flames lapped angrily at the air, her Hard-Light Weapon Projection waiting to be used. Her Hard-Light Sphere Form was primed and ready to go as well. As I looked at her power I noticed that the secondary form had no exterior means of perception. Hopefully this _wasn't_ going to be knowledge I needed. From the window I saw a flash of White and Gold as Glory Girl spotted us, quickly disappearing.

"Good Evening Brandish, have I done something that warrants such a reaction?" I asked politely. I knew my good manners would further upset her, but by this point I knew getting her as an ally was _probably_ not going to happen. If this was unfolding how I thought it might, then this confrontation wasn't for her, but for her daughters.

"You know what you did!" she hissed, hand flexing as she came stalked forward, stopping ten feet away and halfway across her front lawn.

My first response, which I quashed, was anger. That was _such_ a bullshit response it wasn't even funny. If I knew what I did wrong, I wouldn't be asking, _would I?_ However, if Brandish was pulling out _this_ level of dishonest argumentation right off the bat, then this was a planned, no holds barred ambush and meant to put me on the back foot with _no_ desire for a peaceful conciliation. I _hated_ social combat, and that's what this ultimately was. I stilled my emotions, keeping my face blank as I tilted me head in confusion, commenting in a carrying voice so Glory Girl could hear me from inside the house. "I believe that I don't, or else I wouldn't have _asked._ Would you care to enlighten me, or are you just going to continue throwing vague condemnations my way? If it's the second, by all means, keep going, I'm sure I'll figure it out _eventually_."

"How dare you talk to me that way you _villain!_ " she spat. "You kidnap my daughter and act like nothing's wrong?"

I blinked, "I'm sorry, both of those statements are incorrect. First of all, I'm a hero, registered and everything, _just like you._ Second-"

Brandish tried to interrupt me, but I kept on talking over her "You're nothing like me!" like she hadn't said anything, "I didn't kidnap Amelia, I _stopped_ her from getting kidnapped and then we went to go get dinner, like we have for the past week and-"

Brandish tried to interrupt me _again_ by saying "And you _just happened to be there?_ " but I kept on rolling "I wouldn't accuse others of being rude if you can't keep yourself from interrupting me while I'm responding to _your_ question. Twice. Now if you can-"

Brandish tried to interrupt me a _third time_ , saying something that was probably both rude and slanderous. I'd stopped paying attention, finishing my statement with, "please restate both of your statements _without_ trying to talk over me I would be most grateful. Make that all three." I smiled pleasantly, waiting for the contemptable harridan's response.

A rather unpleasant family friend who believed herself to be the ultimate moral authority over all, especially those younger than her, had the habit, tactic if I was being honest, of talking over people she considered her moral inferior. She relied on their social programming and manners to make them shut up and allow her to dominate any conversation, as speaking over someone was rude and to the point that even _children_ were taught not to do so.

This underhanded technique meant she could shut down anything that proved her wrong by talking over them to introduce something _else_ the other person needed to respond to, talking over him or her and claiming that _they_ were ignoring _her_ if one tried to go back to the previous topic. The fact that, if you thought about it, her constant interruptions of others put her _below_ those she tried to belittle and command on the maturity scale was one she never seemed to understand.

The trick to counter this tactic, which I learned after a great deal of experience with it, was to put together a mental script and just read off of it despite what the interrupter said. Brandish reacted to it about as well at _that_ woman had, only Brandish seemed to believe she could take me in physical combat once she lost in the social arena. _Just like Victor_ , I realized, which did nothing to help my estimation of the hard-light harpy.

An ugly snarl crossed her features as her power flared and a sword of hot white light sparked to life in her hands, looking to be made of frozen lightning. I had _no_ qualms with my power greedily reaching out and grabbing a copy of it for myself. If she thought to use it to intimidate even a nominal peer she was losing to verbally, especially in a non-combat setting, then she was in no way a hero. As she started to take a step forward Glory Girl, flying out from behind her, shouted, "MOM! What the Hell!?"

The _worst_ member of New Wave didn't even look at her daughter, just commanding, "Victoria, get inside! You should be in bed!"

Glory Girl looked at her mother, then at Amy hiding behind me, then at me. I just shrugged. "Mom, Vejovis is one of the good ones! Why are you doing this?"

"No he isn't!" she rebuked. "He kidnapped your sister!"

I held up a hand, "I quite obviously didn't."

"Like anyone would believe a villain!" Brandish spat. "You're all alike!"

I started to object but Glory Girl looked at me pleadingly, shaking her head. I nodded once in return, gesturing for her to go ahead. Brandish glanced between us, her scowl deepening. "Vejovis _isn't_ a villain mom!" Glory Girl informed her plaintively. "I _told_ you they were out to dinner, like they do _every night_ because they're both healers and talk about healer stuff. Why do you keep saying he's bad?"

"I'm sure he only heals people for _money_ , and he's making your sister do the same thing! I talked to the hospital!" she accused.

"Yes," I admitted, continuing to talk over her "See, he admits it, he doesn't even feel bad!" I had to wonder if she did this in the court-room, and if so why the judge allowed it. Ignoring her _incredible_ rudeness, I explained loudly, "I'm taking money for my labor, just like _all of the other medical staff there._ Evil monsters, the lot of them. Doctors and nurses should all work for free and be grateful for it, just like lawyers! Oh wait."

She gripped her sword as she snarled, "That's different." I waited for more, but the moment dragged, with her eventually adding, "Nothing to say in your defense, _villain_?"

"No," I responded patiently. "I was just waiting for you to back up your claim. As a lawyer you of all people should know that claims made without evidence can be disproved just as easily. To counter your argument, I merely need to state that there is no difference. There, we've provided _equal_ amounts of evidence, and," she started to talk over me, but I _kept on speaking_. "If you called the hospital you're surely aware that between the _two_ of us we're taking a _single_ surgeon's pay, despite doing the work of over a hundred, on top of doing things no surgeon ever could, or did you just not want to mention that _inconvenient truth?_ Also, can you please stop trying to interrupt me, it's quite unprofessional, and more than that just plain _rude._ "

On an intellectual level I knew _why_ she was going after me, but it still pissed me off something _fierce_. Yes, the woman had unresolved trauma, but it'd been at least sixteen _years_ and she was an _adult._ The part of me that constantly tried to screen situations for bias to keep me fair by going 'what if' and switching the race/gender/age of the things I saw pointed out to the rest of me that was feeling somewhat bad over poking that sore spot that if this was a _man_ who responded to a polite _woman_ the same way that Brandish was reacting to me, he'd get _no_ sympathy from society. Deciding to split the middle, I allowed myself to feel a _little_ bad, but the forgiveness that feeling would've bought her was _long_ gone.

I continued being perfectly calm and polite, fully in control of my own emotions, as not only was it the right thing to do, but the one thing that pissed off an emotional person most of all was when you _didn't_ come down to their level and illustrated how badly they were acting. Emotionalistic people usually didn't apologize when shown this, they just doubled down. So I stood, waiting for the next baseless accusation, ignoring the growing headache this situation was creating. She snarled, "You're all smooth words, but that's because you have something to _hide_." _And there it is._ "You seem to be spending quite a lot of time with a sixteen-year-old girl for a man in his what, thirties? Forties?"

My first response was to tell her to go fuck herself with her insinuations that I only cared because I wanted to _sleep_ with Amelia, but I checked myself. She hadn't _actually_ said that, just suggested it so much that it still was probably legally considered slander. I was sure however that if I defended myself against her implied threats of sexual malfeasance, she'd use _that_ to try to condemn me by claiming that's not what she meant but that my defense obviously made me guilty of it without any other proof needed and with no need to worry about silly things like _context_. While that line of reasoning made no _logical_ sense, we'd obviously not be in this situation if she was _rational_. As anything I said would be used to prove I was, I don't know, the second coming of Marquis, there was my response. I stood silently, obviously waiting expectantly. "Well, what do you have to say for yourself?" she demanded.

I sighed and turned to Glory Girl, "Does your mother have short-term memory problems? I ask because I _literally just said_ that claims without evidence were worthless, and I didn't even hear a claim that time, just her incorrectly guessing my age."

"Don't speak to my daughter you _Pedophile!_ " Brandish commanded, abandoning _all_ pretense of civility.

"What the _fuck_ mom!" Glory Girl swore, flying away from her mother as her Aura spiked for a moment before she wrestled it back down. "What is your problem!?"

"You're too young to understand! Get inside _now Vicky!_ " Brandish practically shrieked, the lights turning on in houses around us.

I sighed, "Amelia, you should probably go stand by your sister. Your adopted mother seems to realize that baseless slander isn't working-"

"Will you _shut up!_ " Brandish yelled, darting forward as she was seemingly pulled by her sword and stabbed for my chest.

I twisted out of the way, grabbing and tossing Amelia towards her sister with a call of "Glory Girl, catch!"

Brandish landed next to me, swinging her sword at my exposed back, but I could feel the disturbance in the air as she did so. I stepped forward twice to avoid the swing and sharply turned to face her, hands held loosely at my sides. "Attacking my back while I get your _daughter_ to safety?" I asked, some of my emotions escaping my control at the thought that she could have _easily_ hit Amelia. I twisted out of the way of a stab, then stepped back as she tried to swing her weapon into me. My face was calm but voice was _cold_ , "And you call _me_ a villain. _For_ _shame_."

She screamed in fury, executing a sloppy vertical slash, which I dodged, before shifting to a small sphere of light. She spent about half a second like that, emerging in an instant with her body in a completely different position, already starting a horizontally swing at the gap in my defenses my dodging had created. At least, it would be a gap, if I _couldn't fucking fly!_ Swinging around her with Glory Girl's flight as fast as she could swing her sword was child's play. For all of her supposed experience as a parahuman, her combat technique _sucked._

Another overhead slash was dodged, the extension of its effective range as she allowed herself to be dragged forward by the descending sword _could_ have surprised me if couldn't See her power and she hadn't _started the fight showing she could do so._ She shifted back to her shielded sphere form, coming out of it a half second later with a stab. _This_ time I copied her secondary power, adding the unique defense to my rapidly growing list of powers I _couldn't_ use without outing myself as a power copier. I wasn't sure what combination of the cape's behavior, the hypocrisy of what she said, the sheer baseless dishonesty of it, the actions of this woman in the future that _would not be_ , and the aftereffects of Glory Girl's Aura spike pissed me off so much, but I knew for sure that this pitiful excuse for a parahuman had no claim on the title _hero._ If it weren't for the witnesses, I'd be tempted to see if she was resistant to her own power.

The stab was dodged, as was the follow up swing which scored the pavement with a loud sizzling sound. "I don't want to fight you Brandish," I called to her, tone bored as a seven-foot-tall man and a blonde woman came out of the next house over, both in costume. Being able to see through insect eyes made it _much_ harder to be blindsided, but on the bright side the Pelhams just seemed to be trying to figure out what was going on, so I continued, "Evidenced by the fact that I haven't struck you _once_ , despite all of the opportunities you've given me."

I sidestepped another slice, the woman telegraphed _every_ blow, as she snarled in un-earned confidence, "You can't stop lying can you?" As she sphered I looked back at her sister and brother-in-law with an upside down 'what can you do' shrug as I flipped up and over the concentration of light that was their sister to land facing my opponent on her other side.

I looked directly at Lady Photon as I slowly mimed punching Brandish as she came out with a stab where I'd been a half second after she disappeared, which seemed to be the fastest she could shift forms. The Sphere, while a powerful defense, left the user blind while active, and the parahuman trying to dismember me had apparently never bothered to account for that rather _glaring_ weakness. Brandish caught sight of me out of the corner of her eye, and turned, slashing at my eyes in what would be an unquestionably lethal strike. Every attack before would have been bad if it hit a normal person, but with Panacea on hand I wouldn't have died. _This_ was different.

"Enough," I called, catching the blade with my hand. My uniform negated the edge, the impact drained the shield on that arm, and my Immunity negated the burning heat. I stood there casually holding the sizzling blade in my gloved hand, looking down at her in disgust. She gaped at me before her face twisted hatefully and she manifested a second blade in her other hand, which I promptly caught before she could thrust it _through my face_ , draining that shield as well.

I was _done_ with this fight, and by the expression on her daughters' faces, they understood what their mother had just tried to do. "I have done nothing to you, saved your daughter from being kidnapped by the ABB, and have been met with insults, lies, and physically attacked for it," I declared formally, voice carrying down the street.

"If you were not family of one I count as friend, I would have subdued you, and would have been legally justified for meeting your _unprovoked attempted murder_ with lethal force," I continued, my voice easily drowning out hers as she tried to shout imprecations about my character in reply. "As such you will end this _farce_ , or I will _actually_ engage you in the combat you so _desperately_ seek, which for the last **_fucking_** time is _not something I wish to do!_ "

Brandish let go of her weapons, stepping back and Sphering. She reappeared, thrusting a hard-light spear for my _heart_. Before it could cross the distance where I could yank it of her hands and _break her_ _arms_ , the tip was stopped as it impacted a thin sheet of light that sprang up between us, Lady Photon's forcefield separating us. The idiot looked at the wall in disbelief, turning her head to see her sister floating, hand raised. "Sarah! What are you doing?"

Lady Photon looked at me impassively and I nodded in thanks, taking a step back and letting my hands fall back to my sides. She turned her attention back to Brandish asking "Carol, what are you _doing_? Fighting in the middle of the night? _What's going on!_ "

"He kidnapped Amy!" the lawyer lied.

Lady Photon looked at Amelia, standing right beside her sister, then over to me. "We had dinner, just like we normally do after her shift. Panacea is a better healer than I am, and I learn a lot from talking to her. I ha-"

"I'm _sure_ you do," Brandish interrupted, voice full of disgust as she tried to insuinate ill intent on my part. This time I let her, as without her previous tirade, it would seem jarringly nasty when compared to my own politeness. Lady Photon frowned at her sister.

"I have to wonder," I tried again. "If Brandish was so concerned about her daughter why she didn't _call her._ "

"I did, she didn't answer!" Brandish rebutted.

I gave her a disbelieving look. _How_ _is a **lawyer** this bad at arguing?_ _Wait, lawyers have time to think of their core arguments and think try to predict their opponent's counter arguments, and maybe I'm moving too fast_? "Okay, that seems pretty easy to check. Can, I don't know, Manpower check her phone?"

"You've obviously deleted that call from her phone," she rebuffed.

I threw up my hands, "I meant _yours._ And if you won't let your brother-in-law check then we're back to _unverifiable_ claims by the woman who _attacked_ me for no _provable_ reason! Or are you just banking on your sister blindly believing you to cover that pesky 'innocent until proven guilty' problem? _How are you a Lawyer?_ " I asked, honestly confused.

Brandish sneered, "You're just sa-"

She was cut off as Lady Photon covered her in a bubble of light. The leader of New Wave sighed as she muttered into her hands "It's too early for this." She looked over at me, "Vejovis, I'm sorry for. . . whatever this is, but can you please leave? I don't think this is going to get any better with you here. Sorry."

I gave an understanding sigh in return, bowing at the waist to her. "I understand. Sorry for waking you, even indirectly." I turned my back on Brandish, who was ranting at me silently. If she broke through the field to try to kill me, I'd feel it. "Glory Girl, Amy, sorry if this made things worse. I was just trying to help."

Glory Girl glanced at her mother, before she shook her head, "Don't worry Vej, not your bad." Amy nodded.

"Good night," I told them, crouching down and pulling on my strength to launch me up as hard as I could, augmenting my flight as I took off like a shot up into the night sky, not so subtly informing the rest of New Wave that _I'm this fast, and was going easy with Brandish. What happens if I **don't?**_

* * *

Arriving back at base, and seeing that Herb was asleep, I was left wondering what I should do. Sending dad the information on the new location the surrendering ABB had given me only took five minutes, and after only an hour's worth of meditation, I felt well-rested, but restless. Creating all of the pieces of Golem's armor, even taking the time to do the best possible job for it, took a bit, but I sighed, checking my phone to see that it wasn't even two in the morning.

Groaning, I moved to project a weapon, only to feel that it already existed. Feeling out where it was, I left the base and lifted up, moving around to triangulate on its position. Frowning in thought, I thought about what was in the northern suburbs, only to realize that I'd never _actually_ gotten my pistol back from Taylor. Rolling my eyes I recalled it, a bolt of Purple and Red shooting up into my hand. _Whups._ Apparently, it had to travel through the intervening space. Hopefully I didn't break a window. Or a wall.

Landing I tossed the pistol around a corner, summoning it back to me. The power came back around the corner and reformed into a Ruger. _Well, that doesn't help_. At least it seemed to take the path of least resistance, so it _probably_ just flew out a window. _Sure, let's go with that._

Considering it, I projected the weapon into its own auto-fire assembly, small enough that I could still hold it and satisfying the restrictions of the power. Dropping a sound bubble and checking around with insects to make sure I was alone, I set it to fire at me every few seconds, moving around in something almost akin to a slow dance, taking the impact on a different shield each time. Concentrating on the bubble, I could barely feel the sound around me as the gun went off, only for my sound bubble to negate it. Focusing on it I could feel my own power working without my direction to lessen the sound of the gunshot when the sound-waves entered my ears, likely just enough to stop hearing damage.

I wondered how long it'd been doing that. Belated, I remembered that firing most guns without ear-protection almost guaranteed a small degree of hearing loss, the ringing in your ears signifying permanent damage. With all of the guns and fighting around me, I hadn't heard that _once_ after that first day, except for when I actively suppressed it. Was I doing it subconsciously or was that my Shard at work? I'd known it could act on its own intellectually but hadn't actually seen it doing so. At least not so blatantly I corrected, recalling the use that had let me get the jump on Amelia's would be kidnappers mere hours ago. _What else is it doing?_ I wondered.

"Um, thanks for protecting my hearing?" I spoke to the empty air, getting no sign of response. I hadn't spent the points to be able to talk directly to my shard, using them instead to gain my Immunity power, but it would've been nice. Shrugging, I turned my attention back to it my power-assisted sense of sound. It was a faint enough feeling that I had to fully concentrate on it. Speaking to myself, trying different sounds, I felt how they. . . tasted? It was a foreign sensation, and not one that was easy to classify. I frowned, trying to replicate the sound and completely incapable of doing so.

Try as I might, my Acoustokinesis let me _manipulate_ sound, but not _create_ it. As such I started manipulating the repeated sound of gunshots. Silencing it was easy, something I'd been doing for a while. Making it louder was just as easy, though doing so started to make everything vibrate. I Pushed it even louder, my own power kept me safe from the effects, but the gravel at my feet shook. I took a deep breath and pulled on the power as hard as it would allow me to, grabbing the sound of the gunshot and pushing it as loud as it could go.

A wave of pressure slammed into me as my projected gun _vaporized_ , knocking me off my feet, the buildings around me collapsing as the brick turned to dust. The silencing bubble held, _barely_ , and I laid there, my shields having protected me from the worst of it. I felt sore in a way that was hard to describe and my shields were _drained._

 _What. The. Fuck._ I thought about what the hell just happened and gave a groan as I realized what I'd done. _Sound is just repeating air pressure. Push it loud enough, and it's like hitting something with a series of explosions. . . I'm a moron._

I started to get up, only to realize that I was flying when my hand went straight through the cement, the ground underneath me powder. Taking a deep breath, I fell into it, dropping down and finding the bottom before surfacing. Everything within the perfect sphere of the sound bubble I'd made was shaken apart to bits. A piece of hot, twisted metal I'd found at the bottom was in my hand as I shook the dust off it, my costume cleaning the dust off of me on its own. Whatever what I held originally was unrecognizable as the sound deformed and hammered into unidentifiable scrap.

 _Cricket is a **dumbass**_. However, if sound control, pushed far enough, could do _this_ , I was grateful for it. Flying up and away, the destruction was in a complete circle, the building appearing to have been sheared where the sound was stopped by my bubble of negation. _That could have been. . . bad._

Slotting it away as an unexpected 'fuck everything in this general area' attack, I rose, only to spot someone else flying slowly over the railyard, only visible by their form outlined by the light of downtown. Pulling on my Power Sight, the figure blossomed in White & Gold flames. _Glory Girl?_ Coming up above the heroine, I trailed her only to realize that she was following someone else, a girl wreathed in Bone White and Blood Red power.

Surrounding us with a sound bubble, I slowly and silently descended behind her, leaning over her shoulder and whispering, "So, why are we following Amy?"


	60. Outreach 6-10

**Outreach 6.10**

Glory Girl shrieked in surprise, turning to face me, not even leading with a strike, which was just _sad_. I _really_ needed to work on this girl's combat style when I had some time. "Who? Vejovis? What are you doing here?" she almost shouted, before glancing back down to Panacea, looking relieved that the healer continued as if she hadn't heard us.

I floated away from her, keeping pace with Amy as she walked towards my base. "I asked you first."

Glory Girl pouted in what I'm sure she thought was a cute manner as she followed, and I gave her an unimpressed look. "After you left, Mom and Aunt Sarah _really_ got into it," she explained. "Like, I could get that maybe she might not like you, 'cause you're a guy and you're hanging out with Ames and she didn't like Dean at first either, but that totes _wasn't_ what her problem with you! She was sayin' things that weren't even _close_ to true, and even tried to say that _you_ attacked _her_ , but Aunt Sarah saw the beginning of the fight and called major BS on that."

She winced, looking at me gratefully, "Thanks for not fighting back bee-tea-dubs. I get that you would've _so_ been in the right if you did, but she's my _Mom_ , you know?" I nodded in understanding. "And after, like, the _fifth_ lie mom got caught telling, Aunt Sarah told her to get her life together, which was _savage_ but is _so_ true because that was _not_ like adulting at _all_! But then after she left Mom grounded _both_ of us and said that we weren't allowed to talk to you, or see you, or do anything with you at all! She even told Ames that she wasn't allowed to heal anymore, which is so not cool. Healing is like what she _does!"_

"She could do more than that, but I get you." Glancing down, Pancea had reached the base and had a hand raised to knock, but was hesitating as she looked for a spot that _didn't_ look like it'd give her Tetanus. Waving Glory Girl over, I started to descend, dropping the sound bubble as I turned off my Power Sight, the flames of their power dissipating into nothingness. "Vejovis. Unlock." I called, causing Amelia to jump. Looking at her I realized that she was carrying a small suitcase in addition to her backpack, my Power Sight having obscured them when it was active. I had a sinking feeling about what this could be about, and I _really_ hoped I was wrong.

She was looking between her adopted sister and I, confused. "Hello, Panacea," I started, getting the ball rolling on what I'm sure would be a _delightful_ conversation. "Isn't it a bit early for house calls?"

Amy looked at me, steeling herself, "Can I stay with you for a few days?"

 _Usually I like it when I'm right,_ I noted. "I'm not saying no, but why?"

She sighed. "My m-. . . Carol said a lot of things after you left. About. . . about my father." Staring me in the eye she didn't so much as ask as confirm, "You know who he was, don't you?"

"Yeah I do. Come on in, this is gonna take a while." I walked into the base calling over my shoulder, "And I know Herb took you right here, but this is supposed to be a _secret_ base, so please don't lead anyone else here. Glory Girl I'm sort-of okay with, but I'm quickly accruing a list of people that have tried to, or will try to, kill me and I'd rather they didn't know where I lived."

"Who?" Glory Girl asked, floating inside following her sister.

I counted off on my fingers "Kaiser, Lung, Coil, your mother, Oni L-"

"Hey!" she objected. "Mom didn't try to kill you!"

"Tea or Coffee?" I responded.

She looked confused. "What?"

"It's like three in the morning. I took a nap," I shot Amy a look, who gave me a slight smile, "But I doubt either of you have. We don't have soda, so for caffeine it's either tea or coffee."

"Coffee, two cream, five sugar," Glory Girl replied, shaking her head. "Don't change the subject."

"So coffee candy for you, Amy?" I asked. I felt a creeping sense of unnatural guilt quickly followed by hatred and my head snapped back to Glory Girl, who flinched from my expression as the feeling disappeared. "Glory Girl," I informed her coldly, reigning in the unnatural rage. "I do not mind you being here but while you are you _will not Master me_. Do I make myself clear?"

She had the good grace to look ashamed. "Sorry, just don't ignore me."

"I'm not," I started, talking over her objection, "I'm getting us something to drink before we talk, and I'm focusing on doing that first before I get distracted." I sighed, turning back to my co-healer, "Coffee or Tea?"

"Coffee, just cream," she said, not getting involved.

I motioned for them to sit down at the kitchen table, and a few minutes later we all had our drinks. Sipping my black coffee, not needing the caffeine but having long ago gotten used to the taste, I started, "Glory Girl, did your mother know my power set?"

"What? Maybe? She knew you healed. And flew I guess. But she didn't try to kill you!" she asserted.

"Let's assume she knew what I told the PRT," I continued. "That means healing, bug control, and a general Alexandria package like you. Nowhere in there was the _degree_ of cut resistance, or _anything_ about heat resistance. She attacked me with a _plasma sword_. For all she knew, her first attack, an attack on someone who _had not ever threatened her_ , would've done anything from cut off my arm to the bone, to cut me in _half_. I only blocked because she was try to slice open my _head_ , and even Panacea couldn't have saved me if I hadn't had hidden defenses."

"She knew you would dodge," Victoria excused.

I blinked at her. "Have you received _any_ combat training Glory Girl?"

She _shrugged!_ "My uncle showed me some stuff, and Dean has too, what's that got to do with anything?"

Sighing I put my face in my free hand. "That's a no. Glory Girl, the expectations and responsibilities you have when wielding a deadly weapon are much different than what is normally considered when punching someone. Would you punch an E88 thug as hard as you could?"

Looking at me like I was crazy, she physically recoiled, "What? No! That'd kill him!"

"And if you did, but the person dodged it would be the same as if I took a gun and shot Gallant, but he dodged, or it bounced off his armor. You're saying that your boyfriend shouldn't be mad if I tried to shoot him in the head because I knew he'd dodge, or his armor would take care of it? Right? Or if I were to shoot you, but only once, then you'd just shrug and be all smiles?" I questioned, sour expression on my face. _God I hate moral myopia._

"That's different!" she immediately shot back, stiffening as she realized what she said.

I gave her a moment to realize she just echoed her mother, before asking, "How?"

"It. . . You. . . She's my mom!" she finally admitted.

I nodded, "Which is why I didn't return her _murder attempt_ in kind, which is what it was by the end Victoria. I had assumed that she was counting on using Panacea to keep me from _dying_ if she hit me, but those last blows? The ones for my _head?_ Those would've been instantly _fatal_ if I didn't have _hidden_ defenses."

I sighed. "Glory Girl, I'm as strong as you are, if not more so. You've seen how fast I am. Imagine what would've happened if I decided to do something simple like kick your mother's knee at full strength." Panacea looked down as Glory Girl paled. "I _wouldn't_ do that, Brandish isn't enough of a threat to me to require that kind of response, but she was calling me evil and suggesting I was some sort of _sexual predator_. Would that kind of person, the person she was claiming I _was_ , hold back?" I shook my head, reaching behind me and taking out my pistol, both girls stiffening as I placed it on the table, pointed away from them. "And I wouldn't even need to do that. All I'd have to do is back up, wait for her to come out of that sphere, and shoot her in the leg."

"But you wouldn't!" Victoria reasoned.

I nodded, my voice cold, "No, _I_ wouldn't, but _she_ didn't know that. Hell, I could've swarmed her with a couple hundred wasps; it would've been even easier, and she'd be just as dead as if I'd shot her in the head. My point is that she came out looking for a fight and got increasingly nasty when I didn't give her what she wanted, which she escalated to trying to maim me, then _kill me_." Glory Girl looked like she wanted to object but couldn't find the words to do so with. "She was trying to manipulate me, and _you_ in doing so. She was trying to provoke me into offensive actions, so she could fight me."

Holding up a hand I explained, "If I lost as I assume she thought I would, assuming she didn't _kill me_ , she likely would have claimed I attacked her and tried to get me railroaded in court. If she lost, she could use _that_ to try to turn you against me for 'attacking her unprovoked and trying to kill your mother' or something. Either way, she wins, I lose, and _you_ stay under her control _._ You being there Glory Girl complicated things, which is probably why she kept insisting you leave and why she waited so long before attempting to kill me."

I looked her dead in the eyes. "If she was _anyone_ other than family of one of my friends, I would've taken her down, as well as _anyone else_ that attacked me unprovoked, before dumping the lot of them off at the PRT to press charges, because that's what a _hero would do_."

I leaned back, opening my hands, voice controlled. "Not that they've probably mentioned it, but New Wave has attacked people they didn't like in their own homes before, and I'd rather not open myself up to that, as if they corner me in my own home, I _may not hold back_."

"NO!" Glory girl shouted, spiking Awe without meaning to. "They'd never do that!"

I quirked an eyebrow as she pulled back her power, not mentioning it, but if she did it again I was going to kick her ass _out_. A flash of motion caught my eye and I saw Herb launch horizontally out from the hall towards Glory Girl, fist swinging forward to hit the sitting girl in the back of the head while he screamed "Fuck!" As my conscious mind stuttered in shock at this complete non-sequitur, Glory Girl had already pushed me enough that my combat instincts were up and running. I couldn't get up and block him in time, which meant I had to stop him from a distance. Almost unbidden my Aerokinesis sprung to the front of my mind, forming a rapidly expanding disk of air an inch behind her head, solidifying an instant before he hit.

His fist impacted the surface at speed, his arm breaking almost apart on impact, grotesquely folding in on itself as flesh pulped and bones snapped, one piercing the flesh to stick out like white arrow shaft. Herb hit the ground with a meaty thud, eyes wide as the two girls started to realize something had happened, jumping up in almost slow motion. I noted distantly that Glory Girl had tossed her mug to the side, porcelain shattering on the hardwood and spilling sugary coffee everywhere.

As quick as the moment came, it passed. "Fuuuck!" Herb yelled in pain, holding what was left of his arm.

"Dude, what the fuck!" I yelled, overriding the girl's own reactions.

"She, here, fuuuck!" he cried inarticulately.

I took a deep breath, putting my coffee down and walking around the table over to him, Panacea staring at him with wide eyes while her sister tried not to vomit as she stared at the mutilated limb. "Why in the ever-loving _fuck_ did you try to sucker punch Glory Girl, when she was sitting in our base, drinking _fucking coffee? The fuck man!?"_ I tried not to shout, and failed.

He was looking at his arm, having gone partially into shock, _which he deserved_. "She. Base. Invading?"

 _That_ I understood, he thought the sisters were somehow invading and he was taking out the heavy hitter first. The sheer _hypocrisy_ of that statement pissed me off. "Oh that's ripe coming from you. You're the one who brought her here in the first place, but now she's back you think that's grounds to attack? Fuck you."

He shook his head, "No. Sister. Angry? All I heard was no! And then I felt a sharp thing in my head. . . There was yelling man!" he finally said, Peak Conditioning pushing him back out of shock like it had for me when I was Boardwalk. He blinked, then looked at the hardened air shield he'd punched, which still had some blood smeared on it highlighting the impact crater directly in the center of it. "What'd ya use?"

I gave a significant glance to where Vicky was standing behind me without moving my head. "Force fields."

He cocked his head, confused. "When did ya get forcefields?" I just looked at him, shocked that Mr. 'I'm so great at reading subtleties' missed that. _I swear to god Herb, I will hurt you if you blab my secrets._ As I glared at him I swear I could see the thought click in as he went, "Sorry, so sorry, sorry."

I sighed, trying to find a good explanation. "Just because I'm finding new uses for my power, doesn't mean it's a new power," I 'reminded' him.

"Right, that's why I'm apologizing," he agreed, getting up. "Sorry." He looked down at his ruined arm, moving it slightly and wincing as the flesh shifted and jiggled like an arm shouldn't, blood slowly pooling below it as it dripped down his arm to fall from his twisted fingers. "This is kinda weird."

I sighed, _harder_. "Okay, take a fucking seat. Panacea can you heal him so he can put on some clothes and talk _like a fuckin' adult._ " Panacea looked back at me, before looking back and Herb and realizing that all he was wearing were boxers, having probably jumped straight out of bed when her sister had spiked her emotional manipulation field. "He's not gonna fight, he thought she was here to attack one of us, and he was woken up when she spiked her 'not-a-Master' power."

Herb turned to her, shrugging and wincing, "Yeah, it's not like you have a massively overprotective sister that my friend has been hanging out with."

"I'm not overprotective!" the overprotective sister in question objected, still looking green.

All three of us looked at her in disbelief. "Yeah, ya are,"; "You are _very_ protective, but that's not bad,"; "Sometimes," we responded.

She took a seat, pouting while Amy repaired Herb's arm. I grabbed some paper towels and cleaned up the blood, gore, and coffee as the healer frowned. "Your powers. . . are helping mine? Where is it getting the biomass?"

"Same place any creation power gets mass," I absently responded while I cleaned up my friend's spattered flesh and blood and reminded myself that Herb was fine. "They convert energy stores into matter, E equals M C squared and all of that fun stuff in reverse." I looked up from the blood I was cleaning off of the three-foot-wide air disk and saw the sisters staring. "What? It makes sense and the powers can't truly violate basic thermodynamics, they just use a ton of power to manipulate things on a small scale."

Panacea shook her head as she turned back to healing as Victoria frowned at me, "How do you know that?"

I shrugged as I realized I'd over-explained _again._ In my defense I might've been a bit off-balance from the near-fatal misunderstanding. "Can't tell you right now without bad things happening."

She pouted again, which if I was into teenage valley girls might've worked, but I preferred dark, smart, and snark-. . . Not looking at Panacea I made Glory Girl another coffee after I finished cleaning. As I put it down she was poking the now near invisible disk. "What is this?"

I shrugged, "Forcefield?" which was true, in a sense.

"But it's invisible."

Sighing I took a seat, sipping on my room temperature caffeine. As Herb left to get changed "The best one's are," I quipped, before snapping my fingers and dismissing it in a gust of air that I directed away from the girls and down the hall without touching anything. A deep breath later I continued. "Okay, where were we? . . . Oh right, your family's habits of attacking people in their own homes."

"They wouldn't!" Glory Girl objected, though not nearly as strenuously as she had last time.

"Well, they'd hardly have told you about it if they had." I turned to Amy, "Now, you had a question about your lineage?"

Panacea glanced at her fuming sister, who looked like she wanted to continue, but was holding back for her sibling. "Yes. Who were my parents?"

"I only know one, but you should be able to figure their identity out on your own," I deflected. "Riddle me this: Why did Brandish adopt you?"

Amy looked pained, and I repressed a passing urge to give her a hug. "I don't know why, but she had to," the healer told me. "Her and aunt Sarah talked about it tonight."

I glanced over to Glory Girl, who wouldn't meet my eyes. _Things must've gotten bad after I left. I hate domestic disputes_. "Okay, do you know when you were adopted?"

"When I was six."

"And what happened around that time in or near Brockton Bay?" I asked. "This would've been back when New Wave was The Brockton Bay Brigade."

She shrugged, and I turned to Herb who was walking back in the room, clothed this time, "Since you're up, can you grab me a laptop?"

He shrugged, "Yeah, sure." After he'd walked behind them to go get it, he gave me a double thumbs up with something that looked like a tentative smile crossed with a grimace.

We waited, and I got myself another coffee, nixing my idea to try warming my old one with a hidden tiny star. Herb returned with the laptop and a bottle of Wild Turkey. I took the computer and shot him a questioning look for the booze, but he shook his head. "Here," I told them, handing them the device, "look up what happened in two-thousand and two-thousand-one around here."

I sat at one end of the table as Amelia typed into the computer, her sister literally hovering over her shoulder. Herb grabbed four glasses and sat down, waiting, while I opened the base manual on my phone, starting to work through the newly discovered first chapter. I _really_ wished I'd found this glossary of terms a while ago and found myself flipping back to understand what was said, which only confused me _even more_ as the things it was listing we _didn't have!_

I was halfway through this when I heard Amelia give a soft "no."

Glancing over at her, I saw her looking at the screen, face pale. Glory Girl looked sickly horrified. _Having Marquis as a dad should be **that** bad_. Walking over to her and exchanging confused looks with Herb, I peered over Amy's shoulder, opposite of Victoria. I saw she had a news report open about _Nilbog_ of all people. "Why are you looking up that asshole?" I asked, even more confused.

Amy looked sharply, up at me, "Isn't _he_ my father!?" I blinked at her, before laughing at the ridiculousness of it. "It's not funny!" she said, on the verge of tears.

"Nilbog isn't your father," I told her, putting a hand on her shoulder as I dragged the computer over, typing in 'marquis captured' with one hand, hitting enter. The first result was a news story detailing the Brockton Bay Brigade's win against the villain Marquis. " _He's_ your father."

I looked over her shoulder as she and her sister read the new story. As it detailed the 'valiant battle' against Marquis the group that would become New Wave waged, 'Storming his base' a picture of a mansion with a destroyed front door and spikes of bone protruding from the wall in a few places putting that to lie. There was a picture of him, in cuffs, being put into an ambulance.

"What is he _wearing_?" Vicky demanded, squinting at the picture.

I looked at it, trying to remember the interlude that described this. "I believe it's a silk bathrobe. They kept your sister out of the story, but they beat Marquis by noticing he was protecting a closet, and Brandish used _that_ fact to pin him down and stab him in the chest with her plasma sword. After they found Amy he gave himself up so they wouldn't hurt her, willing to go to the Birdcage if they promised to take care of her." _Whether or not they did is up to debate._

I sighed, "So, letting New Wave know where I live? I'd rather not. _You_ wouldn't do anything Glory Girl, and neither would your sister, but your parents? You can't tell me they wouldn't." I took a seat next to Amy, as they both gazed at me in shock, obviously looking like they wanted to say _something_ in their family's defense but not sure what it would be. "New Wave tried something well, new, by eschewing their secret identities. Unfortunately, they, like a lot of other people who _claim_ to be honorable, only followed the rules when it served their own needs."

"I'm sure they excused what was their greatest victory by _later_ saying that since _they_ didn't have secret identities, they shouldn't have needed to respect those of their foes. It's why when that E88 thug killed Fleur when she wasn't in costume, which _was_ murder, well if you've looked into it you've seen that there wasn't the outcry one would've expected from someone _blatantly_ breaking the unwritten rules." I sighed, shaking my head, "That was because the Brigade became _famous_ for taking down their arch-nemesis by doing _exactly that_ , only **_worse._ **Fleur was attacked walking down the street, Marquis was attacked him at _night,_ in his own _home,_ when he _wasn't expecting it_ , when they expected him to be _asleep._ The only reason he wasn't was that he'd just finished reading his daughter a bed-time story because she was having trouble going to sleep. Not only that, they played off Marquis' refusal to hurt women by having their front-line fighters belonging to the class of people he refused to injure."

I leaned back. "Amy, I trust. _You_ , I'll give a chance because of what I've seen of your character. Your mother? I would've been hesitant to, but after tonight? No." I wanted to add 'sorry' but I really wasn't. I sat there, giving the girls a chance to formulate her response.

"So, my father is Marquis," Amelia sighed. "That, that explains a lot."

"What do ya mean Ames?" her sister asked, looking down at her. "That doesn't explain, like, anything!"

"You know how much Mo- how much _Carol_ hates Marquis. He's been in the Birdcage for a decade and she _still_ got upset when dad brought him up after the first time Lee helped me heal!" she objected, and I blinked, not realizing that my actions had sparked strife in her family _that_ quickly and feeling a bit bad about it. "If I'm _his_ daughter, was she just expecting me to turn out just like him? Is that _really_ what she meant by mali principii malus finis?" _Harmful start harmful end?_ _The hell?_ _Did Brandish think saying 'bad blood' in latin somehow made it true?_ "Just because Marquis is my father? That's not how it works! That's not how _any_ of that works! I can _literally see brains, that's not how that works!_ " she finished, almost shrill in disbelief.

"Mom's smarter than that, she's a lawyer!" Glory Girl tried to reason, but her words lacked the weight of conviction. I wanted to say that smart people could believe _stupid_ things, but I could practically hear Herb going 'Not the time man, stay out of this', so I glanced over at him, and he was indeed giving me a look which said _exactly_ that. "Besides, you know she loves us!" Victoria added, sounding desperate.

Amy shook her head, crying, "No Vics, she loves _you!_ She's been _clear_ about that. She _tolerated_ me until I started 'turning evil' like my _father_!"

Victoria, now crying as well, hugged her sister, "I'm so _sorry_ Ames! This is like, _the worst!_ "

I sat there, feeling _so awkward_. _Should I give words of encouragement? Leave? Give them a hug?_ Anger, arrogance, or apathy I could handle pretty easily, but anguish? Not a ton of knowledge on how to help someone _else_ with that, mostly because I wasn't used to people being _this vulnerable_ around me, and I knew that I was weird enough what helped me probably wouldn't help them. It was made worse by the fact that I actually _gave_ a shit about Amelia, and surprisingly about Victoria as well, so I didn't really know what to do, but wished I did.

I silenced myself as I repressed a groan. I didn't know what I was going to do, but I knew what I _wasn't_ going to do. There was _no_ way I could kick them out now. If only I'd not talked like I normally did, explaining things that people didn't want to be explained, _even if they really needed to be,_ I could've convinced them to let me rent a hotel room for them or something until this all blew over.

However, I knew I couldn't as they cried and held onto each other as if they were their only lifeline in stormy seas. They shared the pain of a terribly but undeniable truth that reshaped how they understood reality, a pain I was far too familiar with. One I also knew from experience that was going to leave them vulnerable and crash them _hard_. While I'm sure I could still convince them to leave if I needed to, I could no longer do so without hurting them. _Me and my stupid mouth_.

* * *

After about half an hour they were pretty much done. I wanted to offer words of understanding and comfort, but still really didn't know what to say. Cleaning up the kitchen as Herb produced a bottle of whiskey and poured it into the glasses he'd gotten earlier, three fingers worth in two, almost filling the others, I sat down across the table from them. "So," I sighed, getting tired, tear-bright looks from both of them as they sniffled. "I never _actually_ said you could stay here, so I am saying it right now. We've got a few open rooms and you can stay here as long as you need Amy. Glory Gi-"

"Call my Vicky," she interrupted.

I nodded. "Okay Vicky, stay here tonight, and if you really want to you can stay longer, just know that if you do so, Brandish will probably try to kill me. Again. She. . ." I trailed off, trying to figure out how to phrase it.

"She what?" Victoria asked tiredly.

I sighed. "Do you want me to be nice, or be blunt?"

Herb passed me one of the half-filled glasses, pushing the two full ones to the sisters, as well as the bottle.

Vicky looked at the glass in front of her, before taking it in one motion and downing the entire thing, breaking off into coughs as her sister took a swig before grimacing. After Victoria stopped coughing, she gave me a teary smile, "I could use some nice right now. . . and some water?"

"Okay," I nodded, getting her some. I took a sip of my whiskey and waited until after she took a drink of water to look her in the eye. "Brandish cares a great deal about _you_ , your wellbeing, and your safety. As such if you spend time around someone that she has declared a villain she'll both take it badly _and_ assume that you are doing so because _I_ did something to you, not by your own choice. After all, you're a good daughter and good daughters listen to their mothers. There's _nothing_ you can do to convince her otherwise because anything you do to prove her wrong is obviously something I told you to do."

She tried to object that that made no sense, and I held up a hand. "Yes, it's not rational, but a large portion of adults believe that anyone more than twenty years younger than them isn't capable of making logical decisions that disagree with what said adults, with their age and experience, have chosen to do. They feel that, as adults, they don't need to justify themselves, their positions of power and respect being enough that they shouldn't be questioned, especially when attempting to do so would just prove the younger person _right_ , which would hurt the adult's pride, though they don't consciously realize _why_ the feel so offended. They just lash out at it, like the children they call their opposition ironically enough. The same adults _also_ usually dismiss what people who have twenty plus _more_ years of experience than _they do_ think, because those old people are obviously out of touch, or senile or something. It's really just an 'I'm right, and I'll make up whatever excuse it takes to get you to accept it' mindset. It was used against them, and they hated it, but now that they have the power they're going to use it."

Glancing over at Panacea I continued, "I had asked Amy to ask _you_ if you could hang out with her while she heals as protection, now that the ABB is desperate for healers, but she obviously didn't get the chance, so I'm asking now that I have the opportunity. However, if you stay with her _all_ the time, it's a when, _not_ an if, that Brandish will come to, um, _claim_ you and drag you back home. If that doesn't work I would not be surprised if she tries to tail you back here, to try to force a confrontation, and maybe attack me for daring to steal her daughter or something similar."

I sighed. "If you're staying at home, and just meeting your sister for her hospital shifts, she _might_ pitch a fit, hell, she'll will probably ground you and tell you not to, but, well, you _do_ have an Alexendria package. It's not like she can stop you without hurting you, and I doubt she's that far gone. It's not pleasant, but it's an option. If you can't watch her back I'd ask her to not go healing now that we have the added threat of Brandish trying something, but if you sister decided to do so anyways I wouldn't stop her, and just ask that she wears a tracker." I looked at Panacea. "There's a decent chance they'll try to take you again, and once I hear about it I would go _kill_ the people that took you, but I'm worried about what they'd try to do to you in that interval. It's something the two of you need to decide soon."

Speech done, I leaned back as the sisters whispered to each other. I wanted to eavesdrop, but this was a decision _they_ had to make. Herb stood up, walking over to them and giving them both a hug, which neither of them knew how to respond to. "I'm sorry girls," he told them, nodding to the bottle, "That's yours, I don't want to see it tomorrow." With that he went to bed.

The two of them looked to me. "I don't' think you're going anywhere else tonight, and Brandish already thinks I'm evil incarnate, what's a bit of underage drinking on top of that?"

Vicky nodded, refilling her glass and topping off her sisters, before the two of them started to quietly debate again. They went back and forth, from the body language Amelia was telling her sister she was fine, and Vicky disagreed. After almost an hour, and several more drinks, they came to a decision, Amy seeming to have lost. Victoria turned to me and smiled as she swayed slightly in her seat, "I'm staying!"


	61. Outreach 6-11

**Outreach 6.11**

With Amy and Vicky situated and asleep, I headed to Herb's room to see if he was still awake. He was sitting on his bed, waiting for me. Closing the door behind me, I addressed my teammate, "They're asleep in the room two down from mine. I couldn't get them to separate so they're sharing a bed."

He shrugged, "They're sisters, and they need each other right now. They'll both wake up with hangovers, and the pain'll distract them from their mother."

"Well, Amy will at least, but she won't want her sister to hurt."

Herb shook his head, "Hangovers are a brain thing. _Both_ of them will have it, and they need it."

I frowned, "I haven't had that many hangovers, what's a good breakfast for that?"

"Burgers, the greasier the better, French fries, and a couple of bottles of soda."

I nodded, "I'll pick them up this morning. Later this morning. Should I try my general healing thing with them."

"Nope, they _need_ to have the pain," he stressed.

I could see his point, but having people I gave a shit about in pain when I could fix it easily just didn't sit right with me. "If they ask, I will, but I won't offer," I countered.

He looked like he wanted to disagree, but knew I wasn't going to give, so tried to explain his position instead, "It's one of those things where it's more emotionally acceptable. . ." he saw I didn't understand what the heck he was talking about. "Okay, one: They're losing their family, and only have each other."

I had to object, "They've got the Pelhams still, maybe, probably?" Herb just looked at me and waited for me to understand. "No, it's because they're sisters, isn't it?"

My more socially astute friend nodded, "Yep, Photon's gonna back Brandish. But for _these_ sisters, a little pain will help drown out the emotional shit. It's not gonna last long, only a few hours, but it'll help. It's like a numbing agent."

I gave a rueful chuckle, "Depending on their tolerance, they might still be drunk when they wake. They're not exactly _hefty_."

He nodded "Yeah, well, I doubt _one_ of them has drank before. Blonde pretty girl? Yeah, she's gotten wasted before."

I winced, trying not to think of Victoria that way. "Just. . . don't go after Brandish for this. I know with your history. . . If she comes and attacks you, then she deserves what she gets, but let _her_ make that mistake please."

He frowned, "Fine."

I grabbed a seat, putting my head in my hands as I finally relaxed a bit. While I didn't trust Herb with important plans, he was still more insightful than I was for figuring out things after the fact. Hell, I never would've thought to give the girls alcohol, which in retrospect was probably a good thing, but I couldn't argue with his reasoning. Given how for most of the times I'd been anywhere near where the two girls were emotionally I'd been alone, sometimes in that state _because_ I'd been alone, I had no idea what to do. Thinking about the events of a few hours ago, I let out a long breath.

"I just did _not_ expect Brandish to react that badly. I knew she was never going to like me but. . . If I didn't have shields and fire immunity, which she didn't know about, she could've _killed_ me!" I exclaimed. I'd known she wasn't actually a hero, but that level of violence on someone who was trying not to fight had surprised me, and I'd reacted badly. "Well, she could've killed me if her form wasn't complete dogshit. I was staying away from Glory Girl for the most part! Not that I was consciously doing so, just, I don't have a shit ton in common with her, ya know?"

"Neither did I?" he responded, sounding like he shrugged. "Shit happens."

"But we've been hanging out for like a week, why did she-" and then it clicked. "Oh, fuck."

"Oh fuck what?" he prodded.

I looked up at him, "It's the fucking _Truce!_ Brandish has a hardcore, black and white, villains are villains and heroes are heroes and never the two shall meet philosophy. To her, my truce with the villains just shows that _I'm_ a villain, as _true_ heroes never would work with villains, because Endbringer truces are apparently not a thing. Add that to my presence at the bank job where the villains got away, and I'm obviously _secretly evil!_ "

"That's why I don't bother with calling myself one and go villain instead," Herb rejoined.

I flipped him the bird. "Screw you. You do that because of eighties television."

"But what I'm sayin' is that these 'heroes' are fuckin' morons!"

I stood up. "Okay, to start with Brandish is _not_ a fuckin' hero, she's a bitch with power and good PR. If it wasn't for her sister she'd be labelled a vigilante with delusions of _adequacy_ and probably would've been killed off if she hadn't cut her teeth on someone whose entire shtick was _not fighting women_."

Herb countered, "She's _labelled_ as a hero."

"Only because her sister seems to be an _actual_ hero and is good at perception management!"

"Hmm," my friend considered. "Can we hire her?"

I gave him a _look_. "After her sister tried to decapitate me and I bitched her out? Yeah, no."

"There's always kidnapping."

 _That_ statement took a second to process. "One, _no._ You don't kidnap your _PR agent._ Two, she might actually be a hero that deserves the title, so no, not until she proves herself as dishonorable as her sister. And three, you don't kidnap your _PR AGENT!"_

Herb rolled his eyes, "Spoilsport. So let me get this straight. We've got children."

I blinked. "Um, yes? They're teenagers, that's. . . better? Also we don't really _have_ them, they're just crashing her for a bit.

"Yeah, but we've got children here, just someone else's."

"Yeah, I guess we'll have to cancel the base orgy," I deadpanned. "Oh nooooooo."

"Do we _really_ have to though?"

I looked at him. "The only people that were living here before were you, Boojack, and myself. I'm not into dudes, and at that point isn't it just mas- Wait, why are we talking about this? Yes, we really have to, what the hell is wrong with you. One, they're underage, and two, the gender ratios would still be all wro- Argh! Stop making me plan this you asshole!"

He nodded, "Probably for the best, I'm not into black guys."

 _Why did you have to specify **black** guys?_ I thought, avoiding _ALL_ the implications of that statement. "Moving. The Fuck. On!" I commanded.

"And we're gonna have to stop having these conversations because they'll be kids present," he added.

"What? Um, I mean _I'd_ like if we stop having these conversations on _general principle_ , but they're almost adults. Amelia's like sixteen? And I think her sister's seventeen if I recall. They've probably heard worse at school."

He nodded sagely, "Yeah, and going to Winslow, even at fifteen your girlfr-"

"Fuck. Off." I interrupted. " _That_ shit _is_ gonna have to stop. I get that for some reason you think Taylor has a thing for me, a point which I'm not going to even address until she's an _adult,_ but all it takes is one of your dumbass 'I'm making a joke while sounding completely serious' comments to start _all_ sorts of drama."

He shrugged. "No promises."

I just glared at him. "You hurt those girls, I'll hurt _you_."

"Okay. So, when did you become Mormon?"

I said nothing, staring at him unamused as he burst out laughing. "You're learning!" he congratulated. "I'm just messin' with you. Tonight was heavy, and you looked like you needed a laugh."

While I hadn't laughed _once_ , the fact that he at least was _trying_ was touching and made me smile a bit. "I'm gonna go and try some more stuff with Cricket's power, she's a fuckin' moron."

He cocked his head. "Why do you say that? I mean the shielding and shit's awesome, but there's more?"

I hesitated, trying to figure out how to describe the effect. "What would happen if you exposed a ten-foot radius sphere to about three hundred decibels of sound?"

It was his turn to blink in surprise. "Um, you'd shake things down to a molecular level?"

I nodded, "Yeah, something like that."

"Wait, you _did_ that? Where? I need to go see the damage!"

He looked so excited, I shook my head, walking out while motioning for him to follow. He practically squeed as he bound after me.

* * *

It only took me a few minutes to bring him there, grey powder having covered everything nearby. Herb was increasingly excited until we turned the corner and I pointed at the blast zone, a hole almost appearing to have been cut into the concrete and filled with powder.

"Oh my god," he breathed, approaching it and getting onto his knees before the edge, slowly putting his hand in it and pressing it into the fine powder that used to be concrete, just repeating his proclamation again and again.

"So, if I'm in the middle of it I can protect myself, but it still hurts like a bitch," I commented blandly, trying to hide a smile at my teammates reaction.

"This is gonna be amazing to use on Lung!" he said.

The smile fell from my face.,"What? No! This is a fuck you and everything around you attack! We're talking like Shaker 10! Like, 'Hey kid, wanna join the Slaughterhouse Nine?' levels of holy shit. This is _not_ something I want people to know I can do. If I couldn't protect myself with sound I would've fucking _died_ , as would've everything else around me.

He nodded, looking at the depression, "But imagine what you'd do to an Endbringer."

I thought about it. "Maybe Ziz, but there's too much of a lead time to use on Levi, and I'm not sure if, since sound is technically kinetic energy, it would even _work_ on Behemoth."

"Scion."

I considered it. "Yes. Early on in his 'these puny mortals dare to strike my projection' phase he just stands there. This might drain him a bit."

Herb smiled, "And every bit counts, so use it! And on more than just Goldilocks!"

I dragged him over a few dozen feet to an un-destroyed section of storage space. "You need to see this thing. Maybe then. . ." I shook my head as I projected a gun. _No_ , for this I needed something better. Enclosing the area in front of us in a sound bubble, I focused on the gun, changing it into a flashbang instead. "You want to see what this does? Put Enter in there." Herb looked at me, before his Stand appeared in front of us, moving to where I was pointing, shifting into an ankylosaur. Keeping half my mind focused on keeping the bubble strong, I pulled the pin and tossed _my_ projection over into the target zone. When the device exploded I grabbed the sound and _twisted_ , increasing the strength of the sound as it almost slipped out of my grasp. The force of it ripped out, filling the area before being absorbed at the edge of the sphere as the bubble strained to reduce the force to nothing.

The entire structure in the bubble seemed ripple, coming apart as if it were a sculpture of dust and shadows instead of metal and stone. The particulates of everything in the blast zone blew apart and pulled together, intermixing. What used to be Enter disintegrating as it wetly mixed with red hot liquified metal, both raining down into the powder below, quickly falling through what was left of the concrete as it fell like snow.

Herb stood there, stunned, and looking at it from the outside I wondered how the ever-living **_fuck_** I survived that.

My partner took a deep breath and turned to face me, shock writ large across his features.

I nodded. "And what do you think would happen if people found I could do that with just a snap of my fingers?" I asked, punctuating the statement with said motion, enhancing the sound to ring like a gunshot before shutting down the sound sharply before it could reverberate, causing him to flinch.

"Okay, don't use that. Don't use that," he agreed. "That was, holy shit. Don't use that. Fuuuuuuuck. It's like a nuclear explosion, where you do the math, and then you actually see it, and, yeah. Don't use that. Like ever again."

"Yeah. I'm gonna have that in reserve, but near the back, right after. . . well, that one still needs to be tested outside the city limits at the smallest scale I can. As for this one, I _might_ be able to cut down the prep time to fifteen seconds, but the less time I have the more likely it is I'd either underpower it, or underpower the containment and deafen the city, as well as kill everything in a couple hundred yards. The nuclear bomb comparison is actually pretty apropos. If I push that as hard as I could, and I don't bother with containment at all, I'd damage buildings. In _Boston_. I know our Abaddon shards take regular powers and push them even farther but even if the original was only half as strong? Cricket is a _moron_ , and I'm totally okay with that."

He stared at me, before shaking his head. "Damn." I shot him a questioning look. "I'm gonna be able to copy other's powers, but I'm never gonna understand them the way you've learned them."

"But you get an instant understanding of them that I don't," I defended.

"It's not the same. I'll never get to test and play with them like you do," he sighed. "Ya know what? Good night. Unlike you I actually _need_ to sleep."

"Goodnight!" I waved back as he turned into an archaeopteryx and flew away.

* * *

With Herb gone, I moved to an undamaged section of the railyard and plopped down on a rooftop, taking a deep breath and meditating for another twenty minutes to clear my head. Once the time had passed, to minimal effect, I descended, and continued my training of my Acoustokinesis. I'd originally wanted to train to manipulate with sounds to mess with speech but had been distracted by pushing my limits. With that in mind I set up the training ground, dropping a bubble and re-summoning the auto-fire assembly, a bolt of red and purple energy flying up from my hip forming into it.

I took a second as I realized that when the projected grenade went off, it hadn't dismissed but merely turned into something that could fit on my belt. _Good to know_. I wondered if it'd been there the entire time and hoped whatever it was wasn't _too_ obvious, but sighed, starting up my force-field training. Tanking shots again, I tried to warp the sound of gunshots.

It was slow going at first, my power feeling almost _tired_ at first, but quickly coming back online. I found that while I could play with tone, pitch, reverb, and a lot of other things, it wasn't anything _that_ impressive. "Why is this so hard!" I growled, the sun coming up over the horizon. I felt the sound pass through the air and tasted its flavor. When the next gunshot came I was still focused on it and my control seemed to slip. Instead of the ringing bang of a gunshot the gun shouted at me "Why is this so hard!" in my voice. I blinked at it, staring, as it happened again. And again.

Focusing on it I concentrated, feeling my power as it caught the sound, changing the sharp tang of the gunshot into the more complex taste of my, now that I was hearing it, admittedly whiny complaint. I was trying to come up entirely new uses for a power, had accidentally oopsed a _WMD_ , and I was bitching about not getting something incredibly complicated in less time it took to clean my room. Thinking about the repeating process my power was running, I warped the sound a bit differently, shifting the taste a bit, getting a "Woah iv thit hoe bard!" for my efforts.

 _Okay, manipulating this is going to be hard, but copying seems easier._ Taking out my phone I pulled up the Halleluiah Chorus. Playing it in bits and starts I sampled the various components, trying to get the components down correctly as an academic exercise. It was slow to figure out and get it down correctly, but it was just amusing to fire a gun and have it sing out "Ha-lle-lu-iah!" Though that might be, probably was, blasphemous on some level.

On another run through the chorus my phone dinged as it received an e-mail. Checking it I saw that I'd received a message from my father about his viewing of today's events an hour ago. At 6:12 in the morning. I gave a sigh as I received yet another bit of information that told me Medhu Patel had been taken over by my father. Some people got up to greet the dawn, my father wondered what took it so long to get its lazy ass up as he was doing the dishes.

Thinking about what had happened I typed up an e-mail for Quinn Calle, detailing the events of the previous night and warning him about Carol Dallon's possible responses. Being a criminal lawyer, I wouldn't put it past her to try legal shenanigans, but while she might be an accomplished in her field, I had more money, and thus access to more talent in that regard. The fact that she physically attacked me would also undercut anything she tried to do, and _when_ she did it again, it would further wreck things for her. I vaguely remembered some legal concept that translated as _clean hands_ , which she sure didn't have. I hadn't thought I'd needed to, but the next time I was in a confrontation with that woman, I was _recording_ it.

Stretching I felt an odd pressure and focusing on my shields I was surprised to find that all but one of my malleable ones had split, the fourth was about to do so as well. As I felt the bullet impact it the sensation of separation started to pull at me, and I held onto it, forcing it together. While not as difficult as the first time, it still required all of my concentration to keep it together, the crystallization process slowly overtaking it.

Only after I was sure it'd stabilized did I let my focus falter, dismissing the weapon, then focusing on the pocket knife it reformed into, forcing the power to disengage completely. Sighing, I returned home. A quick ear to the door let me know that both girls were still asleep and I grabbed a laptop, assigning today's raids. Herb's team got a counting house, as he asked on a post it note he'd left in the computer room. I considered what to do for our team.

On one hand, I wanted to keep Taylor safe, on the other hand, the ABB was _evil_. Not nightmare-fuel territory like the CUI, but one of their main sources of income was _forced prostitution brothels_. It was the type of things that most people just didn't understand until they were made to confront it head on. The worldview needed to do that level of evil was so _different_ from the average person's that the underlying assumption that most people were on some level like them wouldn't let them imagine it without seeing it for themselves. Here was a golden opportunity to do just that.

After this raid, the teams would _hopefully_ be cohesive enough to strike out at the locations I _knew_ Lung would protect, the drug packing operations dad had found, one of which would hide Bakuda's Tinker Lab. Knowing I'd be there to help her out in the aftermath, I chose one of the three brothels the ABB had left. Æonic got another, a nice target full of people he'd need to save and work around the more bloodthirsty members of his team, and team four got the last functional gambling operation. I figured Tattletale would get the joke.

It was almost eight and working backwards if I was going to meet Taylor at ten-ten I should plan to leave at ten; I figured the sisters would need at least an hour to get up, fed, and centered enough for me to be okay with leaving them. Give or take a few minutes that meant I needed to start on that _now_. Closing the computer, I left the base, heading south and stopping at a one of those quickie marts right as it opened. It only took a minute to grab some frozen hamburgers and fries from the back, grabbing some coke as well. Paying for it I got more stares from the people on the street then I'd normally gotten when out as Vejovis.

 _Is it because I'm buying groceries?_ I thought, _Or is it because of the Truce?_ Shrugging, I lifted off, noting two people flinch as I did so. _Odd._ Returning home, I roused Herb and got him cooking before heading over to the Girls' room. Listening in I heard two sets of even breathing. Knocking didn't rouse them, so I opened the door and peered inside. They were pretty much as I'd left them, Victoria had twisted herself up in the covers but was still holding onto her sister, who held her back.

A soft, "Pancea. Amy. Wake up," didn't rouse the healer so I walked over and gently shook her shoulder. She groaned and tried to roll over only to find herself locked in her sister's arms. "Did you sneak into my room again?" she tiredly asked her sibling. Blinking she looked over to me, squinting at the light coming in from the doorway. "Lee? Why are you in my house?"

"I'm not," I dryly replied, resisting the urge to heal her as I stood back. "You're in mine. Sort of."

She frowned up at me before closing her eyes, going limp. "Right. I got drunk. Ugh, if it feels like this why does anyone do it?"

I suppressed a laugh. "Because people are bad at long term planning and-" I stopped myself as she blearily glared at me. Apparently, the question was rhetorical.

She tried to get up and her sister held her tight, slurring, "No Dean, don't go, I'm sorry!"

Amy and I shared an awkward silence before she asked, "Little help?" Reaching over I pried open Glory Girl's arms, letting Panacea wriggle out and put a pillow in her place, which her sister glommed on to as soon as I let go.

As Amy tried to stand up from the bed she stumbled, caught by me before she could hit the hardwood floor. "Thanks," she muttered not looking at me, probably embarrassed at getting into such a state.

As she opened up the suitcase she'd brought with her to get a change of clothes I was reminded of something I needed to ask. "What size clothing does your sister wear?"

Amy stopped what she was doing, turning a confused look my way. "Why?"

"Because she didn't bring extra clothing, and there's no way I'm going back to her house to get some. The base has a store of basic clothing, just in case."

Amy shook her head, wincing immediately afterwards. "Of course you do. Six pants, sma-medium top."

"Okay, I'll leave it on the desk. Shower's in there."

"Thanks," she replied, grabbing some clothes and starting to head for the door I'd indicated, before pausing. "Lee can you-?" she stopped herself before shaking her head and continued walking towards the bathroom. "No, right, hangovers are a brain thing and my power shouldn't try to change brains."


	62. Outreach 6-12

**Outreach 6.12**

It was almost nine fifteen when the girls stumbled out into the kitchen\common room, Herb finishing up the burgers, each topped with a fried egg. At their places were three aspirin and a large glass of ice cold cola next to another glass of water. Panacea was still feeling last night's activities, and I couldn't be sure if Glory Girl was still drunk or just hung-over, as she was flying instead of walking.

Schrodinger's drunk perked up when she saw the breakfast laid out. "Soda with breakfast? Coming here _was_ a good idea!"

Her sister sat with a frown. "It eats your teeth. Like Acid." Victoria sister sat down and maintained eye contact with her sibling as she took a long sip of the cola.

"Fine," Amy retorted with an eyeroll, drinking some herself.

"You're not going to say anything about the burgers?" Vicky asked before taking a bite, mmming in appreciation.

"It's actually a good idea," the healer informed her sister. "The carbohydrates from the fries and bun would balance out the imbalanced blood sugar while the cysteine in the eggs helps break down the acetaldehyde from the. . ." she trailed off her explanation as her sister was now visibly engrossed in her burger and fries. "You don't care do you?"

Vicky shrugged, swallowing. "Nah, I just wanted to see you say junk food was healthy."

Amy glared at her sister, "Only to help the aftereffects of. . . Ugh." She gave up before taking a bite herself, looking surprised at the taste. Having had one myself earlier I was glad I had a cook for a friend. I cleaned up after they were done, joining the girls and Herb at the table.

"Okay, so," I started. "Personally, Amy I think you should call the Hospital and take a personal day. God knows you deserve it after all of that and you've been working every day since this entire mess started. Rest, relax, and recover, but Herb and I are hitting the ABB again today, and I need to know if we can call on you for healing if something goes bad. We were lucky no-one got hurt yesterday."

Herb held up a hand, "My team was, but it was one of the Nazis so they went to Othala, and Genesis."

"Who's that?" Vicky asked.

"One of the Travelers." I replied, "Projects a puppet body while she's unconscious so if it's hurt she just wakes up and sacks out an hour later with a different one. Same principle as the Siberian."

You could hear a pin drop. "I seriously need to buy you a muzzle," Herb commented, torn between laughter and resignation.

"The Siberian's a puppet!" Glory Girl cried as she stood up, Awe spiking. She dropped back into her chair as I glared at her, Herb and Panacea's eyes glassy.

As it receded Amy groaned holding her head, "Oh, that doesn't feel good when I'm hungover."

"Sorry Ames!" the Master in denial apologized, looking at my stony expression with trepidation. "I'm sorry!"

"No Master powers in base," I instructed her coldly. "You've gotten better, but it's not good enough."

"Sorry," she said again, "But-"

"No buts," I interrupted. "Saying 'but' in an apology means you don't truly mean whatever came before it."

She grimaced. "Sorry." The but was heavily implied. "I didn't expect you to say that."

"I have a bad habit of not censoring myself around people I'm trying to trust. _You_ have a bad habit of accidentally Mastering everyone around you, which messes with brain chemistry and apparently causes pain if you're hungover. Yes, I know how the Siberian works. The next time the S9 pops up I'm going to kill _him_ , and try my best to neutralize the rest of that merry band of Murder-Hobos." _I'll try to save Riley, but that might not be possible._ She was right up there with Alexandria and Glaistig Uaine on the 'Will try to save, but will kill if forced,' list.

That settled her, and I took a deep breath. "Mind control is a pet peeve of mine, right up there with _rape_. I get no one's ever made you learn how to control your powers, but that's changed, and you _need_ to learn to be careful with it, even _more_ than you still need to learn to control your super strength."

"I-" she started to object, stopped by my look. "You know about that?" I nodded. "Oh."

Sighing, I held up a placating hand. "Either your parents or teammates should've worked with you on that. For _you_ that was the same group, further complicated by Lady Photon not making sure Brandish trained you by trusting her sister implicitly, cutting it down to almost a single point of failure. When we get some downtime you and I are going to train to take you from Collateral Damage Barbie to _Alexandria_ _2.0_ if your powers work like I think they do."

Glory Girl scoffed, "I know I'm totes the best but I'm not Al-"

"You can, can't you," Amelia interrupted, her words a statement, not a question.

Victoria looked between me and her sister, glancing over at Herb who nodded. She sat in the chair with a thud. "Fuck me."

"You're too young," I quipped automatically. "Besides, that'd be unfair to Dean. Something to consider, not counting the aura you patterned off your boyfriend, you don't have three powers of strength, durability, and flight, you have _one_ that does all three, and powers tend to travel down family lines, though they express slightly differently."

Looking at her sister I continued, "So, today we're going to hit another set of safehouses at eleven-ten. If we need to can we call on you and your sister to come in and heal when we secure the LZ? It'll only be my team or Herb's, but no matter where we hit, someone ended up hurt."

Amy frowned. "Wait, how do you know that? You said you couldn't get another view from the Precog that told you about us!"

 _Did I?_ I thought, the days starting to blur a bit. "Different Precog."

"How many Precogs do you _know_?" Victoria demanded.

I considered the question, and even my having to do that got stares from the sisters. "Right now? One. No, two. Eh, nah. Two." _Blindspot was more of an **anti** -precog power than a Precog power._

Victoria just looked at me, not sure how to take that. "You know that's _the_ rarest power, right?" I shrugged. Considering Charlie, my father, and I were all Blindspots future sight wasn't _that_ useful. As long as I didn't try to fight side by side with 'Æonic' I shouldn't foul up his combat precog but working around dad's ability was a bit of a pain.

"If you say so, so can we call on the two of you for healing if we need it?"

Vicky looked like she wanted to continue arguing but glanced at her sister. "Ames?"

Panacea nodded, "You can."

Smiling broadly, I clapped my hands as I stood up, "Okay, great! I need to get moving to set everything up. Herb, you good?"

He nodded, "Yeah man, go ahead, I got this."

* * *

Heading out, I stretched out my Bug Sense to find Taylor. I was there ten minutes too soon, but I'd rather be early than late, and thus was surprised to find her waiting for me already suited up on top of a building. As I got close enough to enter her range her head whipped up to see me and she gave me a wave. "Hey Taylor," I called, the insects nearby having found nothing that could hear us. "How long've you been here?

"Oh, Um, just a few minutes," she said, looking away, her body language so clear without her dumping the emotions into the Swarm that even _I_ could see that she was hiding something.

 _Why would she lie about that?_ I wondered. It was something to address later. Holding a hand out she eagerly took it and we lifted off, heading where I'd stowed the armor I'd made for Newter, Sundancer, and Golem.

As we touched down and I considered my next step I realized that, with so many disparate parts, Golem's armor alone was going to be a _bitch_ to transport. As I voiced this problem Taylor just looked at me puzzled. "Why don't you just do what you did before?" she asked.

I pressed my palm into my face. "Right, yeah, that makes perfect sense. The bowl was kinda a spur of the moment thing. How about. . ." I concentrated on Kaiser's power, using it to form a shipping crate up from the obsidian, the hinges of the door connected by a thin wire which broke as soon as I swung them open. As I piled everything into metal crates I created from the floor of the container she frowned at the outside. "What?" I finally asked after I dropped the right leg assembly in a box I'd labelled as such, 'engraving' it by creating metal in a negative image of what I wanted.

"There's no welds. Or bolts. Or anything."

"It doesn't need them, it's all one. . . piece. Right." I quickly formed weld-marks, along with bolt-heads on the creations to hide the fact that they'd been manufactured with Kaiser's power. "Thanks, that could've been bad."

She shrugged, trying to not to sound happy, "You would've figured it out."

Rolling my eyes, I closed the container. "Still, thanks. As a reward, how about you pick out the name of my 'supplier'?" Her body language showed confusion. "I have a 'contact' who made this," I explained, using air quotes. "I had to, as doing this isn't _Vejovis'_ power. What's their name, or the name of their group?"

She turned back to look at the steel box, arms folded, tapping her chin in thought. "How about 'Arachne Assemblages'? She's Roman as well as Greek." With a slight exertion of power, a rectangular plate with those word appeared along the sides of the container. Thinking about it I had a flash of inspiration. I was horrible at making any kind of visual art, but _Taylor_ wasn't, and I knew just how to make this work.

I created a circular piece above the words before I focused on the ground and formed a mostly hollow cylinder, the top thicker and slanted diagonally like a drafting desk. After that was a scalpel, concentrating on it to make the blade glow with a miniscule edge of star, heat limited to keep it from heating the tool or the surrounding air. I made another tool, this one a cylinder a blunt tip, and directed a ladybug to sit in a hollow in the tip.

As she looked at me, I motioned to the surface, creating a thin stand with two trays to hold the devices. "We have time, go ahead and design their logo. Star cuts, ladybug erases." I placed the tools into their trays and stood back.

She hesitantly stepped forward, taking the scalpel and creating a line, the metal parting easily as it seemed to disappear into the blade. Pulling it back the mark was obvious, but the metal was still cool, the heat tamped down with my Stellar Negation. Taking the 'eraser', she moved it back and forth across the line, and I extruded new metal underneath it as she drew, using my Bug Sense to direct my Metal Creation.

Nodding to herself she started, swarming the surface of her metallic canvas with bugs which formed patterns that came and went faster than I could understand, settling after a few minutes as something humanoid with a latticework of something around it. Lifting them up in sections she got to work, engraving the metal with increasing speed and comfort, only occasionally needing to use the ladybug. I blinked in surprise as she glanced at the scalpel she held in a pen grip, which she had added a fly to each end of, and negligently flipped it in the air to catch in a fist, angling it to not cut, but scrape something in the center.

Her work continued, only stopping as she took off her mask and gathered her hair up into a ponytail to keep it from falling into the scalpel. As she went at it I couldn't understand what she was making, but I appreciated the artistry that was going into it. Only a few minutes before we needed to leave she finally stood back, letting out a deep breath. "Done."

Walking over I looked down at what she'd created. "Damn," I commented. On the disk was engraved the image of a six-armed woman in a toga over a spider-web background. Each arm held a different tool of creation: hammer, wrench, needle, pen, blowtorch, and scalpel. The woman, who bared a passing resemblance to Taylor, was looking out at the viewer with a smirk and a single raised eyebrow.

Looking at it, taking in every detail, I tried to memorize it. Turning to the crate I created the image in reverse, embossing the image in the circle of steel made for this purpose. Taylor grinned as she looked at it slowly rising up, as if lifting up from a pool of liquid, cheering, "So cool!"

I smiled as I created a bowling ball sized sun, tapering the stand to a thin wire and breaking it off before feeding it into the fire, the metal evaporating into the star. I destroyed the tools, and as I was about to use it to destroy the cylinder Taylor spoke up. "Um, can I keep it?" I looked over at her. "Please?"

I could understand the desire, it was definitely _art_. Strategy I could do, but I was complete pants at anything visual like this. With that in mind, it would probably be better to keep the original as a reference image. I used an air-blade to carefully cut off the top into a disk, slicing it as thin as I could to cut down on the weight while maintaining the design. I frowned as I lifted it, "You do know this is like, a hundred and fifty pounds, right?"

I held it out for her, and she scowled as she struggled to pick it up, before brightening. "Can you keep it at your base for now?"

I shrugged, "Sure, be back in a sec, but then we need to go." Taking off, I popped back to the base, leaving it in the doorway before returning. As I descended I raised an eyebrow at her.

I got the sense that she was smiling as she sat on top of the shipping container, legs folded under her, mask already in place. "Can I ride?"

I rolled my eyes, putting my hand on the closed container and lifting off, making sure to move carefully to keep the boxes inside stable and Taylor in place, I extruded a rail along the middle of the top for her to hold onto, along with the fake welding around it. Flying over the city I headed towards our meeting spot at the northern edge of downtown. I spotted an area already under construction just down the street and I waved at Newter and Marissa who were waiting with the same snipers as yesterday, before landed the crate in the open space so I didn't block the street like last time. Messing with Nazi territory was one thing, but this area was PRT controlled.

The two villains walked over, Sundancer trying to conceal her interest, badly. "Who's Arachne Assemblages?" Newter asked as he looked over the container, "They your costume guys?" I nodded, as I moved to open the box, taking a moment to flex Kaiser's power to emboss the crates with the logo as well. To make it complete, I concentrated on the costumes I had made for this group, focusing through my own to form the same symbol on the inside of theirs as well, like the tag on a shirt. Grabbing the crate containing Newter's new threads, I hauled it out to his appreciative "Dude!"

Using my strength, I tore the top of the metal crate off, revealing the costume within. Newter pulled it out, looking at the sleek costume, the back a mottled black with a flexible weave of hardened plates that should allow for full flexibility while the front was a dull scarlet with black spots, going for the full fire bellied newt look, but was less armored to account for his movement style. Taylor had the idea for a reservoir in the tail to hold toxins, but we couldn't figure out how to make it work without tech. "Be right back!" he called, taking the body suit with him as he scurried up to the top of a nearby building.

I moved Marissa's box out next, opening it for her. She reached in and pulled out a dark bodysuit, this one with more uniformly integrated plating, especially protected around the blood red suns that covered the joints. As she looked at them, the suns seemed to glow, the stylized "flames" actually shifting back and forth in a slowly repeating pattern. Her helmet looked to leave the mouth exposed but was shown to instead be clear as she accidentally bumped her hand on the substance while trying to pick it up. Similarly, the eyes seemed to be exposed, but now that she'd seen that part of her costume was clear she quickly found that the eye 'holes' were instead covered by lenses of clear material.

She glanced up at me, before looking around, "Where can I change?"

I closed one of the container's doors before stepping out and around, jerking a thumb inside. "There, it shouldn't take too long." She gave me what I assumed was a suspicious look before shrugging, grabbing the rest of the costume. and stepping out of sight.

Newter came back, climbing down and over to us, Smiling. Reaching back into his box he pulled out the gloves and boots, putting them on and moving over to the edge of the container. Putting a hand to it he was visibly surprised as it stuck, the costume having been built to let him use the Van der Waals forces that geckos used to climb. Grinning he leapt ten feet in a backflip, picking up the helmet and putting it on, securing the chin piece that covered his jaw but left his mouth free to spit. He knocked his now armored knuckles against the other hardpoints of his suit, before he tensed his other arm before flicking it out, a bit of iridescent slime splattering in front of him; the substance passing through the fabric of the suit, a configuration it'd taken us several bottles of water to figure out.

"This is the hands down the dopest shit I've ever seen man! Come on bro, hook me up, where did you get this stuff?" I pointed at the logo emblazoned on the container. "Yeah, but who are they, I mean I've never-" he started slipping his phone out from the belt pouch. "Holy shit, and it charges my phone? Dude, how does that even work?"

I laughed, shrugging. "No idea. Arachne is new, one of them is a close friend of mine." I pointedly ignored the embarrassed pleasure Taylor dumped into the Swarm at that statement. "But they do good work, and fast. I can't tell you exactly how long it'll last bu-"

He waved me off, laughing, "Yeah, I know Tinkertech. Still bitchin'!" Sundancer stepped out from inside the container, costume heatlessly seeming to burn as she held herself self-consciously. " _Defintely_ Tinketech. Lookin' hot Sunny D!"

Marissa's self-consciousness evaporated as she snapped, "It's Sundancer! How hard is that to remember lizard brain!"

He laughed, pointing double finger guns at her, "You know you love it."

She retorted with a snort, "Only if I was high, and I'm never letting you get _that_ close."

Newter shook his head, "Don't knock it till ya try it!" He turned back to me. "I saw a box for Golem? He here yet?"

I glanced around, Power Sight active, but saw nothing, shaking my head as I checked the time. It was ten-forty so he was running late from when I'd asked him to show up, but not by a lot. We waited, Newter stretching to get a feel for his new costume and Marissa doing the same, her old one bundled up in her hands. "You want me to drop that off at the training ground?" I asked her. "Might not be the best to leave it here." She hesitated before nodding and I took off at speed, dropping it off and getting back the same time as Golem approached the group in Rusted-Metal form.

"Hey Golem!" I called, getting his attention as I landed.

"Sorry I'm late," he started. "I tri-"

"It's fine," I cut him off. "My contact's finished your new suit."

He looked taken aback, "You didn't ha-"

I ignored him as I brought out the containers that held the parts, starting with the torso. Popping off the top I started laying them out in lying position on the ground. Newter's and Sundancer's eyes went wide as I assembled it, laying it all out in its glory.

"There ya go!" I practically chirped. "Make sure to keep the LMG, it goes in the same place!" _This was going to be so cool!_

Golem hesitated. "For me?"

"Yeah. Who else is gonna wear armor that big? Lung?" I asked.

He looked at me for a second, and I wasn't sure if he just didn't get the joke, before he seemed to flow out of the rusted metal, an almost Lovecraftian amalgam of veiny looking tentacles emerging that dragged itself into the armor. Pink flesh filled the gaps in the armor before it started to pull it together, the pieces interlocking into a solid suit of armor just like Taylor and I planned.

The gun slotted into place, the metal in the gauntlet closing up around the opening to help protect the limb. Golem moved his arms to the side, lifting himself up much more smoothly than he had before. Standing up he took a few steps, the ground shaking slightly as he did so, moving his arms around and getting a feel with his new form.

Giving a probing punch, his fist blurred as he moved _much_ faster, giving a shout of surprise as he overbalanced, almost falling as he quickly stumbled forward to catch his balance. "Why. . .?" he asked himself, looking down in thought before nodding.

"What?" I asked, walking over.

"Less parts," was the entirety of his response.

Thinking for a moment, I guessed. "Less parts to hold in place and think about means you can move them faster?"

He nodded, repeating, "Less parts. Thanks. You didn-"

"You're a member of my team," I interrupted before he could get into another depressive spiral. "Even if it's only until this is over, that means I look out for you."

He just nodded, saying nothing. The snipers walked up a few minutes later, but there wasn't any sign of the foil fascist. Checking my phone, I saw there was only one minute before we were supposed to leave, and Kaiser still hadn't arrived. Our target was _deep_ in ABB territory, and we'd have to possibly run a gauntlet to get there. With Kaiser's group taking fire in the front, and the rest taking cover behind Golem as I took down threats that Taylor spotted, we should be fine. That being said, if Kaiser was late, we'd need to double-time it to make our strike concurrent with others. I was tempted to just say "screw it" and head out without them but doing so would've put the people I actually gave a damn about at risk. Worst case scenario, I'd have the group pile into the container and use that to air-lift them directly to the target, subtly increasing the thickness to make it bulletproof.

My worries were unfounded, for just after the clock chimed eleven, a limousine pulled up, Kaiser in minimal armor stepping out, Fenja and Menja following. As he looked at us, taking in the party's new armor, and sneered, metal extruding from _his_ armor to make a piece even more ostentatious than the previous day's getup.

"New costumes? How quaint. Just because he buys you some new clothes doesn't make you a threat."

I gave an exaggerated look towards his ornate armor. "Same. Now that you're here we need to move if we're going to meet our timetable."

"Just because you have so little control over yourself you must arrive half an hour early does not mean that I share your disability," he replied, and I wondered if he really thought that commenting on my planning ability was going to insult me. Taylor rankled, but I broadcast my complete uncaringness through our Bug Sense and she relaxed.

Kaiser paused, looking at my bland expression. "You should be congratulated for your good sense though." There was a beat as he stared at me before he continued. "After all, _you_ were the one waiting for _me_ , your superior, before you started." _Did. . . did he just explain his insult?_ I wondered. He shot a disparaging look towards Golem. "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and I'd appreciate it, if it wasn't coming from _garbage._ "

Golem slumped and I just folded my arms, waiting for Kaiser to get moving. With a smirk he did so, swaggering off towards our target, the snipers giving me a wave as they joined the rest of the group. "Follow the Nazis, but keep back fifty feet," I instructed everyone as I walked over to the pair. Addressing the them I asked, "Need a lift?"

They both reached out without a word and grabbed my outstretched hands. Lifting off I hugged the rooftops as they directed me towards a building that was slightly taller than the others and just down the street from our target. Checking it with insects, I found a group of ABB on the top floor directly below us, watching our target location. Glancing at the brothel, I saw an old sign on the structure proclaimed it was a climate-controlled storage building. I guess that made sense. From what I'd seen from movies you'd need a place with individual rooms accessible from a single throughway for a brothel, and that would do the trick. I warned the snipers about the ABB under their feet, and they nodded, the spotter taking out a TinkerTech pistol and smiling unpleasantly while his partner just rolled his eyes, muttering to himself in a thick Arabic accent about how the spotter had been looking for a chance to try out his new toy.

Leaving them I returned to the group, several blocks away and _already_ taking fire. Gunmen were taking shots at Kaiser, who once again was screened by an enlarged Fenja and Menja. The fire was coming in sporadically from the windows on either side of them, the ABB on the street already dead, impaled on spears that rose from the asphalt. The twins were shrinking the bullets to uselessness while their boss turned to face the shooters at his own pace, raising a hand as spears skewered the Asians from below. I let out a mental whistle as I watched. In an enclosed space, especially without armor, Kaiser would be a _pain_ to fight. Ironically, Purity, with her speed, flight, and general blasty-ness, was the perfect counter to this guy. Raining blasts from above would destroy him, but the same could be said of half the capes in the E88, from Crusader, to Kreig, to Hookwolf himself.

A part of me wished we could've nonlethally taken them down, but the situation had _long_ ago spiraled out from cops and robbers into full on gang war, with the ABB killing more civilians than they did Empire. Coming down next to Golem, who was moving in slow, measured steps so the rest of the party could keep up at a brisk walk, I tapped fully into Taylor's network.

The rush of information was almost overwhelming, and even just watching instead of managing it I had to split my focus a great deal, but it gave me an excellent picture of what was going on. Taylor was out of range of our target, but she was turning every insect in every building into a camera. _Big Bugster is watching you_ , I mentally quipped, repressing a smile as I took it in the god-like view around us.

A squad was running to intercept, but at their current route they'd attack _us_ instead of Kaiser. Grabbing a small portion of the Swarm, I dropped it in front of them, advancing it slowly in a dark, buzzing wall and giving them time to get away. A second gathering down a side street forced them to move up, their path now set to intercept the Nazis. I started to gather more from far behind us, pulling them in from outside Taylor's range, adding an ever-growing mass. "Why?" she asked, confusion and frustration spread over the network increasing slightly with every group of reinforcements.

"I don't know, maybe they think if they shoot 'em long enough they'll get lucky?" Newter sighed, looking at the Nazis. "This ain't cool man."

Using insects I formed the words 'Out of everyone here, only Golem and I are comfortable with killing, and with how they're armed an extended engagement means that you might get hurt when you don't have to. That's why I'm sending them towards the Invar Idiot.'

"It isn't," Taylor agreed, taking the bugs and forming 'I wish we didn't have to at all'.

'Pacifism only works if everyone agrees to it. Ghandi's a good example of both sides of that.'

'?'

'Later, mind on the mission.' I gently rebuked, gathering more from outside my friend's range on either side of us as well, using swarms to funnel reinforcements up towards Kaiser. "Sundancer, drop a sun behind us, widen to beach-ball when we're a hundred feet away, then catch up," I ordered.

She looked at me, curious, before dropping back and doing so. As she jogged back to us I pointed to her creation as the car containing reinforcements turned the corner to try to run us down, only to hit the brakes and skid to a stop, ABB piling out. They pulled out guns and started shooting, the bullets that would've hit us impacting a small wall of hardened air I threw up between us a dozen feet behind my team.

Gesturing for effect, I found myself reaching for metal creation to copy Kaiser and spear them without meaning to, but with a minor exertion of will I utilized Bug Control instead, the dark tide of insects I'd gathered crashing down on them, biting, stinging, and clawing at them, Taylor pushing them individually here and there to disable without killing. 'Thanks' I wrote as I thought _Stop Helping!_ To my power, hoping it could hear me. Spears _would_ be faster, but I had rules I was trying to keep to. I wanted to think on why I was having this problem _now_ , when I didn't as Boardwalk, but now _wasn't_ the time.

We moved to follow Kaiser as the people behind us fled, chased by a small fraction of the Swarm. My teammates were all trying not to look at the impaled bodies we were passing by, some were still moaning or twitching, not yet dead. From my work with Panacea though, I could tell that by the time anyone could try to help them, they would be. The only reason they _weren't_ dead was the pressure their own bodies put on their impaled torsos stopped them from bleeding out immediately, but the red streams still stained the pig-iron spears as they cried and moaned wetly, most having been speared partly through the lung. Killing them now would be a mercy. By the second group I gave into my desire, PR be damned, and took one of the pistols the dying ABB had and shot those not yet gone, giving them the only reprieve I could right now.

Looking out with the insects, I observed the dying in the buildings around us. Some of the impalements weren't lethal, and those I left alone, but those were always ones out of sight from the street. Kaiser had wanted to kill, and displayed the accuracy not only to do so, but to make it take a while. _Bastard._

Luckily, we were almost there, the reinforcements quickly petering off as they were probably needed elsewhere. Kaiser was now in sight of our target and taking fire. Coil's snipers had already picked off the guards on the roof of the Brothel, the squad in their own building dead with what the bugs saw as burned holes in their bodies. _Lasers?_ Coil did have access to TinkerTech guns, so probably. The guards around our target were using the building itself to hide from the Snipers while peppering the Empire with fire to little effect. A grenade arched out from a window, shrinking as a metal pyramid grew to cover it when it landed, barely a firecracker's worth of force coming from it as it exploded. As we started the last couple hundred feet to our target, we finally came within Taylor's range to fully scout the building.

My teammate suddenly dumped horror and disgust into the Swarm, stumbling forward as her hands frantically pulled at her mask. The bottom part detached, leaving her mouth exposed as she vomited on the sidewalk, Newter yelping in surprise as he dodged the splash. I rode her connection into the Brothel to see what she was reacting to and had to resist joining her as I saw that my information had been wrong. _This wasn't a Brothel._


	63. Outreach 6-13

**Outreach 6.13**

 **WARNING: This chapter gets _dark._ The events here get as close to realistic as I can while not treading into true NSFW territory. Seriously, the group has stumbled across a child sex slavery operation, _which is somehow a thing in real life._ If you don't want to read this, I don't blame you. I didn't really want to write it, but I've done my best not to use time-skips that leave out plot and I won't start now. I will include a summery at the end if you want to skip this, and I _completely_ understand.**

The building we were raiding started life as an indoor storage facility, one of those climate-controlled places. It had a two-tiered construction, the bottom floor much larger than the top. Looking into the first of the two floors it was being used, _not_ as a brothel as the intel Medhu had provided, but as a staging area. The storage rooms being repurposed to everything from weapons storage, to medical bays, to barracks. The second floor however, _was._ It might've been racist, but I expected a mama-san style setup: colorful hanging fabric to muffle sound and class up the place, girls in lingerie to entice clients into picking them so they could get better privileges, and incense to cover the smell of their activities. Yes, they'd be slaves, but everything would be structured in such a way that that fact could be overlooked by those with flexible morals. The girls, would've been mostly in their late teens and early twenties, and those that were older would be forced to dress in such a way as to hide that fact. Only once they'd been saved would the Evil of what they'd endured be heard by Taylor, after the threat had passed and we heard what they'd gone through. That's _not_ what I saw.

I could not smell through the insects, or at least in any way that directly translated to my mind, and for _that_ I was supremely grateful. Instead of colorful fabrics the storage units, _the cells_ , were dirty and bare, a single thin stained mattress in each the only decoration. A light in every unit was set into the ceiling, protected in an iron cage. The doors, the metal garage-door style setups that slid up to open, were all closed; any not currently. . . in use were secured with a heavy padlock. Two guards sat at a desk, one fingering a shotgun as he looked towards the stairway where ABB were rushing about to try to stop Kaiser, the other with a pistol she kept at the ready, trying to watch the hallway of units but kept glancing towards the stairwell as well. A large box full of dirtied sexual paraphernalia sat a few feet away from them, the insects inside reporting them to be caked with excrement, blood, and other things.

The victims were all naked; bruises, abrasions, and the occasional shallow laceration clear to see under the occasionally flickering lights. Some still had blood, and other substances, caked on them while others looked clean-ish, but had accumulated filth under their nails and behind their ears. Those alone either curled up, some crying; or laid there, unmoving. Some cells had two or even three victims, and in those they held each other fearfully, some crying, some sleeping, some looking down as the sounds of gunfire and yells in a foreign language filtered up through the floor. One pair was engaged in. . . activities, and I had to double check, but neither were Asian, they were both naked and injured, and they weren't nearly as. . . forceful as the partially clothed. . . clients. I had a feeling I could understand _why_ they were doing so if I took the time, but that wasn't a resource that I had. I'd have to ask Herb later, he'd probably know.

More than all of that though, it was the _ages_ of the victims that turned my stomach. I wasn't the best at figuring out how old someone was, especially as I tended to look towards how a person acted when judging them instead of their outwards appearance, doubly so given that there were outliers in both directions, but I'd be surprised if any of them were older than _Taylor._ Some of them, were so young they should be in _elementary_ school. _They haven't even **started** puberty! How could anyone find that-_ I shuddered, holding back my breakfast as my mind tried to create a model that would find that _arousing_ and failed _utterly_.

I wanted to say that it would be impossible, but the evidence to the contrary was being fed _directly_ to the brain. A man with a boy maybe ten who had a knife held to his throat as the kid choked on - Two men on either end of a girl the same age as the boy as they- a woman behind a boy, maybe eight, using a- _don't focus on it, just get there, kill these **monsters** in human skin, and save these **children**._ I had **_no_** idea **_this_** was going on, and for **_this_** the leaders of the ABB would **_burn_** _._ I shut down my emotions, not pushing them out into the Swarm, for I had no idea what that would do to Taylor, but sealing them away with a force of _will_. When this was over, and I could feel without consequence, I'd allow myself to experience them, but a mistake now might kill the very people I sought to save. My rage had gone past hot, past cold, past the point that I could even feel it at _all_ , which made the suppression of everything else _much_ easier. I shuttered as my thoughts feel like they crystallize, free and clear and impossibly sharp in a way that does not feel correct, but I cannot bring myself to care.

I look at the situation clinically, awareness of my surrounding return as I realize that my team has stopped to stare at Taylor and I. Golem has put himself between us and the occasional stray bullet, good man, definitely recruitment material, pity about the crippling self-esteem issues. Would it be better to fix it or exploit it? I suppose I could do the second by doing the first. Yes, that is probably best, and fits with my stated methodology. With his power and mindset, he'll never be more than a tool, but there's no need to throw away a hammer just because you already have a better one. Marissa and Newter are both staring at us in concern. I wonder why. "What happened to them?" the Case 53 asked, concerned. "Do the ABB have a cape that could do this Sundancer?"

I turn to look at him physically, realizing that I was using the insects to observe them, and he flinched as the muscles I had been tensing relax, no longer holding me perfectly still. "Sorry about that," I apologize automatically. They stare at me and after a moment I remember to add tonality. "Have I mentioned how The Lady, Bug can see through her insects?" All three give me tentative nods. "So can I. Initial reports detailed this location as a possible brothel. They were. . . technically correct. We should. . ." I lapse into silence as battle plans cycle through my head. I try to figure out the optimal method of extracting the victims, keeping my team safe, and killing every target in the engagement zone. Limiting myself to Vejovis cuts down options, but not by much, and certainly not past my ability to plan. My father might be a master of strategy, but I am the master of tactics. I am halfway tempted to hit my targets like a biblical plague, fear helping to disable them while a foe they are not equipped to fight kills all but their victims, but long term I do not wish people to understand how powerful Insect Control is until Taylor is firmly established as a hero. I can-

"Dude, what should we do?" Newter asks, and I am reminded that I have a team I can work with. I do not need to do this myself. For this engagement at least, I can trust them. I suppress the feelings such a realization creates, and focus on the task at hand.

I look into the first floor and note there is an emergency exit that had been barricaded long ago, if the rust marks on the chains are any indication. It will take a serious force to break into them, but I have that now, and the doors indicate an area that could be broken without threatening the structural stability of the target. "There is an emergency exit in the alley on the far side from us. Golem, Newter, you take that end," I instruct, voice quick, clear, and commanding. "Golem will break down the door after he kills the guards, and Newter will follow with fire support. Newter, how comfortable are you with killing child rapists." I hope he can, but will understand if he cannot.

The man blinks, finally understanding his foe. "I. What. I. Wait _that's_. Oh _god_!"

I keep my face blank. The fact that someone else obviously understands pulls at me, the empathy starting to color my thoughts. I stop that as well. "Like I said, _technically_ a brothel. Can you kill, yes or no. I need an answer."

"Fuck, I heard. I just never. . ." I stare at him, unmoving. "Yeah, I can."

I give a single, sharp nod, clarity fully restored, plan solidifying. "Good. Go behind Golem. Scavenge what weapons you can and kill them. If you can, subdue them with your power before shooting them in the head." He hesitates, and I give the first part of the 'not wrong to kill evil' speech, mad dog variant, word choice tweaked to fit the circumstance. "The way this is set up everyone in that building knows what was going on, and I do not want any of these people trying to pretend they did not to get off scot free. These are mad dogs Newter, and deserve to be treated as such. No torture, no making them feel the pain they inflected on others, just stopping them from ever doing so again. When the weapon you take runs out don't bother reloading, grab another, there will be plenty. Golem, you are free to fire your weapon, but only do so on targets you know are ABB and when firing keep it pointed straight or at a downwards angle." I instruct, and extend my arm to demonstrate. "I will take the second level where the children are being raped. That needs more accuracy than you have right now. Sundancer, drop suns across the streets and alleys we are not using. Our enemy will bring reinforcements, and those need to be stopped. After that, fall back to The Lady, Bug."

I look down at my friend who was dry-heaving as she sobbed, and again my control fractures at the edges. Leaning down I gently wiped her mouth off, my costume auto-cleaning itself of sick. She grabbed onto me, tear-tracks running down from the covered part of her face. " _Dump it all."_ I whispered, allowing just a wisp of what I was feeling to emerge, to let her know I felt it too. It burned to do so, but for her I would. _"We need to save those kids, and we can't do that if we're feeling._ " She shuttered as her emotions poured from her into those she controlled, the Swarm transforming from a displeased mass into a _seething_ entity, brimming with malignance and hate. I copy her move internally. I can feel the aftereffects of letting me emotions emerge that far, and objectively I know I should have stayed shut down, martialing my strength, but humans are ultimately as much emotional beings as we are logical, and I do not regret my actions if it helps her. My friend stands up mechanically, voice dead as she speaks through the Swarm, " _I'm sorry, I was distracted. What should I do._ "

Ignoring Newter's "What the _fuck!?_ " I instruct her, "Move across the street and up the fire-escape. Direct Golem towards the secondary entrance." I group several dozen flies into a bulls-eye on the door in question, and an X where I want her to go. "Keep overwatch and swarm those that threaten the team. Tell me if the kids are in danger, or if one of our team is. Understood?"

 _" Understood_," The Swarm replies while Taylor remains completely motionless as she mirrors me. The swarm I'd gathered is pulled from my grasp as I relinquish control and it extends in every direction.

I reach behind myself to pull out my pistol, practiced motions smooth. "You have your orders, move out." I take off to move towards the far wall from the guards, where I gently place a single fly on the far side of each of my target's heads. They don't notice, likely used to filth. Golem has gotten up and swiftly strides towards the back entrance as he follows a trail of fireflies; Newter has to go on all fours to keep up with him. Sundancer waits until everyone is out of range before she walks to the center of the street and is sets up her first sun when a call of " _Threat to Sundancer_ " comes from the Swarm around me. Part of the Swarm moves towards what I thought was a civilian trying to quietly open a window. I now see the pistol in her hand. She swats at the flies that attack her, but the Swarm will not reach her in time. The woman's pistol round will not do more than bruise Marissa, maybe fracture a bone if it hits just right, but no one threatens those I protect. A gnat on either end of my gun, and one on the ABB assassin's head provides the targeting data, and the woman dies as she raises her weapon, the brains she refused to use decorate her wall.

I turn back to my target and check my line of fire, I lay another two Zones down my barrel to account for the obstacles. The rapists have heard the increased fire from below and have picked up the pace of their. . . evil, and I know that I had been right to bury my feelings. For better or worse, it was obvious that this was not the first time these children had been treated so, and in my current state I can prioritize their long-term survival over the immediate cessation of their current agony. I return back to that task and fire twice, each bullet pierces the stone and holds together enough to kill the guards in an instant.

Kaiser has made his way in and engages the majority of the ABB present. Detached as I am, I can now see that instead of merely showing off the twins as status symbols, the three of them possess an impressively detailed set of overlapping defenses. Any projectile attack is shrunk by the twins, their power extending to affect things that come within two feet of them, even if the projectile wouldn't have struck them. Their power leaves them vulnerable to melee attacks though, and several of the defenders charge them with knives, bats, and even a few katanas.

Fenja and Menja are armored, but it is more for show than truly practical coverings. From their movements I see that, unlike Vista, they seem versed in how to use the little armor they have effectively. I pause and note how sad it is that the American government has fallen so far in their self-appointed duty that Nazis are compared favorable to them. One of them -Fenja?- is armed with a spear, and uses it to block a strike as the other, with sword and shield, dispatches the first assailant. As I check the second floor wall for support beams by knocking on the stone and using Acoustokinesis to amplify the sound to me to find on area between them, I see them both take positions on either side of Kaiser, hands covering him and legs angled in front of him to cover him in their field as he turns to the side, minimizing his profile.

He raises his arm, armored fingers curling into a fist. It is for show, the tactic is effective as while the ABB that rush forward look down, spears sprout from the ceiling and drop. They impale the defenders from above, and those behind the wounded hesitate. I wonder if there's a trick to cutting the metal extruded that I missed, but a few insects on the bottom of the spear shafts reveal that it had sharply narrowed down to a tiny wire which broke under their own weight. The dead and dying thugs collapse to the ground as I learn this. Someone throws a grenade, only for a thin square of metal to grow from the ceiling, deflecting it at its apogee. The explosive falls at the feet of another thug before it explodes. It shreds her and the two next to her. Gunfire resumes, to little effect.

I find a suitable spot and wait as the breach team takes care of the guards at the backdoor, bodies nearly pasted by Golem all that is left of all but two of the ABB, the other two down with headshots from Newter, who shakes slightly. Probably the first time he's killed someone like that, or possibly at all. I make a note to give him my full 'Killing evil is not inherently evil' speech this afternoon once we've finished and extracted the children to a hospital. It might be best to call Panacea after this is over to repair them in a way that will help center them. For the girls the restoration of the hymen should help, given the societal connotations that scrap of skin possesses, but I am at a loss what to do for the boys. Seeing Sundancer run past skewered corpses, holding herself, I amend my note to include my entire team in the moral lesson. It should short-circuit any fallacious guilt they may feel due to the conflicting nature of conventionally expressed morality and its own inability to handle when the institutions it lionizes fails utterly.

I time my strike to hit the same instant as Golem's blow, blasting out the section of wall, draining the shields on both hands & legs to do effectively. He shoulder checks the doors, easily breaks through and kills a man the next instant as he steps on the fallen thug's chest. The ensuing hole in the wall I make has only taken out one support beam, and for now the ceiling stays in in place. Everyone on the second-floor flinches at the sound of tearing metal and exploding brickwork, but hopefully assumes it came from below them, as Golem is taken under fire. " _Lee. Unit 109._ " Taylor whispers in my ear, but I already see it. A man moves frantically as chokes the life out of the girl he's. . . with.

Her hair is red, contrasting with her purpling face in a parody of my colors, but the roots show her now dirty locks to be naturally light brown. _Did they color it or did she? This is what Emma Barnes was almost taken for. Part of me understands her clinging to Sophia at first, but while escaping that fate would still be damaging, where would she have stopped?_ I muse, grateful that the dead man is pressing the girl down while he tries to kill her. It makes everything so much easier as I place a fly on his neck.

My gun bucks in my hand, and he is decapitated by the blow. Not cleanly, but it is enough for him to let go as what is left of his face looks shocked. The rest of the rapists flinch, some going for weapons, one woman whispers something to the boy she had been. . . using. I don't quite make it out, but she does not move the knife she takes from her bag like she is going to stab him, instead stripping herself. Curious. One of the other rapists however _does_ move in such a manner. As he is about to bury it in the girl's stomach, who I idly note looks to be maybe eleven, he stops, as the last bullet in my magazine passes through his skull.

Unfortunately, while I did remember to bring a replacement magazine, the gun itself breaks, barrel cracking and partially falling out. I suppose the extra force I was putting it under finally effected it. I can almost feel my power supplying an answer, or myself doing so. I humor it, me, us and allow it to manifest. There are still over a dozen targets, and without a ranged weapon I'll be forced to either use powers I'd rather hide, or allow some of the children to die, and I'd rather not unveil my powers yet.

Blood Red and Royal Purple energy blossoms in my hand, extends and takes shape. What I now hold is utterly ridiculous. It is a semiautomatic pistol, technically, but the barrel is over a foot long and this absurd parody of a sidearm must weigh thirty-five pounds. From what I know of handguns, anyone without a Brute rating would break their wrists firing this, and I can detect no Speed Zone within. The entire thing faintly glows an angry blood red, the Entity embossed down each side of the barrel looking much more dangerous than when I last used Miss Militias power, less majestic creature in flight and more coiled serpent ready to strike. I approve.

I turn to the next volunteer as he raises his gun to shoot the naked, whimpering, eleven-year-old boy in the corner. I apply the Golden Rule and shoot him first. The weapon roars like a cannon, the bullet passes through two metal walls before it impacts the would-be-murderer's chest and explodes. The man dies instantly. I heartily approve.

I continue firing, and kill each rapist in turn. The explosions ring out like a pair of metronomes, just out of sync. My power flicks out and refills my magazine as the weapon clicks empty. When all but the woman with the knife are dead, I turn my attention to her, interested. She's stripped to her underwear, knife hidden behind her back and held in place by the bra strap. She's cut herself slightly in areas that would bleed but do no damage, smearing grime from the boy on her, but keeping her cuts clean. She hesitates, as she waits for something else that doesn't come before she calls out for help: "Is anyone out there? Hello? Please help me!"

Intrigued, I stride towards that unit as I check my team. Kaiser is about to meet Golem, both having left a trail of death and destruction, however the bottom floor's increased space gives me time to work unimpeded. Marissa has finished her route and is climbing up the fire escape towards Taylor as she follows a small formation of fireflies. On another street a car full of gang members turns the corner and slams on the brakes, but it isn't enough. The car loses some momentum as it hits the liquid asphalt, but in her caution Sundancer made her creation small enough that there isn't enough melted road to fully stop the vehicle. It hits the star, steel melting as it explodes into flame and immolates those inside. For those in the front, their death is quick. I remember the path, so as not to take the Traveler that way when we leave. She would not react well.

As I get to the ABB woman who calls for help, who claims she's been trapped here by the ABB, I note the lack of padlock on the door, just for formalities sake. I reach forward and push my finger _through_ the metal of the door to gain a handhold rather than bend over as I raise the door. "My name is Vejovis and I'm here to help." I tell her as I fake the warmth in my voice. I don't mention that for what she's done, there's only one kind of help I will give her, but I want to see her play.

The woman steps forward from the boy. Her skin is light enough to possibly pass as white, but her facial features aren't. "Oh thank god you're here!" she says as she bleeds artfully, grimy and almost naked. The fact that she retains more clothing then any of the others is another point against her, or would be if she hadn't already pegged the scale. "They took me and my son off the street, and they. . . Oh god, it was horrible!" She breaks down into tears. They appear real.

I'm actually a little impressed at the sheer gall of the woman and wonder what her next move will be. Forming the words 'Let me handle this' in front of Taylor as I check her with power sight, and make sure the woman had no powers. Even without my cut-proof costume my shields have recharged, making her no threat to me, so I turn my back on her as I say, "Then follow me miss, I will have you-"

As soon as I turn my back she slips the knife from behind her back. The boy, who does not resemble her in any way, looks terrified but says nothing as she lunges forward. He holds out a hand in horror, and I start to move, but something flashes before my vision. I feel a weight on my shoulders as metallic armor blooms across my chest, encircling me, spikes stretching porcupine-like from my back that spear my attacker through the chest, throat, and eye, killing her instantly. Simultaneously I see two Entities, circling above. They look. . . _small_ , in a way I can't define. Immeasurably large yes, enough to stretch out across our solar system probably, but still they are. . . _lesser._

The Swarm starts to lose cohesion, and I hold it together. Looking through it takes more effort than it should, but I feel Taylor's power flickering and flagging as the double sight continues, distracting her. The ABB sees the parahumans stumble and press for an advantage. Kaiser is handling it better than his minions, and fills the space with blades, a simultaneous attack and defense. Golem pulls inside himself, becoming a statue as Newter staggers. A man with a knife jumps for him, but dies as his lungs are filled with wasps, stinging him to death as they drown in his fluids. The others pull back and take potshots as Newter pulls himself behind Golem. In that other sight a Shard is pulled from the Entity, descending. As it gets closer it pulses, and four others answer. Creation, Incorporation, Administration, and Size add to Protection as it settles in a scared little boy, the process healing his body, but not his mind.

I catch him as he falls, my vision returning to normal, the spikes on my armor moving to avoid him before I can even worry about them. As I hold him with one hand, his body feels far too light, and I pull on the metal covering my chest with the other. It comes apart almost like living cloth as it flows to gather in my hand. I wrap it around the boy, as I See it. The Steel and Yellow of Controllable Armor flickers from his form. A part of me wants to take it, my due as payment for saving him, but that's _not right_. My control cracks a bit as I look down at this boy, from whom so much has been taken, and I _refuse_ to take that as well.

He stirred as he looked up at me, then frowned and looked down at himself. "Wha?" His voice sounded almost rusty from disuse.

"You've triggered kid, that's yours." I motioned towards it, then at the dead rapist, "Just be careful with it. She deserved that, but others might not."

He looked from her to me, even more confused as he stood up on his own. "You can make armor, kid," I paused. "What's your name? Mine's Vejovis."

He looked almost scared at that question, but finally said in a trembling voice, "Lucas."

I smiled, focusing on him only as a new Trigger in a horrible circumstance, ignoring the particulars of that circumstance to keep it out of my voice and visage. "Well Lucas, thanks for trying to save me." I grabbed the knife the woman had dropped, and he flinched, which I didn't comment on it. I tapped the flat edge of the blade against my shield, a soft clinking coming from what looked like smooth fabric. "I've got forcefields, but I appreciate the gesture anyways Lucas. You ready to get out of here?"

He looked out the door, slowly nodding. "Yeah."

"Okay, I'm gonna go get everyone else out. Can you help me with that? If I look angry, it's not at you, it's at the people who did this to you, okay Lucas? Do you understand?" I waited for his hesitant nod before letting the cracks in my control repair as I sigh. Like a broken vase, they don't come back as strong, but should be enough.

I stand up and walk out to the unit across the way. Casually, I tear off the padlock and slide the door up. The two girls inside cry out in fright. "Hello, my name is Vejovis and I am here to help," I inform them, acting friendly and generally hero-like. They hesitate until they look past me at Lucas, the chest piece he'd grown to protect me hanging off him like an oversized shirt, now-limp quills trailing along behind him like metallic tentacles, looking more than a little lost.

I leave them to it as Taylor re-establishes control over the Swarm while the rest of my team, along with Kaiser and his minions, continue their forward press. I tap into the Swarm at the stairway; the ABB are starting to be pushed back and at the bottom, some even starting to make motions to go up. That cannot be allowed. I walk back to Lucas' cell, where I reach up and tear the wide sliding door off its track. I carry it over and use it to cover most of the stairway.

I move to a third unit, I do the same to it's door, as I speak to the pair within, informing them of my name and mission, but I make sure to vary my tonality slightly as to not completely copy my earlier statement. With this second door, and a bit of super strength to tear and twist the metal together, the stairwell down blocked for now. As I turn back to continue, the boy from the third unit, who looks to be about sixteen, stands right behind me, the girl, who was maybe fourteen still hides inside her cell.

"How are we getting out?" he asks. He tries and fails to suppress a flinch as I raise my hand to point at my entry point but he does not look away, though his muscles are taut with fear.

"I am going to fly you out through the hole in the wall. If you could grab some of the keys and open up the other units I would be most grateful. All the ABB here are dead, but I would rather not tempt fate," I inform him. Yells comes from below as the ABB find their fallback position is now blocked off. One raises an SMG to fire at the blockage. I am not sure if the bullets will pierce the metallic blockage, so I cover him with spiders, which throws off his aim. Problem averted I turn my attention back to the young man in front of me. " _Now_ please," I insist, and put a bit of force in my voice.

He flinches again, but does as I ask, and I do not allow myself to feel guilty. I stride to the far side, where I rip off another door and lay it flat by the hole in the wall. The door is bigger than the hole in the wall, so I widen the hole as far as I can, pushing aside brick and steel until I hit the support beams. It is enough, barely. I stand in front of the door and reach down. As I grasp it physically I extend my power through it. The Lift field keeps the hinged metal straight as I bring it off the ground. Good _._

I look up to see several children now scurrying back and forth as they open doors. Some come out slowly, some peer at me from behind the edge of their cells, some don't move at all, others picking them up and carrying them out. One girl doesn't move until the older girl who carries her tries to take her over the threshold of the unit, whereupon she screams bloody murder, flailing. A young boy limps over and helps hold her, the two of them whisper to her as she calms.

Below the ABB have made their last stand, Golem and Kaiser finally meeting. Kaiser waves a hand, a few spears emerging out of the wall and skidding off Golem's armor. Golem does not react as he easily bends the metal rods as he turns, whether from good sense and in an attempt to not to provoke the Nazi or possibly just terror at facing Kaiser I am not sure. Either way, they stare at each other for a moment. Kaiser frowns at Golem, the Nazi's hand moving but nothing happens. Kaiser sneers in disgust before he moves past my teammates to dispatch the last of the ABB.

"We need to move. This will take two trips but I promise I will be back. First group get on, second finish opening doors. _Move._ " The groups self-select, and I quickly have a doorfull of children. "Hold on," I advise as I smoothly slide out of the exit I have made. A ring of hardened air surrounds the platform, which catches one child who stumbles, but the rest stay on without assistance as I move them to Sundancer and Lady Bug.

Taylor gives no reactions but Marissa pales as she sees who I've extracted. "Okay kids," I command as I dismiss the safety ring. "Everyone off so I can get the others." They freeze looking around at the city so I tilt the metal. The children cry in fear as they slide off onto the roof. I move quickly as I fly back but I do not even enter; I merely slot the door in as the rest pile on top. A check with the bugs sees the last of the ABB are almost dead and the rape cells are clear of anything but filth as I pull back out. I move the last of the children around and over to the rooftop, placing the metal down and letting the Lift field fall. The hinged metal slats fold slightly against the gravel rooftop.

As I look at the children, abused but _saved_ , I let my control fade to normal levels. I shake in place as the _horrordisgust **despairRAGE**_ I'd been denying myself crashed through me, letting myself fall to my knees and empty my stomach. Tears I hadn't even realized I was shedding quickly absorbed by mask. "I'm okay," I rasp as I sit back, wiping my mouth off as I look up to see the array of frightened faces. "Not used to. . . that. Anyone shot? I can help if it can't wait for an hour, but I'm friends with Panacea and she's better at that stuff than I am." The children look at each other, some shaking their heads.

"Are we going home?" one girl, fourteen maybe, asked tremulously. I didn't trust my voice so I just nodded. The reactions were mixed, some looked relieved, some looked scared, some like they're waiting for the next shoe to drop, and some like they don't believe me in the slightest. _What kind of fucking **monsters** would do this? And the city knew about this? They had to. **Everyone** knows that the ABB have forced prostitution brothels. Maybe they thought like I did? **No.** All it would take is a **single** raid and the secret should have been out._ _I should have come here before. I should have saved these kids. **I didn't know.**_ I wasn't sure if that was a reason, an excuse, or an appeal for forgiveness. Maybe it was all three.

I heard the sounds of tearing metal and tapped back into Taylor's network. Kaiser had pushed spikes up to rip open my stairwell barrier and strode up, looking at the dead thugs in states of undress and the conspicuous lack of _sex-slaves._

He saw the hole in the wall and his face twisted in rage and hatred. "Vejovis!" he called, turning on his heel and stomping back downstairs, making a bee-line for the front entrance. "I know you can hear me! You have something that _belongs_ to me!"

I did _not_ need to deal with this right now. I let myself feel too early, I realized too late. I was worn out, like an old dish-rag, and it took far longer than it should have to understood what he meant. As my eyes fell on Lucas, the small black child huddling in his armor, the tentacles of his protections wrapping around the older white boy hugging him back. I realized what Kaiser wanted. He recognized that a Trigger event had happened but hadn't seen any of the ABB manifest any powers. He wanted to lay claim, but surely assumed the person was white.

I was done playing nice today.

 **Summary if you skipped: Taylor dumped her feelings fully into the Swarm, going borderline robotic. Lee buried his own deep and became a bit dissociative as he dealt with the crises at hand. The first floor of the storage building was a staging area, but the top floor was in service, not as a stereotypical brothel, but as a place to use and abuse kidnapped children to break their wills before shipping the off to be sold as sex slaves. All of the boys and girls (aged 8-15), were saved, and their abusers killed with a gun created from Ms. Militia's power (so Lee could neutralize them all before any of the kids were hurt, as his old gun finally broke under the strain). The kids are traumatized, but physically safe. One of the children, a small black boy named Lucas, Triggered with the ability to cover other people in metal armor the wearer can mentally control. Doing so killed the woman that was previously. . . let's say "abusing" him, and who was going to stick a knife in Lee's back. The armor formed quills, killing the woman in the process by piercing her skull. Kaiser, Fenja, Menja, Golem, and Newter cleared out the lower floor, leaving no one alive, and Lee realized that Kaiser and his two followers work very well together. Everyone on the team is unharmed, at least physically, but Kaiser has recognized the effects of a Trigger Event and is demanding Lee turn over the newly Triggered parahuman. After dealing with all of this unexpected horribleness and relaxing the control he had on his emotions, Lee isn't inclined to acquiesce to Kaiser's forceful request.**

 **Also, Lee wants the ABB to _BURN._**


	64. Outreach 6-14

**Outreach 6.14**

Sighing I stood up. Kaiser wanted to get into this? He wasn't going to like it when he found out that I truly did not _care_ about his petty little _Empire_ , but first, orders needed to be issued. "Sundancer, we're gonna need to leave in a hurry, take down your stars. I don't want you to have to come back here if you don't need to. After that's done, head back to the training ground from yesterday."

She wiped her mouth off on her sleeve and pushed her helmet back down, re-covering her mouth. "Definitely," she replied shakily, heading for the fire escape. "I don't think I'll want lunch."

"Lady Bug, relay message to Newter and Golem: Pull back from the Nazis. I'll handle them. Then direct them here." I made an insectile X in the opposite direction of where the kids were. I wanted Kaiser to have no idea that they were here. Turning to the kids in question I dropped a sound bubble over the top of the building as I told them "Stay here, don't go near the ledge, I don't want anyone that might harm you to know you're here."

Some of the kids made sounds of fright at that, but they quickly quieted, the boy who'd approached me before nodding and shepherding them towards the center of the roof behind the boxy vents. I stepped next to my outwardly emotionless friend, and whispered, "Keep strong Taylor, we're almost out of this. I couldn't have done this without you." She gave no outward indication that she'd heard me.

I took off high in the sky, arcing up and over Kaiser's position. In the distance, where Charlie's team was supposed to hit, several buildings were on fire. I hoped he was okay but forced myself to focus back on my _current_ problem. Kaiser was still shouting at me to show my 'cowardly self' when I dropped down and passed by Newter and Golem. "Good job both of you. Head back towards the training ground from yesterday. _They're_ _safe_."

Newter let out a breath, "Good, thanks man. See you there." He tapped his knuckles on Golem's armor, "Come on big guy." The iron man nodded back, both of them turning to head north. Coil's snipers were several streets over on their way out as well; they probably started to leave when der fuhrer started yelling like a child denied a toy.

I landed, rounding the corner as Kaiser was halfway through threatening my team, telling the Swarm, "You may be able to fly away from your problems, but the bug girl has no such abi-"

"Hey K," I interrupted. "You done screaming uselessly at the sky or should I come back in five minutes?" My shields were full, I was completely covered with my costume, and his power had a tell if you knew what to look for, while I saw _everything._ His current minions, while strong versus stationary targets and ranged attackers, were of no threat to _me_.

"You!" he practically hissed. "Where is the parahuman? You will turn them over to me if you know what's good for you." I just looked at him, waiting for the rest of the threat so I could reply in kind. "Well?" he demanded.

I didn't break eye-contact, outwardly completely relaxed. "Well what?"

"Where is he?" he demanded, the twins taking aggressive stances, and I started to understand the situation. _Kaiser's used to power._ He thinks he had me before with how the last raid 'ended', or maybe he knew he'd been played, someone in the PRT informing him of the people they'd collected after I'd left. Either way he wanted a win. _It's nice to want things._

I shrugged nonchalantly, "Not gonna tell you."

He waved his hands and spear tips formed in a circle around me, as he seemed to calm, almost as if he were back on familiar ground. "You'd best rethink your response, _boy._ Against the Empire, you are _nothing._ " As he treated me like Skidmark, more pieces fell into place.

I smirked as I dropped a fly on the tip of each spear. If this was going to hell, I might as well enjoy myself. I just wish I'd thought to set up cameras. "So quick to break your word? I thought Victor was just a spoiled brat, but it appears he was just _following orders_." There was something there, a reaction that moved too fast for me to read. "You Nazis are good at that, aren't ya? I've got to say, I want to be surprised that it's the children, the mercenaries, and the drug-addicts that are acting professional here, but on some level, _I'm really_ _not._ " The kids were okay, scared but under control. Taylor was keeping overwatch, but things were quiet in the aftermath of our slaughter. Marissa was heading towards the last set of suns.

"You think you can take on the Empire? You truly are arrogant, _hero._ Give me what I want, and you can keep your pitiful race-traitor life," he sneered. _The hell, why is he acting like he can command. . . me. Oh._ And like that, I _understood_. Kaiser. Max Anders. A man born of privilege in and out of costume. Heir to a both a pharmaceutical and criminal empire (though that could be argued to be redundant) and possessing a descent amount of charisma, he had never known what it was like to deal with someone who truly _didn't care._ About his money. About his power. About _him._

When someone acted combative, like Skidmark, it was only a show. They backed down at the first sign of real danger. Max Anders didn't believe the ideology he espoused, but his thinking had the hallmark of over-generalization that Nazism had at its _core_. The problem was while 'Skidsy', Kaiser's only real experience with this level of combativeness, folded like a wet paper towel when confronted with the real threat of violence, I _wasn't._ The other group that acted like me, The Teeth (and wasn't that a pleasant comparison), weren't taken out by Kaiser, even _after_ they killed his wife, but by the Slaughterhouse 9 turning on them. _That's_ why the great and powerful leader, the master manipulator I heard so much about acted like, to borrow my brother's term, 'a fuckin' scrub'.

On a strategic level, it was an obvious cut and paste attempt that worked for most circumstances, as he was due at least a _modicum_ of respect at the very least from almost everyone. When he didn't get it immediately, all it took was a flexing of his metaphorical muscles and it was grudgingly supplied from people like the Merchants. I was likely the first person he'd met in a professional capacity who truly _did not care_ about him, but he _had_ to care about.

I wracked my mind from what we actually saw of him in canon, not the informed ability of his machinations. There was the Purity Interlude, where he was manipulating his ex-wife who still somewhat loved him. There was the Truce, where he had complete control of the situation, and then the _single_ raid against the ABB, where he was a patronizing asshole. If he was truly such a master manipulator he should've been trying to recruit Taylor, but never even bothered. What I _did_ remember was the man being incredibly full of himself. That was the problem here, he was so prideful he couldn't admit he's handled his interactions with me, a hero, badly, and was just doubling down while telling himself that _he_ was the one in control. Ander's approach was incredibly lazy, a common problem with those that had unshakable belief in their own superiority, and if I'd thought in those lines earlier my approach to him would have been different to take advantage of it.

I realized that I'd never even _bothered_ , as to me he wasn't a power in the city to be turned to my advantage, he was a dead man walking. He'd _never_ help the Penumbral Defenders without stabbing me in the back and I saw no benefit in honoring those that had done nothing to _earn_ it. Whether it be Leviathan, the S9, or me, it was a _when_ he was going to die, not an _if._

 _Tactically_ speaking he was an utter _moron_. This was ground that I was much more comfortable with, and probably one of the reasons I'd had so much trouble taking him seriously even now. He seemed so overconfident and his tactics so stiff that it'd taken me nearly two whole fights before I understood the benefits of his approach with the twins, unchanging as it was. Thing is, he _had_ worked out a good defensive combo but given his actions utilizing it I was left to wonder if it really was _him_ that had thought of it. His first wife had about the same power as the twins and was likely the one who had figured it out. She might've even had the same Shard as the two with him now. _Wait, are they related? He had them pretending to be interested in him. Ew._

Back on topic, even with my _stated_ power set he couldn't do anything to me, and he should've seen that I had _some way_ to reduce people to the meat jelly the explosive shells from my pistol had made of the rapists. The only _conceivable_ reason I could think to keep him alive right now, especially when I had his power, was the hassle of destroying the Empire would cut into my _ENDBRINGER_ preparations. . . and _maybe_ be bad PR. The fact that this pissant was trying to make me break my word, the one thing that would make my job _so_ much easier and result in his _immediate_ death just showed how _out of his element_ he was.

I honestly couldn't help it, I started laughing. A deep belly laugh that carried and reverberated. It wasn't exactly happy, but it wasn't malicious either. I was just so _done_ with this fucking useless posturing. "This is no laughing matter _hero_!" he snapped.

I wiped at my eyes, an unnecessary gesture but doing so just felt right. "It really is! You honestly think you can command me. _How?_ " I gestured to the spear heads which had now fully extended around me. "Poke me with pointy sticks?" I levitated off the ground for a moment, before landing. "I _fly_ you metal moron. The only member of your little band of racists that could pose a threat to me is Purity, and she saw through your silly little poisoned offer before heading over to my team. I can't believe you thought that would work either. 'Join me for a year and I'll let you take over my entire organization'," I mocked him. He was trying to provoke me to attack first, but he had _literally nothing_ to use against me. Even better, this was apparently new information to his what, nieces? Cousins? "That only works if someone could have absolute trust in your word, and we're seeing how _worthless_ that is right now. We're supposed to be working together, but you can't even be _civil._ Master race? _Riiiiight._ "

"You might be able to run, but your family cannot," he promised, _dodging the issue._ _I swear,_ I thought. _I need to talk to Tattletale about testing the water in this city. It's downright endemic_. "The ABB will fall, and with them will any protections they have."

I just looked at him, before laughing, _harder._ Even ignoring his regional disability I'm sure if I was the normal hero, worried about my secret identity being revealed and all that normal stuff, then his promise would, I don't know, ' _chill my blood_ ' or something. Holding up a hand I got my giggles back under control. "Oh god, okay, I _get_ why people take you so seriously. That might've actually meant something to _most_ people. The surety of it. 'fear me Vejovis, for I know where your nonexistent family is. Rawr, I'm so insecure that I needed to name myself _German for emperor_ instead of keeping the naming scheme and going with Tyr, or Vidarr!'" He flinched. " _Really?"_ I asked incredulously. _"That's_ what hit home. You thought _no-one_ would realize what an _insecure_ move that was? They just never said it to your face. _The internet is a thing **that exists.**_ It took me-" I broke off as a series of somethings entered the area, displacing the air oddly.

" ** _ONI LEE_** _!_ " The Swarm screamed as my Power Sight activated, tracking a familiar washed out streak of grey and red power that arrowed down between us. It bounced off just as fast, the clone unhooking two grenades, fire and cold, tossing them at us in one motion. I moved forward to ash the clone before it could grab a third, knocking the cold device upwards to explode high above us.

Simultaneously, the twins shot up in size the instant the Swarm sounded, ready for _something_ though probably not this. Kaiser turtled, Sheet after sheet of metal growing up around him in a triangular pyramid, again so quickly it seemed he'd been waiting for it. The fire grenade bounced off the ever-growing pyramid, shrunk so small it was hard to see, and detonated into a _firestorm._

I didn't have to kill Oni Lee, the blast, easily three times the size it should've been, did the job. The flames passed over me harmlessly, but twin cries of pain rang out from Fenja and Menja as the entire block seemed to be consumed in flame. I felt Taylor's concern through the Swarm as it died around me and sent back feelings that I was fine as I tried to follow Oni Lee. The sound of gunfire rang out as I ascended, tracking the ninja as he retreated from Taylor's position, each clone having to immediately leave as it was shot at the second it formed. My Bug Sense tracked the insects that had bitten into him, shadows of them left behind in every clone, the assassin quickly putting space and buildings between himself and the girl who'd shot him, if the limp arm every clone was sporting was any indication. Golem and Newter had long since left my range, so they should be fine, that just left Sundancer who should be protected by her- _shit_.

Marissa _was_ making a star, just like I'd asked, but the damn thing was _miniscule_. The beachball sized sun would've burnt to death anyone that tried to approach, but Oni Lee didn't need to spend time doing mundane things like _approaching_. The insects around her had fried, and I flew down towards her yelling "Sundancer! Make it-" but it was too late.

The flame of Oni Lee's power dropped in from the side, crouching right behind her as the power moved on in an instant. I yanked on her Sun, growing it as the colors started to shift towards red and purple, but the Clone had enough time to pull the pin on the cold grenade as it immolated. _Fucking Ironic Bastard!_ I raged as the bomber quickly left the area. Electricity would've been affected by the star's miniature magnetic field, and fire would've done jack-all. While Sundancer's Stellar Negation could _lower_ temperature and radiation levels, it couldn't _raise_ them _._ I _blasted_ down with Aerokinesis, damn the consequences.

The effects of the Tinkertech grenade were somewhat attenuated by the rushing column of air from above slowing down the blast towards her, combined with the heat from the star, but it still hit Marissa in a torrent of freezing vapor, the girl screaming in pain as she collapsed within. It only got worse when the deadly white mist spread out and hit the sun, igniting into a firestorm as I _wrenched_ the air solid around her, the blast wave hitting the solid construct of air before blasting through it, but losing most of the force in the process as it expanded around her.

Dismissing the multi-colored sun, I dropped down beside Marissa in a gust of air, removing my glove from my hand and the armor on her shoulder by thought alone as I made contact and immediately slammed her with my healing power in an attempt to make her _Get Better_ , the skin underneath my hand shriveled, cracked, and covered in blood, the flesh underneath seeming _far_ too soft. As I felt the complete lack of a ribcage, I froze.

She was dead quiet as I pushed my power, not sure what to do, but trusting that whatever my power did was better than her _dying_. I was doing _something,_ the fact that I could feel my power in use and that it didn't work on dead matter the only reassurance I had as I worked and blood oozed from her mouth. Opening the hole in her costume along her back, I shifted my stance to hold her in front of me, closing up the costume over her exposed shoulder, and still didn't feel anything but yielding flesh. I wasn't sure if I was healing her or just keeping her stable, but it kept working, so I continued letting the power flow. I covered her in a Lift Field before moving her, not wanting to aggravate the injuries she surely had. Taylor was unharmed and the kids, while scared, hadn't been injured. _Further_ injured. Fenja and Menja were both out of the fight, screaming in pain as everything from the waist down was a charred mess.

If they were Kaiser, I'd've left him to _burn_ , but I could make no such judgement on these two. As far as I had found they were his bodyguards, nothing more, and that didn't deserve a death I could stop. It wasn't like they were a threat to me anyways. Landing down next to them, I glanced at the still sizzling metallic pyramid between them. The roach I'd tagged Kaiser with told me that while it was uncomfortable hot where he was, the many-layered construction of his defenses meant that when the first few levels of metal had melted, the air layers in between them had insulated the rest. Both women however were writhing, shrunken down to normal size in the bubbling asphalt as he hid, voices straining as they shrieked in pain as their flesh cooked in boiling tar.

Step one was to use Stellar Negation to drop their surroundings back to tolerable levels as I flew around them. Kaiser could fucking _bake_ for all I cared. Moving to one, I held Marissa up with a Lift Field supporting her uniformly, pulling back my healing of her from a torrent to a steady stream in order to at least keep her stable after a quick check that doing do wouldn't make anything worse. The ongoing lack of response was worrying, but I had to hope that was a good thing. Mentally removing my other glove, I reached down, laying a hand on the spear-wielder's unarmored shoulder as I let my power take over the healing, allowing myself to be merely a conduit for it.

Her cries of pain died down as she relaxed, melted armor and cooling asphalt pushing itself out of her skin from where it'd burned _into_ her. Her flesh repaired itself, patches of blackened skin smoothing as she un-cooked, though her muscles atrophied a little as they did so. I was puzzled by this until I realized that her lack of fat stores meant that the biomass had to come from _somewhere_. Unlike Marissa, where her flesh was all there, just broken from freezing, a significant portion of this Valkyrie's flesh was just _gone._ Burned off into gas and ash by the grenade. While I could probably use insects to supplement the healing, I both didn't know how and didn't want to risk. . . actually that was a _great_ idea.

Pulling insects to me, I worked at a remove, trying to allow my power to handle the all the fiddly details without my conscious interference. Not sure what the long-term results would be but _fuck it._ It was better than alternative, and a high five from Othala would _probably_ fix anything I screwed up. It was odd watching the insects touch down on top of my hand and seemingly destabilize into bio-slurry, my Bug Sense connection snapping as if they died, which I suppose they did. The goop ran into her. . . and nothing else happened. It just pooled there in the wound.

 _Why?_ From what I could tell, my _Get Better_ treatment used the body's own healing ability to repair itself, letting me heal without knowing all the finicky bits. For big things like this, it needed something to work with, so why what it wasn't accepting the biomass I was trying to give it? Was it because it was insect based? People ate bugs all the time. _Oh._ Right, they _ate_ them, breaking down the material with stomach acids to their basest form before integrating it into themselves, they didn't just mash them up and put them on their skin. This was me pouring gasoline on the windshield of a car and getting upset that I wasn't filling the tank. I sighed, just another thing to _eventually_ learn from Amy once I got her past her biotech related squeamishness.

When the half-burned Valkyrie looked like she'd merely waded through boiling water but was as thin as a runway model and half-naked as her clothing had either melted into her flesh and been pushed out or burnt off entirely, I took a step back and walked around to the other one. I copied the procedure as the remains of her shield pushed out of her hand where it had almost bonded with the bone of her wrecked hand. "If you try that, I _will_ kill you," I commented as Fenja staggered to her feet, wielding her spear, metal twisted and warped from the heat. She'd started to move it into stabbing position, though her weakened muscles made that difficult. "I went through the effort of keeping you alive, I'd hate to waste it. Your master is still alive in there, though he doesn't deserve to be."

"Why did you-?" she asked, startled when she heard her own undamaged voice. She'd screamed herself hoarse before I got to her and appeared cognizant of that fact even through the pain. _Interesting_. Unfortunately her full-face helmet covered her expression. I'd expected either a Norse or German accent, but other than a touch of New England, her voice had none.

"The Ferrous Fucktard in there could've blocked that bomb. He did so before not even twenty minutes ago in there," I motioned towards the storage building full of corpses with Marissa, the front of which was currently on fire. "Or he could've brought up a wall. Or he could've pulled you two close and protected both of you. Or he could've worked with you beforehand; maybe you could grab both of them and he extends your spear downwards to lift all three of you up and out of the way. Or any number of things. But he didn't. Max is a coward at heart, and it shows when it matters. You didn't deserve to die for that."

She flinched. "Yes, I know who he is, no, Kayden wasn't the one that told me," I rolled on. "Some of you are _really_ sloppy with your secret identities, and once you know a few the rest unravel pretty quickly. He can't hear us from his little fort by the way," I added, spitting on the pyramid, which sizzled.

"What's happening to her," Fenja asked, using what was left of her ruined weapon to hold herself up.

"Sundancer or your sister?"

"Fenja, why is she getting like. . . that?" _Oh, this is Fenja? They need name-tags._

I sighed, "Biomass has to come from somewhere Menja. Both of you were in _really_ good shape, so your body cannibalized your muscles when it ran out of fat. Like a marathon runner. Victor's wife should fix it, but if not, it'll be easier to re-strengthen existing muscles than build new legs." Reaching the point that appeared to give me diminishing returns again I let go, standing up.

"That should be enough to get you both home safe. I'm gonna get Sundancer to Panacea. See ya tomorrow. Thanks for helping." I paused, pulling one of my cards. "From what I've heard you two aren't like Hookwolf or Kaiser. If you're ever looking for a change of employment, gimme a call. Max Anders is going to pick a fight with someone he _can't_ take, probably in the next few months if my precogs are right. Best to have an exit strategy."

I paused again. His snipers were useful but fuck that guy. "Also, Coil's been asking about the Empire's identities, but I haven't given him any info. I don't unmask people for money. It's just bad business strategy. Seriously, dude gives me the creeps." Menja stared at me as I lifted off, quickly going to her sister as she woke.

I needed to move the kids, and I needed something that would take them all. How could I do so? I considered the Arachne Assemblages container, but I wasn't getting the kids in an enclosed metal box anytime soon. _Creating metal didn't have any sensory component_ I mused. If it had I would've been able to feel Kaiser's little ambush, as that power hadn't fully submerged, remaining at the edge of my perception. _The coward won't realize I'm doing it. No one's nearby. Why not?_

Landing in a wide alley and double checking that no one was looking, other than Taylor of course, I focused on Kaiser's Metal Creation. It'd been a while since I last watched Return of the Jedi, but that desert skiff would do nicely, but widened and lengthened to carry two dozen people. I started with the base, the bronze looking metal slowly sprouting from the cement, the process moving faster once I started making most of it hollow. _I should've said Kaiser didn't have the brass!_ I realized, the wit of the staircase in full effect. _Next time._ I paused in my construction efforts. _That was worthy of my father. I **am** tired._

With the base made, I added the details. Fake paneling and rivets sprouted across it, handrails alongside the edges, vestigial flight fins along the back. Honestly, I was hardly paying attention to the power as it worked, trying to recall the original and letting it fill in the blanks. Two metal benches in the middle, along with a fake console directly in front of me. A panel of aluminum made the 'touchpad', which I settled my free hand on. I ended with a thin wire, which promptly snapped from the weight it was under.

Letting my Bug Sense fade into the back of my head, I extended a Lift Field down through my foot, though it didn't quite encapsulate the likely several ton structure. A second was needed down the other leg to finish the job. _Is it a mass or size problem?_ I wondered as I gave the command for it to rise. The metal structure did, easily and silently, sliding out into the street and twisting to avoid hitting the walls, quickly rising over the buildings as I maneuvered it towards Taylor, who stared impassively back.

 _I forgot the extendable walkway_. I realized, quickly growing them out, parts connected by tiny wires, the bottom lip large enough for me to catch with my air control. Coming along-side the building I dismissed the sound bubble, hearing the awestruck voices of the children as they shivered in what I realized was the cold New England air, maybe a dozen degrees above freezing tops. "Come on kids," I called, a bit of air control seeming to extend the bridges by themselves as it snapped the wires. "I think it's about time we left. I'm going to bring you to the hospital I work at, where they'll get you looked at and contact your parents."

It took them a few minutes, several looking at the metal floating with no means of support with trepidation, but the extra time let me integrate heating. I didn't feel the cold, but _they_ certainly did. It took a good bit of effort, but I dropped a star in the hollow below my feet, keeping it in my Negation range to make sure the astral phenomena heated the metal to about body temp and kept it consistent across the skiff. I mimed typing something on the pad, and the spaces in the hand-rails slowly grew metal, keeping wind from blowing through it. Aerokinesis would've done a better job, but that power _did_ have a sensory component, I had no idea where Stormtiger was, and it _was_ just a short trip. The older kids corralled the rest onboard, Taylor coming on last. A bit more air control retracted the bridges and I moved to take off. "Lady Bug, can you fly us to Good Samaritan?" I asked, spelling out, 'walk over here and put your hand where I am' in a vent.

She gave a single nod and walked with sharp, precise movements over to the console. I shifted to the side, making sure my feet never left the floor. Fishing out my phone I called Panacea, who didn't pick up until the third ring. "Hey L-Vejovis. What's up?" She sounded as tired as I felt.

"One of ours is injured but stable. We also saved some kids. Can you go look them over at Good Samaritan? I know it's your day off, but, please."

"Shouldn't they be checked by the PRT for bombs first?" she asked, confused.

"No."

"But-"

"They weren't ABB that surrendered Panacea."

"Fine, whatever," she sighed. "How long ago did you drop them off? And where are you now?"

"I haven't. We're all on route."

There was as I heard her say something to someone else, the sound of wind covering the sound. She asked, "Lee, did you tell them you were coming?"

". . . I'll see you there."

* * *

A quick call later and the hospital said they'd be waiting with blankets. I also ended up agreeing that calling the Protectorate about the new Trigger _was_ a good idea. I'd been absolutely disgusted with what I'd seen from their combat training, but by the time Lucas got anywhere _close_ to old enough to fight, either Zion would be dead or we _all_ would be. With that objections out of the way, they really were the best people to handle this clusterfuck.

Glory Girl came up to the skiff as we descended towards the cleared off street in front of the hospital, waving as she called, "Hey Vejy, what's with the- _What The Fuck!_ " Luckily the spike of Aura seemed to be universally of the Awe variety, the naked, bruised, and bloody children all looking to her with wide worshipful eyes.

Their Awe also distracted them as my control slipped a little and the skiff shuttered. "Glory Girl, control your Aura!" I snapped. "It seems to mess with the internals."

She pulled it in as she set down on the skiff. "Sorry! I just didn't. What the hell?"

"You can't fully control your Aura, which apparently messes with the flight system. Wait until we land," I rebuked gently. She looked like she wanted to say something but held her tongue. Settling the skiff in the circle of asphalt in front of the ER I let go of the Lift Fields, letting it settle in place as hospital staff approached with blankets to help cover the kids. _Of course_ , some of the press was already here. At least they had the common sense to not mob the children, or I might've done something _truly_ PR unfriendly.

Amelia was there with the hospital staff and stepped aboard immediately walking over to Marissa. Taking Amy's hand, I had her press it to Sundancer's wound, not releasing my own power yet. She gasped as she saw whatever the fuck I was doing and the extent of my teammate's injuries. "She took Oni Lee's cold grenade at point black range from behind," I briefed her, "which explode if they hit open flame. I've been keeping her stable, I think, and her sun helped mitigate the damage." _My costume probably did as well, but I'm not going to say so in front of so many cameras_.

Panacea gave me a searching look before nodding, "The damage is. . . I don't see how she's still. . . How long from damage to healing"

"Three seconds, maximum." Panacea got the look in her eye when she was fixing something truly complex and I started to step away.

Her other hand flashed out, holding my own in place. "Not yet!" she almost yelled. "Keep her in place like you are, and _don't stop what you're doing_."

I complied, glancing over to see several of the kids looking to me as the staff tried to get them inside. I smiled at the group reassuringly; "Go with them, they'll take care of you until Panacea gets there, okay? She's taking care of Sundancer right now."

That started the slow flow of kids off the skiff, the two openings in the railing bottlenecking the process slightly. Most went easily but one girl, the one from the third cell I'd opened, panicked when the female nurse tried to separate her from the boy she was clinging to. It was the one from the same unit she'd been locked in. Looking back at Panacea I asked quietly "I need to go take care of something. Is she safe to put down?"

"One sec," was her response. My tension increased as I watched the confrontation with the nurse and girl start to escalate. "Okay, face down on the bench. I've regrown her base skeleton and stabilized her enough."

 _Her what?_ I wanted to ask, but the Nurse had reached forward to grab the girl harshly, the girl falling to the floor with a shriek as she huddled behind the older boy who took an aggressive stance. I put down Sundancer as I dismissed the star below her, immediately striding over the second I could as I demanded, "What's the problem here?"

"Nothing's wrong. She's just being difficult when she should come with me. It's not right for a girl to be so close to a boy like that," the nurse sniffed.

I stared at this idiot as I repressed my urge to _slap a bitch_. Looking around for the person managing everything, I waved. "Yes Vejovis?" she asked as she jogged over.

"Please get someone who doesn't try to split up trauma victims to help these two," I asked, voice carefully controlled.

The manager blinked at me before taking in the scene, looked at the girl clinging to the boy before she stared at the nurse in disgust. "Go back inside Danielle."

"You can't be serious," the nurse bit back disdainfully. "After what they've supposed to've gone through you want to put her in a position where she'll be abused again?" The boy stilled, a dangerous glint in his eye. I wasn't sure what exactly he was preparing to do, but I prepped an Air Wall to separate them just in case.

"You're right, I was wrong" the manager told her, the nurse's victorious smile stopped when the manager took the blanket from the woman's hands and continued, "Don't go back inside. Go home Danielle."

Danielle looked around at to her fellow hospital nurses for support. Finding none as they were all busy _not_ looking at her she gave a, "Well I never!" and stomped off.

"Jaida," The manager called, a nurse who had been pretending not to have been paying attention immediately walked over. "Take these two in together."

Jaida nodded, handing the boy the blanket who wrapped it around the girl first, before he accepted a second one from the manager, wrapping it around both of them. "Come on Miah, let's go inside," he told her. The girl nodded, letting the boy direct her and both following Jaida the nurse inside.

"Thanks," I told the manager, who waved it off.

"No, my fault, I. . . um, is this the parahuman?" She was looking behind me and down, and I turned to find Lucas standing there, still in the chest-piece I'd draped around him, quills twitching anxiously.

I bent down to get on eye level with him. "Hey Lucas, these people are gonna get you cleaned up and get your parents, okay?"

Lucas looked down, and the quills went limp. "I. I don't have any. They said they killed them because I was bad. I'm sorry! I didn't mean to be bad!" he teared up, holding himself as the quills picked themselves up off the ground, waving in the air and everyone took a step back.

I gave the poor kid a hug. "They might've lied Lucas. Bad people do that a lot. We'll try to find them, and if we can't, we'll find someone else who will look out for you, okay?" I felt him nod as the quills wrapped around me tightly. It wasn't hard enough to hurt, but probably enough to make someone _else_ nervous. "Now Lucas, can you pull the quills back? It takes some time to get used to powers, and you wouldn't want to hurt a good person by accident, would you?"

Tapping into the Bug Sense I could see them slowly retract back into the armor as I felt them release me. "A member of the Protectorate will be here to make sure you're okay." Leaning back, I Saw him, double checking his power. Manifests armor on the target, current range 10 meters, which is consciously controlled by the wearer, dismissible at will, subconscious controls, but only for surface details. Good. He wouldn't kill someone by accident. All his constructs were metallic, probably Kaiser's contribution, and there were a few other things in there, but that would take more time to look over his power than I had.

"Aren't you the Protectorate?" he asked, confused.

I smiled as I stood up. "No, I have my own team. We're more focused on stopping bad guys. The Protectorate has people that will help take care of you better than I could right now. So follow," I read the Manager's name tag with a few flies, "Ms. Stella, okay Lucas?"

He bit his lip before nodding, "Okay Mr. Vejovis." He gave me another hug, sans quills. "Thank you!" I patted him on the head and he took Stella's hand, who led him inside. With the last of the kids off I sat on the still warm bench with a sigh, reaching over and putting my hand over Amy's and channeling more _Get Better_ to assist her in healing Marissa. The healer stiffened, but relaxed with a nod as she reached up to move the star-creator's arm slightly. I should probably feel something more, but I was just _done_.

Victoria waited until they were all in before coming over while her sister worked on Marissa. _Still_ worked on Marissa, I realized. The damage must've been _extensive_. _Shit._ "Okay, seriously, what the hell?" Glory Girl asked, floating over me.

I sighed. "Gonna need you to be a bit more specific Vicky. It's been one of those days."

"Why were there naked kids on your ship? When did you _get_ a ship? Who the hell are Arachne Assemblages? Why did that one kid have tentacles? What's going on!?" she shot off in rapid order.

"Um, how did you hear about Arachne?" I asked. _Had someone reported on the container already? It's only been like an hour._

"It's printed on the bottom of your ship!"

I sighed, harder. _This is what I get when I let my subconscious handle the details._ "Didn't know they'd branded it," I _sorta_ lied. "Crafting group. They're new. I'm friends with one of them and they're letting me test prototypes." _Technically that's all true._

"Wait, you have Tinker friends? Can they, no, not important Vicks," she reigned herself in. "What's with the naked kids! You totes said you were going after the ABB!?"

I wanted to sigh again, but it didn't seem to be helping. For the first time since I'd gotten here, I just wanted to take a _nap_. "How do the Merchants make most of their money Glory Girl?"

"Not from naked beat up kids!" was her immediate response.

I waved a hand. "Humor me."

"They sell drugs, everyone knows that."

"And the Empire?"

She gave me a look that told me she wanted me to get to the point. I returned with one that said _I'm tired. Answer the question._ She finally shrugged, "I don't know, maybe protection?"

"If you don't know, and can't tell, they probably have a patron."

She looked confused. "A dad?"

"Right, Pater. Close." I praised tiredly, reminding myself that just because she talked like she was a vapid teenager didn't mean she was actually dumb. "It's someone giving them money. A parent organization and people who agree with them but wouldn't openly support them. They're bankrolled in part by Gessellschaft, but they're too well funded to rely on just that."

 _That_ took her back. "I guess so. Huh, never really thought about it. Who'd support Nazis? That doesn't answer my question though!" she insisted, at least keeping her Aura in check.

I slumped on the cooling bench, sparking a Sun below me to help heat the skiff up again. While I was immune to temperature, the warmth was calming, and today had been _shit._ _I'm using a star as a campfire._ I closed my eyes. _Oh brave new world, that has such wonders in it_. I was butchering the quote, but it seemed appropriate. "Yes it does. You're not dumb Victoria, no matter how you act. Complete the pattern."

She paled, a little Aura seeping out. I didn't blame her. "Bu-but those were _kids!_ "

"The ABB don't seem to care."

"Some of them were boys!"

"Your point?"

"Boys don't get-" she trailed off as I straightened and pinned her with a _look_.

"That you believe that means you're innocent, which is both a testament to your parents as protectors in insulating you from that, and a damnation of them as team-leaders in failing to prepare you to face evil." I could practically _feel_ the cameras on us. They wanted a show? Fine. I wouldn't rant and rave, that would just paint me as a crazy, and I really didn't have the energy for it anyways. A sound bite or two was well within my capabilities.

"One of them looked _five!_ " she argued, voice going a bit shrill.

"I assumed she was eight. For my own sanity at the very least, please don't correct me."

"But no one would, ya know, to someone who was _eight_. They wouldn't! Right Ames?" Victoria pleaded, trying to go to her sister for help.

Amelia winced as she got up. "I need to go check up on those kids. Sundancer's fine Vejovis, or as fine as we're able to make her. She'll be up in five minutes."

"Ames? Please?" her sister begged.

"Panacea," I called, causing her to pause mid-step. "Remind the staff you can help regrow torn tissue, even if the injury is old. That might help the girls."

Amelia slowly nodded, getting that 'I'm an idiot' look that so often ended up on _my_ face. "That. That would help. Thanks."

I shrugged, "It's healing, just unconventional. Nothing that couldn't be done with surgery."

Panacea strode off, her sister floating after, both quiet.

I got a warning from Taylor, 'Miss Milita Incoming' formed with bugs in an empty apartment across from the hospital.

"Take us home Lady Bug," I ordered as I covered the Skiff in Lift Fields, Taylor's hand on the 'control' as it lifted up and away before today could get even _worse_.


	65. Outreach 6-15

**Outreach 6.15**

We were about to land when Sundancer stirred on her bench. Newter, having found the table and chairs I'd stashed, was sitting and waiting with Golem in gravel-form for us as we touched down. Dismissing the star below me in case Marissa could feel it, I stepped down from the craft with a "Thanks Lady Bug, here's good."

"Dude, what happened?" Newter asked as he got to his feet. His helmet rested on the table next to him, and the tracks in the gravel had shown he'd paced at least a few times waiting for us. His eyes passed over us, with a searching look. "You said you had everything under control and then the entire block went up!"

"Oni Lee. He tri-" The rest of my sentence was interrupted by Sundancer who sat bolt upright with a cry, overbalancing before falling off the bench she'd be laid on.

Newter leapt past me, landing next to her and grabbing her before she could hit the floor of the craft. Completely unnecessarily as she would've been fine, but luckily for him Marissa's first response _wasn't_ to create a star to defend herself from surprises. I was ready to suppress it, having found that I could override her control on them, but I was glad I didn't need to pretend her injury had temporarily 'messed' with her power. "Hey it's okay," he told the hyperventilating girl. "Whatever happened, it's over." He glanced up at me, "What happened to her?"

 _Right, should've expected that,_ I chided myself. Her last memory would've been of Oni Lee Peek-A-Bombing her. Even if she wasn't in pain, she still would've freaked out at the abrupt transition, on top of whatever stress-hormones her body dumped into her brain that Panacea didn't remove. "I was telling you. Oni Lee dropped in and tried to bomb everyone. I deflected the one he sent at me upwards, but apparently if you shrink his fire grenade, it gets _more_ effective, not less." I gave a 'what can you do' shrug. "Tinkertech. He went after Lady Bug and she shot him, the _real_ him. That was you right?" I asked, looking over at her. She gave a single, slow, mechanical nod.

"Good job there. So, after that Oni Lee went for Sundancer. She was doing as I'd told her, but it wasn't enough." I sighed. "That's my fault. I should've been more specific. That's on me. When I said create a sun, I meant something that would instantly fry him. He needs only a fraction of a second to move, so we're talking _kill zone_ levels of heat. Hot enough that being even ten feet away should be like standing in a blast furnace, and I mean that literally. If you're not melting streetlamps Sundancer, it's _not enough_."

I looked around at the group. Newter was still holding Sundancer, both their eyes wide. Golem was staring at me as well. Taylor was standing there impassively, but that was a good thing. I'd started to take us too high on the way back and she'd started shaking, losing her connection to the swarm to offload her emotions onto as she desperately tried to pull a Swarm up towards us, but calmed when I dipped back down. I didn't know what would happen when she let herself feel again, but I knew it _wasn't_ going to be good. Pushing down the feelings of guilt, I limited my emotions and focused on the task at hand. Not as much as I had before, I wasn't sure _if_ I could do that again today, or this week, but it was enough to get through this meeting.

Sundancer and Taylor had caught a glimpse of what was beyond the veil of civilization, caught an eyeful of _hell,_ and I was dragging them back into it tomorrow. Golem and Newter had waded hip-deep in blood, and I really didn't know them well enough to determine if they were fine or just faking. "This is _war_ , and I should've talked to you about that." Kaiser had done most of the heavy lifting last time, and _I_ didn't take this seriously enough.

I sighed, feeling _so damn tired_. I wished I could give these kids a day to relax, but as soon as we took the pressure off, Lung and Oni Lee were going to strike back with a _vengeance_. Thinking about it, the next attack had to happen tomorrow morning to pre-empt any counter attack they might plan. I'd need to send off the e-mail when I got a chance, so everyone could get ready.

Realizing I'd gotten lost in my thoughts, I picked up from where I'd left off. "I know you don't want to kill anyone, Sundancer, but a proper deterrent needs to be able to kill or else it lacks teeth. If it lacks effectiveness it'll either be useless or _provoke_ attacks as evil will see it as a weakness, forcing you to either lose _everything_ or kill them as they seek to take advantage of what they see as a vulnerability."

They stared at me as I walked over to one of the abandoned freight cars that had turned this place into a maze. "You all know I'm strong, right?" I waited for them to nod or agree as I focused on the second crystalized force field I had, shifting it to cover my right hand. Striding to either end I broke the coupling it had to the cars on either side with a flick of my wrist, the force not draining it. Extending a Lift Field from each hand, I was able to lift it seemingly effortlessly and carry it to the center of the training area, placing myself between them and it. Checking the area past the car there were a whole bunch abandoned buildings up to the edge of the Boat Graveyard with only a few Merchants in the possible landing areas. _Perfect_. "Do you know _how_ strong?" I asked, completely calm.

I didn't do this to show off, but to get them to understand the complete level of _bullshit_ I could pull off, as Vejovis alone. Furthermore, for them to get that even _with_ that capability I was still worried about them. The lack of response made me pause and glance backwards. "Um, no?" Newter asked, looking a little scared.

"Would you like to?"

He looked at the rest of the group. Sundancer was focused on me, Taylor had no reaction, and Golem just sat there staring. "Um, Yes?"

I nodded, picking up the car and giving it a toss upwards. Not enough to drain the shield, but enough for it to stay airborne long enough for it to rotating slightly. My target was the sturdier bottom as opposed to the thinner walls. I wanted this thing to _arc_.

It reached the apex of its ascent and started down as I let out a deep breath, taking another in as I got into position. Using the shields on my legs to push off from the ground and the one over my chest to pull me forward as my hips rotated, I struck the center of it as hard as my crystallized shield would allow.

The impact was a thunderous blast my Acoustokinesis struggled to dampen for those around me as my perception of the world slowed. My hand glowed with a bright white light the moment of impact, the metal deformed under my hand before it shot off like a cannon out over the edge of the city, the insects inside the missile either dying immediately or leaving my range so fast it was the same thing. We watched the projectile quickly head out on a nearly flat trajectory, shrinking until it was impossible to see.

Turning back to the rest, all of them looking up to where the freight car had disappeared, I cleared my throat. Newter startled as he turned to look back at me, Sundancer and Golem focusing as well. Taylor continued to stare in the direction that the car had left in, but she was watching me through the Swarm. "Tell me," I requested politely. "Did I hit anything that hard during either of our raids?" No one said anything. "Newter, answer the question."

"No sir!" he flinched, clearly nervous, letting out a choked laugh. "I think I'd notice if freaking Alexandria was fighting next to me."

"I'm not that strong. Yet," I added, to be fair. "However, I didn't because I care about things like friendly fire, collateral damage, and proportional force. That's what separates us, Kaiser, and even Lung from Oni Lee. You've seen the video, that man truly _does not give a fuck._ And that is _not_ a good thing. He _knows_ his power, has the training, and most of all possesses the _will_ to destroy this entire city if he thought it would achieve his goals. The power behind the ABB is _not_ Lung, it's him. Now he has Tinkertech ordinance, and people are _finally_ looking past from the flashy flaming rage dragon to notice."

I sighed, pacing. "Lung will _face_ you, he'll give you _time_ to fight him properly, he wants a _challenge_ deep down. Whether that's him or just his power is up for debate, but in direct combat he's almost like something from a fantasy novel. He's a walking dragon, yes, and if he captures you he'll kill you horribly, but he's the type that would invite heroes to come forth and test themselves against him. Oni Lee? If he could, he'd bomb your house while you sleep. The only reason he doesn't is that _Lung_ has told him not to."

I turned on my heel to face them, my leg shields having recharged but my crystalline one not even a quarter of the way there. "I wouldn't strike Lung at full strength unless I had no other choice. That man belongs in the Birdcage, or a less _blatantly_ illegal prison, if it could hold him. Oni Lee? I wouldn't even blink. If I catch that man, he dies, end of story. He dies for what he's done, for who he is, and for the fact that short of gouging out his eyes he _can't be stopped_." I expelled a bark of laughter. "Hell, with how powers work, I'm not sure even _that_ would be enough."

"My precog has a possible line on Bakuda's lab." I admitted, "With today's raids done, if another team hasn't found it, then we _will_ in the next raid. I'll be sending the message out in a few hours, but we strike tomorrow at dawn and _end_ this. With any luck it'll be Æonic's team that fights' Oni Lee. He's trapped him before, and now that he _knows_ what he's dealing with Æonic won't leave him to the cops. Best case scenario, he does and either we or Break's team fights Lung. Worst case, we get Oni Lee _again_ and Grue's team gets Lung." _If he gets the drop on us one more time, someone here is going to die. That can't be allowed to happen._ "If that happens here's what you _will_ do:" I addressed each of them in turn.

"Sundancer. When we get there lock the area down with suns. If Oni Lee shows up then get away from the rest and make a star you could stand up straight _inside_ if you needed to. If the ground around you is melting, you're _almost_ there."

"Newter, stay near Golem, just like this time. Kill those that try to kill you, and if you can slime Oni Lee, do so. If he drops anything towards you, hit it away if you can. If you can't _run."_

"Golem, you're our heavy artillery. Check your targets to make sure you don't shoot one of us by mistake. if you can shoot Oni Lee, do so, but never shoot towards your teammates. Actually, never shoot in the same direction as the rest of the team as general practice, but that goes _double_ when fighting Oni Lee. He's fast and I wouldn't put it past him to drop in between us to try to get a friendly fire kill. That man, and I use the term loosely, doesn't care if _he_ kills you, only that _you die._ "

"The Lady, Bug. There won't be people we're trying to save. It wasn't at the brothel, or whatever the _fuck_ that was, so it'll be at the drug packing operations. Stay near Golem for cover, and if Oni Lee shows up, shoot the bastard in the head. If he tosses a grenade and you're out of the blast zone, shoot it. If you are in the blast zone, _run_. The point of these raids is to find Bakuda's computer and shut down her bombs, not to take down the ABB. We can do _that_ at our leisure after we accomplish our primary goals. More than even that, I want you to survive this. I won't trade your life just to stop Bakuda's Bombing."

I glanced around at them all. "That goes for _all_ of you. Stopping this is important, but if I had to choose between waiting one more day, or losing even one of you, I'd wait _gladly_. I'm a hero, damnit, and heroes don't sacrifice their allies for _convenience_. Golem, Sundancer, Newter, if you have anything else you'd like to address, please say so, otherwise, I'll see you all tomorrow when we _finish this_."

* * *

Sundancer thanked me for getting her healed, still shaking slightly; Newter adding in that it was good to see that I kept my word, which I didn't really understand; and Golem said nothing, merely putting his iron armor back on. The three left, and I checked they were truly gone before immolating the Skiff with a sun, leaving only tracks of blackened rock while Taylor stood stock still next to me.

I looked at the cooling molten rock and tried to figure out my next course of action. It wasn't even one in the afternoon, and I felt like I just wanted to crawl under the covers and go to sleep. Taylor, when she allowed herself to feel, would want to do the very same thing, if not _more_. That pinged something in my weary brain, but it took me a few minutes to try to figure out what that was.

 _Right, she's gonna want to crash. With Amelia and Victoria visitors at Casa Del Herb, introducing Taylor, even if she was calm and well rested, would be a recipe for trouble. If only. . ._ "Taylor," I asked. "Is your father home?"

There was a long pause before she replied, "No. why," with no expression whatsoever.

I thought about it. "Will he be home soon?"

"No. why," said the exact same way as before, but the why seemed more insistent.

I sighed. "If I'm right, as soon as you stop shunting your feelings into the Swarm, it's not going to be fun. I'd rather you be somewhere safe where you can crash if you need to. God knows I want to, but I need to make sure _you're_ okay first." _I didn't mean to add that last bit. I **am** tired._

"I'm fine."

I _looked_ at her. "Pull the other one, it's got bells on it."

"What."

"I don't believe you," I clarified. "I feel like I could see _exactly_ what you're feeling by checking the Swarm, but I'm not going to do that."

There was another pause. "Why."

I shrugged, "I'm not entirely sure, but I just feel that would be an invasion of privacy or something. So," I rolled on, "Are you okay with heading back to your place?"

Yet another pause, this one much longer. "I'd rather not."

"Because it separates Taylor the normal teenage girl from Taylor the parahuman?" I asked. "If you really don't want to, we won't. We can head to a rooftop somewhere instead. After my. . . demonstration I don't think we should stay here and heading back to base isn't a thing you want to do unless you want to unmask to Panacea, since she's crashing there for. . . familial reasons."

She didn't respond, and I was about to ask her if she'd heard me when she stated, "My house is fine." Her voice was still completely devoid of emotion, almost inhuman. _Hello Skitter._ _No, that isn't fair. I **asked** her to do this, I just need to get her to **stop**._

I offered her my arm, which she took stiffly, and I flew us both up over the maze of train cars. "Did you leave your clothes on the rooftop I picked you up from?"

"Yes."

I didn't say anything else until we landed, finding it hard to believe that I'd picked her up from here only a few hours ago. It felt like _days_.

She mechanically walked over, pulling a backpack out from a cardboard box and started to disrobe. I turned around immediately, less out of embarrassment and more out of habit. I honestly wondered if I still had the energy to feel embarrassed.

"I'm done." She called after a minute. Turning around I suppressed my reaction. Taylor was not exactly classically attractive, but it was how her face lit up with expression that occasionally caught my attention in a way where I needed to remind myself of her age. Now though, there was none of that, and it highlighted the difference. Her face looked completely neutral, devoid of any expression, devoid of any emotion, devoid of any _soul_. There was _none_ of the girl I'd come to consider my friend in front of me.

With a flicker of thought, I shifted my own clothing, mask becoming shades, tight chest covering becoming a hoodie, leggings and boots becoming baggy jeans and sneakers. Offering my hand, she took it, face still blank, and I levitated us down into a nearby alley.

Walking back to her place was. . . awkward. I wanted to say something, anything to get a reaction from this girl, but I knew intellectually that the second I did _everything_ would come apart. Didn't make me feel any better emotionally, but I wouldn't be me if I let my emotions control me. I was tempted to peer into what she was feeling with our shared power, but I said I wasn't going to, and again, if I didn't try to keep my word I wouldn't be me. I mused philosophical on how so much of who I was, was built on what I _wouldn't_ do, and almost walked into her when she turned and walked up the path to her home. In the daylight it looked. . . less. The paint was peeling in places, and while a nice two-story house, it was obviously in disrepair. The "garden" for instance growing wild and the grass of the small lawn was both patchy _and_ overgrown. It however, did not look out of place in this neighborhood now that I took in my surroundings. Here and there a house would be in better conditions, but they were the exception, not the rule.

Shaking my head I focused on the _now_. I physically felt better than when we'd started walking, but my concern had only grown. I followed Taylor, skipping the second, rotten step up to her door which she unlocked with a practiced motion. Stepping inside it felt. . . full. The knickknacks making the place feel homey, but in a much more natural way than the base did with its careful color scheme and lighting. She locked the door behind me, leading me into a living room with only a counter separating it from the kitchen.

"Something to drink," she asked, voice still dead.

I sighed, walking over to the couch, taking a seat on it. Like everything else here it was used, but in a _good_ way. She however just stood there, not doing anything. "No, I'm good." I replied. "Come over here Taylor." She waited a moment before walking over, not sitting down. _What's up with that?_ "I meant have a seat Taylor." Just in case I grew a metal waste basket if she became physically ill when she came down.

 _Again_ she waited, not really hesitating but almost as if it were taking her time to process what I said. Sitting down next to me on the couch, she looked straight ahead, not making eye contact. Without looking for emotions I checked to see if she could actually see me through the insects in the house and was surprised to find not a _single_ one in the room. There were quite a few in the basement, moving around in constant erratic circles, but she wasn't using their vision to look at me. She _wasn't_ looking at me. I had no idea why.

I wanted to ask her to do just that, but that _wasn't_ why we were here. Dropping a sound bubble around us, I prodded gently, "You need to stop dumping your emotions."

The pause was no longer surprising. "No." _That was._

"Why?" I asked. She seemed practically monosyllabic, but she wasn't _illogical_.

Pause. "Not done."

I blinked. "Yes we are Taylor. Today's mission is done. The next one isn't going to be for another sixteen hours."

Pause. "Not done."

I looked at that, _so_ tempted to just peek at her emotions to gain insight into her thoughts. "Are you saying that that's not enough time? That you're going to stay like this until we've stopped the bombings?"

There was no pause this time. "Yes."

It was, however, my turn. "No."

"Why." She asked. _And thus, we have traded places,_ some part of my weary mind quipped.

Unlike Taylor however, I wasn't restricting myself to the shortest answer possible. "Because being like this is an emergency stopgap. Because it isn't right. Because I'm almost entirely sure this is hurting you Taylor, and I don't want anyone to hurt you, even if it's _you._ " She gave no reaction. "You know I'm stronger than you Taylor. I could very easily force the Swarm away. Deprive you of the means to offload your feelings like I accidentally did on the way to meet Newter and Golem. I'm _sorry_ for that by the way."

"Don't." _Don't be sorry? Don't force them away? Don't make me do this? Probably the second._

"I'm not going to, because you need to come down from this yourself. Because if you don't know, I have this stupid fear that you _never_ will. That it'll turn into this stupid thing where you only feel when I make you, and that both isn't healthy, but I don't want that kind of power. Not over anyone, and especially not over my friends." I leaned back into the comfy couch. "Because it'd be _so easy to abuse_. I'm sorry, I'm rambling, I'm just. . . tired. Tired of seeing my teammates get hurt. Tired of seeing my friends hurting. Tired of this fucking place, even though it's not necessarily as bad as back home, I just never saw that part of home." I shrugged. "No superpowers means not seeing anything more than casual evil and I'm rambling. Again."

I dragged my focus back onto her. "Please, for me. If you feel like you can't do this tomorrow, then you can either rest or I'll just push everything back until nightfall. It'll still work." I sat there for I have no idea how long, just waiting.

Finally, she spoke, voice shaky, but with the first hint of emotion since this fucking thing started. "Why?"

I wanted to be snarky like I'd been with Vicky, but instead responded gently, "Why what?"

"Why would. . ." she trailed off, shaking slightly. "Why kids?"

"I. . . I don't know. Not really," I admitted, causing her to turn her head slightly to look at me, eyes bright. "Maybe they themselves were victims and wanted to make it normal to themselves by doing it to others? That the reason that gets bandied about a lot, but it's not _nearly_ as common as those that get caught claim. Maybe because they want something to hurt for some reason, and kids show their emotions easier, or are thought to be more innocent, or something? I don't get how that gets _sexual_."

I gave a short laugh, startling her, her shaking getting worse. "Sorry Taylor, it's just. 'Rule 34 of the internet, if it exists there's porn of it'. That's the problem of superlatives, they mean _everything._ I always laughed at that picture of two lawn chairs stacked on top of each other, but now. . . maybe it's because of the recursive nature of the mind and the generally repressed nature of human sexuality? It's a basic desire along with food and sleep, and repressing it long enough makes it express itself in fucked up ways?"

I shook my head, focusing inward to try to take apart this problem. I tried to model it that way, but the results of what that should do didn't match the outcomes. "No, because if anything that shit is _worse_ in those circumstances where everything is permitted. No, still not getting it. I'm sorry Taylor, I can't tell you why. Evil exists, and while I understand some of it," I shrugged helplessly. "I've got nothing."

She nodded shakily, "One. One of them looked like Emma."

"You saw that too?" I commented. _Of course she would dumbass,_ I rebuked myself. _You've seen her what, once? She's been screwed over by her for two years!_ "Did you know she almost got grabbed by the ABB?"

"What?" she asked, thought process derailed. _Good._

I nodded. "Yeah, the summer she turned, well, evil, though to a lesser degree than _that,_ they attacked her, pulled her right out of her car while, I think her dad, was held at knifepoint and forced to watch. Wasn't until she fought back in a really _stupid_ way that Sophia, who was watching from nearby, finally got off her ass and jumped the ABB, scaring them off. I'm pretty sure if Emma hadn't fought back, Sophia was going to just sit back and watch her get raped. "

 _"But_ Sophia stepped in when Emma's parent did jack-all and before they'd done more than bruise her and tear her clothing, so instant case of hero-worship. Sophia, the little psychopath, taught Emma all about her worldview of how _strong_ people fight and dominate and the _weak_ just take it. It's the kind of bullshit sophomoric philosophy that only works as long as you never test it, just interpret the world through its lens."

"Then _you_ came back, happy and friendly and innocent, reminding her of what she was before her worldview was destroyed. However, instead of talking to you like a _sane_ person, finding comfort and solace in a friend, confiding in you what happened and receiving the concern and sympathy she _should've_ gotten she decides that you are the _embodiment_ of her 'weak' self and goes about abusing you to prove that _she's_ strong. You not fighting back because she's your _friend_ , combined with you trying to do the lawful thing when you get bullied and going to the authorities who, unbeknownst to you, were horribly corrupt got twisted in Emma's mind to you being _weak_ for not, I don't know, beating her bloody. Because _that's_ how strength works," I finished sarcastically.

"She. What!?" she cried anger barely winning out over horror, despair, and disgust over her features. "That's, oh god! I didn't know! How-"

"Not your fault Taylor," I interrupted her, before she could unfairly put the blame on herself. "She's got parents for a _reason_. And school _counselors_. And _police_. And a whole bunch of other people who, by the very _oaths_ they took, _agreements_ they signed, and _responsibilities_ they assumed _should've_ helped. There's a _lot_ of people that should've helped that didn't _long_ before it got to you Taylor. But no one did, and thus, victim becomes abuser. I hate that stupid little cliché, like we're all robots on a pre-programmed course so it 'Isn't their fault' when they do bad things. It's a mental illness Taylor. Some people, a lot of people, can get better. Some do on their own, most need help, but with that can recover. The ones that use _that_ kind of place though, _can't_. They're not damaged anymore, but irrevocably _broken_."

I sighed. "Thing is, out of the twenty kids we saved Taylor, and _we_ saved them Taylor, never doubt that, I doubt even _one_ of them will turn out to be the type that would use that kind of place." She was tearing up, focusing back on what we'd seen, but that aside had broken her out of a possible spiral. I felt something nagging at the back of my head, adding. "Barnes isn't _that_ level of bad. She's fucked up, and might try and hurt someone else, but it'll be a mundane hurt. Being unpleasant to wait staff, spreading nasty rumors, just being a general bitch, but the normal, everyone knows they exist and can probably name one, type. Those kinds of people aren't worth our time Taylor, we're too busy fighting _true_ evil. The kind that _breaks_ people like Emma when they brush up against it. Does it make us better?"

I shrugged, spreading my arms out across the back of the couch, "Yeah, it kinda does, but not _permanently,_ ya know? If she pulled her head out from Sophia's ass and regrew her heart, then she _could_ be just as good as us. Hell, I could talk to Herb's friends in the Cape-inati and see about getting her powers. Will she? Almost certainly not, and nothing you could do would help, but hey, it's a chance. Similarly, if _we_ went bad, hurt people for _no_ other reason than to feel good, then we could easily be as bad as her." I thought about it. "Worse actually. Powers are like intelligence, they make everything _more_. Intelligent people aren't inherently moral Taylor, but they can do a lot more good _or_ a lot more evil than a stupid person. For better or worse you've got both powers _and_ intelligence, though knowing you, I'd say it's for the better."

I looked over at her, and she was looking right at me, expression so mixed I had no idea what she was feeling. "And I'm rambling yet again. I'm sorry. It's been a hell of a day."

"It's. . . It's okay," she sniffed leaning back on the couch. "It has been. Um, do you mind if I. . .?"

I looked over at her, "If you what?" Honestly, my body might've healed itself, but I was thinking through _mud_.

"Um," she started, before giving up and leaning into me.

"Oh, um, yeah, sure. If it helps?" I offered. I was offering a supportive shoulder to cry on, side to sniffle on? It was something I'd done for friends before.

"It does," she said, voice still thick with emotion. Without even meaning to I saw that she was dumping sadness, fear, anger, and a _whole_ bunch of other things into the Swarm, but the amount was slowly decreasing. As I sat there, I relaxed. Today's mission was done, we saved a bunch of innocents, no one died, Taylor was _surprisingly_ okay as I'd kept her off balance enough to deal with everything without cracking, I was functional, I had a plan, and I just felt _comfortable._

* * *

I awoke with a start as I heard the sound of a deadbolt being shifted, quickly followed by a lock and door opening. Tightening the sound bubble to just around us, I shook Taylor awake, my arm having fallen down off the back of the couch to wrap around her shoulder while I'd slept.

"Wha?" she blinked, spitting out a lock of hair that had fallen into her mouth. "Huh?"

"Your dad's here. We fell asleep. I need to go. I'll call you later, got it?" I whispered.

Her eyes went wide as her father called "Taylor? Are you home?"

"How am I going to explain you being here?" she whispered back, panicking.

As I heard him start to walk towards where we sat I smirked. "But Taylor, you've been home alone the entire time." Dismissing the sound bubble I pitched myself forward, breaking physical contact with her as I dropped into Shadowform, falling through the floor as Danny turned the corner.

Passing through the basement I slowed my fall, moving more carefully to avoid any buried power lines, and let my smile fade. Just as advertised my Noctis ability showed me my memories in technicolor detail. I had no idea if I could control it and was grateful that instead of reliving today's events I instead had gotten a good look at my first day in this universe. _God I was an idiot_.

I knew that the drawback I'd purchased had pushed me to act in such a manner, and without the immunity to temperature and acid it had given me I'd probably already be dead, but what the hell had I been _thinking?_ If I'd wanted Lung's power so badly I could've easily picked a fight with him before he was taken down by Taylor. It's not like the man was _subtle._ It would've affected her fight with him, but I was always planning to be there and ready to step in if needed. On a _much_ less important note, Herb had _never_ actually told me what he had against New Hampshire.

After scouting the area above through the eyes of insects, I surfaced several blocks away from base, stepping out of Shadowform in the shade that sunset cast across the railyard. I savored the crisp spring air, even the tang of rust that permeated this area. Today had been _bad_ , and an experience that had shown the character of my team. If Sundancer, Golem, or Newter sought refuge with the Penumbral Defenders, I would gladly grant it. I wouldn't trust them immediately, I wasn't an _idiot_ , first day here notwithstanding, but they'd more than earned their chance.

Kaiser though, that man was living on _borrowed time_. I had little doubt that if Oni Lee hadn't interrupted our little. . . disagreement then the E88 would've been decapitated. The man's behavior was just plain unconscionable. He'd obviously gotten used to Piggot's 'status quo is god' tendencies, though New Wave had no such excuse. Hell, the Empire might've even gone easier on them due to their race, and New Wave had a history of going after enemies that _pulled their punches._ His behavior though was just so _blatant_. Part of me knew that he was going over the top to provoke me, and with me dead who would ever believe that the man, known for his position (and the assumed skill set such a position entailed), would've done such a thing?

Surely Piggot wouldn't believe that he'd done anything worth _doing her job_ over. The Empire kills captives? She'd probably need it on tape, with a dozen ironclad witnesses, and the man himself defeated and dropped off at PRT HQ before she'd do _anything_ , and even then she'd probably find some way to let him go because 'the backlash' of taking him down would theoretically be worse than whatever he'd do free. She should know from history, that kind of appeasement didn't work on _Nazis_. Even as I thought about it I could somewhat understand the mental maze she'd erected to protect herself from blame and her own _fear_.

It was pure speculation, but after seeing how bad things had gone with Nilbog, she'd only move against _any_ parahuman with overwhelming force. From a certain point of view one could argue that Nilbog had only gone as bad as he did because the PRT showed up, but with insufficient forces. It was more likely that their presence had either triggered his plans too early, which is how they could quarantine him in the first place, or that he was waiting for them to begin with. I'd need to look at the files on it to figure that out, and short of going all out, what I knew of Elisburg told me it'd take a solid _week_ to neutralize, and that was time I _didn't have_ right now.

The fact that the heroes _never returned_ to clear out that particular bit of rot was something that confused the ever-living hell out of me. The message of "get strong enough and you can get away with borderline genocide" that it sent to _everyone_ was one I couldn't understand. At least the Slaughterhouse Nine kept moving to at least give the _appearance_ of running.

All that being said, I _could_ easily model a mind that saw the horribleness of an amoral bio-based power and viewed all cape interactions as if they could potentially turn into that. The fact that the director of the PRT ENE required hours of dialysis every day when she lived in the same city as possibly _the greatest healer in the world_ should've triggered an administrative review all on its own, especially when said director allowed said healer to patch up her _Wards_ without a peep. Either the healer was not to be trusted, in which case Panacea shouldn't've had access to the junior squad of the Protectorate, or she was fine, in which case Piggot shouldn't've had to be in constant pain and require constant medical assistance. The woman at the _very_ least had some serious problems with Parahumans and having her in _charge_ of the local 'good' parahuman group was just _asking_ for trouble.

Sighing, I reached the door, identifying myself. It slid open, the inside mostly dark. Strolling inside either my Power Sight or Peak Conditioning enhanced my night vision to barely notice the difference. "Herb?" I called out, spotting my friend at the table sitting there, stock sill.

He glanced up at me, his pupils vertical slits. _Curtis?_ Was my first thought, but if he reverted to looking like Herb his eyes should've changed back as well. He also would've been two days early, but most of all it was the fact that the eyes didn't look feline, but saurian, and were a burning, hateful orange that ended that line of speculation. He blinked, and his eyes were back to normal as he stood sharply, his movements far too stiff to be _that_ replicant. Without a word he strode over to me and I took a half step back, not sure what the hell was going on.

His voice, always joking and teasing, was dead serious, "This ends tomorrow. Where's Bakuda's lab?"

"One of two locations," I replied, prepping an air wall. "You hit one, I hit the other. There's two more it _might_ be, and I'll be sending Charlie and Brian after them."

He stared at me, giving me a look that was disquietingly intense before he asked, barely moving, "When." It wasn't spoken like a question.

"Dawn."

He gave a single, almost violent nod at that before spinning on his heel and walking towards his room, his movements tight with ill-repressed tension.

 _What the hell happened?_


	66. Outreach 6-y (Interlude: Rune)

**AN: I forgot to post the previous chapter here last Sunday. I post this story on the Spacebattles & Sufficient Velocity Forums as well and occasionallyforget one website when posting. 6.15 is now up, so if you haven't read it just go back one chapter.**

 **Outreach 6.y (Interlude: Rune)**

Ester Ledi Herren was conflicted. She _hated_ it. Growin' up in the Herren Clan hadn't been easy, but it'd been _simple_. Niggers, Chinks, Kikes, and Rag-Heads, _they_ were all the bad guys. The kind that kept people like _her_ family down. It's why they lived up in the mountains. Life might've been harder there than the cities, but that's _why_ the lazy wetbacks and their kind never came up there. Growin' up she'd never understood why people like her family didn't push the other races out of the cities if they were that weak, or at least make their own cities that were _pure_ , but she was told she'd understand when she was older.

She'd turned fourteen, which _was_ older, and she still didn't know why. They had a few people with powers, and powers were, well, _power!_ If they had power why couldn't they have all the things she'd seen on the TV in the town hall? It only made sense that when her uncle Hiram visited that she'd listen to him, since _he_ didn't ignore her or tell her things that obviously weren't true. Her Ma and Pa might not like him, but they never said _why_. So what if he believed that it was their right to run things, that's what Ma and Pa believed! The only difference was that _he_ actually did something about it instead of just hiding like-

"Rune" Krieg prompted her, "Pay attention."

"Sorry sir," she replied automatically, focusing on the platform he'd made sure she got. She wasn't sure why _she_ hadn't thought of it. Her power let her control things, so why not get her something specifically for her to control? The foot straps to make sure she never fell were nice. Focusing on her path, she started bringing them down to meet the others. She wasn't sure how she felt about this. _Obviously_ the Empire was the best, on account of them all being white, but she'd never had to even think about it before. A month ago the only other non-white cape in the city, other than the Japs, was _Skidmark_. Miss Milita was Kurdish, she'd asked, which was kinda like Pollock in that it still kinda counted as white.

Then. . . _it_ had happened. Out of no-where three people had shown up and killed several _dozen_ of the E88. They'd stormed right up to Medhall, fought Hookwolf and his two minions, and while he'd killed the big one, the other two got away, and they'd _murdered_ over thirty E88 who were just protecting their home. From then on they'd been looking for the surviving Nigger and the race-traitor who'd been with 'em. As far as they could tell the Kango was Boardwalk, who was pretendin' to be Black, but was probably Grey. From how Purity had reacted yesterday, the rumors were probably lies, but he was _still_ a Race Traitor. Might've even started the rumors himself, since he obviously hated the Empire.

They'd thought the other might've been Break or Enter, their brothers and sisters in the PRT keeping the Empire informed, which was _so_ much better than back home. Everyone gossiped so damn much there that it was hard to keep _anything_ straight, and you could get in trouble just because Tammy Sue was pissed Bobby Lee didn't like her anymore, the bitch, like that was her fault! She could suck it, probably knocked up by now while Ester was living in a place where you _didn't_ have to hang out the laundry.

She touched down softly on the asphalt and saw that Coil's snipers were already there, along with the gross snail-guy, and, _the fuck? Is that a butterfly?_ Sure enough a butterfly-person was standing next to Gregor, waitin'. _Holy shit, Break was right!_ How had he known the girl could do that, she had no idea. From what she'd asked when they'd gotten back last time, _no one_ knew what the gorilla Traveler chick could do, but he had, somehow. She looked around, but he wasn't there. Purity was, and Crusader walked over to talk to her.

Ester played with the hem of her robe while she watched, not really paying attention. Crusader had been mad when they'd gotten back last time, but Krieg had been quiet. She'd only been with the Empire for almost a year, but she knew enough to know that was normal. Crusader was what her Nanna would've called 'hot-blooded', and Kreig was cold, but in a good way. She was told it's why they got paired up a lot. She'd asked Krieg what he thought of Break, but he told her just to be careful, which didn't tell her _anything._

The Empire'd thought the Sambo who'd killed their men was Break or Enter, until a _different_ pair of Niggers had shown up. They'd waited until the Protectorate were busy and had come right back to Medhall and _called them out_. Like it was the Wild fuckin' West! They'd only killed another ten defenders before Hookwolf got there. This time though, the Apes held their own, _which wasn't supposed to happen_. She heard one turned into a _fuckin' giraffe_ , bit Hookwolf, and threw him several blocks away. Then, when he'd ran back to the fight, _they did it again_.

It wasn't until the Protectorate finally got their asses over to help, too busy suckin' up to a bunch of Kikes to do their job, that the two finally left, _after kicking their asses too._ She'd heard all about how whites were better, but when it _really_ mattered, they couldn't do _shit._ She'd dropped a fuckin' _semi_ on the grey one right before the Protectorate got there, and he fuckin' backhanded it like it _didn't matter._ After they were done battin' around the heroes like it was a game, the other one laid out the speedster, they turned into fuckin' _mooses_ and outed _through a building_.

She flinched when Break landed from above. She hadn't seen much, but she'd seen how strong he was, and apparently could _fuckin' fly,_ which was just not fair. "We ready to go?" he asked, grinning, like he _hadn't_ killed like twenty people yesterday, like she hadn't, like they weren't all a bunch of _killers_. Thinking about it, that's what had her conflicted. She'd joined the Empire to have a family after her own had- one that appreciated her, not like her own.

She wanted to do some cape fights, show how strong she was and scare the non-whites out of town. She _hadn't_ joined up to kill people. Yeah, Coons, Spics, and Slants weren't _really_ people, but while they acted like animals, they weren't _really_ animals either. Technically, they started this, bombing shit, so that made this self-defense. Didn't feel like it though.

She missed what Crusader had said, but Break's barking laughter caught her attention. "All I'm sayin' is, even in the slave south, ya still _told_ the slaves what to do."

"Are you saying I'm your master?" Crusader asked.

The Spook laughed, "Nah man, I don't swing that way. And the other way, since ya' asked. What I'm sayin' is if you're gonna do somethin', at least give me time to plan around it man."

Purity stepped in, tryin' to keep things calm like Krieg normally did, "He wanted you to take the other side last time because there was a loading dock Rune could have used it to get in easier." _Oh, yeah, that would've been easier,_ she thought. She'd realized she could use her mark to tear apart the wall like she'd torn apart her cell when she first got her powers, but a Gook with a knife had already gotten a lucky hit on Krieg by that point.

"You're taking the Nigger's side now?" Crusader asked, hurt.

"Um," Rune said, faltering a bit when everyone looked at her. _You're white, you can do this!_ She told herself. "The Coon's got a point. Even a blind squirrel finds a nut. If he's just bein' a dumb Nigger we just ignore him. What'll it hurt?"

"Rune is correct," Krieg backed her up as he patted her on the shoulder, smilin' to show her she was right. _Yes!_ "Words are cheap, what's your plan?"

"Right! So, this'll be a countin' house." Break said, rubbing his hands together like a happy Hymie. "We need better teams. Crusader, Kreig, Gregor, Bitch, you guys are better close range, so we work together to mess 'em up right in their faces. Team two is Purity, Rune, Genesis, and Regent. You guys are all long-range support. You stay high and blast the fuck out of 'em. Genesis, use your poison dust where Enter and I are, we'll be fine. Regent, you get up there with Rune to get a better view. Oh right, sniper dudes, you do whatever."

There was a moment of silence. Rune thought it was an okay plan. _For a Nigger_ she added quickly. "That's it?" Crusader asked like he didn't believe what he was hearing. "That's your plan?" It was hard to look at her, but Rune guessed Purity was also unimpressed. Krieg just looked all thoughtful.

Break shrugged, "Keep on your feet and be where we can do the most damage."

Crusader tilted his head, probably glaring. It was hard to tell with the helmet. No one could tell when Rune was glaring since there was this bit of fabric that hung over her ey- "That's the stupidest thin-"

"Where's Enter?" Krieg interrupted. "You mentioned him being there, but I haven't seen him."

Break tilted his head, confused, pointin' behind them. "He's been here the entire time."

They turned and Rune couldn't help but shriek, almost trippin' over her feet in the straps. Standing right behind them _on her platform_ was the biggest Nigger she'd ever seen! He stood there, relaxed, and it took her a second to realize that he wasn't wearing an alligator skin shirt, he just had _alligator skin_ , only, not. She'd only seen pictures, but it _didn't_ look like alligator, the pattern was all wrong. His pants, she now noticed, _were_ alligator skin, which just made that difference clearer.

The shirtless Sambo _right next to her_ looked down and grinned, every single one of his teeth was pointed, and they didn't look _human._ Krieg had gone still and was lookin' at what must be Enter very carefully. "I saw you die."

It shifted its attention over at him, and she swore she felt a pressure come off of her. "Did I?" it asked, amused. Its voice was more growl, like if a croc could talk. _Wait,_ she thought, _If he's the one they killed, that means Break's the one who came in and_ -

Kreig turned to look at Break, narrowin' his eyes before nodding to himself. "You wouldn't happen to have gotten into a fight with Cricket a few weeks ago, have you?"

Break's smile seemed to freeze before he shrugged, smilin' even broader, though this time it didn't seem happy, "Self-defense. Someone tries to kill me, I try to kill 'em back. Ain't my fault I'm better at it than they are."

 _No wonder he's comfortable doin' this,_ Rune thought. _He's already used to killing._ The thought both terrified and somehow reassured her. Yeah, he was a mass-fucking-murderer, but he was one that was workin' with them. She still wasn't going to take hers eyes off of- "The fuck?" she called, looking back to where Enter was, but he was gone. "where is he?"

She looked around frantically, as did a few of the others there. Then Enter was back, standing behind and to the side of Break. She'd heard that Niggers were sneaky, but this was fuckin' _ridiculous._ "We're outta time, we gotta go, wouldn't want ta be late!" Break called, turning and stridin' off towards their target.

* * *

They'd rushed the building, the Snipers takin' out some of the guards while Break and Enter had jumped the others. The Gooks had been waitin' for them, but it hadn't mattered. They hadn't entered through any of the doors, Break and Enter busting open a wall while Purity blew two holes into the roof of the building, taking Rune and Regent in with her while Genesis went in the other in a cloud of pink, heading towards the far side of the building where Break and Enter were headed, thankfully far away from her.

Things had gone pretty well until they heard a ton of gunfire outside. Reinforcements had stormed the building, everyone fallin' back to the main hall as more and more of the yellow bastards had shown up. Rune had pulled two walls out and was using them to shield while Regent was getting them to fire into each other, but he'd started gruntin' in pain each time he did so, which couldn't be good.

She'd almost been shot, but Break and Enter had plowed into that group from nowhere, sendin' 'em running. Genesis had been shot, but no-one seemed to care, so Rune figured since she was a shapeshifter she could just put herself back together. The attack had slackened, Slants leavin' the wide open space to hide back in the side rooms, and Rune was sure this was the turning point. "Fucking Chinks," Crusader swore, his ghosts becoming less useful as they were overwhelmed by sheer numbers as soon as they tried to chase down the enemy, dismissing the ones that were held down only to make more from himself. "Breed like fuckin' roaches!"

"They're backing off," The snail-man called, spitting foam to cover up another doorway, which at least slowed them down as they hacked it apart.

Rune took a deep breath and moved her walls into position to defend both of them. Purity flew by her, looking around, "I think we-"

"Oni Lee!" Break shouted, turned, and punched with Enter, the Jap in question between them and already pulled the pin on a grenade. They hit him, blastin' him backwards but the room was full of the ninja fucker in an instant.

Rune's heart stopped when one appeared right before her, finger curling around a pin. Regent gave a grunt of pain as Oni Lee's finger uncurled and his arms were swung behind him, the boy mirroring the bomber's movements. Rune smashed her walls together on the man, crushing him, his body crumbling to ash as she did so.

There were a series of explosions going off all around her as the large space was bathed in fire, ice, and lightning. Genesis was frozen solid, but she disappeared before she hit the ground, leavin' nothing behind. _What?_ Looking around frantically, she saw that everyone looked okay. That is, until she turned and looked for Bitch. The girl had locked down an entire corner of the hall on her own and been hit hard for it. She and one of her dogs were on the ground, the hound looked like it took most of the blast, but both were blackened and charred.

" ** _NO!_** " Break roared, blurring as he moved to her side, Enter covering him as Bitch's two other dogs ran to her, whining. He desperately reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out a phone, smashing the buttons. "Panacea, get to 311 Crescent, _Now!"_

He stood up, putting himself between Bitch and the door when another Oni Lee appeared in front of him, pulling another pin. Break snarled as his arm blurred, reappearing held out to his side, his gauntlet replaced with a three-fingered lizard hand, three-foot-long claws extending outward from each tip before it shifted and flowed back to purple-metal-clad normality. Enter's follow up punch sent Oni Lee flying back, having been cut into at _least_ three pieces which ashed.

Purity blasted up at the rafters, blowing up another Oni Lee as the Japs poured in, shooting Break and Enter as more rushed them with knives, bats, and more. The rest of the team secured their own entryways as Rune and Regent stared, not sure what to do. The two men blocked Bitch's body with their own, taking bullets, waiting until the Gooks were almost on them, before moving with a combined inhuman roar.

They struck out, a whirlwind of tooth, claw, and _death_. A long neck shot out of the fray, head shifting into a three-horned shield looking thing which impaled two Chinks, another reaching out and growing large toothed iguana jaws which bit off the top of two others. Spiked tails flicked out faster than she could see, only pausing when they impaled someone. One flicked upwards, dislodging a screaming Asian only to shift into a solid club and hit him hard enough that she could make out the sounds of all his bones breaking as he was thrown into another gunman hard enough to take him down too, possibly kill him.

Then the two started to move, scything through those that were left in seconds like a harvester on crack, leaving not even screamin' victims behind, only broken, cut, and partially eaten _corpses_. They moved so fast it was hard to see what they were, and even that seemed to change second to second. It was over in moments, the ABB, those that were left, ran in fear. Rune would too if she was in their position. "Holy shit," Regent commented, eyes wide behind his mask. Rune mutely nodded.

Break returned to Bitch's body, moving with extreme care as he checked it. "Is Hellhound?" Purity asked.

"She's alive," Break bit out, more growl than speech. Looking at him Rune saw that he had teeth just like Enter. "Now we nee- Don't Fire!" he commanded.

A wall broke apart and Glory Girl flew in, carrying Panacea. "I hear-What the fuck?" the heroine called, freezing as she took in the carnage, quickly turning green. Her sister barely paid it a glance, seeing Bitch as she pushed herself out of her Glory Girl's arms, falling the few feet to the floor and reaching for the Girl's burned face.

Panacea frowned in confusion, "I can't," she started as Herb stilled, before smacking himself in the forehead with his palm so hard it sounded like a gunshot. He reached over and pulled up Hellhound's sleeve, which Rune realized wasn't damaged at all. Grabbing Panacea's hand, he shoved it in contact with the burnt flesh his action revealed. The healer nodded, "Got it," getting' to work.

One of the dogs growled at her, only for Break to growl back at it, causing it to back off. He whispered something to Panacea, but she shook her head, Bitch's wounds healing as she talked. Glory Girl finished vomitin' and staggered over. Rune wanted to call her a pussy, but she felt like doing the same thing.

"What the fuck happened?" Glory Girl asked, looking at the mess of broken bodies.

"Me," growled Break, though his teeth were back to normal. At her scared look he explained, "Oni Lee. Fought him off, but they got Bitch. Thought they could finish her off, so I killed the motherfuckers."

Glory Girl looked like she was going to say something, but Bitch shuddered, lookin' a bit thinner but not burnt anymore. Rune had seen Othala work, but _damn_ that was fast. The healed girl gave an animalistic cry of fear as she sat up. Looking over at the downed dog she cried "Judas!" puttin' her hand on the dead animal. The flesh shrunk quickly, the dog, which was somehow inside the bigger dog, clawing its way out to lick at the shakin' girl's face.

Panacea stepped back, "Does anyone else need healing?"

Regent looked over at Rune, motioning for her to land. "I do." Now that she looked at him, he was sporting a large bruise across his jaw, which looked a bit odd. He stepped down and walked over to the healer.

"Do I have permission to heal you?" she asked, which was stupid, because he _just said_ she could.

"Yes," he said, flinching a little as she touched the bruise. At her look of confusion, he nodded to himself, pulling off a glove and offering a hand. She took that and the bruise quickly healed. He let out a deep breathe, "Thanks. Having a healer on call is pretty sweet."

She rolled her eyes, "Don't get used to it villain, anyone else?" Rune wasn't hurt, and apparently no-one else was either so the stuck up healer shrugged and walked back over to her sister. "Time to go Vicks."

Glory Girl, who had been staring at the bodies, jumped a little. "Um, Ames, What about-"

"Time to _go_ ," Panacea insisted, looking at Break. "Thanks for calling, she had minutes, and even then, she was lucky. The dog's um, extra body-mass absorbed more than it should've."

He bowed his head, growl gone and voice almost naked in its raw emotion, "Thank you."

She shrugged as a guitar riff started to play from her robe. She quickly pulled out her phone, hitting a button to mute it. "It's Vejovis, I should go."

Break nodded back, a bit of a smile in his voice. "Go, I'm sure he needs you."

She paused for a moment, looking at him strangely, before grabbing her sister, "Let's go."

"Um," Glory Girl said, looking around. "Fine, whatever." The pair lifted out as Panacea answered the phone, though she couldn't hear what the girl said.

With Panacea gone the smile slipped off Break's face as he moved to the still shaking girl. Her dogs were all rubbing up against her, the other two losing flesh and becoming regular mutts as well. Enter stood next to her, not quite hugging her, more like rubbing up against her as well. It was. . . weird.

Krieg walked over to Rune, frowning in thought. Looking at it, she didn't get the sense it was sexual or anything, and it seemed to be calming the other girl down, and it reminded her of something, but she couldn't say what. Whatever it was, it was still _weird_. Glancing over to Regent who was standing next to her again, he was watchin' it consideringly, and nodded to himself slightly. Krieg glanced at the boy, who shrugged in return.

"What are you doing?" Purity asked what Rune was thinking, looking down at Break and Bitch.

"I'll tell you later," he said, not stopping.

Crusader, who had been starin', leaned on his spear. "See Purity, they're all just beasts when you get down to it. Come on, I'm sure Kaiser would accept you back if you asked real nice." Break stiffened, disengaging from the girl and her dogs, pattin' her on the head, before turning to face Crusader, who stood up straight and held his spear loosely. "Did I hurt your feelings Nigger? Wanna make something of it?"

Enter disappeared and Break closed his eyes, letting out a deep breath. When he opened them, they _weren't human_ , and he took a measured step forward. Rune's uncle Larry said you could tell a lot about someone from how they walked. Break's walk before had been light, kinda jumpy, maybe excited, maybe nervous, but definitely high energy. Now it was slow, regular, more dangerous. Like Krieg's, or like how Kaiser did if he thought people were lookin', but you could tell he was tryin' too hard. This looked natural. He took another step.

"Come on Nigger, you were all talk before, say something!" Crusader called, but Break didn't seem to notice. He just stared at him, not blinking. "I said say somethin' boy!" _What the hell's going on?_ Rune thought, started to move her platform forward when she felt a hand on each shoulder. Krieg had put a hand on one, and was staring over her at Regent, who had put the other. The boy shook his head to her boss, who nodded once in reply.

Rune _really_ wanted to know what was going on but felt like talking right now would be a _bad_ idea. Like, high-five a bobcat bad. She knew that something had happened on the other team, that Kaiser had come back happy, only to be furious a few hours later. _Is this why Krieg had told her to "be ready?" Was Crusader trying to get him to break the truce they'd set up? Why?_

She knew that, as a Nigger, Break should've been inferior to any of them, but the pile of bodies behind him kinda argued that what she'd been taught _might've_ been missing a few exceptions. She looked as Break took another, dangerous step and Crusader yelled "I said talk boy, or did ya forget how in that dumb ape brain of yours? That why you were rubbin' up on that white girl, you both animals too stupid to talk?"

In reply Break just took a few more steps, closing the distance slowly but surely. "Oh fuck this!" Crusader said, ten ghostly copies of himself floating outward.

"Crusader, don't," Krieg warned as Break took another few steps, like he didn't care about the copies.

Crusader looked back to them, "This is self-defense. Help me damnit! It's just a Nigger!"

The clones moved forward as one, moving to stab Break, Purity crying, "No!" as she started to gather a blast. Instead of being impaled on ghostly weapons, Break's upper body blurred, throwin' the spears, and the spear wielders, away with the crack of breaking steel.

Crusader took a step back, the hurt copies disappearing as more formed, flyin' straight towards Break. He didn't break stride, hitting the ghostly metal spears so hard they broke apart, sending flying fragments of see-through steel off to the side. As more came and were destroyed, they were all broken in the same direction. _Why?_ Rune thought.

As some fragments come close to Gregor, who flinched away. Rune realized. The ghost fragments could still hurt someone, so he was trying to break them in a safe direction. Crusader realized it as well, moving his copies so that Break couldn't break their spears without hitting someone. _The asshole! What if they hit her?_

Break continued, unhurried, yankin' the spears out of the hands of the ghosts instead, and killing them with his bare hands when they tried to strangle him anyways. He hit them with a single quick punch to the face, the helmets crumplin' inwards and they evaporated, dead. He grabbed them by the throat, and she could _hear_ him snappin' their necks with his finger strength alone. He punched one through the chest, ripping out its still beating heart before both dissipated into nothing. While he did this, he didn't stop walkin', his face was completely blank, and he _still hadn't blinked._

It was one of the most _pants-shittingly terrifyin'_ things she'd _ever_ seen. Crusader was staggerin' backwards. "Help me dammnit! Rune, get your ass over here! That's an order!" He looked over and saw Krieg standing next to her, his clones coming slower and slower. "What the fuck? I'm just doing what Kaiser said. He's violating the truce! Kill him!"

Krieg said nothing, just standin' there, watching. _What the fuck?_ Rune thought, watching this, she didn't know, execution? Break still walked, slowly, as Crusader's clones were slaughtered. "Fuck this and fuck you!" he called to them, creatin' two more that picked him up and started to carry him up off the ground.

Break blurred, stopping right below him as both clones exploded into spectral gore, catching Crusader as he fell. He tried to impale Break with his real spear, but the black man caught it easily with one hand, the other wrapping around the man's neck. Break firmly removing the weapon from Crusader's grip, like takin' a stick away from a child.

Rune half expected to hear one final snap, like he'd done to the others, but instead Break brought Crusader right to his face, ignorin' the man's frantic punches like they weren't even happening. "You are my teammate," he growled, his voice cold and full of menace in a way that reminded her of stories of Werewolves from her childhood. Not the sexy kind either, the, torture you for hours to hear you scream as they tear off bits and eat them, kind. "But if you do not act like teammate, you are my enemy, and you saw what I do to my enemies. I will make you a blood-splatter. So, be calm, be kind, and don't. _speak_. **_ILL_**. of your teammates."

With that Break dropped the man on his ass and turned on his heel. He blurred as he streaked back to Bitch, face still completely calm, eyes still unblinking lizard slits, picking up where he left off. Lookin' around, Rune didn't know what was going on, and just wanted to find someplace to sit down, maybe vomit and just shake for a while. She'd been told that Niggers were inferior, but _that wasn't_. That was dangerous, and horrible, and kinda hot which was something she did _not_ want to think about at all. She could feel herself shuddering underneath Krieg's hand, who had gone utterly still. The rest just watched in silence, as Break comforted Bitch, which was obvious when you really looked at it.

Regent gave a slow clap as he glanced around, "Yay? Go team us!"


	67. Milestone 7-1

**Milestone 7.1**

With the suddenly serious Herb gone to bed, I checked around the base. Boojack was getting high, so at least _that_ universal constant was still in effect. The girls hadn't gotten back, but I'd wait until ten before worrying. After I dropped Taylor's etched steel plate from the entryway into one of the free bedrooms and grabbed a new pistol to replace the old one, I sighed and wrote up the plan for the next day's attack. I remembered Bakuda's lab as being in a drug packing operation in an isolated warehouse from canon. Problem was, dad had found _two_ and both of them were in isolated warehouses. After checking out both from satellite imaging, I just flipped a coin. I got tails, so the one closer to the Bay for me, the one closer to downtown for Herb. Just in case I _completely_ misremembered I assigned the drug _distribution_ place in a building that _kinda_ looked like a warehouse dad had found to Charlie, and a warehouse that just had a lot of drugs in it to the last team.

I still had nine hours before the operation and wondered what the hell I was going to do when my phone chimed with the opening of "New Divide". I'd found losing half a decade of new music had made it harder to find ringtones suitable for everyone. "Hello Amelia," I answered, "What's up?"

"We're on our way back and I don't know the code." She sounded exhausted.

I remembered something about this from the manual, so I gave a quick "gimme a sec," as I opened up the base's security interface. I found the system had an image of her face from when she was let in by Herb and gave her what was listed as first level clearance. That would give her access to the base, but not to the computer systems and not unlock doors for her, which apparently was a thing the system could do. I moved to up my own clearance to the highest level, nine, but it asked for a one-hundred-digit passcode, so I just bumped it up to level three from level two, which let me override basic door locks. The computer had apparently heard enough of her voice that all I had to do was type out her password. "Just go to the entrance and state 'Panacea, Unlock'. I'll set your sister up when she gets here."

"Oh, okay," she said surprised. "See you soon,"

"Same," I responded, hanging up as I turned back to the computer. The functionality was nice, but what it suggested was _worrying_. I'd read enough in the manual to access the base's security system, though the entire freaking thing worked counter-intuitively, requiring you to click on things that you _couldn't see_ to access deeper menus. Sure enough, the base had been recording _everything_ I'd been saying while I was here, along with Herb and everyone else. Navigating deeper I found that it was set to dump the recordings back to the "Central Server" once a month, which was in a few days. I was now in unknown territory but blundered around until I found that clicking the space _above_ the C of "Central" opened up a new menu.

Confident that whoever designed this was an _asshole_ , I turned off the option to back up the records, setting them to auto-delete after a week instead. I found a list of programs that used those recordings, including one that learned voices to replicate them when needed, but I couldn't find out how to disengage those, or even where they _were_.

Hearing the front door open I closed it down, meeting the girls, who looked as tired as I'd felt a few hours ago. "Hey, how are you?"

Victoria barely glanced up, just floated past me over to a chair before she dropped into it. Amelia looked up at me, surprised. "Okay. You seem. . . better?"

I shrugged, "I crashed after I finished meeting with my team. Slept for a while," I scowled at the memory of what I'd seen reviewing my idiotic first day. "Got back, met Herb, and I've just been doing managerial stuff." My stomach made itself known, reminding me that I hadn't eaten since breakfast. "You guys have dinner yet?"

Panacea looked over at her worryingly quiet sister, "We haven't."

"Enchiladas work for you?" I asked, getting a nod from the healer. "Victoria?"

She glanced over, eyes distant. "Yeah, sure."

I quirked an eyebrow towards Amelia, who gave a slight shrug. I figured I'd handle whatever new piece of drama _this_ was later and got to work. Once dinner was in the oven and I'd cleaned up, I sat down opposite the sisters, coffee in hand. Panacea was reading something on her phone, trying not to look at her sister who just sat there, staring straight forward.

"Okay Victoria, what's wrong?" I asked without preamble.

She lost enough of her faraway look enough to respond, "Nothing."

I rolled my eyes, channeling Herb. He was better at getting people to talk than I was. Once she actually _said_ something I could extrapolate, but I needed something more than single word answers. I wasn't _that_ good. "Suuuure. What's wrong."

She fully came back to the present to reiterate, annoyed, "I said nothing's wrong!"

I took a slow sip, even getting that sipping noise _just_ right, which is harder than you'd think, mentally cataloging the sound. "And I'm saying I don't believe you. What's wrong Vicky. Talking about it will help."

She was starting to get upset, "What part of no-"

I interrupted her with another sip, which I _may_ have tweaked a bit towards that perfect sip sound. And slightly increased the sound of.

She glared at me, and I extended the sip for longer than was probably necessary. "I said noth-" I started to sip again and she yelled, "Will you stop doing that!"

I stopped, swallowed, and asked in return, "Will you stop lying to me?"

"I'm not lyi-" _Siiiiiiiiip_ "Fine! I'm ashamed okay! Are you happy now!"

I looked at her incredulously and set my mug down. I glanced over to Amelia as we both stared at her in confusion. "Why?" I asked, trying to puzzle that out, "I mean, yeah, you slip up with your Aura on occasional, but you're getting a lot better. I'm sor-"

"Not that! I'm sitting here doing nothing while you're out there fighting!" she complained.

I blinked. "Um, Glory Girl? Your power right now is _not_ suited to mass combat. Also, you're not an adult, _and_ lack the training to handle yourself."

"I'm seventeen! That's close enough!"

"No," my response was firm. "Not on its own it isn't."

"But Lady Bug is my age, and you bring _her_ along. And the dog girl is too, and she almost died!"

 _Oh, that explains Herb,_ I realized. Unfortunately, he was _quite_ American in that he tended not to give a shit until something was shoved in his face, and then he gave _all_ the shits. "And if I could've stopped either of them from fighting I _would_ , but for a number of reasons I _can't_."

"You were talking all about how adults are stupid when they say they know better, now you're saying you know better! You're just as bad as mom!" she cried as she stood up.

I stilled, Amy interjecting "I'm sure she didn-"

I held up a hand as my emotions cooled. _That_ had struck an unexpected nerve. I wondered why, but now was not the time to address that. "Something _else_ is wrong Glory Girl, and you're being emotional." As she opened her mouth to object I continued, "Not because you are female, but because you are _naïve_ and while close to an adult, you still _are not_. I am _not_ saying you cannot be right because of your age, I _am_ saying you are not ready for the battlefield, and I will _thank you_ not to put words in my mouth Ms. Dallon. I will also state that, as I have not attempted to _murder you for no stated reason while you did not attempt to even defend yourself_ , I am not, in fact, as bad as Brandish."

She looked like she wanted to say something else but glanced at my still upraised hand. Thankfully giving me a moment to organize my thoughts. "Being a child in this context is not a limitation, it is a _protection_. On my team I have Golem," I saw her look of incomprehension. "You would know him as Mush. From what I could tell he's my age, or older. If he were to die fighting, I would do my best to prevent it, but I would accept that he knew the risks going in."

"Newter, Sundancer, and the Lady, Bug, are _not_ adults, as far as I can tell. They _might_ be eighteen, but they don't act it, and thus I am forced to assume the former's ages. _Them_ I look out for, I actively make sure they don't try risky maneuvers, and I cut down on my _own_ combat effectiveness to make sure I can support them. Even then, _sometimes I still fail._ You saw that today. Are we less effective as a team for it? Undoubtedly. Do I care about that? Not in the slightest."

" _If_ I had been working with you, if I knew you could handle yourself in a combat scenario, then I _might_ be okay with you joining me in this."

"I've been fighting for years!" she objected.

"No, you haven't!" I rebutted, standing up as well as whatever had struck a chord with me wore off and my voice heated. "You've been patrolling, picking off individuals or small groups, and _maybe_ dueling. How many times have you fought another parahuman Vicky? One who would _kill you_ if you lost?"

"Like you have any room to talk," she accused, _dodging the question._ "You've not even been around for a month. If you didn't surprise me you couldn't've taken me down like you did!" she yelled.

 _What? Where is this coming from?_ "I'm going to assume you _actually_ believe that, instead of just saying whatever comes to mind in the hope that it works, like a _child_. Are you willing to back that up, or will you actually tell me what's wrong?"

Amelia tried to play peacemaker. "Come on Vics, you don't need to do this."

Her sister shook her head, not looking at her. "No, I do Ames. When and where?"

"Will you be willing to heal us afterwards Panacea," I formally requested. "I'll make sure not to do anything you can't fix." She looked between us before she sighed and nodded. "Then in a few minutes, out in the trainyard. I've already messed up the area something fierce, a little more won't hurt. Follow me."

Without waiting I strode out, the movement of air currents telling me that Victoria was flying after.

* * *

Standing in a clearing in the opposite direction from the training area I'd used for the villains, I positioned myself ten feet away from Glory Girl, while Panacea tried not to fret off to the side. As we faced each other in the last, fleeting light of the day, I had an idea, "Before we start, no head blows, _no exceptions_. Your sister, who is willing to indulge in your foolishness, won't be able to heal either of us from that. Actually," I pulled off a glove and walked towards the healer, "get a good look in case you need to fix me please. Glory Girl, do the same."

Amelia nodded to herself, grasping my hand, giving me a complex look before she nodded and let go. She took her sister's hand as well before releasing it. We returned back to our positions. "Now, would you like to try to defeat me with or without my powers?"

The overconfident teen glared back at me, "Like you could without them." I crossed my arms, waiting. "What?"

 _So like your mother_. "Insult aside, you still need to make your choice. Fair warning, if you try to Master me to gain an advantage, I _will_ break your arms."

She suddenly didn't look so sure, before she narrowed her eyes, "If I say without, and you lose, will you still fight me with?"

I shrugged, "Sure, I'll even do it if I win, just to make my point."

"Without first," she said, launching herself forward without waiting for a reply. _For a girl who complained about me ambushing her, she's not above doing so herself._

I twisted out of the way of the first punch, sloppily aimed for my chest. It was wide and speaking, and while looked flashy didn't utilize her momentum correctly. My left hand went out to grab her other arm and use her immovability to better maneuver myself while my right retrieved my pistol. She twisted in mid-air, face confident as she pivoted in the air with a kick, but I held onto her forearm and let her lift me off my feet. My flight training using her power kept me centered as I pointed my pistol at the offending leg while my hold swung me upside down with centrifugal force. Four quick squeezes and she dropped to the ground with a cry, three bullet holes in her calf. Instincts I didn't recall training twisted me to a soft landing as I landed softly on my feet, knees bending, a few feet away from her.

Glory Girl screamed in pain and lashed out blindly jumping over wild kick. I pressed the barrel against her lower abdomen as I landed on top of her, angling the weapon off to the side to avoid the spine. "Stop flailing like a toddler or I'll shoot you again!" I commanded coldly and she stopped, though she was whining like an animal from the pain. I felt her Aura kick in and fired twice, once to drop the shield if it had reengaged and once to hurt. It hadn't, and instead she had _two_ holes in her gut. The mind control cut out sharply.

"Vicky!" Panacea cried out, rushing forward. Pulling on my strength in case she her shield recharged unexpectedly, I tossed the gun to the side and grabbed her arms, twisted them backwards, and immobilized them so she didn't hit her sister by mistake.

"I've got her," I told the healer, who stopped and looked at me with trepidation. "I mean I'm holding her so she doesn't hit you by accident. You're the better healer, go ahead!" She rushed forward, looking like she was going to say something, but focused on fixing her sister. I was glad I hadn't enhanced my pistol yet, so the injuries weren't _that_ serious. After a few seconds Glory Girl stopped struggling and I let go, standing and letting her sister finish up while I retrieved my weapon.

After Amy helped Glory Girl up, I addressed the healed teen, calming myself now that I'd made my point physically, a weight off my shoulders, "From my research, your power has the unfortunate weakness of being limited in how many shots it can block. Behemoth himself could punch you and you'd be fine, as long as you had enough time to recover your shield before he hit you again, but," I held up the Glock, "this will drain it just as easily. I'm better than most, but if some nobody with an SMG opened fire on you at point blank range, you'd probably not survive."

"You only won because you had a gun!" she shot back, and I felt the weight settle again as the stupid heroine didn't seem to be able to admit she _lost_. I wondered if I should shoot her again to make the point, but words would be more effective here.

"Yes, I have a gun. _In America_. The country with more guns than _people_. It's quite a surprise, I'm sure," I knew I was being an asshole, but seriously, she wasn't arguing, she was throwing things that she didn't even _believe_ at me in the hope that it would stick. If she was used to her mother's style of argumentation, the knife in the dark, try anything than abandon it method where neither party truly believed what they were saying style, then she'd never learned that making an argument _badly_ could rebound on you even worse than not making one at all.

"If you are complaining that 'hey, you have a gun, no fair,'" I mocked, "then that _alone_ is reason enough to sideline you until you _grow the hell up_. The _first_ raid my team did the ABB had a fucking _heavy machine gun_. The kind you need a _fucking tripod_ for, and you're whining over a fucking _pistol?_ " I knew at least part of my annoyance was the fact that she had spiked her Aura during the fight. She probably didn't mean to, but that was the only reason I hadn't _broken her arms_ like I promised.

I realized that I still had my Crystalline shield on my right hand and replaced the half-e,pty magazine in my pistol before tossing it to my left. I noticed Vicky's eyes tracking the weapon. _Good._ "If you were an adult, I probably wouldn't _care_. If I did care, it would only be for the reason that I'm friends with your sister. It is _because_ you aren't an adult that I'm willing to do this stupid fucking dog and pony show. You have powers, but just like everyone else in this _fucking_ place you don't do anything _with_ them!"

I knew I was ranting, but while I could understand teenage arrogance, willing blindness pissed me the fuck off. "The Lady, Bug, has _insect control_ and in that future that was enough to be beat Lung, _twice_ , did more to help this city than _anyone_ else when things got bad, and ended up going toe to toe with _fucking Alexandria_. You have super strength, toughness, and can _fucking fly_ and you were, at most, a _footnote_. A side character, and little else. And do you want to know why?"

Both girls were staring at me, and it took them a second to realize I was actually asking a question. "Why?" Amelia asked as if she wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer.

"Because she doesn't do _anything_ with her powers. She doesn't _train_ , she doesn't _experiment_ , she had to be _told_ what her weakness was from her _enemy_ for god's sake! She, just like New Wave, acts sure of her powers, but never does _anything_ to actually help others. If I were being uncharitable I'd say they do it because they're worried that they'd find that they're not everything they claim to be. Bakuda's bombs had been going on for a week before the villains got off their asses to do something, and did New Wave do _anything?_ Please, tell me if you can, because I haven't heard _squat_ from them. You were out there every day Amelia, healing, trying to make things better. But Glory Girl, tell me, did the rest of your family do _anything_ to help?"

I waited a moment for a reply, but she just looked down, not saying a word, which was answer enough. "Look at me Glory Girl," I commanded, waiting for her to do so. "I know, but I want to hear what you think. Not counting the _mind control_ you got from Gallant, _what is your power?_ "

The heroine hesitated, lacking in any glory for once. "Force fields," she offered, sounding defeated. "But only on me. It's why my clothing doesn't get damaged as much anymore, I figured I must've started protecting them too."

I threw my hands up, " _Yes!_ That's exactly it. But you never experimented with them, never trained them, never tried to _understand_ them. One of my powers is patterned off _yours._ If you _had_ bothered to do anything with them, you could do _this!_ " I proclaimed, raising my hands, pointing with my left to shoot into my cupped right. I pulled the trigger over and over again, the crystallized force field absorbing the, to it, minor impacts without draining.

Both of them watched as round after round impacted into my hand to no effect. Glory Girl just looked despairingly while Panacea's eyes widened, knowing how close to the truth I was skirting, and knowing that I could teach her sister how to do that. Once the slide clicked back, I switched out the magazine for my last one and put away the pistol. With their attention still on me I reached down into the gravel and collected the ten still-warm flattened bullets. Walking over I took Glory Girl's free hand and dropped them into it, closing her fingers over them.

My demonstration had shocked them both enough that I felt that the time was right to drive the point home, the weight once again gone as I finished with confidence, "When I said I could put you on Alexandria's level Victoria, _I wasn't joking_ , but when people say powers take time to get stronger, they're _wrong_. Powers take _use_ to get stronger, varied use, expressed in different ways. Experimentation and adaptability is the key to strength for anyone that isn't a Tinker, and even then, the argument _could be made_ that it applies there too. As much as you want to help, and I really _do_ appreciate it Glory Girl, _you aren't ready_. You will be in time for the next thing coming down the line, but that's not for a few weeks, which will be enough to get you stronger, if not where I am _right now._ You could be so much better than you are, but you won't be if you never work at it."

I took a step back and sighed. "That being said, I promised you a second fight if you want it, _with_ powers this time. Do you want to?"

She shook her head, "No, I got it, I need to grind if I want to be. . . that."

I smiled to show there were no hard feelings. I felt a bit bad that I'd ranted, but it'd seemed to work, so yeah. "Good," I told them, "Dinner'll probably be done soon, and I think we both got a little hangry."

I pulled the Swarm I'd been gathering around us up above the train cars as I visibly sent them back to where I'd gathered them. "What the fuck!" Vicky called as she stared up, scared in a way the fight hadn't even come close to making her.

"You said to fight with powers," I quipped, grinning. "Did you forget I can control insects like the Lady, Bug?" I hadn't planned on _using_ them as anything but a living smokescreen, but I didn't need to tell _her_ that. "Come on, I don't want the enchiladas to burn!"

I turned and headed off back to base, ignoring Vicky's low, "If I ever say I want to fight him or LB again, smack me. Please?"

* * *

We ate dinner in companionable silence, and I got Victoria to record her password, unwisely letting her pick it. With "Hey Vejy, it's me. Open up!" set as her code, they both helped me do the dishes. Sitting with a mug of tea, Vicky, who regained some of her pep, asked me, "So, when do we start?"

"Training? Once the bombing's done."

She frowned. "So, like a week. Is there anything I could do until then?"

I blinked. "Um, that's tomorrow evening. Or maybe the day after at the latest."

"How do you know that?" Amy inquired.

"Because we have a good lead on Bakuda's Lab, where the computer that's controlling the bombs is?"

"Then what are we waiting for?" Victoria asked, starting to get up, only to stop herself and sit back down, a little more subdued. "Right, I'm not ready. Why don't you tell the Protectorate then?"

Sighing, I leaned back, might as well get this out of the way first. "Why would I do that?"

She looked at me like I was crazy, "Because taking care of that is what they _do?_ "

"Like they've been doing up till now?" I drolled.

"Well, they didn't know where to go," she defended. I looked at her and she frowned in thought, asking after a moment. "They haven't even asked how _you_ know where to hit, have they? Like, even _I've_ heard how there's like _four_ different groups, all coordinated AF, and to know about _that_ many places you've _got_ to have a seriously lit source."

I shook my head. "Nope. The PRT might get around to it, in a week or two, long after it'd help. You need to understand that the Parahuman Response Teams, the East-Northeast branch especially, is _messed up_. Between regulations, people _ignoring_ those regulations by not doing their job _without consequence_ , personal politics, and a director that doesn't believe parahumans can be trusted, you couldn't pay me enough to work for them. The fact that this branch has been allowed to rot as much as it has doesn't say good things about the _larger_ organization either. If they'd offered to work _with_ us I'd probably say yes. Hell, when they wanted help finding bombs I was there in an _hour_ with the Lady, Bug. As for my current undertaking, I would as long as they legally agreed to not hold the villains to a standard they _themselves_ fail at utterly."

Panacea sighed as she got up to get herself some tea, leaving Glory Girl to ask, "Like what?"

"Like, 'Why did you kill that person who hadn't done anything to you, you murderer!' and, say, Break would go, 'They were going to shoot me with the shotgun they were holding!', and the PRT would go 'But they hadn't _said_ they were going to shoot you, and hadn't shot at you _yet_ so that's not self-defense, now give up because we're sending you to jail for murder! Unless, of course, you join us like Assault did when he was Madcap, then suddenly your 'crimes' don't matter!' It sounds stupid as all hell, but they tried to arrest Boardwalk for fighting Oni Lee, protecting the cops, and saving Missy and Dean, which is why he had to blast his way out of the Rig. While he did _that_ Miss Militia shot him in the back with what he thinks might've been an _RPG_ , when he hadn't even raised a weapon to them in return." I stopped myself from commenting that it was strikingly similar behavior to what her mother had shown.

"They _didn't_ ," she gasped in what I wasn't sure was real astonishment, it was so over the top.

"They probably did," Panacea called from the kitchen area. "I healed him afterwards, and while he's tougher than a regular person, he had rib fractures consistent with what that would inflict on a low ranked Brute."

I was pleasantly surprised that she was backing me up on this, but did my best to hide it. "So yeah, the next strike is at dawn tomorrow. The only reason I haven't sacked out was you two weren't home, and I only need a few hours rest to be fine. After that I'll probably put on a press conference, and then my schedule opens up a bit until the next bit of minor unpleasantness in a few days, but that's more of an annoying situation then the levels of holy shit that Bakuda unleashed."

Glory Girl nodded, before she stopped and shook her head. "But what _about_ Bakuda? If she's free couldn't she just make another computer?"

"Not a problem," I reassured.

"But," Glory Girl objected as her sister took a seat and sipped her tea, "How do you know that? Did you capture her already? Or do you know where she is?"

I replied automatically, my sense of snark with people I was trying not to view as potential enemies overriding my conscious control, "She's in Hell, probably," only to have Panacea spit her tea, splattering me. I reached over and grabbed a napkin, wiping the table and glad my costume was self-cleaning.

"She's dead!?" Glory Girl demanded to know.

"Uh. Officially? No comment. Unofficially, Break killed her the night she started her bombing spree. She'd captured Lady Bug, along with the Undersiders, and was starting to torture them when we got there. Neither of us take someone hurting our teammates well, but I was more focused on getting her out, while he was more focused on making sure that Bakuda never did that again. It's why the bombing hasn't been _nearly_ as effective as it should've been." I looked between the two of them, not understanding their surprise.

"There are _many_ reasons I claim the title hero while he proclaims himself to be a villain. Legally it was an _incredibly_ clear-cut case of self-defense as she'd already tried to kill him with ice and lightning bombs before he even touched her, probably the prototypes of what she gave Oni Lee." I mused. "My first instinct is to save people, his is to remove the reason they need to be saved. It doesn't make him evil, just. . . differently aligned."

"But, everyone got told that if you killed her, all the bombs went off!" Glory Girl objected.

I leaned back in my seat considering this. "By whom?" I finally asked. "The only people who should know that bit of misinformation are villains, along with my team."

She blinked, "Um, I don't know? I heard about it from Dean."

My image of the PRT, if it was possible, lowered even more. I wondered if it was Tom that told them, or if he'd not risk his identity as Coil to do so. "You know what this means right?"

"That Break could've set off _all_ the bombs!" she said, while her sister watched me, frowning. She probably saw it too.

I started to shake my head before I nodded grudgingly, "Okay, yeah, that. Though in his defense he was trying to protect his teammate and probably had forgotten that tidbit from the future we saw. It wasn't a really important point. I know I did. What it _also_ means is that the PRT knew about the Villain Truce _before_ my people announced it and did _nothing_. Nothing to help it, nothing to prevent it from going forward, nothing _at all_. If their sources were that good, they should've known I had a precog on staff, and didn't bother to even ask for some of my info even if just to double check it with their own."

Sighing, I checked the time. "If you two are going to be ready for medical support tomorrow you need to be asleep like five minutes ago. I'll end on this note: Every step along the way the PRT could've helped others or used the help of independents like me and your family. In reality, they did _nothing_ while hundreds died. It would've been thousands, if not for the efforts of your sister, and me to a lesser extent. _That_ Victoria, is why I don't go to the PRT unless I have to, because while they _might_ decide to help me, it's much more likely they'll stab me in the back."


	68. Milestone 7-2

**Milestone 7.2**

Once the sisters had headed off to bed, I returned to the computer room and logged in to the base's network. It wasn't until I talked to them that I realized I _probably_ should send a warning to Quinn, so he could set up a public announcement that everything was over. I wouldn't put it past the PRT to blatantly lie to the public and claim that the Protectorate were the ones that stopped the bombing. The unwashed masses, lazy and incurious as they were, tended to believe the first thing they heard. The sheer elitism of that statement made me wince, but also remember that 'a person is smart, people are stupid', scene from the first Men in Black movie.

With that done, I locked the door and started to try to navigate the labyrinthine computer system that the base ran on. It took me nearly three hours, but I _finally_ found the setting to isolate the system's data from Cauldron in the _internet_ connection of all things. Not the network connection, that was one of the first places I checked, but there was a separate program that connected the base's intranet to the Internet Service Provider, the name of which was just a string of. . . numbers. _God dammnit Herb._

I tried converting 22853766 using an alphanumeric cypher, but that didn't help, and the fact that it started and ended with doubles two different number made _no_ sense. _Another_ hour of slamming my head against the problem and I threw in the towel, taking out my phone to text Lisa to see if she knew what it was. She'd get to be smug, but I'd have an answer in about a minute, and that counted the 'I'm better than you' bragging she seemed incapable of refraining from. Honestly I should've done so earlier but I didn't want to encourage her habit of swinging her intellect around without, ironically, any thought of consequence.

As I selected her contact and the digitized phone display appeared I stopped and groaned. Grabbing a pad of paper, I wrote down the numbers, each numeral possibly three different letters, with the numbers possibly being a different one of the three each time.

Abukesmo?

That made no sense.

Batleson?

Did a secret base make us Batman? Did Batman _exist_ as a fictional character in this world?

Cavlernn?

A warning about Coil maybe?

I wanted to just give up and move onto something _productive,_ but I had the feeling that I was _finally_ onto something. There were eight numbers, enough to make a longer word. I'd played around with a one to one letter to number conversion. Making the two 2's a 22 or adding them up together in differing combinations to try to form words, but that didn't provide anything workable. It wasn't even necessarily what I needed to do, as eight letters was enough to make a decently long word.

That was, of course, assuming it wasn't a proper name, or even written in _English_. _No_ , I reassured myself. Everyone in Cauldron spoke English, so it was _probably_ in that language. Then again, with Cauldron it _could_ just be a random string of numbers. I wouldn't put it past hem to just label assets arbitrarily and only have their own records containing the knowledge of what they were. Even then, over twenty-two _million_ assets seemed like a bit much. I knew Cauldron was loaded, but that was _ridiculous._

All I wanted was to not have _all_ our secrets leaked to the people who could _not_ be trusted with them. Was that too much to ask? I assumed the ease of access I had after reading the manual, which had been switched around with all the tags that would let one _undo_ the switching removed, was due to Cauldron assuming that Herb would never spend the time to read it. They weren't exactly _wrong_ and this way they could keep tabs on him effectively while _technically_ giving him everything he needed to stop it if he wished. If there was one organization that _defined_ 'but you never asked' it was . . . Cauldron.

I stared at the number, with the phone drawn out below it, and the code started to fall into place. _Fucking Numberman_. I'm sure he thought this was a fucking joke. Our internet service provider? What 22853766 turned into if ran through that system?

Cauldron

Such a simple cypher he could probably read it like English, and Herb had decided to piss him off somehow. It was on our first, fucked up, 'hey, let's hold the idiot ball for points!' day, but still, what the hell did Herb _do_ to the man that would engender this level of douchebaggery _?_ At least the man had only mixed up the order of the manual and _added_ a bunch of useless things instead of removing important things. I hoped.

With the four hours I had left, I tried to decide what I should do next as I spun my chair. _I hadn't worked on fine-point control of insects in a bit_. Reaching past the base I grabbed a couple hundred and tried to work on that as I sat. My previous best was about eighty independent points of control, which is why I was surprised when all _two hundred and twenty-eight_ moved in perfect sync with my thoughts, each moving independently of the others. _What the hell?_ Grabbing more, I controlled those as well. Reaching farther afield and grasping even _more_ I found my new limit: _Four hundred and fifty seven_.

I sat there, trying to figure out what the heck happened to create an over eightfold increase in my ability to control insects. Was it my power? Unlimited Shard Works let me copy powers, but maybe my Abaddon Shard let me increase them in power as well? But Taylor's ability to control things independently _wasn't_ part of her power. I figured that it was a brain-side adaptation, with her having been forced into the deep end while I dipped my foot in occasionally. But why was I getting better _without_ working on it? Hell, I hadn't been using the power that actively, just piggybacking off Taylor's. . . oh.

Could my copying Taylor's use of the power be making my brain a bit more like hers? Was it restricted to just optimization of Bug Control, or was there more? Brains were finicky things; it's why I didn't blame Amy for being gun-shy about messing with them. That presented me with a problem: did I stop using the power in concert with Taylor or just plow on ahead and deal with whatever problems it created, hoping the benefits outweighed them? I knew Herb would go with latter, which immediately pushed me towards the former, but that didn't feel right either.

While the man was capable of _stunning_ feats of stupidity, that was more to do with his methodology than his intellect. If my brain was changing in larger ways, my thought patterns should have changed along with it. Letting the insects go, I realized I had a _great_ diagnostic for that. I had, after all, re-experienced my first day _after_ such changes would've happened. While I believed my actions _were_ idiotic in retrospect, they made sense when accounting for the Worst Day Ever effect.

The next time I slept I'd get a re-viewing of something more recent or something from before we got here, then if it still made sense my brain should be fine. If I couldn't understand why I'd done whatever I saw, then something had shifted, and I'd take actions to stop further changes. I sighed. _I really wish these powers came with a guide_.

Heading off to the workshop, I decided I might as well try different power combinations to see if anything interesting happened. Setting up Air Walls around, under, and above the cleared off test area and encapsulating it within a sound bubble, I got to work. Manifesting an orange sized sun, I pulled out my Darkness Propagation. From what I'd Seen of it, Grue's darkness should work like a less powerful but wider spectrum Stellar Negation, transferring the energy into another dimension instead of outright neutralizing it. Sure enough, it dumped the light and heat from the star I'd allowed to fill the space a foot around the sun, cooling the air, but it wasn't instant. Too much energy seemed to overwhelm the connection it made between this dimension and the one bereft of light his power connected to 'burning away' the 'darkness' as the power failed under the energy transfer requirements. If I couldn't _See_ what was happening, I'd probably go with that simplistic explanation.

Creating more of the dimensionally thinning effect to replace that which was overloaded and disrupted, I got the oddest sense of pushing against myself as my powers tried to counteract each other. Increasing the strength of the sun two feet away from me pushed the darkness back but pushing more darkness at it seemed to eat away at it, forcing me to push more power into it to keep it stable.

Cutting back on the power to the star, the darkness seemed to dive forward, syphoning off the power that kept the sun stable, shrinking it while my Stellar Creation power kept the now unstable sun from collapsing, moving the mass of it around with barely a thought needed on my part. The darkness continued to eat away at the star, pulling off more and more into that other direction, the stellar mass dumped there cut off from my power as it did so.

When I shifted a hand to Shadowform to see what would happen I felt my Immunity protect me from the blistering heat that existed there. Shifting an eye as well, I was disoriented as I saw two different version of my work area. Closing my un-shadowed eye, I saw area outside of the Air Walls was the normal, washed out view that I got in that form, but where Grue's darkness touched me, even unshadowed I was still colored. Creating a gap in the darkness around my other hand reduced it to the same washed out state at the rest of the room. What really drew my attention was as the Undersider's power ate away at Sundancer's, it was releasing an inferno that spread out across the workshop, vivid flames doing nothing to the bleached building as the passed through the seemingly solid matter without stopping.

With a bit of concentration I used Stellar Creation here as well, creating two overlapping stars as I opened my normal eye, the darkness letting me pour the sun into that other dimension. Trying to grow it there was a bit off, like trying to focus on an image while crossing my eyes, and I stopped as my control in the normal world slipped, the star there starting to warp. The sun in that shadowed area lost cohesion as I wrestled the one in the real world back and it exploded away from me into an inferno that passed up through the ceiling.

This had. . . possibilities, though I'd want to be somewhere more. . . blast resistant. I had a feeling if I shifted fully into Shadowform, my Aerokinesis would fail, and I might damage the workshop if I lost control of a sun.

Second test was creating a blade of air and trying to merge it with a star. If I could make a star blade with the sharpness of my air one, that would just be ridiculous. While I kept the heat of the sun contained to its surface, as soon as the star touched the compressed air the weapon exploded violently in my face. Stellar Creation took control of the flames, condensing them into the small star I'd originally made but did nothing to the kinetic shockwave as the force slammed me back-first into the wall, the force of the impact damaging the wall as the air it was made of unraveled, blowing me forward.

The rush of wind hit the star and caught fire in _another_ conflagration, my eyes widening as I _SLAMMED_ down my Stellar Negation, dissipating the star and the flames. The force of the secondary explosion slamming me backwards into the wall _again_ , the wall weakening further as the air it was made from broke free of my control and shoved me back to the land in the center of the test space.

I lay there, on my back, wheezing as I regained my breath. My spine and ribs hurt, my shields not able to recharge in the short interval between impacts. My right hand, still wreathed in shadow, was perfectly fine, as was my head, the crystallized shield covering it holding strong. Sitting up, I held my left hand up and mentally pulled back my glove. The flesh underneath was mottled with bruises, but not _nearly_ as much as it should've been. From what I'd seen of other's injuries from that level of force working with Panacea my bones should be broken or at least have bone-deep bruising from that level of force, but while flexing my hand hurt, it didn't hurt _enough._ Even as I inspected the damage the bruising started to slowly but visibly shift colors, healing _far_ faster than was normal. Flexing again, my hand was still injured, but at this rate I'd be fine in an hour.

 _I don't have a healing power, do I?_ I hadn't copied one I could use on myself, and I wasn't directing this to happen, it just was. Even Stellar Negation _could_ be argued to be an active power, though it was mostly subconsciously controlled. Power Sight protected my eyes, but that seemed to be it for physical effects. USW wouldn't be the source and Immunity didn't heal, it just made me, well immune. That just left Peak Condition.

 _Does the power consider me being injured as not being in 'peak condition' and heals me?_ Abaddon Shards were supposed to push powers beyond their original levels, but how do you push being in the greatest shape possible even further? Keeping you in said shape when that shape got damaged, apparently.

I stood up and let out a deep breath which felt. . . off. I was immune to disease and poison, but it probably still wasn't a good idea to breathe bad air. The base's ventilation would take care of it, though I hadn't found out where they were located for repairs yet. Opening one of the air walls to vent whatever I was breathing the experimentation area depressurized with a small gust. Blinking, I formed a seat of air to figure that out. Did the sun create mass? It had to, that would explain a slight overpressure if it was still around, but I'd dismissed it. Did Grue's power create wind or something, maybe to move itself forward. Re-sealing the chamber, I paid close attention with my Aerokinesis as I used Shadow Propagation.

No, while it did seem to create extra mass, displacing the air, it undid that when the power dispersed. If anything it _removed_ air, but in absolutely tiny amounts. Dismissing my seat to pace I felt the pressure in the chamber rise above normal as the solidified air blew down and away, dispersing into chamber, upping the pressure. I only noticed the change because I was actively _looking_ for it. Freezing I reformed the seat, the pressure dropping as the air around the seat was pulled to form it, the streams of air moving carefully so as not to touch me.

I groaned as I dropped back into the seat. _Right dumbass, you're in an air-tight space making things **out of air**. Where did you **think** it was coming from?_ Opening up a few holes in the ceiling I let the pressure equalize as I turned back to what I was doing. So, apparently the air constructs were explosive if they touched flame, which made a bit of sense now that I thought about it. If the walls were damaged the gas I'd pressurized to make them expanded outwards from the impact site, further lessening the impact. This meant however that theoretically, or not so theoretically as I'd seen, if the air was heated, say by contact with sufficiently hot fire, then it would ignite the surface of the construct, damaging it slightly, which would release the air, which would then ignite, which would damage it more, which would release more air, which would _also_ ignite, and so on. _Cascade failures **sucked**. _

I looked around at the _highly flammable_ box I'd put myself in and realize that I needed a better place to test powers _pronto_. Maybe a giant, metal, non-flammable box? But wait, I'd used my sword against Oni Lee, hadn't it been hit by fire then? Dismissing the box, I felt as the air swept out, twisting and curving around everything so the breeze didn't touch anything in the room on its own, rendering the process invisible to the naked eye. I created the blade and covered it in a malleable shield, flinching as I ignited the purple and red phantom flames that combo caused as a by-product. _They aren't real flames dumbass._

Creating the smallest star I could, nothing more than a particularly bright and hot floating ember, I dropped it down onto the blade of my sword. While I did this, I made ready to shut down the flames and hold the air in place to stop the force of the explosion _like I should've the first time._ The fire rested on the shield covering the blade and I could feel the forcefield wavering as it tried to deal with the heat. After I dismissed the star-speck I cooled the area and dispelled the blade immediately afterwards.

Grabbing an _actual_ chair, I leaned back and groaned. "This shit never happened to Taylor," I complained. _Then again, she almost never experimented with her powers outside of combat._ I only had a couple hours before I needed to get up and moving. I _didn't_ want to go do this. After today, yesterday, whatever, I wanted to take a couple days off and re- _lax_ , but the bombings were ongoing and then we'd have the E88 BS, and _then_ it was the run up until Levi the Speedster Kaiju dropped by for a cup of wanton destruction. _Ugh._

In return for my efforts however: Amy wasn't going to self-destruct, Victoria was actually taking things seriously, Taylor was a _hero_ like she should've been, and Purity's plotline had been _thoroughly_ derailed. Also, there were those kids. I tried not to think of them too hard, but their faces when the hospital staff had been taking them off the skiff rose unbidden into my mind. _They_ hadn't been in the original story, but here they were, and I _saved_ them. _What else is waiting out there?_

I wondered clinically if they'd been killed by their tormentors when the ABB fell, the scene of that utter and complete evil cleaned up so no-one had found out what they'd done, or if they'd died to Leviathan. Maybe they'd escaped but, just like in real life, the organized pedophilic sex slavery never made it to the mainstream news _for some reason_ , so Taylor never heard about it. In the end it didn't matter, I'd found them, and they were going to be okay. I left myself a note to check back in that they _were_ okay after Levi. If they weren't I was going to find out _why_ , and if the reasons weren't good enough _Boardwalk_ would be paying some people a visit. The PRT already had it out for him, a few assassinations weren't going to make that any worse.

* * *

Herb walked in, suited up as I was finishing up pancakes. "Sit, eat," I told him. "The teams are meeting in half an hour, there's no reason to fight on an empty stomach."

He stood there, staring at me, and I ignored him as I plated them onto the serving dish. I sat down and put some on my plate when he moved past me to the coffee pot and poured himself a mug. He didn't say anything while we ate, only giving a brusk, "Thanks man," as he dropped his dishes in the sink and left.

Checking up on the sisters showed they'd ended up in the same bed again. Waking Panacea up, she looked at me blearily as I told her when we were starting the raid, to be ready by then, and that I'd left pancakes for her and Vicky. I spoke quietly, but when I mentioned breakfast her sister stirred.

"Huh, what?" she asked, "Someone say pancakes?"

Rolling my eyes, I left the base and lifted off to meet Taylor. Pinging her with my Bug Sense to locate her, when I caught sight of her she was already suited up, looking at me as I dipped down into the alley and holding an arm up. I caught it and wrapped her in a Lift Field, weightlessly pulling her alongside me without slowing down. "You okay?" I asked. With her helmet on I couldn't read her expression, and she hadn't started dumping her emot- oh there they were. Nervousness, anticipation, resignation, and hope. Completely understandable. I stopped paying attention to them as I reassured her, "This should be the last one." She let out a deep sigh of relief.

"Good. Yesterday was. . ." she trailed off.

"Yeah," I wholeheartedly agreed. "Glad we did it, hope I don't have to again anytime soon."

She nodded, and we flew in silence before she reached over and lightly hit my arm with her free hand. "Can't believe you left me like that yesterday. Jerk."

"What?" I shrugged, shifting her in mid-air with the movement to her mild annoyance. "Did _you_ want to explain to your father why a man in his twenties, that your dad didn't know, was sitting next to his fifteen-year-old daughter, on the couch, with the tv off, in a darkened house? 'cause I sure didn't!"

"You're a hero. Doesn't that mean you're supposed to be brave?" she asked dryly, voice tinged with a smile.

Another shrug. I ignored her complaint as I reminded her, "Hey, do or die combat scenarios, I'm your guy. Social awkwardness? I hit that stuff head on with blunt honesty, for better or worse. I personally believe that to be almost always better, but then again if someone can't deal with it I tend to just not deal with _them_. You don't have that option and I wouldn't want to put you in that kind of situation. Let's be honest here, with how well your dad deals with stress, my methods would have almost _assuredly_ made things worse for you at home, and I don't want that _._ "

She didn't say anything else, so I figured she realized I was right. Focusing back on the task at hand, the smirk that had crept onto my face left. Landing with a few minutes before we were supposed to start, the entire crew was standing around. Well, minus the Nazis, but they'd probably show up right on time so they didn't have to make small talk with the 'little people'. They gathered around us as I nodded to each in turn. "Golem, Newter, Sundancer, Snake Snipers, everyone ready for this? My contacts said this should be the last one. We, and Break's team, have the primary locations, warehouses with drug packing operations, while Æonic's team has the secondary. The Undersider/Merchant team has the tertiary. That means we're probably going to find Bakuda's Lab, but it also means we're going to run into Lung, Oni Lee, or _both_."

Sundancer flinched when I mentioned the bomber, and I focused on her. "If they show up, go big and you'll be fine. If you feel like you can't do this, I won't hold it against you Sundancer, but you're part of the team and we wouldn't be as effective without you."

Newter put a hand on her shoulder, and she stiffened before her stood up straight as she looked back into his concerned eyes. "Boss-man's right. If ya want to sit this one out, I won't be mad." He grinned, "I'll miss the eye candy though."

She smacked his arm away, but she couldn't stop smiling in return. "You're not getting rid of me that much lizard-brain. You'd slip on your own slime and get yourself hurt." She turned to me, obviously scared but putting that aside. _Good_. "I'm ok for one more. Th-thanks for getting Panacea to heal me."

"You're my teammate," I told her surprised that she hadn't gotten it already. "Of course I'd do everything I could to help."

I looked at the other two. "Same offer for you guys, if you want to bail it'd suck, but I'd understand."

"You just want all the cute girls to yourself!" Newter mock-complained. "I'm in."

"I'm not sure," Golem admitted as we looked at him. I didn't prod or ask, just waited for his response. "It'd be dangerous," he reasoned, seeming to wilt under my steady gaze.

"I'm still going, and I'm not wearing a tank bro," Newter pointed out.

That seemed to make up Golem's mind, and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at his weak will as he said, "I'm in too."

I looked at the snipers. "Do I need to ask?" They shook their heads. "Good. Now all we need is the lead loser and his choosers and we can get started."

"Choosers?" Taylor asked, confused.

"Valkyrie means choosers of the slain, because they chose which of the dead go to Valhalla, and to a lesser extent who died in battle in Norse mythology," I explained. I had been running out of things to call Kaiser and tried to find some Valkyrie themed insult. Sadly, I couldn't find anything that _really_ worked, but rhymes were always a good fallback.

Speaking of which, there was a significant lack of Nazis in the area, which for once _wasn't_ a good thing. I checked my time and he should be here any second. Piggybacking off Taylor's network, I couldn't see him on foot, and I couldn't spot his Limo either. Checking my phone again, he was now _late_. Wasting another minute looking around, there was _still_ no sign of him. I made sure I was connected to the network, but he hadn't sent me an e-mail saying he wasn't coming. I listened, but I didn't hear the gunfire that should've been apparent if he'd tried to pre-empt us. There was a possibility that he'd meet us at the target, but it wasn't something that was likely enough to plan on.

I addressed the team, "Looks like Richie Reich isn't coming, which sucks since he makes a good bullet sponge." I thought about the building and its entrances. "Okay, new plan. You four start to move towards the target. I'll drop off our Snipers at their location with Lady Bug keeping us all in contact. Golem, you take the front, Newter, use him for cover, same as before. They're not monsters like the last group, but they still will kill you if given the opportunity. Slime if you can, but don't take risks, and make sure you know who you get. If you're not sure, slime them again in case they're faking. Sundancer, you set up stars on the routes that reinforcements might take, Lady Bug will direct you. That won't be able to stop the big two, but if they show up _I'll_ face them. Lady Bug, find a building nearby, get in it, and hide."

"I can help," she insisted earnestly, Newter glanced over at her, surprised by that for some reason.

I looked at her, feigning confusion. I understood what she meant but didn't show it as I said, "You are, by managing the Swarm, keeping us in contact, scouting, and more. You don't need to physically fight them, that's what Golem, myself, and to a lesser extent Newter are for. If they can't see you, they can't hurt you, and if they can't find you I don't need to worry about protecting you while I focus on the task at hand. Without the Empire, I'm going to need to get serious." I took out my fake Tinkertech handle, having added more complex designs to its casing with Kaiser's power while I'd made breakfast, and condensed an air blade. Wrapped in Grue's Shadow Propagation, it was then encapsulated with a crystallized force field, the weapon forming silently. A pure black blade that seemed to drink in the light sprouted from the metal in my hands; flames so dark their color was obscured licked down its length.

"Dude, I want," Newter breathed as he stared at the sword, both snipers nodding in agreement.


	69. Milestone 7-3

**Milestone 7.3**

With the Snipers dropped off, I tried to look through the insects without Taylor's assistance, the four of them still some distance away. It was a lot harder, and unless I focused all I got were vague impressions, but concentrating on the building we were after that was enough. A large central room dominated the space filled with long tables where naked people, adults this time, _thank god_ , worked diligently to pack white powder into tiny bags. _Aren't Drugs the Merchant's shtick?_ I thought but looking at the process the baggies were being packed into boxes, which were then packed into _other_ boxes containing what looked like sticks of incense.

 _This isn't for here_ , I realized. If it _were_ they wouldn't need the fake packaging. This was to send somewhere _else_. Reading the labels with a few insects I saw that some were heading to other places in New Hampshire, some in Vermont, and a few in Massachusetts. I reminded myself that Lung, before he was a big flashy rage dragon, was _Yakuza_ , and they tended not to think small. I wasn't sure _exactly_ what taking out the ABB would mean, but apparently it would disrupt criminal activity throughout the _state_ , and some of the adjacent ones as well. _Good._

Turning my attention back to the warehouse, I checked the rooms, getting blurry images, only to find several with odd light patterns. Concentrating, I saw what looked between an engineer's shop and a sci-fi movie set and relaxed minutely. _Got it._ I wasn't near good enough to figure out how to determine what traps I vaguely remembered Bakuda having but noticed that one of the walls in the lab had been torn down, allowing one to get in without having to go up the stairs, which seemed to be the only way in or out the lab's placement had originally allowed.

Releasing my concentration, I saw both snipers looking at me. "Everything copacetic?" the slightly taller one asked, voice gravelly but concerned.

I nodded. "There's a Tinker Lab inside, I think this is the place. Don't open fire until they start firing on Golem."

The one who asked nodded while the other just told me, "Teach your mother to suck eggs," with what sounded like an Arabic accent.

Hugging the rooftops, I headed back to the group as they made their way in and were about to cross the line from Merchant to ABB territory. Tapping into Taylor's Network was like switching to HD, everything around me coming into focus, including the ambush that was being prepared two blocks away. "Taylor," I whispered to the Swarm. "I'll take care of the approach, stay with the rest until you're in sight of the building, then make sure you aren't spotted when you break off. Tell the others to keep going but to keep an eye out."

She nodded, getting the attention of the others, and relayed my order while I came up on the gathered ABB. Taking my sword handle back out, I reformed the black blade. The group below me looked nervous, and if I'd had time I'd've tried to scare them off, but I could see a second group already forming. Dropping silently on the six from above, they didn't spot me until I'd dropped on the largest of them and my blade sliced through his skull. Keeping the shield from discharging immediately took a bit of concentration, but I could spare it as I swiftly shot forward, blade swinging and bisecting them all before they could do more than yelp in surprise, though I did drain the malleable shield covering my sword arm to power a blow _through_ one of their rifles.

They fell to the ground in a mess of viscera, and I took a second to quickly mercy-kill the one that hadn't died or gone into shock instantly but no longer had the lung capacity to do more than wheeze. The least I could grant her was a swift death. _If only they'd gone to the PRT._ At the strength that I was swinging my weapon, I wondered idly if a normal blade would hold up under the strain, flicking my weapon to remove the blood from the surface and lifting off to do it again.

The second ambush I ambushed, eight people this time, drained the shield on my sword as my blade bit into an armored vest hidden under a hoody, the sudden resistance surprising me. With barely a sound other than a wet _squelch_ the man seemed to burst backwards from the point of my strike, showering the wall with gore. The last ABB, an older woman, dropped her weapon and held her arms up, speaking in a language I didn't understand.

 _Shit,_ I thought. While I could justify it if they were armed, this was a bit too far, especially with conscripts. The fact she was a woman _shouldn't_ have mattered, gender equality and all that, but it still kinda did. We were two streets over from my team's route, only a few minutes until contact with our target. I stowed my weapon as I sighed, floating over to her as she shrank in on herself, freezing in fear. Taking the pistol from her belt, I ejected the magazine and cycled the slide, just in case she had one in the chamber. She didn't. With my strength I crushed the pistol, kneading the metal out into a long rod. Grabbing her hand and leading her to a dumpster, I threaded the ill-formed rod through the handle before carefully wrapping it around her wrist, tying her there without further hurting her. Either I'd get her when I was done, or someone else would, but she should be out of action until the fight was over.

Checking back in through the network as I reformed the sword from the handle and left the ABB woman behind. I saw that there were several people, almost none in ABB colors, getting weapons ready in the buildings around us while a couple of ABB ran around inside several buildings, banging on doors and yelling in that same language. _Spotters_. They were the ones who saw us coming and started warning people. This many people, this spread out, was not something I could neutralize in time without showing just how dangerous I was with a gun, which I wanted to avoid. Even then, I'd need to bring out Militia's power to do so, which I _really_ wanted to avoid.

Flying high I pulled more of the Swarm in from outside Taylor's range, bolstering my team-mate's toolset. "Lady Bug, time to go on the offensive. Don't kill if you can avoid it, but I think a few dozen wasp stings or spider bites will distract the ABB from shooting us."

" ** _Will do_**," the Swarm buzzed around me. " ** _Thanks_** ," it added, and I paused to figure that out. _She must've thought I'd expect her to neutralize targets like I was._ I shook my head, reminding myself to explain how her power was _so_ much better for handling these things then mine, or even of my use of hers.

I felt her expand and grow throughout the area, shifting from passive perception to assuming direct control. The Swarm coalesced as all of the hundreds upon thousands of insects that pervaded the city turned their collective attention on the ABB. I'd done a good job of hitting my targets before they could get a shot off, so the noise that announced my team's presence was the screams of the ABB, _almost_ drowned out by the buzzing of the Swarm.

Flying above the streets, I saw through Taylor's eyes as the ABB that gathering around our target, actually less than our second raid, was hit by the insectile tide, organized groups devolving into chaos. Most had lost all interest in fighting, some falling to the ground while others scrabbled to flail futily at the insects that ran across their bodies, killing some, but each dead insect attracted Taylor's attention to be replaced by two more that were twice as vicious. At their current rate we would eventually run out if insects to throw out them. In a day. Or three.

Some however had taken slightly proactive measures, clothed in tight fitting clothing and wearing motorcycle helmets. They formed the core of the disciplined group inside that was threatening the others but were having limited success. The fact that Taylor'd fallen back from the group, using a mass of insects to unlock the door to an empty apartment a full block away made the few the core group rallied absolutely useless to stopping the Swarm.

Sundancer had peeled off from the team as well, setting up suns and following Taylor's directions on where to go to avoid gang-members on her circuitous route around the perimeter. The Snipers were taking shots where they could, mostly shooting downed ABB, killing those already incapacitated. Golem and Newter were moving to storm the front as I'd asked, taking a little fire from those still able to concentrate, but a protracted burst from Golem's Light Machine Gun shredded them.

Nodding to myself high in the air, I spoke to the Swarm around me, "Lady Bug, Bakuda's trapped her lab. I don't remember exactly how, but I think they're in the stairway up to it. Can you find it for me?"

The Swarm lessened in intensity for a moment, returning to full furor as she said, " **Here. What should I do?**"

I smiled as I responded, "Well, she's gone to the trouble of making them, might as well use them. Trip them please." She gathered small parts of the Swarm around the hemispherical bulges in the wall along the stairway, the traps matching the color around them and each no bigger than a piece of candy. If it wasn't for Taylor's insects, I doubted _anyone_ would've noticed until it was too late. Best to get rid of them know then trust the PRT to do so. Knowing them, they'd try to blame us for the explosive traps protecting the ABB's _bomb tinker lab._

There was a series of fiery explosion that consumed the stairway in flame, blowing out the exterior wall in a jagged, segmented line along the length of the passage. "Thanks," I nodded, dropping down toward the roof of the warehouse. The resistance had gathered in the main room, long tables with bricks of white powder ignored as they formed a defensive ring, three of them wielding _flamethrowers_ that were thinning the insects in the area.

I gave the remaining bugs a push to leave as the metallic roof flew up to meet me. Throwing my free hand forward, I punched a hole in the roof without slowing, landing on the commander in the center with a stomp and the sound of a large portions of his bones breaking from the force of the impact, starting with his skull. I almost casually swept my sword out, cutting open the back mounted tanks two of the flame-throwing ABB used. The pressurized liquid shot out, splattering all of us and covering us in the flammable fluid.

The ABB panicked and turned to shoot as others cried out something in an Asian language. Whatever they said didn't matter, as I smiled and snapped my fingers, creating a tiny sun next to my foot which set the liquid aflame. All was consumed in fire as they were burned by the very weapons they used. The intact flamethrower tank exploding when the fire reached it. I deflected most of the shrapnel before it hit me, one piece catching my hip and draining the shield on my left leg. The others weren't as lucky.

I casually strode out of the inferno, and commanding in a loud and just a tad supernaturally carrying voice "Lay down your weapons and leave, and you will not be harmed."

Those insensate with from the insectile onslaught kept flailing, but they weren't my concern. Most of those that retained their faculties complied, tossing down their guns and turning tail when the Swarm pulled back from them. A few by one doorway hesitated, and the bravest, or most foolish, raised her weapon, assault rifle sending a burst of lead my way. It missed without me having to do anything else. I took off, closing the distance as she fired two more bursts. The second I nudged out of the way, while two of the three of the last hit, but impacted two separate shields. I was on her and focusing on keeping the blade stable I cut her shoulder to hip, bisecting her weapon as well.

Her eyes went wide before they went distant, shock knocking her out a few seconds before blood-loss would, her body falling in two pieces to the ground. The others around her quickly dropped their weapons in the two-second pause I gave them, turning tail with the rest.

Checking the rest of the building, everyone seemed to be running or down, the problem they presented solved. " **Vejovis! Here!**" Taylor called, gathering the Swarm to a room in an adjacent building. The person was on the ground, screaming, which was unfortunately the norm. I realized that they weren't slapping at the bugs on them though, they were holding their head.

 _Shit_.

The young man writhed as his form twisted and distorted, the insects around him warping, ripping themselves apart, and popping as something mutated their forms. The effect spread, the others in the building contorting and distorting. The children, and two infants, died horribly as the adult screamed in pain and horror. What Taylor' Swarm had inflicted was _nothing_ on this, their voices twisting chaotically as I lost visual. Some changed to bass-y roar, other heightening to a shriek, but _all_ were full to bursting with _pain_.

The effect cut out, and bugs flew back in, spotting the things that used to be human to collect themselves, eyes rolling with rage and terror, all spark of intelligence seemingly gone. "Lady Bug, Relay to team," I commanded, flying out a blacked-out window to try to meet these creatures head on. "Possible monsters incoming. Don't strike until you know they're hostile but be careful."

Golem and Newter took a defensive stance while Sundancer sprinted for an empty lot, creating a small constellation around her as she ran. A horrific bat-like creature burst out of a window, all harsh angles and tightly pulled skin over skeletal wings as she flew towards me, pulling up short a car-length away as she stared at me. Studying the thing I saw her eyes, pulled back and up to the sides of her triangular head seemed to be milky white. I felt an itch and realized she was giving off a seeming constant whine from holes down it's sides. My power was not letting this reverberating, hypersonic sound past the surface of my skin.

 _Echolocation?_ I raised a hand and quietly told what used to be a mother of at least two, "You've been hit by one of Bakuda's Bombs and it's changed you. I'm friends with Panacea, she should be able to help." _Please be able to understand me_ , I prayed. Killing those that were trying to kill me was one thing, but this woman had been hiding in her bathroom with her two young children, both now dead. If I could help her, I would.

The others that had been warped watched us from the windows, varied forms barely fitting indoors as alien eyes studied me. The one in front of me shrieked again, louder, and I flinched, but stayed where I was. Keeping the sound going in my ear, I played with the sound, trying to understand it. The Bat-woman in front of me repeated the sound I held a hand up, saying, "Please wait." Dropping the pitch got something odd, and I twisted and changed the sound, hoping against hope that it _was_ speaking, and I wasn't just fooling myself.

It didn't make another sound, just flapped its great wings as I worked. It took nearly a minute, the bugs on my collar hearing the sound as I worked it, telling Taylor what I was doing. She informed everyone to hold position, giving me time to work. I _thought_ I had something, but it was muddied, probably due to how many times I modified the sound. I swung my hand in a circular gesture asking, "Once more please," and it shrieked again.

Capturing the sound, I lowered the pitch and compressed the sound, turning the long screech into a single, simple, distorted plea.

"Help me."

I breathed a sigh of relief, tension draining from my shoulders. "I can," I smiled. "Bakuda's lab was in that building and the PRT will be here soon. I'll call Panacea and she'll hea-"

I was cut off by a roar in the distance. Looking at it I saw a large, steel colored shape wreathed in flames flying over the city, headed for Herb's location. He could handle himself, I needed to save these people. I looked back at the woman as I heard a single crack of gunfire. Coil's sniper team had fired, shooting the woman, her head exploding into a shower of gore as her body dropped out of the air.

" ** _No!_** " I cried, stunned at what just happened, " **I** **could've _sav_** -"

A large creature that was once a young woman leapt at me. Her quadrupedal form, easily as large as one of bitch's dogs and just as dangerous. She collided with me while I was still shocked at what had just happened. Her weight overcame my flight and bore me to the ground, shields flaring as they absorbed the impact when I hit the ground. Her jaws closed around my head, teeth trying to pierce my skull, but my crystallized shield barely held.

Swinging up to kick it in the gut, the pressure lessened. I smacked it in the chest with my still-shielded hand, discharging the forcefield to throw it up and off to give me a second. As I flew up to right myself a deluge of foul smelling liquid hit me. It did nothing, but from the way the ground around me sizzled, I assumed it was acidic. Looking over to the frog-thing that was once an old man hiding with his wife and grandson not even five minutes ago I pleaded "Please, stop, we can-" but there was another crack and the largest blister-looking thing on his back burst open, covering him in a different substance then what he'd sprayed me with and he _screamed_ as it caught fire, burning him. When a second crack opened up another blister and its contents hit the bright blue flames covering his body, and he exploded.

 _I was going to have a talk with those two,_ I vowed, _and unless they have a **damned** good reason they're not going to survive._

Golem and Newter were holding their own, forced to kill the victims that came after them, and when a scaled monstrosity that used to be a middle-aged man tried to launch itself off of rooftop to land on Sundancer, he didn't hit the ground. The stars around her flew up and caught him, burning him to ash before returning to their old positions around her.

A large mantis-like creature that was a young woman froze before flying off and taking cover behind a building, going unnaturally still. Finding I could see through its eyes, I understood that its form was insectile enough that it fell under Taylor's domain, who was keeping her out of the line of fire, even as I also felt the mantis-woman's mind trying futily to try to throw herself back into the fight to kill me, overwhelming rage coursing through its mind.

"Thanks Lady Bug," I called, "Hide her and the PRT will help her when we're done." Re-igniting my sword I dodged the long, stinger-tipped tongue of a bird-like creature that used to be a young man, slicing the appendage off. I hesitated a beat, hoping he'd retreat, but he launched himself at me, using his wings to shift his pounce mid-air as I dodged.

Using my own flight, I also shifted mid-air and dodged that as well, missing the metallic looking talons by inches and slicing my blade deep into his side, not stopping as I continued past his corpse to intercept a creature whose segmented shell danced with lightning that was heading for Golem. The electricity jumped from what used to be an old woman into my blade as I buried it in a gap, arms twitching when an arc hit it. The energy that leapt towards the weapon was sucked into the darkness before it touched the compressed gas of the blade. I mentally uncoupled the blade from the handle, breaking off the still recharging forcefield from it. Flying backwards I dismissed the darkness, leaving a blade of solid air piercing its shell.

The lightning arced and hit the construct, detonating it. Shell cracked in a meaty detonation as it was torn in half, killing it as quickly as I could manage. Interestingly, it seemed to explode entirely in the direction it'd first caught fire in, leaving almost undamaged flesh on the far side. Looking around as I created another blade, the fight was already finished. Over two dozen monstrous corpses lay strewn in the street, more victims of Bakuda's malignance. At least the Mantis-woman was safe, in the same building as Taylor but a few apartments over, delicately closing the window shades before it stood in the center of the room stock-still.

I heard another of Lung's roars, still far away, only for the reverberating rumble of a Tyrannosaurus Rex to reply. _He's fighting Herb_ , _good._ With that problem fully handled, hopefully Charlie had ensnared Oni Lee and we could put this entire thing behind us.

One of the bodies twitched, clawed fingers suddenly writhing and lashing out. I caught a blow on my arm, draining the shield before I sliced it in half, stopping the death-spasms. The snipers took another shot and I felt something impact my head as the crystallized shield around my head discharged, having taken a high-caliber sniper round to the side of my skull.

Attention now _firmly_ on them, ready to deflect another shot if it came, I listened in as the spotter gruffly told the one who pulled the trigger, "Told you it wouldn't work."

The one who had just attempted to murder his teammate with friendly fire just shrugged. "Had to try. You heard Coil. Moudeer's orders, what can you do?"

 _Yeah, I'm gonna kill them_ I decided, lifting up. They started to get nervous as I approached, and with _damn good reason_. The trigger-man was telling his partner how he was going to shoot me again, the spotter saying they could claim they missed, when a familiar streak of washed out Grey and Red passed behind them, leaving three people on that rooftop instead of two. The top of the building detonated in fire as I followed the power to its position on another rooftop a block away, the demon-masked ninja staring right back at me.

"Motherfucker."

x

x

x

 **A/N:** I post this on story on Spacebattles and Sufficitent Velocity. I also occasionally write up informational posts that respond to readers, explain things, and work on Worldbuilding to patch the holes Wildbow left in his setting. The collection of them can be found here: forums dot spacebattles dot com/threads/abaddon-born-e-worm-cyoa.593017/19/reader


	70. Milestone 7-4

**Milestone 7.4**

Oni Lee's power blurred towards me as the clone stared, but I was already swinging as I turned. His power streaked away as I bisected the Oni Lee behind me, both haves spinning off before they exploded in lightning and fire below me. I twisted, sword leading as another Oni Lee appeared behind me once again, repeating the process, bullets from the SMG spewing from a clone on the nearby rooftop were nudged and missed as they riddled the two pieces of the clone behind me. If I could keep my eyes on him I could See his power, but the Swarm had no such enhancement.

Taylor warned the other three as I faced the assassin. Newter and Golem took cover inside the warehouse while the suns around Sundancer grew to the size of beachballs. A pure white sun appeared above her hands and grew rapidly as it seemed to roar, the edges of the empty lot catching fire, followed by the paint on the surrounding buildings.

Three more Oni Lees appeared around me, pulling pins as déjà vu washed over me. I wanted to lash out as I had last time, destroying them easily with Light, but I _couldn't_. Instead I swung out with my sword, breaching the fire grenade on one's vest, the inferno passing over and obscuring us as I used Air Control to slam the one who had pulled the electric grenade backwards, detonating out of range of me. The clones were replaced by four more, _all_ of them pulling electric grenades. _Fuck._

Remembering the crab-person, I condensed air in a shell around me, the lightning from all four grenades arching out, hitting the other Oni Lees before it reached in towards me from every direction. As the tendrils of electricity impacted the edge of the shield it exploded outwards in flame, destroying the clones and rebuffing the attack in a blast-wave that sent the sources of the electricity spinning off before they turned to carbon ash.

As the last of the condensed air burnt up, it exploded inwards, but I was able to grab hold of the air and lessen the force to the point that it didn't drain my shields. Through the Swarm I watched Oni Lees appear in the warehouse, quickly finding Golem and Newter. Golem opened fire, riddling several clones with bullets as another appeared underneath him. It spasmed as Newter swept his hand out, a thin line of slime flying out and smacking the clone in the chest, the grenade he'd pulled falling nervelessly from his fingers. Newter twisted, armored tail smacking the grenade and sending it at another clone where it exploded in cold, freezing the Oni Lee solid. I hoped that got him, but I felt insects appear in my sense as four more Oni Lees were created in quick succession as the frozen ninja fell apart into snow.

Looking at the warehouse Oni Lee's power streaked to the side of a building, where he appeared hanging onto a windowsill, head snapping up and looking at me. His power lanced my way a half-second before I felt more phantom insects appear above me, the real ones on another rooftop. The assassins pulled their guns as one and opened fire, bullets coming down like supersonic hail.

In that half-second I had I brought my sword up, taking the force-field clad air blade and expanding it into a dark wall between us, protecting myself like I'd protected Vicky from Herb. The bullets struck down at the ad-hoc umbrella, the force of individual impact not passing the threshold to drain The crystalline barrier. The clones closest to me actually landed on the disk, rolling off of it while reloading to try to shoot me as they dropped past it, but ashing before they could get the chance, their time up.

Three more Oni Lees appeared around me, the original again having moved out of the way to watch. These three had knives drawn and swung. With the last of the clones above me still firing I had to leave my weapon in place and move around it. I punched one, caving his skull in and ashing him while a second stabbed my leg, draining my shield around it but doing no damage. The third swept his for my eyes and I twisted out of the way, but its blade still cut deeply into my cheek, slicing my tongue. The shield that normally protected my head hadn't recharged from taking a sniper-round before, leaving me vulnerable. I felt the line of pain down my face as the blade was yanked down through my flesh, spiking in white hot agony as it bounced off my teeth and angled up to cut the roof of my mouth. My free hand flashed out with conscious thought, killing that clone before it could try again. The blade it held dissipated and filled my mouth with the choking taste of ash.

The one by my leg swung again as gravity pulled him down, but pulling my legs up took me out of range as I focused past the pain. He pulled a grenade from his bandolier and tossed it right as he ashed, but the grenade was reduced to grey powder before it could detonate. Retracting my new shield back to its sword form, I turned as the one watching me popped to a nearby rooftop. "Boardwalk?" the ninja asked, accent heavy and voice rusty from disuse.

"We have friend in common," I spat, blood dripping from my mouth as I could almost feel my check start to heal. I used the lull to pull my pistol in my free hand, adding Speed Zones as I fired at him. The clone's throat exploded in blood and ash as it died, and I turned to follow him to his new location, firing without looking, killing clone after clone until my gun clicked empty. Tossing the gun to the side as he made a few more clones before seeing that I'd stopped firing. Clones appeared with knives drawn as they fell upon me.

"Tinkertech." They said as one, as if stating a conclusion, aiming not to land on me, but pass by me with their knives, spaced out so some would intercept me as the fell.

I twisted through the rain of ninjas, killing some but mostly just dodging. "Like you have room to talk!" I rebuked, tearing the grenade off of one as it tried to slice my arm. I pulled the pin with my teeth and threw it towards where the real one stood, killing the clone he left behind in a blast of high explosives. The pin dissolved, once again filling my mouth with ash.

Several more appeared around me, knives drawn as Oni Lee moved to the ledge of the now-burning building and looked down at my teammate. His clone pulled grenades and tossed them down one after another towards the man-sized white cylinder that Sundancer must've been hiding under, but they all exploded from the heat before they could get close enough to do damage. I assumed Marissa was hiding under the largest star, the only insects in that area were the ones Taylor'd slipped in her suit when we started this raid.

In the pause between waves I summoned my lost gun to me with bug-filled air, grabbing it and one handedly reloading it. An Oni Lee that had been watching me with his gun pointed upwards fired it as soon as I grasped my reloaded gun and the real Oni Lee was replaced by clones as he moved out of line of sight. Following him I saw his power shift up into range and shot at it, killing two more clones before I realized what was happening.

He knew if I was armed with a long-range attack, I could kill him, but I had limited ammunition. He was trying to get me to expend my own ammunition before closing again. Short range attacks on my exposed skin seemed to work, as the still bleeding gash in my cheek attested to, so he'd wait until it was safe to do so, and just swamp me with clones until one got lucky. He was right, without my shield my bare flesh _was_ vulnerable to attack. If only I had a full body costume like Boardwalk I could-

I rebuked myself for being a _fucking dumbass_ as I changed my costume to the Anti-Panacea configuration I'd used before. Clear, _cut-proof_ material covered my exposed skin. After I started trusting her I defaulted to my original setup but there was _no_ reason to do so!

As I did so, pausing my fire, another clone raised its gun at me and let off three bursts, two short and one long. The bullets were easy enough to nudge out of the way, and I wondered why he was trying when the real one moved, leaving behind clones which turned and fired at me but weren't in the optimal position to do so. Following him from above, Glory Girl's flight not enough to keep pace, I wondered if he was retreating now that I wasn't doing what he wanted, but he was heading back for the warehouse. Popping back in, Golem and Newter opened fire once again, but this time several appeared behind the walking tank, tossing grenades at the pair.

Newter smacked the first two out of the air but the other six were too spread out for him to get to in time. "Sorry!" he called, leaping away in an instant, tail flicking slime at the Oni Lees, but the real one was up in the rafters, leaving as the Swarm descended on him.

The grenades went off as Golem hunkered down, and _every single one was lightning._ His form was wreathed with electricity which arced from his legs, across his chest, and down his arms as he went still. I hoped he wasn't dead, but the message sent came through loud and clear. _Fight me or I kill the rest._

I obliged, emptying my pistol on the clones that appeared around the warehouse, stowing it as a burst of fire, one short and two long, came my way. As I dodged the fire another wave of knife-wielding clones appeared around me. _He doesn't know he can't win_ I thought, as the air got increasingly thick with carbon ash, making it a harder to breathe. I could still see him through my Bug Sense and Aerokinesis, but he didn't appear to know that as more and more attacks seemed to be using the dust-storm for cover.

A ruptured cold grenade caused a pause in the attacks as the dust turned to snow but started again as he saw I was unaffected. I needed _something_ to do and was fending off a constant stream of clones which followed me as I flew around, Oni Lee heading for Newter as soon as I tried to move indoors and break line of sight.

Rising again, I wasn't getting the normal ebb and flow of combat I needed to plan, and _nothing_ was coming to mind that wouldn't unmask me as more than Vejovis. 'Taylor' I formed in the closet she was hiding in, desperate for help. 'Stalemated Oni Lee, but can't close on real him. Using gun means he goes for Newter. Suggestions?'

Oni Lee appeared before me, noticing my momentary distraction. The clone shoved his gun in my face and pulled the trigger but I stuck my blade through the tip of the barrel, enlarging it to stop the flow of bullets. Several more attempted the same strategy at a few paces away, and I was hammered with fire, covering my head with my arms as it felt like I was hit by tiny hammers. Wrapping myself in an air shield it stopped for a moment as I grabbed my pistol and loaded my last clip, turning and firing for his head through a hole in the shield.

It struck true, and he fell backwards as another of him appeared high in the air, mask cracked but still intact. The fire let up as the incoming clones switched back to knives and the real one took cover as I stowed my weapon. Letting the shield drop, and the ash that had been accruing on it fall as well, the others fell down on me as I flew up. The Oni Lee Clone watching with his gun let loose the all clear signal and Oni Lee, after sending the next wave, returned to watching me. _Fucker._

'Lee!' Taylor formed in front of her. 'Lung! Use Newter!' " **Newter** ," she commanded the cape in question, " **Make** **fluid!** "

The Case 53 looked around in his enclosed room, the windows all shaded and under a desk before shrugging and doing do so, the iridescent fluid starting to drip from him as several Oni Lees tried to grab me, likely to immobilize me, another appearing in front of me, knife swinging for my seemingly uncovered throat. Flying upwards again so the blow dragged across my costumed chest instead, I swung the clone on each arm in on the one before me, killing all three with a meaty smack and turning them to ash that obscured the new clone that formed right in front of me, at least from normal sight. Getting the faintest of images from his movement through the air I caught his knife with my free hand, stabbing him in the chest and detonating a fire grenade to give me a second to breathe. I brought the Swarm in around me as the flames died and the rain of assassins returned.

Taylor gathered the Swarm below and brought them to Newter, flying insects ferrying others, dipping their passengers in the hallucinogenic fluid without being touched themselves and flying up towards me as the drug-covered insects tried to spasm, but were locked in place by the Lady, Bug's will. A moment later she added wasps carrying spiders, the passengers spinning lines of web that were soaked instead of the arachnids themselves.

I continued fighting a steady stream of clones in the air, buying time. When I got another pause in the fighting and reached for my gun, a new pair of Oni Lees were prepared and, when they couldn't rip the gun from my hand, hit the slide release and took the damn thing _apart_ , their brethren redoubling their efforts now that they'd denied me my weapon. By this point there was so much dust in the air I was almost entirely dependent on sensing through Aerokinesis and the insects around me, the hallucinogen-soaked Swarm still on its way. If only I could use my power sight _through_ the Swarm this would be _so_ _much easier_. I felt something catch in my mind at that thought, and tried to concentrate on it, but got a knife bounced off my collarbone for my moment of distraction.

I held steady, having found out quickly that swinging wildly to try to catch Oni Lee by surprise just meant he'd appear mid-swing in a place I _couldn't_ easily hit, the ash not bothering him in the slightest. Another wave hit me, this one getting _damn_ close to burying a knife in my eye, which even if it didn't pierce might bruise enough to make it non-functional until I got to Panacea. I fought it off but getting that close seemed to push Oni-Lee even _further_. I could _feel_ him pick up pace, gaining ground, always _just_ out of reach as the new Swarm reached me. Under the nearly overwhelming odor of ash I couldn't smell the oddly sweet scent of Newter's slime, and if _I_ couldn't when I was looking for it there was no way _Oni Lee_ would detect it.

Another wave came, and I saw Oni Lee, the _real_ one, stagger as landed. He came again, and the knife blows lost some of their focus. He came a third time, and now several of his clones appeared off target, the slight mistakes adding up and leaving him to end several dozen feet _above_ a rooftop, having to make another clone to let himself land safely as the other fell with an uncoordinated flailing before smashing head-first into the roof, ashing.

I barely had to block the two swings that came close to hitting me in the next group of twenty as I turned and flew towards him, the stupefying Swarm parting around me. I realized that Taylor didn't know I was immune to Newter's power. _That was nice of her_. Oni Lee swayed on his feet, before looking away and teleporting. Now that I was free of the dust cloud, it was child's play to track the streak of his power trying to escape.

His teleportations were erratic, needing an extra one or two for every long-distance hop to center himself. He only managed six before he slipped, falling off a building and just barely teleporting to the ground below before he impacted, his power not carrying over momentum and letting him land with minimal damage. He didn't get up. Flying down next to him, I stowed my sword and checked my surroundings. I was at the edge of Taylor's range, and through the Swarm I could tell _no one_ was looking out the window, nor did I see any cameras. _Good._ Floating over his prone body I used a bit of air-control to rip off his mask, revealing the person beneath. He was Asian, with skin on the lighter side and a sizeable amount of stubble. The brown of his eyes was a thin ring, shoved back by his unnaturally large pupils. This man was high as a _kite_ , but as soon as he got over it he'd be back to killing in an instant. I didn't even consider turning him over to the PRT. If they couldn't hold something simple like a scaling brute who did so with a _visual component_ and a fire aspect, they'd _never_ be able to hold a line-of-sight teleporter.

I called Miss Militia's power to make a copy of the gun I'd used in the last raid. Levelling it at his head, I felt no guilt as I pulled the trigger, the explosive round reducing his skull to chunky salsa, bits flying in every direction. Dismissing it, I stowed the mask in a pocket enlarged with Armsmaster's power, the blood and sweat pulled off of it to drip on my costume before it was absorbed, leaving me spotless. I picked up the headless corpse and flew back to my team to wrap this fucking thing up and see if anyone had died.

* * *

"Give the all-clear Lady Bug," I instructed the Swarm as I dropped down in front of the warehouse. She gave it to Newter and Golem who, to my relief, started moving with a series of cracks as his strength overcame the impromptu welding the lightning had done to his armor. He seemed fine, so I had to assume the full suit had insulated him from the electricity but what about his gun? Looking more closely at him I saw that he'd retracted it into himself, probably when Newter warned him, using the hinged configuration Taylor had come up with when we designed it to fully close up that gap in his armor. That was a surprisingly smart move.

" **Can't get to Sundancer**," Taylor told me. Looking down the street at the buildings on fire, I supposed that made sense. I dropped the corpse and flew over, ignoring the heat as I entered the empty lot, passing over what looked like lava. Each of the four suns was big enough to hold a car, and the white-hot, roaring star in front of me wasn't a circle, but a cylinder. I could feel a hollow of air inside it, where the placement of the seven insects on Sundancer's costume showed me that she sat on the ground, holding herself and shaking.

 _Shit._ At least she'd saved her breakdown until she was safe. I looked around at the buildings on fire. Well, technically she _was_ safe, right up until the PRT overreacted. The white star in front of me roared continuously generating a burning hot, continuous gust of wind and a _ton_ of sound. "Hello!" I called, but I couldn't be heard over that inferno. I _could_ take it over, but that was _probably_ a bad idea. Floating and stumped, I decided just to go for the obvious.

Flying up to the blazing cylinder I reached out and _knocked_. Marissa froze, before shaking her head and started to shake again. The insect on her collar felt her say something, but it was lost over the roar of the star and I couldn't manipulate the sound feed I heard from insects, so I knocked again. She froze once more. Paying close attention to the air inside the cylinder I could feel her lift her head, _definitely_ saying something.

I sighed in annoyance, raising my fist to pound on the damn thing until she opened up when she did just that, staring at me with wide eyes as I froze, hand raised. I flew inside, landing in front of her and offering a hand up, which she hesitantly took, the center of the sun incredibly loud and bright but otherwise comfortable. She took it, saying something, and I made an 'I can't hear you' hand motion. She paused in indecision, before reaching her hands out, the white-hot star around us shrinking, retracting up and around us to a small ball above our heads before falling into her palm, still and silent.

"Wha-what happened to O-oni Lee?" she asked, looking around, visibly trying to suppress her shaking limbs.

"Dead." I responded bluntly, not commenting on her condition. If she wanted to talk later, that would be fine, but this was still an active engagement area. "Can you do something about that?" I waved around us to indicate the flaming buildings.

Marissa noticed the damage the damage she'd done and blanched. "Oh god! I-I'm sorry!"

I waved away her concern, "The people inside already left. Can you, I don't know, pull the fires into your suns?"

Her head snapped from the destruction to me, shock overriding fear, "How did you know about that? I, it was just an idea I had!"

"We both have our secrets," I informed her. "So, can you?"

She stared at me for a long moment before slowly nodding, turning her attention to the suns around us, moving them up until one was over each building. Tapping into my Power Sight I watched as her power reached out to the star before spreading out like a net, connected to the flames, designating them as _hers_. Treating them like incredibly low powered stars she pulled on them, the flames twisting back to a central point, that being the nearby star.

The fact that fire, an elemental chemical reaction _didn't work that way_ made my brain hurt as I tried to figure out how the hell that worked, but I assumed that I was lacking in quite a bit of science to even have the _basics_ of the process I was watching make sense, like trying to show a medieval peasant a solar panel running an air conditioner. Either way, it was a useful trick and I gladly learned it, impressed that Marissa had figured that out with a dead shard.

Once the flames were out, she repeated the trick, this time draining the now larger stars into the mote of lite in her palm, streams of fire weaving down from every direction into her hand. Her power held the tiny star in check as it tried to grow, her secondary ability not allowing any heat to escape from it. After the process was completed I gave her a golf clap, laughing as she glared at me. "No really, that looked _really_ cool. You could probably put on shows if you wanted. Let's go rejoin the team."

Ignoring her huff, and glad to have broken her out of whatever had happened to her in that star, I floated over the cherry red rock the lot had formed into. Marissa followed, seemingly not noticing how it cooled down right in front of her as she walked. Dropping to the ground once I reached a point where I _wouldn't_ need to use her power on the ground to support myself, we walked through increasingly deep ash to join Golem and Newter around Oni Lee's corpse, white powder covering everyone's legs. Taylor walked to us from the other direction, puppeting the Mantis Woman behind her. The rest of the team looked at it hesitantly, so I motioned for her to bring it off to the side while the rest watched.

"Lady Bug, give her back control of her upper body. And take a step back." I studied what the woman had been turned into. Rust red, she had the mantis bottom half, thorax and four insectile legs, but in addition to the two large, serrated mantic claws she had a smaller pair of hands, four fingered and shaped like the insect version of an eagle's claws. Her torso had two protrusions that suggested breasts, and her head looked very much like a mantis, but with six mandible-claw-things around her mouth, which seemed to be behind and armored plate. The component of my Bug Control that normally identified insects was giving me the same kind of mental noise my Power Sight gave me when I looked at Night. "Um, hello? Are you still. . . you?"

She stared at me for a second before slowly nodding. "Oh thank Christ," I sighed, creating a thin set of condensed air bars between us as I visibly relaxed in case she took me 'dropping my guard' as a chance to strike. "Can you talk?" She looked at me, turning her head and moving her arms, but stopped, shaking her head. "Okay, I'll contact the PRT and they'll come get you." She shook her head angrily.

I looked at her, one eyebrow raised. "Mam, you are currently a giant mute praying mantis. The PRT are, oddly enough, _used_ t o dealing with things like this. At the very least they can contact Panacea. I work with her, and I'll ask her to see if she can help." The woman gestured to the other dead people that had been mutated and attacked us. "Yes, that happened, but you might notice the two who started that then tried to kill _me_ , and were killed by Oni Lee, who _I_ then killed. Do _you_ know why they attacked people who were not trying to attack them?"

She motioned towards where the snipers were, movement trailing off as she saw how the top of that building was burned out wreck. "Yeah, like I said. So, if my partner lets you move, are you going to attack us? I don't want to kill you, but I _will_ defend my teammates and myself." She shook her head fervently, leaning back away from me, and blinking her oversized eyes quickly. "Okay, don't run when she lets go, just stay right here." I turned my back on her as I addressed Taylor, feeling her presence in the Bug Sense and ready to grasp if she tried to strike. "Let her go Lady Bug."

The Mantis-woman took a few steps away from me, but stopped, seeming to shrink in on herself when I looked over my shoulder at her. Taylor and I waded back through shin-high ash as I wondered, _how many Oni Lees did I **kill**_ **?** I kept an ear cocked, but I didn't hear any roars from either Lung or Herb so I assumed that my partner had finished his fight. If Lung had won, he'd be on his way here, and then I'd kill him _too_.

Flipping my phone out, I called my lawyer. On the second ring the call was picked up with a, "Good morning Vejovis, what can I do for you at this early hour?"

"A couple of things Mr. Calle," I responded as the others watched. "First of all, we've found Bakuda's Lab. Second of all, Oni Lee is dead."

"Are you sure?" he asked, continuing as I took a picture of the corpse and sent it to him. "He's been known to foo- you sent me a- oh yes. He is almost certainly dead."

"Almost?"

He gave a dry laugh, "One thing I've learned working with Parahumans, Vejovis, is that one is _never_ certain."

"Fair enough, so you know the thing I asked you about? Can you set that up in an hour?"

I could almost hear him wince. "I expected more time, but you never cease to surprise. Can we do it in a little under two instead?"

"That works," I shrugged. "Also, can you contact the PRT. They're better able to handle a Tinker Lab. _Also_ also, one of her bombs went off. It. Um." I took a picture of the Mantis woman. "It turned a civilian woman into what I'm showing you. Can you tell them about her, so they can help? She seems to be in full command of her faculties but has been rendered mute."

"Yes, that would be best. I assume you'd prefer not to be there when they arrive?" my lawyer asked.

"I have no doubt that they'd ask quite a few questions," my tone cooled, "Just as I'm sure they'd do something. . . foolish when I declined to answer. It's likely best that we don't present them with a chance to _once again_ fail at their jobs."

There was a pause over the line. "Very well. In that case I suggest you leave in the next five minutes. Who will be attending the. . . event?"

I thought about it. "I'll extend an open invitation to all four teams, but I'm not sure about the attendees. Likely the Undersiders, definitely my team and Æonic. I'd say eight to twenty people." I glanced at Golem. "Somewhere with a tall ceiling, preferably. Tell them they get three questions."

"Each?"

" _Total_."

He laughed. "I'm sure they'll take that well. It's always a pleasure. Please remember that we take our hours out of your healing services, and you've been giving us _quite_ a bit of work."

"Of course," I chuckled in reply. "Wait a few days for things to settle down and I'll be happy to do several more sessions."

"Very well, I'll send you the details of the location. Good luck."

"We just fought Oni Lee and stopped the Bombing of Brockton Bay. I think our luck's pretty good!"

Another dry laugh drifted over the line. "Yes, but now you have to deal with an evil you _can't_ fight with powers. The Press."


	71. Milestone 7-5

**Milestone 7.5**

I rolled my eyes as I hung up on my Lawyer, turning to the rest of my team as I clapped my hands together. "Okay gang, I'll be having a press conference at nine, which is a bit less than two hours from now. All of you are invited if you want to come and show the city how you saved it," I nodded towards Newter, "Or display your capabilities as mercenaries, and who knows, maybe even as heroes."

There was an awkward pause. "I . . . can't," Golem said, sounding sad.

I waited for an explanation, but that's all he said. "Okay," I shrugged, sighing. "Well, it was good working with you. Keep the armor Golem, you earned it."

He nodded, turned and slowly plodded away, steps kicking up small clouds of ash.

"Newter, Sundancer?"

Marissa glanced at Golem's retreating back, "What about Lung?"

"He tried to fight Break," I grinned. "Don't worry about it."

She turned to look at me, incredulous. "How can you know that?"

I rolled my eyes, punching in his phone number. After a few rings my friend responded with a "Wazzzup bitch?"

"You take care of Lung?"

"Sure did," he replied, tone malicious. "'member how Lady Bug took care of him last time?"

 _He tore out his eyes? I'm. . . okay with that._ "Yeah?"

He laughed, "He _wishes_ I did that. Ya don't need to worry, Puff the asshole dragon has been. . . _disarmed._ "

I couldn't help but smile. " _Good._ Press conference in two hours, open invitation for the team. I'll send you the location and exact time when I get it."

"Nice," I could hear the smile in his voice. "You invitin' the sisters?"

 _Fenja and Menja? No, he means,_ "Panacea and Glory Girl are there with you? Is everyone okay?"

"Don't worry about it, Crusader and Rune are fine. So, yay or nay?"

I considered it. Bringing them on _would_ add even more legitimacy to what we were doing, but then again it would _also_ exacerbate the Brandish situation. Then _again_ , that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. "Sure, why not. I'll send you the details."

Ending the call, I turned to Sundancer, "Yeah, Lung's been stopped. Break _might_ have ripped his arms off." At her look of shock I added, "They'll grow back, it'll just take a few months. So, the PRT'll be here in a few minutes which means we need to leave _now._ You coming or not?"

She nodded. Newter smiled as he grinned, "I'm comin' too!"

I addressed the Mantis-Woman, dismissing the invisible barrier between us. "They'll know you're here. Just stay here and they'll help. They'll _probably_ cover you with containment foam, but that's just a safety precaution. Understand?"

She nodded once, staring at me with her creepy inhuman eyes. "Good." I gave her a thumbs up. "Okay gang, flying is probably the fastest. Three people is gonna be a bit awkward, but workable. Grab my hands. Lady Bug, hang onto my arm." The villains hesitated but did so, my friend stepping closer as soon as I asked.

Focusing on my shield I covered all three with Lift Fields, rendering them weightless as I rose straight up, heading north far over the city. Clouds of darkness covered several blocks to the west, a block to the south-west was on fire, as were parts of several others where Herb's target was located. "Newter, Lady Bug, can I drop you two off while Sundancer and I put out some fires?"

Looking at the burning buildings, he considered my suggestion for all of a second, "Definitely bro. I mean if we're bein' all heroic and it just makes sense!" Taylor nodded in agreement.

Pausing at a rooftop well out of range of the scene of _our_ fight, I dropped them off as I spotted PRT vans through the eyes of insects, green and white lights flashing as the sped by several streets over. I kept a grip on Sundancer as we headed towards the more intense of the two, turning horizontally to Superman it and reduce air-resistance and smiling at her shout of surprise.

Instead of just a large blaze, the _entire_ block was on fire, including the _asphalt_. Charlie's team was no-where to be seen, so I watched and waited while Sundancer reached out her free hand, star forming from her palm and seeming to fall towards the ground below us, growing to the size of a small car. Using it to relay her power, the flames twisted up from the ground, swirling into the sun. Most of the fires lifted immediately upwards, leaving smoke and embers behind, but several blazes seemed to continuously produce flame for her to absorb.

Sundancer hmm'd in concentration as the pull increased, the fire streaming faster and faster as the source slowly shrank, fighting her control. Focusing, her power tried to claim the flames as her own, but whatever was covering the stubborn passages seemed to give Stellar Creation no surface to latch onto. She poured more power into it, pulling the flame in increasing larger amounts. The stream, _eventually_ was completely absorbed into the now bus-sized star, the source of the flames exhausted.

"Problem?" I asked as we moved to the second location, star shrinking and winking out behind us.

Marissa was silent, shaking her head when I opened my mouth, "No. It just didn't want to go out."

My response was stopped as we reached the next area, already swarming with PRT, Protectorate guards standing around, doing nothing. A large pile of containment foam sat in the cratered remains of a gas station. I waved my free hand to Miss Melita in a friendly gesture, who stared back, standing completely still. She seemed absolutely calm, but her rifle kept switching forms on her back. "Yeah, let's not land," I advised, my companion giving a single nod. "Sundancer, if you will?"

"Are you sure?" the Traveller double checked, as I spotted Triumph, Assault, and Battery all down there as well, all staring up at us.

Miss Militia needed to manifest a weapon in her hands first, and that would be enough time to make a shield;, Assault and Battery were ground bound; and even if they jumped towards us, they couldn't move midair; and Triumph? Dude's attack was _sound._ I waved off her concerns, "Don't worry, they won't fire. And if they do," I established control over the Swarm in the area, " _they'll regret it._ "

She stared at me for another moment before looking downward and creating a sun. The heroes and PRT all tensed, focusing on it, several of the PRT goons pulling weapons and pointing them up at us. Only Miss Militia had the good sense to look around, in case it was a distraction. As soon as her sun dropped down to one of the burning buildings I created an Air Shield between us and them, just in case they really _were_ that stupid.

The star grew, but had moved away from them, and the assembled 'heroes' watched in confusion as the fires from the buildings started to stream into the sun. Marissa moved it in a slow circle as she pulled flames from building after building, until all that was left was smoking ruins. She shrunk the star to nothingness, and I gave the trigger-happy thugs with badges a jaunty wave as we flew off, Air Shield holding until we had put a good distance between us, invisibly dispersing.

* * *

Swinging by and picking up Taylor and Newter, who were pointedly not looking at each other, we headed into the western railyard, far away from my secret base, and camped out on top of a warehouse to pass the time. A quick solo trip back to said secret base and we were relaxing with tea, sandwiches, and Arachne Assemblages metal folding chairs and tables that were created for the occasion.

Nicely settled, Quinn sent me the location and time, as well as instructions on what entrance to use. I forwarded that off to Herb and called up my little brother, "Hey Chuckles, you okay?"

He laughed. "Yeah. Lung ran like a little bitch. You?"

"Killed Oni Lee," I replied without pre-amble, explaining the press conference. "You in?"

My little brother replied pff of agreement, "Fuck yeah I am. You want me to ask Trackstar and Faultline?"

"Yeah, I figu-wait, did you say Trackstar? Do you mean. . . Trickster?" I clarified, causing Marissa to snort into her tea.

"Yeah, but he's always running away, so my name's better," he explained.

"Sure," I shrugged, "invite him as well. And probably the Merc team, to be fair."

There was a pause. "So, that's gonna be kinda hard," my little brother hedged.

"Did you not get their phone numbers?"

"Oh, I got those," he disagreed, "but I don't think their phones were Nokias."

I gave a long-suffering sigh. "What happened?"

"Okay, it wasn't my fault," he began, which was _never_ a good way to start. "One of the Asians had a bomb in their head, and those mercenary motherfuckers opened fire on me! So I just figured, one dude was gonna blow up, other dudes needed to die, bring 'em together like a big happy family! So, when I stopped time to get Faultline out, I just didn't do the same for mercs. And tied their boots together. And piled them around the Asian guy who was gonna explode. And stole their guns. And their wallets. I mean it wasn't like they were using them anyways. What else was I supposed to do?"

I sighed again, commenting optimistically, "Well, you never claimed to be a hero, and Coil's guys tried to shoot me in the head as well, so fuck 'em. Asshole broke the Truce, but then again, we knew his word was useless after the last shit he pulled. Dude's snake theme is a bit _too_ on the nose if you ask me." I ignored Marissa's attention now firmly fixed on me, though Newter hid his reaction better, only glancing at her in concern. At least he didn't say anything. "So, the Mercs who tried to frag you are dead. Oh no, what a tragedy," I deadpanned, "What about the Empire? Any of them you'd want to invite?"

"Nah, fuck those scrubs," he replied. "Bitchy & Cunt, along with Hookwolf and his puppies, were all 'we're so badass', but they didn't even fuckin' show up today!"

 _They didn't?_ _Herb mentioned that at least Rune and Crusader were there with him. What's going on?_ "Then they don't get invited, easy enough. I'm forwarding you the info. See you later man."

"You too!" he called, hanging up.

I started to dial Lisa's number when Sundancer spoke up, "You said Coil's not trustworthy? How do you know that?"

I glanced up at her, "You know that the Undersiders work for him, right?" This was obviously news to Newter, but she just nodded. "They're not exactly doing so _willingly_. He recruited Tattletale _literally_ at gunpoint, is holding Grue's sister hostage for his cooperation, and I have information that he kidnapped an eight-year old Precog from her family and _addicted her to drugs_ to use _her_ power for himself. If I could find his base, I'd kill him. The man follows _no_ rules, has _no_ morals, and if he offers you a deal, get the payment _first._ Even then, check that it's not faked, tracked, trapped, or _all three._ Lung might be evil, but he's an honorable, lawful kind of evil. What he did," I paused. "He's _undeniably_ evil, but if you made an agreement with him, he'd try to keep it. Kaiser'll stab you in the back if he thinks he can get away with it, but the impression I got was that's only for his competition; and Skidmark, dude might get high and just forget what deals he made. Coil though? He'd offer you the world, with no plans to actually deliver, just use you up and get rid of you."

I waited for her to respond, but she didn't, appearing deep in thought. I grabbed one of my cards and tossed it into her lap. "If you need help, call. From what I can tell you're a good person, and I do my best to help good people."

She looked at it for a long moment before quietly taking it and stowing it in a belt pouch.

"Hey, why don't I get one?" Newter asked, smiling, trying to break the tension. "Am I not a good person?"

I bounced one off his head. "I gave you yours when I first talked to you."

"Well, what about the Lady, Babe? Doesn't she deserve on of your VIP cards?" he continued unabated.

She rolled her eyes. "I'm _on_ his team slimeball." He grinned at her, whatever tension that had happened between the two easing slightly.

Calling Lisa, she picked up quickly, asking crossly, "What do you want Vejovis?"

"Um, well to _start_ with I wanted to know if the three of you are okay." I waited a beat. "So, are you?"

"Oh, you care now?" she snapped. _What the hell did I do?_

"I cared previously, which is why I gave you the armor and weapons. I'm _asking_ now," I sighed as Taylor looked over, I'm sure eavesdropping with the bugs she put on the back of my chair. She was being subtle, but she could have asked. "What's wrong Tattletale?"

"We're fine." And with that she hung up.

I looked at the phone in surprise. "Um, Lady Bug, do you have Grue's phone number?"

She nodded, forming it with insects below us. Dialing it in he picked up with a, "Who is this?"

"Vejovis. Tattletale just hung up on me. Are you three okay? Also, do you know why Tattletale is pissed at me?" I asked.

"Nothing more than some nasty bruises. Thanks for the armor. We were shot, and Tats got stabbed, but it held," he informed me, voice gruff but professional. "If you can get me a few more flashbangs I would appreciate it. Not sure what her problem is, it might-" I could hear Lisa talking, but not _what_ she said, "Nevermind."

Aisha added in, yelling at the phone. "She was messin' with your rifle and got pissed. Not sure why V-man!" as Grue continued as if he couldn't hear his sister, "She'd rather I didn't say. Is there anything else?"

 _Why would the rifle upset her? Did she figure out how the Speed Zones work? Does she think Boardwalk is a power copier? Does she know **I'm** Boardwalk?_ _Ugh, I'll handle it as it comes. Maybe talk to her after the E88 craziness is done._ "Yeah, I'm having a press conference in an hour and change. I'm inviting everyone who fought with the Truce to come, so if the Undersiders want to come, they can."

"Hell yeah I am!" Imp cheered, and I continued without pausing, knowing that Grue wouldn't understand why I stopped if I did. "If you're still around the others, please extend the invite to them as well. Except Coil's men, because they tried to kill Æonic and me in the middle of this last raid."

Ignoring Aisha's comment of "Assholes!" I waited for Brian to say something. "That's understandable," was his entire response.

I rolled my eyes, "I know the bounty he put on the PD and Æonic Grue. As long as you aren't planning on going for it, or turning on us without warning if he orders it, we won't have a problem. Anyways, I'll send you the info and hope to see you there."

"You might," he replied in what I'm sure he thought was an enigmatic manner, ending the call. The effect was undercut when I knew that was code for 'I'll ask Tattletale'. Getting a couple ideas, I forwarded the requests off to Quinn and relaxed, grabbed my mug of tea, and took a deep sip. "Ugh, inter-cape politics," I commented to the other three. "One of the _many_ reasons I didn't join the Protectorate. You think _villain_ organizations are bad, the 'heroes' around here are worse."

Newter nodded, "I hear ya man. Had a couple people try to recruit me, but Faultline's done right by me. She's the only one I trust to find _answers_ , _ya know_."

Marissa looked between us, confused, while Taylor pretended to surf the net on the phone I'd given her. I waved a placating hand towards the Case 53. "I told ya, give it a couple days to settle down. Once news gets out that the ABB is down _someone_ is going to do something stupid to take advantage of the vacuum. Might be villains, might be heroes, will probably be Coil. In the meantime, we won, no one's coming after us, and we can relax."

* * *

Landing five minutes early with my group there was a security cordon already set up, cops working with the same security group that had been on staff when I had done my surface-level Fleshsculpting. Looking around I Saw Æonic striding through the crowd which parted around him, cameras flashing. One of the police moved to stop him, but another stopped _him_ and my brother was let through to join us. "Vejovis," he addressed me, his fake, oily accent back in his voice and tone professional.

I regarded him coolly, "Æonic. Let's finish this up so we can go our separate ways. After you."

"The feeling is mutual," he commented while he strode past me as if he didn't have a care in the world. I waited a moment before following him, a member of the hotel's staff leading us to a waiting room. Herb and Purity were waiting inside, along with Faultline, Gregor, Bitch, Crusader, Krieg, Rune, Glory Girl and Panacea. I was surprised to find that they hadn't _completely_ self-segregated. Krieg was standing a bit apart from the rest and the sisters looked a bit uncomfortable, but other than that everyone seemed to be getting along fine.

Newter joined his boss, Taylor and Marissa trailing behind me as I joined the others, getting a nod of respect from _Crusader_ of all people. I hesitated, before returning it as I turned to Herb, dropping a Sound Bubble around the room to negate any listening devices. "Break, after today the Truce will be over, but _these_ people seem okay. I'd say we don't go after them unless we see them doing something criminal. That work for you?"

With _everyone's_ attention on us he nodded nonchalantly, immediately understanding what I was proposing. "I feel ya. Sure, why the heck not?" he shrugged.

"But they're villains!" Glory Girl objected, getting glares from most the room.

I shrugged. "So I've been told. I'm not saying the PRT won't go back to trying to capture them, just that _unless I see them doing something villainous_ , I won't actively hunt _the people in this room._ " I glanced at Faultline, "And Spitfire and Labyrinth, because I can understand why you wouldn't want her at a press conference." She gave me a sharp look, before she replied with a thankful nod, face deadly serious.

Before we could continue Grue, Tattletale, and Aisha walked in, Half of the Thinker's face covered with vivid purple-red bruises across half her face. "Holy shit!" I exclaimed, striding over. "Are you okay?"

She glared at me. "Do I _look_ okay?"

"She took a shotgun to the face and I was busy with a different asshole, I'm sorry!" Aisha apologized. "But she's not dead, so that's good. Right?"

"Panacea, please come over here. Tattletale, give me your hand. Imp, not your fault, you aren't trained for this yet," I reeled off.

Lisa grudgingly offered up her arm, starting in surprise when I mentally detached one of the fingers of her glove, pulling it off to expose the skin as she glared at me even harder. "Do I have your permission to heal you?" Amy asked, waiting for the Thinker's hesitant nod before she took hold of the injured girl's finger. The healer frowned at what she saw, before looking over at me. "Did you. . .?" she trailed off, realizing she might _not_ want to ask the question she was thinking of in a room full of villains.

I nodded. "Yeah, I had one of my contacts make costumes for them. It's why her injuries might look odd and she's only bruised."

"Her cheekbone is, was, broken as well," Panacea corrected, the bruising on Tattletale's face shifting as the girl winced, cheekbone visibly reforming. "Mild corneal bruising, and muscle damage along with burst capillaries." She gave Lisa a reproving look as the Thinker still glared. "Without Vejovis' armor you would've died." Her proclamation didn't appear to be new information to her patient, but from the way the other two reacted, she hadn't decided to share that. Grue stared at his fellow Undersider before giving me a single manly nod of thanks while Imp swore in surprise, poking at her own costume. If anything, Tattletale seemed angrier.

Amelia Dismissively turned to Grue after Lisa'd been returned to health, "Do you need healing?" she asked as she let go of her previous patient's finger, Lisa snatching the covering from and me and slipping the covering back on while I mentally reattached it seamlessly.

He looked between the two of us consideringly, before sighing and holding his hand out, "Yes, please."

I took off the same finger off his glove and Panacea grasped it, frowning once more. "This scarring. . . who uses _arrows_?"

"Shadow Stalker," I replied levelly. "Though technically they're bolts, since she uses a crossbow. Lower rate of fire, but much better for _sneak_ attacks." I had nothing against the tactic, but only on _lethal_ opponents, of which Grue _wasn't_ , nor was he likely to ever be.

"But isn't she-" Glory Girl asked.

I cut her off, "A Ward? Yes. They recruited her after she tried to _kill_ someone. She's just gotten better at hiding it."

Grue nodded once in agreement. "Our powers interact oddly; she wants me dead. You _are_ talking about the one in my stomach?"

Panacea shook her head, "Didn't hit your stomach, but it grazed your kidney. Right," she reminded herself. "metaphorical. Yes, that one."

"Do the others know about this?" Glory Girl asked, concerned, talking over Aisha's "What the fuck bro? Why didn't you say something?" which no one heard.

I wanted to make a crack about her boyfriend being innocent, but I couldn't remember if she was publicly dating Dean or Gallant. "As far as I know, no. Out of all of the Wards, Gallant _might_ know she's a psychopath, but it's not his call as emotion reading isn't considered evidence, especially with Emily "Status quo is God" Piggot as director. If the PRT were doing their _jobs_ they'd know, and I wouldn't put it past them to and just cover it up. Then again, if they could _consistently_ do their job and not just when they feel like it, I might've joined." There was an awkward silence. "Right, so, you need a tune-up Imp? Even if you got grazed there's no reason not to."

"Who are you talki-Oh my god!" Glory Girl shouted, jumping into the air when Aisha suppressed her power, not coming down. "Was she here the entire time?" the heroine demanded from the air.

I shrugged, "Invisibility is a hell of a power. So, Imp?"

I got the sense she was rolling her eyes while suppressing a grin as she held he hand out to me. "Yeah, I know, I'm awesome. You gonna pull my finger?" I rolled my eyes in return, suppressing a smile as I removed her entire glove. "Well played, but the game has only begun!" she announced, holding her arm towards Panacea. The healer shot me a questioning look as she got a scan of Imp's biology, probably noting the damage her mother's prenatal drug use had inflicted. "Daaaaamn that feels good," The girl in question sighed. "It's like drugs are supposed to, but it un-messes you up! You don't charge for this?" She snorted, "White Girls."

Panacea let her go and blinked as the Stranger disappeared from perception. I tossed Aisha her glove, re-sealing it when I intellectually knew she'd put it back on. "I'm not sure what I was doing, but I feel like I should be offended," Panacea commented, before focusing on me. "Stranger?"

"Friendly Stranger," I replied. "Consider them insurance,"

"As long as you ensurance I get paid!" Aisha responded with a raised fist, giving a squawk as I patted her head. "Keep forgetting you can see me." I couldn't hear her to determine tonality, but she didn't not-sound unhappy about that.

As everyone seemed to try to spot the Stranger, ignoring the futility of such a task, Trickster strode in. He paused, gazing around, before focusing on Marissa. "Ah, there you are Sundancer!" He called. "And you all were waiting for me! How considerate of you, I don't deserve such an honor. Or maybe I do, who knows?" he smirked behind his mask.

Another member of the hotel staff walked in, clipboard in hand and wearing a headset. She froze as half of the villains in Brockton Bay looked at her. "Um, we're starting in three minutes," she squeaked, trying to hide behind the small piece of plastic in her hands.

I nodded to her and turned to the group. "So, we'll go out together, present a united front, and I'll talk about how we all came together to save Brockton Bay from a threat that, if it had been allowed to continue, would have done the lower end of _Endbringer_ levels of damage. That the threat has been eliminated and how we're going to all go back to our respective corners tomorrow, but today we stand united in defense of this city, though I will add that Coil tried to off some of us in the middle of today's raid. I'll take three questions where I promise I won't say anything bad about you guys, then we break and go get some breakfast at a restaurant I've reserved. After that, just don't do anything overtly criminal _today_ and I won't get too pissed at you. Also, if you need help for a non-criminal matter I know that _I_ at least would be willing to hear you out."

Trickster looked at me dubiously, "And why do _you_ get to speak when none of us do? Seems unfair."

I didn't take offence, just answered his question honestly, counting off on my fingers, "One, I _paid_ for this. Two, it was my intel that led us to find Bakuda's Lab instead of just, I don't know, tripping over it or something equally stupid. Three, only three of us are actual heroes and as such having one of _us_ talk means there's lower chance that anyone will be thrown under the bus for petty politics. Four, I'm the leader of the only team whose members _all_ showed up to this thing; Æonic, your team is you, so you don't count; and five, I could probably kill anyone in this room in about ten seconds if I wanted to. Might _shouldn't_ make right in society as a whole, but it means I get to talk for the villains who _do_ believe that."

I Saw his power move to replace himself with Panacea beside me and turned, grabbing him by the collar as he appeared with one hand while unholstering my pistol with the other. His wide eyes stared at me from behind his mask as I pressed the barrel to his bare throat. I Saw his power reaching out again, switching himself with Kayden, who I released as soon as he started the switch, moving to aim my pistol at his unprotected throat _again_. "Please," I scoffed. "I killed Oni Lee _two hours ago_. What makes you think _you're_ going to do any better?" His power started to reach out to me as I cocked my weapon. "Switch me or my teammates again and I might be. . . _surprised_. Are we done with the juvenile power games, or do I need to shoot you? We have two healers here after all. You'll be fine in time for the conference."

He held up his hands, "I'm good. Just joking around, no need to go all _vigilante_ on us."

I un-cocked and holstered my pistol. "Not 'us', just you, now stop _grousing_ about it like a small child. Play nice or _leave_."

Herb slammed his hand on the Traveler's shoulder, who seemed to not have realized that I was part of a _team._ It would've been a friendly gesture, but the meaty smack such an action created belied that. "I keep tellin' you Vejovis, ya should just shoot 'em in the leg. A little flesh wound'll keep ya from having to kill 'em in the long run." He grinned, his teeth all interlocked canines. "Now get the class together, I'll get the crowd warmed up for ya!" he instructed as he strode out the door.

"Break," I called as I followed him out the doorway, glancing back at the group. "Break, stop. What are you doing? Break!?"


	72. Milestone 7-x (Dauntless)

**Milestone 7.x (Interlude: Dauntless)**

Suppressing a yawn, Sean Gordon suited up. After the twenty-seventh charge his armor had gained the ability to teleport to himself. It wasn't something he could use in a fight; however it was still nice. His boots had the same feature, but his shield still needed to be secured manually. He looked at the spear in his locker and left it there, pretty sure he wouldn't need it for a staff meeting, especially this early in the morning. He'd been up late, but he didn't regret it. As a Hero of the Protectorate he'd been told to stand down. As an EMT his old co-workers hadn't even blinked when he'd shown up to volunteer.

He'd made it to the Rig early enough he could swing by the break room and did so, getting some of the 'Tinker-grade' coffee they had. That, and other things like it, had been an unexpected benefit of joining that he'd never heard of when he was independent. Inside Triumph was frowning as he watched something on his phone, while Assault and Battery sat on the other side of the table. Battery was expressionless while Assault looked unusually serious. The newest member of their team sat apart from the others. Dark blue veils covered everything but her dark brown eyes, her skin a shifting inky black from her power. Despite being fully masked she seemed to radiate satisfaction as she sat, waiting, staring back at him almost with a hint of challenge.

Sean wondered what that was about, and experience from his old marriage taught him that when a woman gives you that kind of look, it was best to find out _why._ Resolved to do so he gave her a firm nod and a smile as he walked to sit next to her. "Morning Paninla. Know why we got called in for this meeting?"

She tilted her head at him as if she wasn't sure he was being serious. "You're saying you don't?" Her accent was thick, not quite Asian, but similar.

"I was up late," he shrugged. "The priority e-mail actually woke me up. Are we finally being deployed?" If they had it would be about dang time.

Velocity entered, casually walking to grab the chair on the other side of Dauntless. Paninla shook her head, "I'll show you after. It's quite the watch."

"You talking about the video?" The speedster asked, shivering theatrically, "Yeah, it is something all right."

Dauntless glanced over to Triumph, who'd gone a bit grey. "What video?"

Velocity shook his head, "You'll see, just be glad we didn't fight _him_ instead of the other two."

Feeling a bit frustrated Dauntless was about to press when the door opened again. Their new team lead, Miss Militia walked in, followed by Director Piggot and a PRT tech. Sitting up to give her the proper attention her position called for, he took a sip of his coffee to wake up.

Miss Militia took the seat Armsmaster used to sit in as the Director said, "Good, you're all here. I assume you've seen the broadcast?"

At the collective nods of his teammates Dauntless had to raise his hand. "I haven't Ma'am."

She gave him a raised eyebrow, "Do so after this meeting Dauntless. As for the rest of you, we've updated Break's rating. As of this moment he is a Mover four, Changer six, and Brute three through _ten_ if given enough time, though any of those designations may be _increased_ at a later date. He-"

Dauntless couldn't help but speak up, "Ma'am, I thought because the Defenders were registered heroes we weren't giving them ratings? And ten? What did he do," he laughed, "outlast _Lung?_ "

She regarded him coolly. "Do not interrupt me Dauntless, and I believe you just stated you aren't up to date. Get there, _then_ you may ask questions of me, _in private._ " _Wait, **what?**_ "As I was saying, Break's powers, as far as we have been able to determine, are ramping strength and durability similar to Lung's, but superior in both capability and without large visual change, the ability to turn into prehistoric reptiles, regeneration, and the ability to," she paused, frowning as she glanced down at the papers in front of her. "According to our experts, 'jump on air, simulating flight with almost instant redirection'. It is unknown if Enter has identical capabilities but assume he does. As of right now Lung is in PRT holding. Any questions?"

Dauntless frowned, "How can we be sure Oni Lee won't break him out again?"

"That won't be an issue." She motioned to the tech and the projector in the middle of the table sprang to life, projecting a photo. It took Dauntless a second to realize what he was looking at. He'd never met the man in person, but he was staring at the headless corpse of Oni Lee, not lying on dirty grey snow, but an entire _drift_ of the man's own ash, the kind his clones left behind. The director's expression soured, "We were contacted by the Penumbral Defender's lawyer, stating they had found Bakuda's Lab. A team was dispatched and found _that_ , along with a victim of one of Bakuda's bombs," the image changed to a giant red mantis, easily seven feet in height, "Along with the slaughtered remains of over a dozen more victims. By our rough estimates, the ash of over a hundred Oni Lees was present at the scene. He, however, was killed somewhere else, and we've been unable to find the remains of his mask. We believe Vejovis, or someone working with him, took it as a trophy."

"Kaiser did this?" Assault asked intently.

The director shook her head. "No, we found no evidence of his power on the scene, nor indicator of Fenja or Menja either."

"Jesus Christ," the man breathed, sitting back. "They did this without them?"

Director Piggot's expression soured further, "They did. We have reason to believe that Vejovis, as well as Break, have been hiding the true extent of their abilities. This may be true of Ladybug as well. They are _all_ to be treated with extreme caution."

"Wait," Assault protested, glaring, "We're just gonna let them go? After what he did? We have _video evidence_!" _Let him go?_ Dauntless thought. _Evidence? What happened?_

"I'd give him a medal," Paninla retorted, smirk evident in her voice.

"Ma'am," the tech said, addressing the Director as Assault glared at the newest member of the team. "It's time,"

"Time for what?" the kineticist challenged. "If we're not going after them why are we even here?"

Director Piggot nodded to the tech, the image changing to show Brielle Bardoner, Anchor for Channel four news, Brockton Bay. "-ve to our correspondent at the emergency press conference where the Penumbral Defenders are announcing the end of what has come to be called the ABB Bombings."

"Bullshit!" Assault objected.

"Muzzle it," the Director snapped. "This is important."

Assault looked like he was going to say something else, but Battery's hand on his shoulder quieted him down, her expression calm. The door to the side of the podium slammed open and several inside gave gasps of fright as Break strode in, wide smile stretching his face a bit farther than should be possible.

"People," he said excitedly, and Dauntless thought at first that his teeth where all pointed, but watching his mouth showed that to just be a trick of the light, "I know you're hyped. I know you're excited, I can see it on all your faces, 'cause you're about to meet the team, that saved, your life _._ And our leader, the man, the one, the only, the god of my heart, and friend of my soul: Vejovis! And the team! Who brought! _Peace!_ " he cried as the hero in question walked in hesitating at that proclamation but shrugged and continued entering, a mix of heroes and villains following him.

Break wasn't done, as he continued "The leader, who is the beater, of evil in your lives, that also tickles your wives, give it up for _Vejovis!_ " The hero seemed flattered until that last bit, then he looked justifiably offended as the assembled press clapped sporadically. They were barely in frame and looked unsure as to what they should do.

The leader of the Penumbral Defenders opened his mouth to speak but Break rolled on, "The wonderful, and most beautiful, and probably the heartthrob of all of us, myself included." From his glance backwards at the shining figure standing behind Vejovis Dauntless assumed he was talking about Purity, but he was _fairly_ sure she was a Nazi. Paninla obviously thought so as well when she asked quietly, "Isn't she a?"

Piggot's glare shut up Triumph, who was about to answer as Break kept going with what Dauntless realized was their _introductions_. _Was he going to do **all** of them?_ "The truth, that is, _Purity!"_ He got a small smattering of applause as he pointed at the armored figure of Crusader, standing next to Purity. "The knight, who fights for white, it is my man _Crusader!"_

Moving onto someone they had very little intel about, other than he could apparently freeze everything in a thirty foot radius, which to Dauntless seemed powerful enough, Break announced, "Bust a Rhyme, 'cause he'll stop time! My straight Ace, Æonic!"

 _He was going to introduce **all** of them, _Dauntless concluded as the Villain indicated the figure all in black, wearing what looked like modified bike leathers and a skull helmet, "You don't see him, because you want to be 'im. Grue! The guard the SS need, the consummate professional, Kreig! You pay her for her time, but she ain't at fault, Fault _line!_ "

"That one didn't even make sense!" Assault complained.

"Quiet!" snapped Piggot.

"The girl who lifts everything, especially your hearts! We've got our girl Rune! The girl who fixes everything and makes sure we're A, O, Kay! The heart and soul, of this bowl, Panacea!" The healer looked flattered, offended, and confused, all at the same time. Dauntless sympathized with her. "You love her, you need her, She's the throb you can," Break faltered, "You can see her, Glory Girl!" Now _both_ sisters looked offended.

"Don't lie to her, she won't fail. That's my girl, Tattletale!" he pressed on, ignoring the pair as he indicated the blond in purple and black who preened under the attention. "Don't you try to shrug off my girl, the Lady Bug! In spring she's a lance of gum on Love Love Love Love! Our Sundancer!" Assault made a frustrated noise, and Dauntless had to agree that introduction _did_ made no sense.

"He's so fly, he gets you high! Newter! He's there for you, with no fail, introducin' my boy Gregor the Snail!" Break pointed at the girl in a leather with a demonic looking fox mask as he stated, "You don't know her, but she's a pimp! You might not see her, but that's my girl Imp!" Everyone but Vejovis and Break glanced around, confused, as the girl in question shouted "Fuck yeah!" and no one reacted to her. _Stranger?_ Dauntless wondered. As far as he knew, they had no record of this girl, or at least he hadn't been informed if they had.

The grin fell off of Break's face, easily visible through his clear plastic mask. He paused before waving towards the last member of the group with an expression as if he'd stepped in something dog droppings as he finished, "Trickster."

Vejovis' smile was obviously strained as he nodded to his teammate, taking the podium as those behind him glared at Break. The villain moved back to stand with them, grinning unrepentantly. "Thank you Break. While unnecessary, that was appreciated." He turned to address the journalists, "Thank you all for coming here. I'll start with the good news first, and follow with the full explanation. The ABB are _done_. Lung is in PRT custody, and Oni Lee was killed in self-defense while trying to murder myself and those working with me, so it is unlikely Lung will escape **_again_** _."_ _Ow,_ Dauntless observed, looking at the man standing front and center in front of the line of capes, _that smarts._ It was worse because he had every reason to be upset. "As I speak to you I am sure that the PRT is working on Bakuda's lab, which we discovered and secured for them. While we collectively have many talents, decoding and hacking Tinkertech is _not_ one of them. Yet. I'm sure Dragon will soon have Bakuda's-," he paused, looking at them.

"I see some of you appear confused. Allow me to explain. After she bombed Cornell university, Lung recruited a Tinker who went by the name Bakuda. Her specialty was bombs, and he gave her the resources she needed, then worked with her to seed her devices throughout the city. The Penumbral Defenders only found out about this _after_ the bombing had commenced, though I wonder if others knew about her _before_ she made her move. She was the one who equipped Oni Lee with effectively infinite Tinkertech Grenades, and the one who increased the ABB's ranks several-fold through conscription by means of implanted bombs in the skulls of innocents. I strongly believe that had she not panicked when Lung was captured originally," he paused again, and Dauntless could almost see him considering whether or not to reveal exactly _how_ Lung was captured the first time. He had very little to lose now, and it would only help his image.

"If Lung had not been captured, forcing her hand, her bombing spree would likely have not started with chaos and a breakout, but with a decapitation strike of the PRT, the Protectorate, and the Mayor's office. If you haven't heard both myself and the Lady, Bug were contacted by the PRT to assist in bomb detection and clearance and were able to find over a hundred throughout downtown in a few days, many around the PRT office, City Hall, and even one just across the street from here," he informed the gathered crowd, pointing off to the left. "We worked with the PRT and Dragon to help locate and defuse them, I just wish we could have worked with them over the last few days as well. We might have been able to put a stop to this _even sooner_ ," he sighed, and Dauntless glanced at the director. Her expression was blank, but her knuckles were white where she held the back of a chair.

"But as I was saying, I'm sure that Dragon will soon have Bakuda's computer hacked, whatever seems to be randomly setting off her bombs will soon be disabled, and those devices that have not yet been found, both squirreled away in dark alleys, and in the heads of _innocents_ of Asiatic descent, will be disabled." Vejovis let out a deep breath. "Hopefully, we can soon recover from this terrible, terrible event." He seemed to relax, almost visibly warming and gaining energy. "But that is over now, so I do believe you all would be interested in _how_ this unlikely congregation of capes came to be." He smiled, extending his hands to indicate the group behind him.

"We all had been working independently, trying to stop the bombings in our own way, to little result. The loss of life was high, though I must add that without the efforts of Panacea, it would have been _much_ higher. I was able to assist her, but as a healer she is by far much more skilled than I. During this time I was approached by Purity, who had two years prior cut ties with the Empire Eighty-Eight in attempt to turn a new leaf and become a hero," his smile faded slightly, "An attempt that was met with suspicion and scorn, even after two years of trying to be a hero despite the pressures put upon her on _all_ sides to once again become a villain for the Empire." Dauntless hadn't heard about her change of allegiance, and even then, felt a little guilty over hoe he'd treated her when they'd met before he joined the Protectorate. Looking around he saw he was in the minority.

"However," Vejovis continued. "I am of the belief that those who wish to do good should be supported, and happily offered her a place on my team." There were sounds of surprise from the press, and the hero gave them time to quiet down. "It was shortly afterwards that I heard of a meeting of villains at a neutral ground to discuss what they could do to end Bakuda's Bombing." His smile slipped a little further. "The Penumbral Defenders hadn't heard _anything_ from the PRT or the Protectorate about ways to help end the bombings, and as I found out later," he waved to Glory Girl, "Neither had the _other_ non- _governmental_ hero team, New Wave. With that in mind I decided that if the Villains of this city wished to act as heroes, I would do my best to help them _save_ Brockton Bay."

He laughed lightly, as if such a thing _wasn't_ absolute insanity. _Then again,_ Dauntless considered, _he pulled it off._ "Things were a bit tense at first, but with what was at stake, they were willing to put aside their differences for the good of all. I called in a long-standing favor with a Thinker, who wishes to remain nameless, and was furnished with the locations of ABB strongholds, though not the location of Bakuda's Lab. Now that I had the support to use the information I'd gathered; the PD could do their part to help. We all divided into mixed teams and did our level best to put an end to this horror." Vejovis lost his joviality, and it was almost cartoonish how much the man displayed emotion, except it all seemed so _honest._ _Is this a master effect?_ Dauntless had to wonder, but dismissed it immediately as he looked around. Miss Milita was her normal implacable self and Velocity looked at the video feed with interest, but Director Piggot's expression could have probably curdled milk.

Dauntless took a sip of his coffee, a small, absurd part of him glad the cream in it wasn't effected.

"I wish we could have worked as normal, fighting to disable like is standard practice, but the conscripted troops fully believed if they did not kill _us_ , they or _their families_ would be killed in retaliation. Unfortunately, this city had become a veritable warzone, and we were not strong enough to be able to stop those who were committed to kill us so without loss of life. Our first raid was. . . bad. The second." He paused, letting out a long breathe. "I did not know such a thing existed in this city, and I am forced to question how such a thing went unknown in this city for as _long_ as it had." He gave a short bark of pained laughter. "When I heard the ABB were _known_ for their practice of sex slavery when I first arrived, I assumed it was a rumor propagated by the Empire." He turned to Crusader, who Dauntless realized was standing side by side with _Break_. "I do apologize for that. I do not care for your organization in the slightest, and I'm sure you understand why I did believe that, but I was in error."

The Empire goon looked surprised. "It's okay. We hate those slants, and for good reason, but we wouldn't lie about _that_." _Bullshit,_ Dauntless thought, noting both Vejovis' and _Purity_ , whose glow had died down to a soft radiance on Break's other side, wince at the racial slur. _Maybe she has cut ties._

Vejovis looked as if he wanted to say something, but turned back to the crowd. "On our third raid, most of the Empire did not come, but not _all_ of them held back, and I am most grateful for those who continued to fight by our side. Also, during this last raid the villain Coil, who had sent two sniper teams and two squads armed with Tinkertech, tried to kill myself and Æonic. However, the normal perfidy one has been led to expect by those labelled villain was not within the hearts of the Travellers, the Undersiders, Faultline's Crew, Krieg, Rune, Crusader, and Æonic as they fought with the Penumbral Defenders today to end Bakuda's Bombing, with Panacea and Glory Girl offering their services as emergency healing." He gave a rueful chuckle. "And while Glory Girl offered to help in the fighting, I was able to dissuade her from doing so to better protect her sister."

"He hasn't seen it," Velocity observed quietly.

"What?" Dauntless whispered, distracted.

Paninla clarified with a murmur, "Vejovis has not seen what happened with Lung. That is telling."

 _Telling of what?_ He wondered, but the hero seemed to be wrapping up. "-out our combined efforts I do not know how much longer this would have gone on. Now, I'll take three questions and then wish you all a good day. Who is asking the first one? You? Go ahead."

"Keaton Larkin, Brockton Bay News. How do you, someone who claims to be a hero, rationalize working with known criminals?" the reporter asked.

Vejovis stared at the man, seemingly stumped. The reporter started to talk again but Vejovis held up his hand. "I'm sorry, but did you listen to what I said, or have you just been sitting there waiting to ask that question the _entire time_? No, don't answer, it was a rhetorical question. Well, first of all the question _itself_ is dishonest because you are not asking for my reason,-" the reporter tried to interrupt, stating that his question _wasn't_ dishonest and Vejovis was dodging the question but the hero kept right on talking over him. "my rationale, you instead asked for my _rationalization_ which is when one uses the appearance of logic to cover for innately _irrational_ behavior and now you are being _incredibly rude_ by trying to interrupt me. Is this how journalists operate in Brockton Bay?" There were a couple of no's from the others gathered and he nodded. "Ah good, he's just being unpleasant. Brockton Bay News you said? I'll have to remember _not_ to do interviews for them if this is the caliber of reporter they send. To answer your question though, Endbringer Truces are a _thing_ that _exists_ , and while it was taking much longer, the property damage is likely on the lower end of one of their attacks. Furthermore, without Panacea's efforts so would the _death toll_. If heroes can work with those on the opposite side of the divide for _those_ , it stands to reason that we should be able to work together for this recently passed crisis as well." He sighed, "That's one, though it seems like a waste of a question I am a man of my word. Who's next?"

Several people held up their hands, pens in the air. "Oh, well, I have no idea what organizations you all represent, so let's go with the man in the tan shirt with the red tie." As the person stood up Dauntless felt a feeling of dread. _Not him._ The same man who'd wrote an 'exposé' on Dauntless' "secret affair" with Miss Militia, which for better or worse had no basis in fact, smiled broadly. "Erik Johnson, Daily Messenger, with your understandable comments about villains acting like heroes, what would you say about heroes acting like villains?"

"I would condemn it, obviously, but I feel like I'm missing some context, can you be a bit more specific? I won't count it as an additional question."

The yellow journalist smiled wider as Dauntless could almost see him think ' _hook, line, and sinker'_ , "I'm speaking of the video of your recent altercation with the heroine Carol Dallon, also known as Brandish."

There was an explosion of sound as the reporters talked over each other while Vejovis looked surprised. "Oh, did someone record that? Hmm." Glory Girl and Panacea looked pained as Vejovis pointedly didn't look at them. "I have not met her in a _professional_ capacity, and while I do believe that her accusations, attacks upon my person, and escalation of force when I refused to give her the fight she appeared to desire were not behavior befitting a hero, I wouldn't go as far as to call it truly _villainous_ either. No one was injured so while I could, I won't be pressing charges, and I sincerely hope she receives the help she obviously needs." Dauntless, who had seen the tape, was surprised at the level of maturity that spoke of. Vejovis appeared to be in his twenties, though which end of them Dauntless couldn't tell, and he wasn't sure he would've taken attempted murder nearly as well as the man he was watching apparently was. The Dallon sisters looked relieved, and Glory Girl looked a bit guilty as well.

Vejovis sighed, which Dauntless noticed he did a lot. "So, last question, and I wouldn't exactly be lying if I said I'd prefer something a bit more softball, but I will do my best to answer it as much as I can. You, the woman in red," he laughed to himself, though Dauntless didn't understand why.

"Tabitha Merkle, CBS. What are your plans for the future?"

"My first instinct is to respond I'm going to Disney World, but I said I'd be honest," he smiled, "Well, I'm going to go get breakfast with those who have fought beside me, then I'm going to relax for a few hours, but for what you _really_ mean, I'm going to start preparing for the _next_ crisis."

The woman frowned prettily, "I'm sorry to ask another question, but what do you mean by that?"

"Really?" he raised a brow. "We've just created a bit of a power vacuum. While the Undersiders are small-job specialists, and the Travellers and Faultline's Crew are mercenaries, there are some who may be foolish enough to try to take advantage of the opportunity _that_ presents. Skidmark seems content with his territory, such as it is, and Æonic," he paused, turning towards the cape in question. "Hey Æonic, you going to try to further destabilize this city by making a power grab?"

"Hmm," the villain pondered, before shaking his clock-themed helmet, voice smooth, almost slick. "Treating water like ice is a fool's game. Building without a proper foundation is a recipe for disaster." The accent was almost southern, but seemed like it might be affected.

"I completely understand," the hero agreed, though Dauntless didn't understand how that answered the question. "And I legally can't do anything over _mights_. As I was saying, Kaiser no-showed on the _third day_ , even if three of his capes still acted honorably, that does not speak well of his planning capabilities. Furthermore, Coil actively broke the truce he _himself_ worked to negotiate. I wouldn't it put it past either of them, _or_ a third party, to try something, and I prefer to plan and train than react and only try to get better when I absolutely have to. Have a nice day everyone. Except for Mr. Larkin." He turned his back on those gathered, "So, who wants Brunch. I'm buying!"

As the parahumans filed out, the news feed switched to a shocked looking Brielle Bardoner. "Well," she started, "That was. . . different." She looked to the side, obviously reading something before turning back to the camera, smile plastered on. "We here at Brockton Bay News would like to apologize for the actions of our on-site reporter, and that his actions are not representative of our organization as a whole. We-"

The image cut out as silence descended on the group. "That could have gone worse," Velocity mused.

The Director pinned him with a glare. "Explain."

The speedster looked unfazed and continued on unhurriedly, "He could have revealed that it was _his_ teammate who captured Lung the first time. It was clear as day to us he was considering it, but to others it will look like he was either gathering his thoughts or trying to pick his words. He _did_ help when we asked, and nothing he said was untrue, as far as I know. There's about a dozen ways he could have made us look bad." He shrugged at Paninla's look, "I spend a lot of time jogging, gives me time to consider things."

"Director," Dauntless asked, needing to know, "Why _didn't_ we help? I understand if you wouldn't want us working with criminals, but we could have still been _out_ there. I believe Vejovis would have shared intel with us if we asked."

The Director of the PRT, ENE branch looked angry before she seemed to deflate slightly, hard edges blunting. "I don't know," she admitted, to the surprise of those gathered. "Orders from the Chief Director were to wait for additional resources. The _precogs_ ," she practically spat the word, "Said moving was _non-optimal_. I received my orders, and carried them out, as I expect _you_ all to." She took a deep breathe, refocusing. "And that _does not leave this room_. Understood?"

She waited until they had all nodded, but one, adding "I said Assault, _do I make myself clear?_ " Getting a stubborn nod, she gave one herself to the speedster, "You are correct Velocity. While that could have been _much_ better, it could have been much worse as well. To finish your briefing we believe that Spectrum to be Boardwalk, likely freshly triggered and approached by Break for recruitment when Lung tracked him down. Boardwalk has three known powers, Shadow powers similar to Shadow Stalker, Light powers similar to Purity, and some kind of repelling field he can project from his body, though it is unclear if this is an interaction between his light and shadow powers. He is to be considered a Blaster _nine_ , Brute five, Mover four, Breaker three, Shaker three, and Stranger two. Given his previous interactions with the Protectorate," she gave Miss Milita a pointed look, who didn't meet her eyes. _What happened there,_ Dauntless wondered. He'd seen L33t and Uber's video, and seen the damage left behind, but no one was talking about exactly what had gone down in that vehicle bay. "You are to not approach him, and if approached _do not threaten_."

A picture appeared on the table of the hole Boardwalk had drilled through eight feet of steel bulkhead. "He appeared to not wish to hurt members of the Protectorate and PRT, _even when attacked from behind_ , but with the powers he displayed he could easily have done so. With any luck he'll have left and becomes _Armstrong's_ problem."

.

AN: And with that the Bakuda Bombing is done. I'm going to drop back to only uploading on Sundays.


	73. Milestone 7-6

**Milestone 7.6**

I felt happy with my speech as we left. The loaded question had been a bit disappointing but not unexpected. The fact that someone had _recorded_ Brandish's murder attempt was surprising, though not a bad thing. As for the third, hopefully I'd primed it so that Coil wouldn't drop the E88's identities, but if he did my quick response would now read as preparation, not that I was in on it.

I turned to the same hotel staffer that had lead us all in, looking around at the gathered villains, "We should have transportation waiting, can you direct us to it?"

She nodded, taking us down several corridors before reaching a larger reinforced door. Opening it revealed the parking lot, a stretch limo waiting for us. Driver and an armed guard waiting for us, holding the doors open.

Trickster took the moment to speak up, "While I hate to turn down free food, Sundancer and I will have to decline." Marissa looked like she wanted to say something, but she didn't. If she _had_ I could've acted to help, but I'd learned at cost that you can't save someone who _doesn't want to be saved_. Seeing him, Trickster's power had extended over both Travelers, reaching out to the other side of the parking lot and grew as it covered an empty space. "It's been fun, but I believe this little partnership has come to an end," and with that he vanished with a pop, reappearing at the other end of the lot, teleporting again and leaving behind two confused looking reporters.

I rolled my eyes and climbed inside, Taylor, Glory Girl, and Panacea quickly following suit. "I thought he needed to switch places with something?" Newter asked in, clambering over to a corner.

"He did," Lisa smugly informed him. "He switched places with the _air_. It takes him longer, so he doesn't use it in combat." Her eyes flicked over to Herb as he entered behind Purity, "But some of us already knew that."

"What?" he paused mid-sit, "It wasn't obvious?" That netted him a glare from her and a small smile from Purity, who was bright enough that most couldn't make out her features, but not enough to blind.

"Is it safe for us all to be together like this?" Rune asked, trying and failing to hide her nervousness.

"It doesn't look like it, but this limo's armored," Tattletale reassured while continuing her mental dick-waving. "Besides," she looked around at the group, "Between Æonic's time-stop and Vejovis' Force Fields we should be fine."

I got some stares at the car started. "Tattletale, do you remember the conversations about spilling secrets? Those apply to things that you think others _might_ know."

She shrugged unrepentantly, an almost cartoonishly smug smirk affixed firmly in place on her face, "It's not like the goody two shoes over there didn't al-mmmf!" Was all she said got before I slipped my glove off, and pressed it against her collar, mentally opening a hole in her costume to make contact, sealing her mouth over with skin.

"Jesus Christ man!" Newter exclaimed, pushing himself back in his seat. "What the hell?"

I sighed as I put my glove back on and Tattletale scrabbled at her mouth uselessly. "She can still breathe, and this is the. . . fifth? Yeah, fifth time I've warned her that if she can't control her mouth, I'd temporarily revoke that privilege. Panacea or I will set it right for breakfast. Consider this a time-out for her powers. I'd do the same to you if you were constantly spitting hallucinogenic saliva on everything just to prove you could. I'd rather not, but like I said before, a threat you don't back up isn't a threat, it's a display of weakness."

Newter looked as if was going to say something, but Faultline, Herb, and Crusader all nodding in agreement shut him up. Panacea looked to be a mix of horrified and vindicated, then horrified _at_ her vindication, while Glory Girl started to object, before stopping herself and nodding as well.

"So, since the bitch already said it," Crusader asked, "You got force fields?"

I sighed, bringing my hands together and extending them outwards, creating a rectangle of hard air as the car pulled out onto the street. I then continued the hand motion, letting the area of hardened air extend the length of the limo. "It's invisible, but yes, I can. I've made one now, if you want to reach out and touch it." Those assembled did so, Aisha commenting, "Oh, I could pull of _so_ much with this!"

"It's good for shields, and what I used against Oni Lee to neutralize his grenades." I dismissed it with a wave, excess air pressure exiting through the vents as I leaned back. "I've done research on the capes of Brockton Bay, just in case I had to metaphorically cross swords with them. For instance, Miss Militia never needs to reload, just change her weapon to the loaded version of whatever she's using. That means you can't count shots, and if there's a lull in her firing, _it's a trap_. Also, Skidmark is an absolute moron, though I won't say why, just in case it somehow gets back to him how to better use his power. That being said, let's not do this 'can I gain an advantage' dance please. We've come together and worked hard to accomplish a dangerous, difficult task and none of us died. We've earned the rest of the day off, and let's take it."

Silence greeted that statement, Æonic breaking it as he agreed, "We'll have time enough to play later. Balancing rest and work is important. I can agree to that."

The group murmured their agreements, falling into small talk. Newter and Grue discussed hand to hand combat styles, Rune and Purity talked about Aerial maneuvering, while Crusader and Herb got into a pseudo friendly discussion about how stupid both whites and blacks could be, tossing racial slurs back and forth, though Herb pulled back on the usage when he saw Kayden frown at him.

"You said you wouldn't use your healing offensively," Panacea whispered to me as her sister joined Grue and Newter's conversation, adding in how her strength changed the tactics she used.

"I'm not. I'm not changing her biochemistry, brain, or doing anything that causes harm. I didn't even knock her unconscious, which would be incredibly easy," I murmured back, keeping our conversation quiet with a twitch of sound control. "The only difference between what I did and duck taping her mouth shut was this won't hurt her as much when we undo it."

She frowned back at me, "I still don't like it."

I shrugged, "Did you have a better way of getting her to _not_ spill secrets? As far as I can tell needs to do so to feel powerful, like the other gang leaders feel the need to dominate, and unless I work with her later it'll probably get her killed. If she thinks it'll let her 'win' a confrontation, she'd happily spill _yours,_ without a thought to the consequences _._ "

Panacea didn't say anything else, and Taylor, who I'd included in the sound bubble, minutely nodded from my other side while Tattletale glared at all three of us.

* * *

We arrived at a restaurant named The Summer Rose, which Quinn had reserved for us, and were seated fairly quickly. I restored Tattletale's mouth, and she looked like she was going to say something but thought better of it at my raised eyebrow. Glory Girl looked around at everyone before she asked, "Um, some of you guys have full masks. How are you gonna eat?"

Taylor removed the lower part of her mask, mandible detaching to reveal her face below her nose. Grue, having found the similar feature on his helmet, did the same, his jaw wreathed in darkness and hiding his features. Herb removed his mask, covering his face with his arm as he slipped on a white domino mask. Crusader's features took an ethereal tint as he reached up and removed his helmet, the ghostly double still wearing his and obscuring his features. Æonic nodded his head to the Neo-Nazi, commenting, "Good idea," before reaching up and removing his helmet, but as he lifted it up it overlapped with another, noclipping through itself as he put the helmet he just took off down to the side of his chair, still looking to be wearing it.

I looked at him, trying to figure out how the hell he did so. Turning on my Power Sight I saw that he had his Schrodinger power active, both wearing and not wearing his helm at the same time, which made _no_ sense. Looking at the rest of the table I Saw the Light Blue and Grey flames of Phantom Duplication, as well as the Lime Green and Brown of Rune's Bounded Field Telekinesis. Everyone else I'd already seen, and they were keeping their powers to themselves, except Tattletale, but from how it kept pulling back before escaping she at least was _trying_ to restrain it, so I wouldn't hold it against her.

We ordered brunch, with Herb ordering Aisha's chocolate chocolate chip pancakes for her, since the waitress wasn't writing down our orders but remembering them, which wouldn't work for Imp as soon as the teenager relaxed her power. Small talk continued, Crusader commenting to me, "Did you have to make Kaiser look bad in your speech?"

Discussion quieted. "It's not making someone look bad if you are merely reporting things they _actually did_ ," I observed. "If he had showed up and fought with us, even if he decided not to come to the press conference, I still would have _thanked_ him in my speech. It would just be the right thing to do. He _didn't_ , and thus could be said to violate the Truce by not supporting it, but because you helped Break that seems like a personal problem and not an official order, so I won't make a fuss about it. That man inherited his position and seems to lack some of the skills needed to operate in it."

I chuckled, "In the first raid he tried to kill the people who surrendered after I'd secured them, which if I wanted to I could have declared a violation of the Truce and killed him then. By the second he was threatening to break the Truce and kill _me_ if I didn't hand over the child who Triggered as a parahuman. A _black_ child," I added, stopping Crusader's objection before it even started, "which he didn't even think to check before making repeated threats to me, my _team_ , and my _family_. The last of which is a violation of those unwritten rules I hear bandied about."

This was apparently news to Crusader and Rune, but not Krieg, by their reactions. "If it weren't for Oni Lee the Empire might've had a new leader, as I tend to match force for force if I have to, and Kaiser's power, connections, and temperament means he'd never allow himself to be captured. If you tried to subdue me, I would hold back and return the favor, but if you tried to spear me through the heart and I couldn't capture you, I would regrettably remove your head."

I sighed as I shook my head, "I believe _mercy_ to be a gift of the _strong_ , as when you grant someone it you are stating that if the person comes after you again, no matter the circumstances, you believe you can still win. Someone who can be captured, such as Uber and L33t, Victor, or the Merchants, I would. Some like Hookwolf however, I would be forced to move harder against. The fact that he doesn't even _bother_ to try to fight in a non-lethal manner would make that decision much easier." I smiled, showing my teeth to the villains. "It is a common misconception, especially in safer societies, but _good_ does not mean _nice_ , and while I strive to be both, my priorities are clear."

"Daaaamn," Aisha responded immediately, Herb nodding to her as he laughed, gaining attention from the villains, heroes, _and_ wait staff who were pretending not to eavesdrop.

"Y'all might not know it," my teammate explained, "but him speechifyin' at the press conference, that was him bein' concise! I bet he didn't even write a speech!"

I blinked, "Why would I need to write a speech? I was just giving a quick overview of what had happened and updating everyone on the current state of affairs, since we can't trust the Protectorate tell everyone."

Kreig looked at Herb, "Do you mean he's always like this?" Herb, Purity, Æonic, Taylor, Newter, Lisa, Brian, Aisha, Panacea, _and_ Glory Girl all nodded, seemingly in unison.

"I just believe in being complete," I _definitely_ didn't huff.

"He's preachy," Herb translated.

I felt hurt at that. "Really? Do you think that poorly of me?"

He looked surprised, before something clicked, and he rolled his eyes, waving a placating hand in my direction. "Nah man, that's good. If you go to someone and tell them their preacher's fuckin' preachy they'd say 'Fuck yeah! His passion helps fill the soul for the week, it's why I go!'"

I . . . hadn't thought of it that way. "Oh. Yeah, maybe? So, up here in the _North_ , maybe it's the academics or the atheists, but they'd call that being an educator."

"But they're not," he replied confused. "That's why most of 'em suck! Honestly, think of it this way: A preacher, and a good preacher, is invigorated by the act of the preach, and the message he's passing. If you sit and listen to 'em, you feel his passion and his joy in spreading The Word."

I considered this. "If you consider The Word to be universal truths, told to help lessen the confusion and suffering that ignorance creates, then I can kinda see it. The thing is, I've _never_ been to a church where that's happened." I'd _never_ trust the man to plan again, but he did have experience I obviously lacked.

He looked at me sadly. "I'm sorry," was all he said.

I held up a finger. "No, here's the thing, every church my parents ended up going to, the preacher, as you define it, didn't preach."

"He read from a book," Herb agreed knowingly.

I shook my head. "No, he moralized," I clarified.

Herb's eyes went wide before put his head in his hands muttering, "Oh Jesus," to himself, prompting a laugh from Aisha.

I snapped my fingers, finding the explanation that snapped everything into place. "That's the connotational difference. Up here, you say preachy, we hear moralizing, we hear condemning others, we hear you're yourself holding an ethical high ground you don't deserve, while telling us all how _we've_ sinned. So, people around here, if you use the term," I stopped clarifying through the lens my own experience. "At least white, middle class people around here, if you use that term, and they react badly, they're attaching a whole different meaning to what you said than what you meant."

"Down there," he asserted, "They tell every churchgoer that they've sinned, but it's because you've sinned that you've learned and become better." Crusader nodded in agreement.

I nodded as well, seeing where he was going with this, "'Churches aren't museums for saints, but hospitals for sinners.' It's a phrase my dad used whenever the holier-than-though BS got bad, usually right before we changed churches. Pretty much _every_ church we'd gone to growing up was heavy with the moralizing, and the politicizing, and all sorts of petty power shit."

"The churches I've gone to," Herb replied, "the good ones, because yeah, I've been to some up North that are like that, but the good ones are rejoicing in the love of the Lord, and remembering that you are full of sin, but also of forgiveness. That you need to seek forgiveness about what ya did wrong, but also that you have a father who'll forgive you, as long as you're willing to forgive yourself."

I laughed. "Yeah, the churches I've been to, _that_ forgiveness is contingent on you doing what the church leadership tells you to do."

"Uh, no?" he told me, confused. "Just be a good person."

"Ah," I countered. "But I, _as the church leadership_ , get to determine what being a 'Good Christian' is, and if you're not doing A, B, C, and D, then you're obviously not being a good person."

"But that doesn't make sense!" His brow furrowed, "All being a good person is, is loving thy neighbor-" stopping as I shook my head.

"I, _as the church leadership_ , am a person of God, and thus would know what being a good person is more than you as I've officially studied _the word of God_ more than you have, thus imposing a hierarchical system where none officially exists. Discounting Peter, where one is specifically _not_ supposed to exist. My parents have both worked on church councils, and their last pastor before I moved out, and one of the reasons I didn't go to my parent's church, had this entire slimy used car salesman thing."

Herb nodded slowly, "There are those."

"So, this Pastor made promises that he didn't have the authority to make on behalf of the church, which, being Congregationalist, requires the congregation to vote on. They're probably the democrat-iest version of Christianity. When my mother, the moderator at the time, the person who effectively _ran_ the church, called him on it, he accused her in the meeting of not being a 'Good Christian' for 'not helping those in need', instead of even acknowledging what she said. He acted like it was either do exactly what he said or do nothing at all. He then went all 'don't you think, as a _Good Christian_ , we should help those in need?' to try to hammer it home after his original denouncement. However, she was all 'Yes, but as Congregationalists we have to vote on any major expenditure of church funds _, as per our own bylaws_ , and how _dare_ you accuse me of that!' No man, the churches I've been to you have people accusing each other of not being good enough Christians, usually indirectly, if other people don't do what they want."

He just blinked at that, processing. "Well. That's not a church, that's. . . prison."

" _Religious_ prison. Welcome to the North!" I told him, faking my cheer, which became a bit strained when Rune hung her head, nodding slightly in sad affirmation.

"They're not all like that," he insisted. "They're outnumbered, but it's not _everyone_."

I shrugged, "I know. But finding one that isn't is far more difficult than it should be, hence the negative connotation."

"Yeah," he acceded. "And down South there's the whatchamacallit Baptist church, and others like them, but mostly there's really great wonderful churches that do really great wonderful things."

I held up a finger "Ah, but good luck seeing that in the _media_ , because, well, you know. Even if they've done several dozen studies that show believing in something, anything, actually _helps_ mental health."

"It really does help," he agreed. "It gives you something to live for, even when you don't have anything. It gives you hope, it gives you an understanding, it gives you a way to talk yourself from the bad to the good when you can't find a reason to do it on your own. Even if it's the Flying Spaghetti Monster!"

I held a hand to my heart. "May his noodley appendage touch us all!"

"I still have no idea where that comes from," he laughed.

 _Really?_ I thought. "Oh, well, it comes from the people who said intelligent design needed equal time to evolution when taught in schools, because people don't understand what a _scientific_ hypothesis means, and the criteria given where so vague this guy was like 'hey, by your logic you should also be giving equal time to the theory that the universe was created by a flying spaghetti monster!' They tried to ignore him, but by their _own_ proposals they had to let him do his thing, and that was back in the mid aughts, when you had young earth creationists trying to leverage the internet to spread their stuff, and the local media saw them trying to suppress another religion while claiming they themselves were being suppressed and ran with it. So now we have Pastafarianism, the church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, may his noodley appendage touch us all." I pronounced with over-the-top solemnity. "It is, after all, he who created the universe. Why else would planets look like meatballs? Checkmate Atheists."

"Huh," he said, laughing. "That's awesome."

Glory Girl joined some of the others laughing, adding "That's great, I hadn't heard about that. Where was that?"

I froze as I realized that I hadn't checked to see if that was a _thing_ in this universe. All I could do was play it off and hope Plot Convenience covered my ass. "Ah, I'd rather not talk about my past, for obvious reasons."

That stopped that _particular_ conversation topic, but I knew that Lisa was going to try to pull on that thread to see what truth they could unravel. We finished up, the bill already taken care of, and Herb took his spoon and tapped it against his water glass.

"Hello folks. Thank you. My boy here, he masterminded this little session. Yes, the little snake bitch did bring us together. The little SS soldier wanted to be the commanding master, but you all understand that my boy helped us all become better. Not just better people, better fighters, better understanding ourselves. But together, we did what the PRT, the police, and the Protectorate couldn't, wouldn't, and honestly just shouldn't. We are. . . the evilest heroes. Cheers."

Those assembled had varying reactions, though confusion was an omnipresent undercurrent. No one was picking their glass up other than Æonic and myself entirely out of a sense of solidarity and duty. "Villainous heroes?" Herb asked.

I sighed. "Let's not talk evil or villainy Break, those are pretty loaded terms and _you_ don't use them like others do." I looked around the table, "What's important is that _we_ saved this city, when no one else would. And even if it's only for today, for we may go back to respective corners tomorrow, _or not_ if you don't wish to, _no one_ can deny that _right now,_ we are: _The heroes of Brockton Bay!_ "

That was much more palatable, and Purity picked up her glass, which prompted the Empire to, and everyone else followed suit in toast with the affirmation of, " _The heroes of Brockton Bay!_ "


	74. Milestone 7-7

**Milestone 7.7**

As we left the restaurant we went our separate ways. A car was waiting for the Empire, Purity took off to go home to her kids, Herb headed back to the base with the sisters, Faultline's crew walked off, and the Undersiders took my offer of the Limo to get away from the crowds and drop them off closer to _their_ base. Checking my e-mail showed that Quinn had come through with my second request. I offered my arm to Taylor, who took it as we took off above the city. Neutralizing the wind, I asked, "Have you gotten any of those Darwin Spiders yet?"

"Darwin's Bark spiders?" she checked, continuing at my nod, "Yeah, actually, I set them up in an abandoned warehouse between your base and the Undersiders', so I could get to it easier, and I figured if you both are setting up in that kind of place, it's just standard, and I've been building them habitats and keeping them fed while they make webs, though getting it into cloth is a bit. . . what?" she asked as I stared at her.

"I'm not upset," I prefaced as I started flying in the general direction of _her_ base, "But how do you know where _my_ base is? I've never told you."

"Oh, um," she replied, obviously trying to pick her words. "Well, you'd meet me or drop me off you almost always came from the same direction. So I, um, triangulated? I'm sorry!" she apologized.

I waved away the apology with my free hand. "Don't worry Taylor, you didn't do anything wrong. Just warn me first if you're coming, so I can put the base defenses on standby until I can key you into security." I sighed. _Right, she's not dumb, and figures things out quickly. That's why you're not lying to her in the first place Lee._ "Anyways, so you're saying you have fabric samples?"

Nodding slowly, I could almost see the wheels turning. "Yeah I have samples. . . Why would I- Wait. You don't mean samples, you mean swatches, right?" I shrugged, not really seeing the difference. "But I got them for my costume, and the way you do things means that. . . _Are we meeting Parian!?_ " she practically shouted.

 _Yep, no hiding things was a good idea,_ I reaffirmed. "We could've been meeting someone else." I got the distinct sense she was glaring at me from behind her mask. "Yes, in about two hours."

"Two hours, that's not enough time!" She thought furiously as she looked down to the city below. "I need to get materials! and my notes, and should I bring a few to demonstrate? And colors! What colors should I use- Stop laughing!" she complained, broken out of her panicking by my shaking as I couldn't hold back my laughter.

It took a moment, but I pulled in my mirth. "Taylor, this is a preliminary meeting. Two hours is _more_ than enough time, and as for colors, you can discuss that with her. Now, where's your base"

She glared at me again before sighing and shaking her head, "You're right. It's that one over there," she pointed. Sure enough, as we approached, and now that I was looking, I noticed an extremely high concentration of spiders in the building. Taylor reached out when they entered her range and sent them scuttling around, gathering things, spinning webs, and performing a panoply of other actions.

Touching down in front of it she let go, heading over to a bit of metal that was leaning against a wall, shifting it over to reveal a door. She had a few spiders scuttle over and turn the lock on the other side, letting us in, closing and locking it behind her. Looking around I was glad I didn't have arachnophobia, as hundreds of spiders scuttled to and fro around the large space. Flies and other insects were pulled around from the surrounding area into the building to be caught and wrapped by spiders of all types, though a disproportional number of them were Black Widows.

Taylor turned to face me, motioning to the building as a whole. "So, um, welcome to my parlor?"

I rolled my eyes, "Said the spider controller to the flier. Not bad, you've had, what, a week? How much of your budget did you spend on this?"

"About a thousand, but most of that was the spiders." She unmasked and smiled as she looked around, rightfully proud. "Oh, and I haven't even shown you the best part! Come on!"

Grabbing my hand, she dragged me towards a raised office area that overlooked the warehouse proper. The rusting metal supports were wrapped in silk and the bottom was a giant web to keep it stable. The stairs up were also wrapped in webbing, which groaned a little under my weight. Happy I could fly I followed her up into the office where several dozen of some of the _ugliest_ spiders I'd ever seen. A mix of browns and greys, their bulbous bodies moved surprisingly fast around the area. The worked in pairs, one producing silk while the other took it and carried it across the room, creating lines of material. Near the window overlooking the rest of the warehouse were two hammocks of silk, created out of the same material these spiders were spinning.

Directing me to sit in one, she took the other, pulling her legs up to cross in front of her. I repressed the irrational thought that she was going to tie me up as I sat in the empty hammock, the material holding easily and actually somewhat comfortable. She looked out over on the main floor, as the ground seemed to writhe with insects. _I'm never taking Herb here,_ I vowed, no matter how amusing his reaction would be. "Okay, this is very cool," I admitted, Taylor smiling broadly in reply.

"So, before we get started, is there anything you want me to make for you?" I asked. She looked back confused. "This room, it was unstable before. That's why you're supporting it with silk, right?"

"Yeah," she nodded, "But it's fine now."

Using the insect to help visualize, I grew four columns from the warehouse floor below us, extending up to the bottom of the hanging room, metal spreading out to create a solid platform to support it. "I mean, is there anything like this you need? Cubicles for spiders, spools for thread, things like that."

She looked surprised, and a little embarrassed. "You'd do that for me? You don't need to!" I groaned as I put my face in my hands, letting the hammock swing. "What?" she asked, worried.

I gave a short laugh, understanding her reaction a bit _too_ well. She was so used to users, she wasn't sure what to do with honest helpfulness. I dropped my hands to look her in the eye, retracting my mask to do so better. "Taylor, you're my teammate, and I hope my friend. That means I'm happy to help, all you need to do is ask." Remembering myself at her age, I needed to give her something that fit better with her mindset, but still was in line with my main reason. "On top of that, it's both easy for me to do so, and good training for my powers. So, as a fellow Arachne Assembler, what shall I craft for you today?"

* * *

It was almost an hour before Taylor remembered that she needed to get thing together for her meeting with Parian, she was having so much fun having me help her improve her lair. Spiders were at work pulling thread off of the carboard tubes she'd been using as spools, and onto new metal ones, imprinted with the Arachne Assemblages logo when you used the last of the thread. Several surfaces set up for that express purpose were built as well. The warehouse was re-enforced on the inside, a new interior frame letting me build structures from the ceiling, only accessible if one could fly or climb like a spider. Each suspended structure contained chain ladders that could be pushed out from the inside if need be.

Hundreds of small alcoves were honeycombed into the walls to maximize living space. The fact I'd used Brass to give it a bee-like appearance got a snort of laughter from Taylor and made the extra effort worth it. By the time we were done the place was almost unrecognizable, no longer looking like the lair of a homeless urban Jorogumo, and now appeared purpose built for an insectile supervillain, which wasn't exactly _wrong._ The villain part was mostly due to the fact that I couldn't recall seeing an insect themed superhero who had a base which exemplified that.

"I've got materials, notes, prototypes, and paper and pens for more notes. Are you sure I shouldn't bring a few of my new pets?" she asked, motioning towards the Darwin's Bark Spiders waiting patiently on the table. While I didn't mind them because I could control them with a thought, that reaction wouldn't be shared by the Rogue tailor. Some spiders could be argued to be cute, like jumping spiders that sometimes wore water droplets as hats. The spiders on the table were more of the 'oh god kill it with fire' type.

"Nah, that might be considered threatening power use on the first meeting. Rogue's can be a bit jumpy, so let's be as nonthreatening as possible," I advised, remasking. I could swear the damn things looked _disappointed_ , so I turned to face her. "We've got twenty minutes and it's a ten-minute trip if we move slowly. Earlier tends to be better, but more than five minutes can make people nervous."

She nodded, gathering everything up into a backpack she'd had the Widows spin up, pulling the straps across her chest and securing them with the metal clips I'd extruded before putting her own helmet on. Grabbing control of a few dozen spiders I had them spin the assembly I'd created in the roof, opening up a skylight. Taking her hand we lifted out, the insects securing the building for us and heading back to their habitats to behave while we were gone.

We took our time drifting over the city, landing in front of an unremarkable office building a stone's throw away from the Brockton Bay University campus. Buzzing the number provided, one of the ones without a name, the door unlocked. Walking inside, we ascended the stairs to the third floor, heading to a door with the moniker PP, a needle pulling thread through the letters. A firm knock on the door got a feminine "Come in," and I opened it, coming in first on the slight off-chance there was an ambush. The inside of the studio was richly decorated, cloth decorations of all types adorning the walls. Several cloth animals were placed artfully, but also somewhat tactically, around the room. There were several tables with cloth and mannequins showing a variety of styles and designs, the ones in front trending towards cape designs, the heads of the various statues covered in an assortment of masks, veils, and helmets. Standing front and center, in a fancy dress with frills and lace, gloves and boots, not an inch of skin showing. She wore a mask which seemed to almost be made from marble, blond hair coming down in curls, dark eyes staring at us expectantly.

"Parian?" I asked unnecessarily. At her silent nod and curtsy I continued, "Pleased to make your acquaintance. I am known as Vejovis and this is my teammate, the Lady, Bug. We're interested in getting her a costume for when she officially joins the team that isn't so. . ." I glanced over at her mottled black and grey armor, "dark. She has some material samples-"

"I brought swatches!" she interrupted, realizing she'd cut me off, "Sorry!"

I sighed. "She has some fabric, that she'd like for you to take a look at, spider silk, and I have _very_ little knowledge in this field. _Far_ less than she does, so I'll let her manage this. I'm mostly here as transport and moral support, as well as supplying the funds." I glanced around. "Do you mind if I have a seat over there?" I motioned by the window, which didn't have any animals near it.

Parian nodded demurely, "That should not be a problem I'll get you a chair," she stated, waving a hand as I walked over.

"No need," I replied, sitting down on solid air. "Lady Bug? If you would."

"Yes!" she moved forward, unslinging her backpack and walking towards one of the tables. "Can I. . .?"

"You may," Parian responded reservedly, giving me a glance which I couldn't read before turning to Taylor. As they discussed fabric I Saw Parian. The Beige and Dark Brown flames of her Tribokinesis seemed to twist and rub up against each other, strands spiraling out into half the animals in the room. _Tribokinesis?_ Focusing on that I could see that it was _friction_ control. As she instructed a gorilla puppet to bring an easel in, I looked at how it worked. Her power was threaded throughout the fabric, controlling _air_ friction selectively to make it move. I tried to figure out the amount of calculations such a thing would require and understood _completely_ why it was as ungainly it was. I was surprised she managed to move it at _all_. As the air friction changed, the gas inside the cloth tried to move because of the conditions, pushing the puppet along and giving it the appearance of life. My own power wanted to grab hers, but I was sticking to my guns and didn't copy a non-villain's power.

She gestured to the board and several single tongues of fire leapt out, each grabbing a different colored pen, which all lifted into the air and started to sketch. Looking deeper into her flames I saw she had a secondary power of Macro-Microkinesis, which just sounded confusing. It let her telekinetically move over a dozen things at once with incredibly tight control, but not a ton of force.

I caught snippets as they talked about 'reversing color palates', 'Interwoven chitin', and 'Saffron'. I was pretty sure the last one was a _spice_ , but then again this was fashion, where salmon was a color, a dart was a fold, and a mule was a type of _shoe_.

Reaching out with my Bug Sense, I established overwatch. Finding someone being mugged a block and a half away, I swarmed the mugger until he dropped, using insects to pull out his phone as his victim ran, dialing 911. Hopefully the cops would do something, but I didn't have a lot of hope. There was a party going on about the same distance away on the edge of campus, and while I was pretty sure some of the kids drinking weren't twenty-one, there were no serious crimes going on. "Vejovis?" Taylor called, breaking me out of my concentration.

I looked up, replaying the conversation they'd had, and the topic had drifted over to how much this would all cost. "Sorry, you were talking costs?"

Parian gave me another look, before nodding. _Did I do something to offend her?_ I wondered _._ "Yes, if you supply the material it will cut down on costs, but the price will be around," she hesitated, "three thousand. I know it's a lot but-"

I held up a hand silencing her. "That's it? Deal, you'll have your material and five thousand. Being a student can get expensive, I know."

She froze, power flaring into her animals. "How did you know that?" she demanded, offended. "You come here and threaten me in my own atl- wait, _five_ thousand?" she sputtered as what I said filtered in.

I smiled at her, "Your studio is within spitting distance of BBU, most triggers are younger and you're a relatively new face, and you just seem like a college student. You likely major in fashion, though I wouldn't discount materials engineering or business. It wasn't that hard to figure out."

While I could See her, there was nothing she could do that wouldn't catch me off guard, so I shrugged unconcernedly. "I didn't do the research I did on the villains because I didn't think I'd fight you, but that just seemed obvious. As to the money you seem like one of the better capes around, and I'll shortly be making enough money healing to pay you several times over. If you do good work, which I think you will, I'll probably give you a contract for the five members of the Undersiders, since I hear they're thinking of going legitimate. Same price for each. Also maybe the Dallon sisters, since Amy needs something more than discount monk robes and Victoria needs something that'll stand up in combat."

She stared at me, "Oh, um, that is good?"

I hesitated, "Also, do you want some combat advice?"

"I'm not going to join your team," she rebutted, sounding upset but also pleased.

Rolling my eyes, I waved the comment away, "This isn't a recruitment pitch, it's some free defense advice. Your power lets you control stuffed animals? Put a snake or two above the door so that if someone breaks in you can wrap it around them and neutralize them. Also, you control over sowing needles could also work on tranquilizer darts, I think there's some Tinkertech ones out there you could pick up that'd be safe for humans without spending too much. Heck, if you ask the Protectorate they might sell you some to get on your good side."

I stood up, not commenting as she took a step back. _Seriously, what was up with that girl?_ "Lady, Bug you feel safe here? There's some other things I'd like to do and I have _no_ clue how to help here."

Taylor glanced at the tailor, before nodding. "I'll be fine Vejovis thank you again for doing this."

I shook my head as I left, "You're part of my team, and I take care of my team."

* * *

Looping around through downtown to make sure I didn't head _directly_ to my base, I had barely walked through the door when I was ambushed with a shout of "Vejy!" and Glory Girl flew over, Panacea following looking amused.

"Vicky!" I called back in the same tone of voice as she started to say something.

She paused, shook her head, and continued, "So are we gonna train? You said you would when you were done and that was _hours_ ago!"

"I said I'd do it when we were done Victoria, don't rush me. I was attending to other matters," I replied, tone cooling. "While I wish to help you, there are others matters which also require my attention."

Glory Girl winced, "Sorry, it's just that I haven't really had anyone _do_ power training! Like Dad showed me some stuff when I first started, but that was just how to punch and stuff, not like how to use my powers."

Understanding that, I nodded, walking past her into the workshop. Herb was in the open space, trying different dinosaur transformations. As I entered he turned into the tiny little velociraptor things, compi-something, and was using his jumping power to maneuver, blurring back and forth. He saw me and gave a high-pitched saurian cry, jumping right for me.

The crystalline shield on my hand held on the impact, though it did push me back half a step. When he started to turn back to normal, and it looked like he'd end up sitting on my hand I dumped him on his ass.

He didn't bother getting up, just picking up his head and looking at me, "Not cool man."

Stepping over him I shot back, "I don't care if I have super strength, you sitting on my hand would just be weird."

He shrugged, springing to his feet as both girls moved around him. "So, what's crackin' cracker?"

"One, you've been spending too much time with Crusader," I quipped. "I don't think Purity likes it when you use slurs. Two, I'm gonna start training Glory Girl."

He glanced at the excited teen before looking back to me. "You gonna train her the same way you train?" he paused. "Actually, I've never seen ya train that power. How do you train that?"

I nodded, "Yeah, but with less bullets," which prompted a _"What?_ " from the other three.

Extruding folding chairs behind a shelving unit, I grabbed one and tossed it to him. "Take a seat and you'll see." Handing one to the other two I claimed the rolling chair for myself. "So, Glory Girl, your main power is forcefields. Step one in _any_ kind of power training is feeling your power so you can get feedback on how it works. Some powers," I nodded to Amy, "Have that front and center, while one's like your boyfriend's have a visual component. Yours fall into the unfortunate classification of having neither, so you need to work for it."

Victoria frowned, "But, they're just kinda there."

"Except when they're not," I countered, "Be right back." I pushed the chair into the maze of shelving units with my air control, grabbing a pair of gloves and a hammer. Pushing myself back I handed both to Amy. "Put these on and grab this."

She gave me a questioning look, but I pushed my chair over to her sister. "Arm please?" I requested. Looking at the white one-piece dress she wore I added, "And I'm going to get Parian to make you both costumes that don't have the defense capability of wet tissue paper."

Vicky looked skeptical. "You're wearing spandex, you totes don't have room to talk."

"Herb," I called, "Grab me a blade please?" He grinned as he did so, tossing it over to me.

I caught it blade first and offered the handle to the heroine beside me. "try to cut my arm please."

She hesitantly took it and drew it across my costume. Her expression was confused, then annoyed as she declared, "Your shield is protecting you."

"Then hit my arm to drain the shield, then try it again," was my repost.

She punched my arm, before trying again, blade sliding over my costume. She frowned before trying again, and once more after that to no effect. "It's Tinkertech," I explained. "But not something that I can get more of, and also might have odd power interactions with other people. Because of that I'm getting you more standard defenses, because that knife _would cut you."_

"It's a blunt knife!" she complained. I rolled my eyes, mentally detaching my glove before I took it off, rolling up my sleeve.

"Hit me again, my shield's back, and if you're so sure it's blunted, try again." I challenged.

Victoria looked at me, then at the knife, before hitting my arm and trying again, crying "Oh god!" as the blade bit deeply into flesh.

I hissed at the pain, but caught the blade as she dropped it, wheeling myself over to Panacea as I dripped blood onto the concrete floor. "If you would please?"

She gave me bit of a wide-eyed look before reaching over and reversing the damage. Ignoring Herb's murmur of "crazy bastard", I rolled back to Victoria.

"I'm sorry!" she said, looking at my healed but still bloody arm and at her own bloody hands. "I, you, I thought you were bluffing!"

I wiped the knife off on my costume, cleaning it before tossing it to Herb who gave an "ohfuck!" but I poked it with air to make sure it hit his hand handle first. He still dropped it, but didn't cut himself. "I rarely bluff, especially with those I'm trying to help. If I'm going to be teaching you Victoria know that I might get things wrong, but I won't lie to you. That being said, there are things I _won't_ tell you, but if I can I'll tell you why. So, back to your power. Give me your arm."

She hesitantly held out her bare arm and I took it with one hand placing a single finger which I tapped twice, feeling slight resistance. _Good, I can pretend this is how I'm determining if her shield is up_. "Okay Panacea, now hit her with the hammer."

"What?" both sisters cried. Victoria tried to jerk her hand back, but I held her in place.

"Your power right now seems to require force equivalent of a solid punch to drop, with seemingly no upper limit. Rather than have her hurt her hand, Amelia is going to help you by dropping your shield over and over again by using that hammer, wearing gloves so she doesn't get blisters if this takes longer than I think it might."

"Wait, that's your-hey!" Vicky called out as Amy hit her with the hammer.

I could See her power flux as her shield dropped, building it back up. Tapping her arm, I could feel the resistance disappear. "It's for your own good," Amy quipped, getting a laugh from Herb. It was hard to determine without the conformation of Power Sight, but after about twenty-five seconds the shield reappeared. Just about as strong as when I'd first copied her. _Do I copy the base powers, or the powers as they currently are with their original user?_ I wondered.

I nodded to Amy, "Again. And this time Vicky, try to concentrate on feeling the shield drain. That's more noticeable then feeling it recharging at first." We repeated this process a dozen times, Herb just watching us, his eyes occasionally narrowing in thought. Amy didn't notice, since she had taken to tapping her sisters other arm to get a sense of the shield, while Victoria had her eyes closed as she concentrated on her shield, trying to guess when it was back. She was pretty off at first, but she was getting a better and better sense of it.

"Now?" Amy asked, tapping her sister, and I nodded, having Seen her shields recharge.

"I gotta ask," Herb said, making Vicky jump, probably forgetting he was in the room. "How does this involve bullets?"

The sisters looked at me as Amy said, "You didn't."

I shrugged, "My costume's also bulletproof, but like a vest is. The sharper strike made it easier to feel the shield drop, and if it hadn't recharged I got used to taking unexpected bullet strikes." They all stared at me. "What? It doubled efficiency. I figured we'd just start out slow, since you have more time than I did."

Herb laughed, shaking his head, reiterating, "Crazy bastard."


	75. Milestone 7-8

**Milestone 7.8**

It took half an hour until Amy could reliable determine if Victoria's forcefield had recharged on her own. "Okay," I told them, "I've got other thing I need to work on, but right now just keep hitting her, and vary the blows a little." At the healer's confused look I shook my head, "Don't worry too much. The natural variations you do just by being human will be enough as long as you're not _trying_ to keep them the same. Victoria."

She opened her eyes as I let go of her arm, looking up at me as I stood. "Yeah?"

"After a certain point your shield's gonna feel full, like it's unstable and is charging up more than it can handle. This is _supposed_ to happen. Don't try to hold it together" I warned her. If she crystallized her first shield, it would limit versatility _greatly_. "It will eventually divide into two _separate_ shields that recharge and protect independent of each other. You'll be able to shift them around, and they'll need to be drained separately. Once you've got at least _three_ , there's some tricks I can show you that I think you'll like."

"How many do you have?" she asked intently.

"Six, but like I said, there's some tricks I can show you that'll make some of them. . . different."

As I walked out, Herb followed. "Hey man, we need to talk."

Ignoring the flashbacks to previous girlfriends, I didn't break stride. Whatever he wanted to talk about, he obviously didn't want to do so around the sisters. "About. . . ?"

He motioned towards the computer room and I ducked in, taking the main seat while he locked the door. Grabbing another chair, he sat on it backwards. "You were lookin' at her power, I saw it when I was lookin' at _both_ of you with your Power Sight. Did you see what you were doin'?"

 _What?_ "Um. . . I was teaching her to use her power?"

"No, well, yeah, but that wasn't just it. You were," he made weaving motions with his arms. "Your power was like reaching out and going into hers, and hers was gettin' a bit brighter, and copyin' it a bit. It was slow as shit, and I only saw it 'cause I was staring, but your power was messin' with hers, but, like, in a good way."

"Hmmm," was my response as I thought about it, snapping off a perfunctory, "And no jokes about me bein' inside of her."

"Nah man," he replied with a scowl, "I wouldn't say that." _Oh, well that's surprisingly matur-_ "She's not Panacea," he added with a smile. _Dammnit Herb._

Pulling my mind back on topic I considered this. "Could it be because I've copied her power, and my shard is communicating the improvements I'd made back to her? Taylor did the same thing when I showed her the Arthropod Control tricks I'd figured out, but I thought it was just the sensory component of her power letting her copy the process, because she was piggybacking my connection to the bugs I was manipulating."

"I'm sure she wanted to do more piggyback," Herb predictably commented, before shaking his head. "Maybe, but that ain't right. Other shards from Scion and Eden might pass each other notes but we're- Dude! That's it!" he exclaimed eyes wide.

I didn't see where he was going. "Would you like to share with the class?"

"It's the Abaddon Shards! They're supposed to make our powers as good as they started, then make 'em better!" _Yes, and?_ "Your Shardworks lets you make the powers better, like if you had 'em yourself, but what about _Power Sight_?"

The tumblers of my mind fell into place at his comment. " _Yes!_ " I cried, shooting to my feet. "I'd forgotten about that!" I started to pace. "I figured out, well, yesterday, wow a lot of time passed. Anyways, I figured out that our Peak Condition also worked as a low levelled healing factor." I glanced over at him, and he just nodded. "You already knew that?"

My teammate shrugged. "Yeah?" he asked. "Wasn't it obvious? You were healin' _way_ too fast to be normal. Like, except for that one fight with Oni Lee, ya weren't even _sore_ afterwards _._ "

I hadn't noticed that, to be honest, and I wish he'd _said something._ Then again, that wasn't Herb's style, and reaffirmed my resolution to _not rely on him for planning_ , as I couldn't be sure he wouldn't assume things I _didn't_ say, or not tell me info because he thought I _already_ knew it. "Regardless. I'm not sure how Immunity is increasing in power, and the damage the testing would cause is not something I want to deal with right now. But back on topic, _Power Sight._ "

I tried to recall what I could about that power, having only glanced at it, decided _yes_ , and moved on. "Ugh, I can't remember what the Second Trigger version of that is. I don't think I'm getting _that_ , but maybe an aspect of it?"

"Somethin' about attunement?" he offered, shrugging.

" _Yes!_ " I remembered _._ " _Attunement_ and _influence_ , the Jack Slash power! I'm not doing that." I gave a short, rueful laugh, "It'd be a lot easier to deal with the other capes in the city if I was, though that gets dangerously close to Mastering. But attunement! Or rather, attunement to my own power, what I've done with it. It's far more limited then a true Second Trigger, but it is a way it could grow stronger." I glanced at the clock, it was a little after four. "Training my power, under _far_ harsher conditions, took about six hours. If she gets her first split before, let's say, nine, then it should be obvious what's happening."

I smiled, "Do you know what this means?"

"Um, Abaddon Shards are awesome?" he hazarded.

"No! Yes! Yes, but not what I'm talking about!" I smiled maniacally. "It means that my power, after power copying, is _teaching!_ While synergistic powers like this," I manifested an air sword, "I can't teach, I can show people how to use the individual parts!" I dismissed my air sword while I created a similar blade from the ceiling, dropping as the tiny wire from the steel hilt snapped under the weight of the weapon, catching it and covering it with a forcefield while manifesting a sword of pure air. "And if they develop new uses I can copy _those_ and if I figure out better uses I can turn around and teach them _those_ , until you get an awesome positive feedback loop of power enhancement!" My mouth hurt from how much I was grinning.

Herb looked dumbstruck. "Dude, that's fucking broken."

"I know!"

He shook his head, "But you're missin' something."

I thought over my plans. "What?"

"They have Scion shards. They're gonna cap out eventually."

"No, that's just it," I shook my head. "You're looking at it like, well, like the people who live here. Sorry," I apologized, but he didn't seem to take it as the insult it was. "The power _itself_ isn't becoming more powerful. Hell, _power_ isn't really the right term to use at all." I paused, considering it. "Actually, they will at first, and we're gonna have to watch for the budding, because that could disrupt things, but it's not the power that's important, it's the _versatility_. Take Stormtiger," I waved my hand, realizing I was still holding the metal sword. Putting it down on the computer desk, I saw I'd imprinted the Arachne Assemblages logo on the bottom of the pommel.

I held the air sword out. "This doesn't require any more power than Stormtiger's claws, what it requires is technique and _skill_. Hell, the claws require _more_ power because they're unstable and need to be kept from exploding, where this thing barely requires a trickle. Actually," I grew a metal handle and mentally attached the blade to it, extending part through the hollow in the grip like a tang. I motioned for Herb to stand up and handed him the blade. Giving the mental command to keep it working, I closed my eyes. "Give it a swing." Not paying attention to it, I could feel it move in the feedback Aerokinesis provided. Opening my eyes, I saw him swinging it back and forth, grinning. Taking control of it between swings, I froze it and he stumbled as the weapon became a temporarily immovable object.

"Dude!" he called, and I let go of it.

"Sorry, testing," I half apologized. "Like I said, a fraction of power that these take," I said manifesting the Air Claws. Reflexively covering them with a shield like I would an air blade outlined them in purple and red fire. The forward edges of the construct rippled, sharp points chaotically emerging and churning along the front facing part of the claw. It was normally invisible, and for Stormtiger's sake that was likely a good thing as, now that I could see it, the use of Aerokinesis looked nastier than Hookwolf, Considering he was literally a wolf made of chainsaw blades, that was saying something.

"Damn," commented Herb.

"indeed," I agreed dismissing them. "My point is that while raw _power_ is nice and all, it's _skill_ and _technique_ which carry the day. Rune can lift more than most Brutes, but it's the fact that she can move the objects with no visible control method, and independently of each other, that makes her dangerous. Well, _would_ make her dangerous if she wasn't an idiot. The only real difference between first night out Bug and late game Weaver was _technique_ , to the point that she could still be somewhat dangerous when limited to _butterflies_."

"Dude, when the PD grows, you're gonna be the reason," he breathed.

"Um, yes? I mean you're gonna help to, but I'm kinda the public face, so by definition I'd probably be-"

He shook his head. "Nah man, you're, like, _the_ power trainer. And not a dickweasel like Teacher. Dude, Vicky's gonna be our whatchamacallit, our demo!"

 _Demolitions?_ _Ah, demonstration._ "Her and Taylor, yeah."

"No," he responded. "Taylor's unknown. For her you could just've got lucky. But for Glory Girl? She was out doin' her thing, bein' useless for like a _year_ before you showed up. Then, after working with he, she's a fuckin _force_ , dude, you'll have people joining just for that! And the Undersiders!"

"I don't think the Undersiders are gonna join us. Most of them are a bit to, well, skittish, if you'll pardon the pun."

He made a face, "Yeah, and I didn't really help there. But what I mean is that it's kinda public knowledge that you're takin' them under your wing to try to flip 'em." _It is? Damn._ "So after Levi when the city goes to shit and they start helpin' out? And start cuttin' loose? _Dude_."

"Dude indeed," I quipped, thinking about it. I'd need some way to screen people, and short of using Tattletale, I wasn't sure how. She was a resource, but one that _couldn't be trusted_ , unfortunately. She was too much of a control freak, that much was apparent from the source material, and would mess with things just to prove that she was in charge. _Lord save me from childish power games._ I'd need to find someone who had a power that could determine lies with a physical component, if they existed. They might, but powers were _odd_ , and if they were a natural trigger, it was likely to be part of a combat power.

Armsmaster was working on a lie detecting software, but not only was that spotty at best, but if Sarah was a tainted asset, Armsdick was pure poison. Maybe stealing it once it was operational, but that was assuming he even made it in this timeline, which was no longer certain by any means. _Ugh_. While I had _some_ free time now, it was only a matter of time until the gala, and then the unmasking of the E88. _The gala!_

Taking my seat and swiveling around to use the computer, my friend asked, "What's got you so worried?"

"The gala, if it still happens, we both need to be there and the Undersiders _can't,_ " I replied. "At least not in their original capacity. It was what _made_ them as a villainous power in the city, and for our redemption narrative to work, they need to stay on the straight and narrow." I caught his disbelieving look. "Narrow-ish," I amended. Drafting an e-mail to Grue stating in no uncertain terms was he to hit any party the mayor threw, no matter how much money they were offered. As I wrote a request to hear about said party if it happened and to get invitations was sent to Quinn immediately after I commented with a nod to him, "Now that I know that everyone _else_ knows I'm grooming them-" I broke off the sentence, frowning. "No, that has a bad connotation. Now that everyone else knows that I'm trying to _flip_ them I can stop being subtle. Well, not subtle, _apparently_ , but everything doesn't have to be deniable."

Turning around I saw that Herb had taken to swinging the invisible sword, tossing up blank paper from the printer and cutting it before it hit the ground with sound effects. "Do you want a scabbard for that? Also, do you want a different blade style?" I went with a katana blade because it was thin, single sided, and the curve made it easier to form, but I could theoretically make anything, even up to a flamberge, bat'leth, or buster sword, since the blade was effectively weightless. Knowing Herb though, he'd _immediately_ go for something large or impractical, so I left the decision up to him.

"Nah, man, I like to feel it when I hit things. Can I swing this around for a sec though, it's fuckin' cool!" he declined.

With that done and Herb off playing with my sword. . . I paused at my internal phrasing. As he familiarized himself with my weapon? No that was almost worse. As he was busy I went to get started on dinner. After I put the cheeseburger pie in the oven, I checked in with the sisters.

"I can feel it!" Victoria excitedly announced as soon as I entered the workshop, her sister smiling in agreement.

"Awesome," I congratulated. It'd taken me a lot longer to get a feel for it, though that might not be my teaching, but just her knowing what to look for instead of me searching for something. Always easier to reverse engineer than discover and all that. "That's step one. Have you noticed anything else?"

"I have to hit her harder," Amelia added, and Glory Girl nodded enthusiastically.

"Yeah, is that how it worked for you?" she asked.

"Pretty much," I shrugged, holding out a hand for an arm as I walked over, which she happily supplied. I did the tapping show as I stared at her power. The White and Gold flames hugged a bit closer to her skin, but seemed a bit more intense then I remembered, but that might've just been what Herb had said affecting me. Seeing them, taking my time to gather as much intel as my power would give me, I could tell the threshold for draining, along with the power they could generate, had increased. "They'll drop down when they split, but never as far down as they started. Also, word of warning, as the shields get stronger, _so do you_. We'll work on control training tomorrow, but this kind of basic training we needed to get started as soon as possible. While it hasn't happened to me yet, there might be a point that, short of guns or sledgehammers, you won't be able to drain your shields like this."

"Really?" she asked, excited.

I shrugged again, letting go of her. "Probably. Like I said, _I_ haven't hit that point yet, so it's just speculation for now." I started to turn to Panacea, to ask if she wanted help training as well, as I had a number of ideas, but I couldn't recall if she'd told her sister exactly _what_ her power was, so that would have to wait until later. Instead I turned back to Victoria. "Do you have any weapons training?"

"Like guns?" she crinkled her nose in disgust.

"I meant melee, like sword or baton, but I suppose you don't have any projectile training either?" I clarified.

The heroine-in-training shrugged, "Why would I need that when I've got my strength?"

I sighed, ignoring her "Hey!" as I rested my face in my palm. "Versatility is _key_ Glory Girl," I instructed through my hand, dropping it to look her in the eye. "You are, right now, a _one trick pony_. You're a flying brick. Two tricks if you count the mind control, but all that does is give you a psychological edge without having to work for it. I can think of five opponents in this city alone that would, right now, kick your ass without blinking. Three of them would _kill you outright_."

I counted off on my fingers, "Number one. You're fighting Purity. She's attacking a target you want to defend, how do you stop her? Amy, keep hitting her. She doesn't need to concentrate on the shields. Hell, I read while I'm training them. So Glory Girl, what do you do?"

"Um, I hit her?" she said as if _I_ was the one being obtuse.

"So you fly faster than her?" I asked. "My information on your respective speeds must be incorrect then. Okay, let's say that you're as fast as a woman on who can keep up with Velocity _,_ who you'd stalemate right now in fight by the way. You could even tank one her blasts, which I'm told are on par with _Legend._ Can you dodge two? Because after tanking one she _won't hold back_ , and be quite surprised when, after taking a blast to the face that should level a building that barely messed up your hair, the second turns you to _bloody mist._ And you know what, half the cape community _won't even blame her._ " I let that sink in. I could see her working through the logic and turning pale.

"You are in an _incredibly_ precarious position Victoria," I warned. "A probing attack to see how tough you are puts you at a Brute _seven_ , up there with Hookwolf, where bullets are an _annoyance_. So when they hit you like they would Hookwolf, having determined it's safe to do so, they don't realize that your shields are down from the probing attack and haven't recharged yet. For the Saturday Morning Cartoon, Cops & Robbers shit that a lot of hero-ing has turned into? With the quips, monologues, posing, and all that theatre to eat up time? That's not an issue. For some of the shit that's coming down the line? That's not enough." I sighed, trying to figure out how to make my point without lying.

"Remember how I mentioned today that we've created a power vacuum?" Both girls nodded, looking at me intently. "In the original timeline, Coil disrupts the Empire in a few days, and in about a month the _Teeth_ are here, trying to make a bid for power. The Protectorate and New Wave didn't do anything to try to stop them, and it came down to the Undersiders, the Travelers, and Accord's Ambassadors, who had also _moved_ into the Bay, to fight them off. That part of the Precog's vision focused mostly on them, so I can't tell you _why_ the heroes were completely ineffectual, but they were."

I tried to remember the members; "Butcher's name is _well_ deserved, there's a blood weapon chick, a guy who makes short lived clones of himself, and a dude who turns into a dog thing whose roar temporarily _nullifies powers_." I wanted to mention the Fallen, but that group of Endbringer cultists showing up would tell the girls more than they could handle right now. "There might be another, but they're all deadly, and their followers are just as bloodthirsty. That being said, you could take half of them if you're trained and smart, and the blood woman if you used ranged weaponry."

"And Butcher?" Amy asked.

" _You_ could take Butcher, if you were geared up. I'd worry too much about Victoria being forced into a 'kill her or die' situation, which is a win-win for that psycho," I replied. "But we are so off topic it isn't even funny. So, no weapon training at all. I can work with that Glory Girl."

"Wait!" she called as I turned around, "What about the other four?"

"Four what?" I said, confused, turning back to her.

"The other four that could beat me?"

I blinked. "Well, first of all Amy, hit her again." After she had done so, I continued, "Newter." She gave me a disbelieving look. "I'm absolutely serious. He seems weak, but I'm pretty sure it's partly an act. Think about it, his power is _chemical._ You hitting _him_ is enough to lay _you_ out as your shields fail and his hallucinogenic sweat goes through the unprotected skin of your hands. He'd have some bruises, but you'd be insensate." She blinked at me uncomprehendingly, and I sighed. "You'd be, ahem, 'turnt AF'," I said, using air quotes, "or 'tripping balls', whichever you prefer." She glared at me. "What, did I not use that correctly?"

Vicky started to say yes, but Amy just nodded, "No, that's about right." When her sister turned to glare at her, the healer hit her with her hammer.

"Poisons are nasty and there's a reason I wear gloves. Next would be Hookwolf, because he never just hits you _once_. Dude's a living chainsaw; I have no idea how he's still allowed out given the body count he must have. Thing is, he wouldn't realize that you _aren't_ shielded until he's already ripped you to pieces. Miss Militia has infinite ammo and any gun she wants. You _probably_ wouldn't die, but you'd be a bloody mess. Lastly there's Boardwalk." It felt odd talking about myself as a different person, and Amelia raised an eyebrow at that statement. "He'd kill you the exact same reasons as Purity. If he didn't know about your limitation he'd paste you in seconds, possibly _literally_ if you engaged him at range. After his scuffle with Oni Lee, then getting jumped by the PRT, he's taking things a lot more seriously. He'd feel bad, but that wouldn't make you any less _dead._ "

The oven beeped and I walked away calling, "But don't worry, by the time you might fight them, you'll be _much_ more dangerous yourself."

* * *

Everyone gathered for Dinner, with one sight complication.

"You!" yelled Glory Girl, pointing at Boojack as she put herself between him and Amy, flaring her Aura. "Ow!" she called an instant later, when I pegged her twice in the head with ball bearings I'd extruded as soon as I felt the unnatural emotions.

"No Mastering in the base!" I called as I turned back to making the salad.

"But! He! It's a Shaker power! Ow!" she complained, only to be hit by another ball bearing I tossed over my shoulder and directed with air control. "Will you stop that!"

"You start throwing around powers and lies, I'll start throwing other things," I replied, tossing the veggies and bringing the bowl over. "Boojack, the heroine in denial is Glory Girl. Glory Girl, this is Herb's brother, Boojack. Now are you going to be civil or not?"

"But he's killed people!" she complained.

Boojack snorted, "Racist."

"What?" she cried out looking to her sister for support, and finding none. The healer was wisely staying out of this one. "I don't care that he's black, I care that he's killed people!"

The replicant gave her the side-eye. "Wasn't talkin' about that, but you goin' right for the black thing? Sounds racist. I meant you care that I killed some nazis, but you don't care that they killed Yaks?"

"Yaks?" I asked, thinking I would've remembered killing hairy cows.

"Yakuza," he clarified.

I couldn't help but nod. "Yeah, that does seem kinda racist Vicky. How did you even know he hadn't been defending himself from Nazis trying to kill him because of his race? It's a thing they apparently do."

"I, You, ugh!" she cried, walking over and sitting down. "Dean showed me his picture and warned me not to fight him."

"Smart guy," Boojack nodded approvingly, cutting himself a slice. "This a quiche?"

"Cheeseburger pie," I corrected. "Recipe's on the back of the Bisquick box. It's quick and easy."

"And not French, which just makes it better!" Herb agreed, getting a slice himself.

"What's wrong with French cuisine?" Victoria asked before I could, still keeping an eye on Boojack.

"Other than it sucks?" my friend asked. "They don't use enough spices, and it's all so bland."

Glory Girl sniffed, "It's an acquired taste,"

"Which is code for it sucks, but you get used to it," Herb agreed.

"You're just uncultured," she sniffed, _completely_ derailed from her earlier freak-out, taking a slice for herself. "But this does smell good."

"Of course, I'm uncultured," Herb replied, "I'm not cheese, which is like half of French cuisine. Where do ya think the term came from?"

I couldn't help but roll my eyes. "That's not where it comes from, and you know it Herb." With that conversation died down as we ate in fairly companionable silence.


	76. Milestone 7-9

**Milestone 7.9**

Everyone went to bed early, and I couldn't blame them after the day we'd had. If I hadn't already slept yesterday I might've joined them, but there was work to be done so I merely meditated for a couple hours. Standing up and stretching at eleven, I started on the projects I'd outlined in my meditation. First of all, I needed to get Boojack _out_ of the base. With another clone due tomorrow night, not to mention the fact that things were _obviously_ going to be tense between Glory Girl and him, it'd be best if he wasn't here. I got a vision of him offering Kaiser's son, Theo, a blunt when Kayden came here when the Empire had its problems, and knew that unless I moved him, that would be _prophetic_.

Luckily, the base had an extensive database of assets if one knew where to look, and the problem was picking a place instead of having to find one that would agree on short notice. A two-bedroom pad a good bit off the Boardwalk seemed best. High enough that Leviathan wouldn't flood it, far enough inland that it wouldn't be hit by tsunamis, and out of the way enough that it probably wouldn't be wrecked in the fighting. I threw the four grand of the first six month's rent onto our slowly shrinking debt, and that was taken care of. Leaning back, I felt satisfied that for once I could solve a problem easily with no complications. It was already furnished, and he could hit up the Merchants if he wanted some weed.

Looking at the clock, I saw that I still had _six hours_ to go before I got Glory Girl up to continue training at seven. That led me to my next project: her weapon. I'd needed something that had reach, could be used to subdue, but also kill if need be. More than that, I needed something that would hold up to her strength, as the protections enfolding a weapon in a shield conferred only lasted until the shield was discharged. My power kept my own 'weapon' intact, but she had no such advantages. Moving to the workshop, I silenced it and put up a solid air mesh to catch shrapnel, having learned my lesson about _not_ working in airtight conditions. Extruding a titanium target, I created a steel spear while it was slowly rising and gave it a perfunctory spin. She could use it like a quarterstaff, which people wouldn't expect, and only use the tip if she _had_ to.

While staffs were not my personal weapon of choice I'd had a friend who specialized in them, and she'd shown me the basics. Moving at normal strength was fine, the weapon clanging and vibrating in my hands, but even a smaller hit when enhanced by the strength of even a standard shield bent the metal of my weapon. A stronger hit on the other side broke it off completely, the blunt tip hitting the mesh and breaking it, but pushing the projectile back in my direction. Picking up the pieces, I fed both into a star in my palm, dismissing it a moment later as the mesh re-wove itself. Another attempt was made with titanium, this one more promising, though it still bent when I did a full spinning strike. I sheared off the bent section and regrew it, tossing the damaged portion into another star, before setting it aside as a 'maybe'.

Going to the console in the room, I looked to try and find some metal that would work better. Almost _immediately_ I found references to a Norwegian Tinker who called himself Albreich, after the dwarven smith from mythology. The man's specialty seemed to be making things that seemed primitive, like a sword or helmet, but had hidden abilities. Guy even worked in a forge, and the comments of the news article were full of 'one ring' allusions. Even better, while much more limited, his items didn't require upkeep. _The PRT should've commissioned him to make something for Dauntless_ , I mused. With his ability to enhance items, if he started with something like that his power would probably make it even _better. Then again,_ _if the PRT could synergize, the villains wouldn't be **winning**._

What was interesting though, was the man crafted his own _metals_ from which he made his items. He'd even sold samples of a few, in a 'you can't do what I do' way, which while kinda arrogant, was _great_ for me. Looking at his 'Mithral', they'd studied the holy _hell_ out of it's structure, but had no idea how to actually _make_ it.

While this would be an insurmountable hurdle normally, it was one I could simply ignore, since I could _cheat_. Holding my hand over the desk I concentrated. Making metals like steel or iron was incredibly easy, probably my power cribbing notes from Kaiser. Things like brass took a bit more effort, more than titanium which was almost as easy as copper, which in turn was almost as easy as iron. Alloys gave me a bit of trouble and micromanaging the crystalline structure like I'd done for Imp's weapons even more so. As I tried in vain I realized that _this_ was not just the next step up from imp's sword steel, but half a dozen steps beyond _that_.

I felt my power sliding off and around the concept, twisting and rebelling against me. Studying the structure in detail from the research done on it helped me get a better grasp on it, but it wasn't enough. I groaned, looking to see if he'd done something else. He had, a black metal he called Adamantine, and a gold material shot through with white he called Orichalcum.

Adamantine just had people scratching their heads, just getting a small enough sample to run tests on required parahuman help, and because most tests worked by damaging the metal in some way they were absolutely inconclusive. Deciding to give it a shot, I tried anyways, and I could almost hear my power tell me to go screw myself.

Looking to Orichalcum, that one they _did_ have information on. Its primary components were titanium and gold, with a whole mess of other trace elements. Trying I could tell it was going to be easier than Mithral, but still out of my reach. Glancing over I saw that I'd been at if for hours, but if I could produce a freaking _Tinker_ metal, it'd be worth it. _Well, research seemed to help before. Why not now?_

With that, I pulled up everything I could about the stuff: its properties, its components, hell I pulled up three-dimensional diagrams of the atomic structure. Every new piece of information pushed it closer to my grasp, and I was glad I was doing this on a Cauldron computer, as the security system had detected someone trying to track and hack my computer. My purchased skills from the CYOA kicked in, and I found myself back-hacking them to somewhere in Norway, somewhere in Canada, and somewhere in Korea. I double checked, and I couldn't tell if the last was North or South. Canada might've been Dragon, and I didn't want to risk going in deeper to find out, but I had _no_ idea who the other two were.

Shrugging, I kept on going with the information gathering, trying again with every new study and piece of info I learned. As the sun rose I finally felt my power catch, and a rod of shining gold marbled with pure white pulled up from the desk; the surface I was pulling it from rippling violently and knocking off the papers I'd accrued as I took notes.

Gathering them up with air, I dumped them in the trash, taking the thin rod and walking back over to my target. With the sample in hand, I found it _far_ easier to concentrate on the process. I could feel the difference in the white striations and smoothed them out as the staff grew, making them twist into a spiral pattern to help me visualize the material. The floor was rippling so much I had to lift off, though the distortions seemed to flow over the target without effecting it. _Possibly because it was still part of the floor, and thus not counted as a discreet object?_ I pondered. It took half an hour of constant power use, but I finished the staff. On each end I'd twisted the white streaks to form the Arachne Assemblages logo, just because.

Holding the weapon, it felt. . . odd. It had weight to it but seemed to lack inertia. Tossing it up and catching it though proved that _not_ to be the case. It hit my hands with more force than it should, the blow almost draining a malleable shield as I kicked in my flight to keep from staggering. I carefully took the staff and stood in front of the target. Squaring myself to the target I hit it with enhanced strength, the metal squealing as the solid cylinder of _titanium_ dented inwards, bending the entire column slightly. Hitting it from the other side produced a similar result, forcing it mostly back as it was. Checking the staff, I couldn't find a single dent or scratch on the gold and white metal, the textured surface still pristine. It was _completely_ undamaged. _Might as well see how this goes._

I took a step back as I moved my hands down to one end, creating a wall of air behind the target just in case. I swung it around in the sweeping strike that staffs excelled, at, pushing it as hard as the malleable shield would allow. It struck the top of the titanium target with a sound like a thunderclap, the top shearing off to hit the wall, the air unravelling partially and blowing it right back at me. I spun the staff and hit it back, slamming it right into the shield, which dissipated fully, _blowing it right back at me._ I tried to hit it a third time, but fumbled, the head sized chunk of pure titanium slamming directly into my face.

The crystallized shield on my head dropped as some of the momentum carried over, throwing me to the ground. The block dropped down next to me and impacted with a _crack_ as it broke the cement. Turning my head, I saw that it had fallen a few inches from me. Reaching out to push it, I had to use my super strength, and realized the block of metal likely several hundred pounds.

I closed my eyes and just laid there. _I really need to get a testing ground._

* * *

I incinerated the titanium, fixed the cracks in the floor by filling them in with stainless steel, and spent the next half an hour creating Glory Girl's _real_ weapon. _I'm such a weeb_ , I thought to myself, dropping it off in the weapons locker. Whipping up some French toast, I had the team roused, fed, and watered in short order.

"Lee?" Amy got my attention while I was doing the dishes, sounding as if I might not like whatever she was going to say next. "I'm going to go to Good Samaritan," she announced, quickly walking out before I could say anything.

"Um," I replied as Herb and Glory Girl looked at me expectantly, "Okay?" I replied to the air. Turning to them, I wasn't seeing the problem, "Do you know what that's about?"

The glanced at each other. "Ames thought you'd try to stop her," Victoria told me.

I blinked. " _Why?_ "

"Because there might still be ABB?" she shrugged.

"But," I argued. "We took out their leaders, so they're not going to organize a kidnapping attempt, so the hospital security can handle it, and we're not running raids, so we're not in a 'If you can't get here in time someone might die' situation."

Herb stood up. "I'm gonna go practice infiltration," he announced.

I just looked at him. "How."

Grinning, he replied, "I'm gonna go tail Panacea and make sure she's safe. She'll know it's me if she spots me, but the rest won't."

It was an unexpected act, but not an unwelcome one. A thought Glory Girl seemed to share by her smile. "Thanks man," I told him.

"It ain't no thang," he drawled, smiling and turning into newt which jumped the fifteen feet towards the entryway, then again on the air around the corner, and heading for the door.

Rolling my eyes, I finished the dishes and motioned for Glory Girl to follow me. I grabbed my old auto-fire assembly and a bucket of ammo.

"Ummm, Vejy?" she asked, looking apprehensive.

I commented, "These aren't for you," and tossed her an AA folding chair. Heading out to a part of the Trainyard I hadn't wrecked. . . yet. I motioned for her to sit, before setting up a Sound Bubble over the area, and silencing the pistol I'd set up. Targeting it with a few insects to impact my chest, I set my more malleable shields to rotate over the target area, before using a few bugs to start the firing process.

She flinched when the muzzle flashed, frowning in confusion when she didn't hear anything other than the ping of the bullet flattening itself on my shield, which drained, and the soft impact as it fell onto the concrete. As it fired again, impacting a different shield, she asked, "How?"

"It's not a normal gun," I explained. "And the sound of rhythmic constant gunfire draws too many questions. I'll be training myself while I'm instructing and training you. Taking it slow like this I'm not going to shoot myself accidentally, and this way I can train my shields as I also drain yours."

"Um," she asked, looking down at where she sat and where I stood several feet away. "How?"

Reaching into a belt pocket, I extruded a small lutetium ball, to train myself creating more complex metals. I'd found I couldn't produce them from my costume, my power just sliding right off of it, but the small Orichalcum plate I'd dropped in the pocket worked just fine. Whipping my arm out, I pegged her in the head with it, the speed causing her to almost fall out of her chair in surprise, catching herself with her flight. "What the hell?"

"That's how I'm going to train you, by throwing these at you whenever your shield recharges," I explained plainly.

"But how can you tell?" she asked, looking like she was getting ready to dodge.

"How long does it take your shield to recharge now?" I asked in turn, activating Power Sight.

"Um, fifteen seconds, but-hey!" she cried as I saw the shield come back online, only to get drained by another lutetium ball to the chest "It just came back! What if that hit me!"

I looked at her, raising an eyebrow, "You are aware that I'm _also_ a healer, right? In addition to that, like most people over the age of _five_ , I am capable of counting." It wasn't what I was doing, but was a viable explanation.

"I. If that had hit me it still would've hur-Stop that!" she yelled as I watched the shield to come back, draining a second later.

"Stop training you?" I asked, raising an eyebrow again. "Are you sure?"

"No, just stop throwing those things at me!" she complained.

I stared at her long enough to make sure her shield came back, before reaching back, taking out my pistol, and shooting her in the heart.

She fell backwards in her chair, flipping with flight to right herself as she backed up, shields drained again. "What the hell Vejovis!"

"Since you didn't want to train the easy, safer way, I'll train you like _I_ train," I replied coolly, motioning to the auto-fire assembly, which silently fired again, impacting the silenced area on my chest so the constant pinging wouldn't distract from my teaching.

She looked over at it, surprised to see it flash, "That's still going? But. . ."she looked back at me, spotting the bullet as it bounced off of me.

"Yes, it's still going. Now, I'm taking the time to train you, and guarantee I will do nothing that will permanently physically harm you. Now will you stop acting like a child, sit down, and let me _start?_ " I snapped, feeling annoyed. More annoyed than I should probably be. _Son of a bitch._ "And for the love of god Victoria, _Turn off your Aura._ All it's doing is pissing me off."

"Hey! I'm not. . . Oh, sorry." She replied meekly, flying over and sitting in her chair. "I didn't mean to."

I facepalmed, the next bullet bouncing off my right forearm without draining the crystallized shield there. "Powers work. . ." _How to put this._ "They can work like a second subconscious. They use themselves to protect you, but just like stress at the office makes your body think you're fighting a bear for eight hours, powers can escalate situations without the user being aware. Some people don't have that, but they also don't get the protections either. That's why your sister won't even _try_ to see if she can manipulate brains, the flat 'I don't do brains' she tells everyone is a way to do avoid that slippery slope. Once you start using a power in a way, there's a possibility it might use itself to try to _help_. I'm sure you didn't mean to Master people to make them nicer to you, but you were. Tell me, since Panacea got her powers, have you _ever_ been sick?"

She looked thoughtful, and a little horrified. After she didn't respond for ten seconds, I hit her with another lutetium ball. "Hey!" she yelled, stopping herself, "Sorry, um, yeah. So she's been using her power on me?" She looked confused, and a little offended.

"Much less than _you've_ used your power on _her_ , and with much better intentions than you have," I rebuked gently. "She cared about you and wanted you to be healthy, even on a subconscious level. _You_ wanted her to do whatever you asked, and to forgive you when you did something bad, like accidentally almost _kill_ a gang-banger for the fifth time. I'm not exactly going 'he who is without sin' here, but I do despise hypocrites." I hit her with another ball.

She caught this one, but it did its job anyways. "Fair enough. What is this by the way? It doesn't look like steel."

"Lutetium." She gave me a blank look. "Arachne Assemblages is trying some new production methods and didn't mind if I grabbed some. Now, you done with the questions and ready to _actually_ start training?

"Yes. Um. Should I take notes?" she asked, looking around. "'cause you seem kinda teacher-y. But, like, not in a bad way."

I rolled my eyes, and started instructions, beginning with use of force laws.

* * *

We'd been going at it for two hours when she held up a hand, "Um, Vejovis, I feel kinda. . . full?"

"Your power?" I asked intently, having expected this.

"Yeah? I-" she cut herself off as I pegged her with another lutetium ball, adding to the small pile around her. "That's making it worse!"

"It's your shield splitting. Relax and let it happen, we'll take a break," I informed her.

"Wish it'd happened sooner," she muttered, yelping as I hit her with another ball the instant her shield came back.

It took another fourteen blows, but she relaxed as I saw her shields split apart. After observing her with Power Sight for hours, the flames of her power barely registered, and I could see her shield, shields now, in _minute_ detail, with measurements of recharge time, force thresholds, amplification rates, _everything_. I'd learned a few things myself having done so, helping me to quantify what _exactly_ the power did, and giving me a couple ideas of possible other uses.

"Okay," she announced. "This feels weird." I watched her move her shields back and forth across her body, seemingly to have forgotten I was there. I let her play around, before pegging her twice, once on each shield.

"Woah," she commented, looking up at me. "That's. . . they're taking longer."

Looking at them I rattled off, "In their current state they should take twenty-eight point five seconds to recharge, faster than when you first started, but far longer the twelve you got them down to. While a standard punch will still drain them, with about three hundred more repetitions that will no longer be the case. However, there's more to it. Pull one to _just_ cover the palm of your hand and nothing else."

She frowned, doing so. "Now hold it out to me." Compressed like that, this should work. Hurling a lutetium ball, cheating a tad with Aerokinesis to land dead center, I hit her palm. Her expression turned to shock when the shield held firm.

"No way," she breathed, barely flinching when I pegged her arm, draining the shield covering the rest of her body. "This is fuckin' lit!" I lightly hit her with another ball in the shoulder to get her attention. "Huh? Sorry."

"So, do you see why, with stronger shields, I can ignore gunshots to a prepared area?" I asked.

She nodded, grinning. "That's. . . just straight fire!"

I paused, "Fire means cool, right?"

"Um, yeah?" she replied. "Sorry."

Rolling my eyes, I waved the apology away. "Don't worry, I'm used to that from Herb. But yes, _this_ is why I was talking about you wasting your potential."

"And that was just after, like, a day!" she agreed. I wanted to add that my power might've been helping, but she'd taken about as long as I had. _Actually._ I mentally added up the hours she spent training. I'd expected her to train some more after dinner, but she _hadn't_ , and given that Amelia couldn't drain it as fast as I could, say, wasting an extra ten percent of time then she had done it faster than I had. _Hmm._

"Anyways, with that taken care of-" I stopped as her phone buzzed.

"Um, it's Gallant, can I text him back?" she asked, still grinning from her recent revelation.

I rolled my eyes. "Sure, I need to check my e-mail anyways. Just tell him you're busy right now." She nodded, and I toggled off the auto-fire assembly. I'd been having insects load the magazines while I talked, but they'd started falling behind, and this would let them catch up. Checking my inbox I found an e-mail from Quinn forwarding an invitation for the Penumbral Defenders to the gala put on by the mayor tomorrow in honor of our accomplishments, occurring tomorrow night.

As I wrote Quinn that we would be attending, and to make sure those that attended the press conference were also invited, including their e-mail addresses, I tried to remember what had happened in the original timeline. The Undersiders had crashed it, which took them from being thought of as minor players to smack dab in the middle of the public consciousness. Probably part of Coil's campaign to make them seem worse than they actually were, so he could swoop in and 'deal' with them when Calvert was appointed director because everyone else was failing. I was sure they'd 'resist' and would 'unfortunately' be killed in their attempts to 'escape'. With them being directly invited, _that_ wasn't going to happen. The Travellers, so used to going under the radar, would balk, and while Coil's mercenaries might be effective, he'd already lost a few and his forces wouldn't receive the same treatment as capes. Maybe Circus and that steampunk guy, whatever his name was, would be there too, but we'd be ready.

Putting it away, I pegged her with another lutetium ball, getting her attention. "Wrap it up." She nodded and put away the phone a second later. "Okay, where were we?" I asked.

"Use of force and how powers changes things. But, what if we do everything right, or my power does something I don't mean it to, and I end up in a Canary sitch?" she asked.

"So, that's the point where, for better or worse, _might_ makes _right_ ," I sighed. "In this case you have a person whose power acted in a manner they didn't expect, and someone was killed. Have you looked into the details of the case?"

She nodded. "Yeah, they were covering it in my Parahuman Studies class. Technically, she shouldn't've been sentenced to the Birdcage, since it's her first offense, but they made an example out of her," she frowned. "It's, it's why I don't like you calling my Aura a Master power."

"Doesn't change the fact that it is," I replied, "And instead of arguing semantics, you need to learn to _control_ it, which you've been doing." Checking the base's database, I was supplied not with just her information, but her location, and when her transport was going to leave to take her there. _Tonight._ "And that brings us to our last point before we start sparring, now that you have two shields and need to learn how to use them dynamically. To start with, the Birdcage is _stupidly_ illegal. You have American citizens imprisoned for life on foreign soil in what essentially amounts to inescapable Australia with better facilities. Not only that, but even if there are mistakes, and with Strangers and Masters running around _there have been_ , then that means you have innocents imprisoned for life for crimes they did not commit. They will be beaten, raped, and possibly murdered when they tried to follow the law and did _nothing_ wrong. Have you heard of Madcap?"

She hesitated, "Wasn't he the guy that attacked Birdcage transports? He got caught and sent there."

I snorted, "No, he _didn't_. He joined the Protectorate on the condition that the person who kept watching him was the same person he'd been fighting for months, who he also had a thing for. The pair of them were moved then moved to Brockton Bay, where even years later he hasn't even tried to find a single way to _legally_ help those sentenced there."

"Assault is Madcap!" Victoria yelled. "No wonder he's so extra!"

I had _no_ clue what that meant, but it didn't sound good, so I agreed, "Yeah. The Protectorate lies to the public on a regular basis. The villain truce that stopped the ABB? In the original timeline the PRT squashed the media so the public didn't know about it. What's worse is that when the villains took down Lung, Bakuda, and stopped the bombing? The PRT and Protectorate took credit. They put on a gala, which is tomorrow night in _this_ timeline and you're invited to by the way, and pretended that the Protectorate and New Wave were responsible."

"They what? That's messed! Wait, there's a party tomorrow?" she asked, getting a bit of emotional whiplash.

"Yeah, I'm making sure the people who _actually_ helped are invited, which means you and Amy. The Protectorate will probably be there as well, so your boyfriend will be attending," I teased.

"What'll I wear?" she asked, starting to panic. The teen glared at my snort. "What?"

"Wear your costume. Everyone else will be," I commented. "Back on the topic: corrupt governments. This is where what is _moral_ isn't always what is _legal_. The people rebelling against Nazi-ruled France were _legally_ in the wrong. Now what we have isn't _that_ bad, but the fact that Madcap was allowed to operate with fair regularity for _months_ without the Protectorate jumping him with overwhelming force shows you how _official_ policy conflicts with what people know is _right."_

I smirked, "For instance, Canary? That's one bird who _isn't_ going to be caged."


	77. Milestone 7-10

**Milestone 7.10**

Glory Girl and I spent the next few hours sparring, getting her used to using her shields in a manner akin to a sword and shield, striking with one while using the other to fend off a blow. Given the long recharge time, we also focused on hit and run tactics, getting in, striking, and controlling when and where she was hit in return.

As fit as she was, both through exercise and Panacea's likely accidental upgrades, when we called a break for lunch she was still sweaty and exhausted. Both our shields had gotten a workout in those two hours, growing _far_ faster then when they were merely repeatedly drained. My count had grown to eight, and hers to four, confirming, to me at least, that I was accelerating her growth. I made a mental note to get her to crystallize the next one that was going to split. After a bit of debate, she was convinced to dedicate one solely to her head, stressing that Panacea could heal anything _but_ brain damage. Furthermore, even if she could you might not still be _you_ when she was done as brains were _incredibly_ finicky.

"How are you still walking?" she whined, floating next to me as we headed back to base, flat on her back. She'd had a bit more training than Taylor to start with, but it was obvious a lot of it was _self_ -training as she'd also picked up a lot of bad habits that's we'd had to hammer out of her, sometimes literally.

"Powers, training, technique, pick one," I replied, smiling. "Though. . ." I ducked into one of the wrecked buildings we passed, grabbing two pieces of rotten wood. "Now that you have more than two shields, I can show you this. We'll train with it later, but these look to be about the same, right?" I held up the two planks.

She poked one. "Yeah?"

I walked over to the side of the wrecked building. "Normally, this would happen if you used most weapons with your strength." I hit the wood on the side of the building, shattering and sending splinters away from us. The sound of the impact was loud, but it didn't travel more than a few meters before I muted it. "If you cover an object with a shield however, _this_ happens." I hit the metal wall with the second plank, covered in a Weapon Shield. There was a tearing noise as the metal shattered where I hit it, burying the untouched plank in the wall.

She just looked at it, finally commenting blandly, "I'm too tired to be impressed, but I am. What happens if you hit somethin' twice?"

I nodded, smiling as I started walking back and dropped the Sound Bubble. "The weapon would break, _unless_ you had one that could stand up to the stress."

"But that'd have to be, I don't know, Tinkertech or something," she observed. I walked on smiling. She groaned. "Not that I don't appreciate it, but can you just, stop for a while? I'm tired, I'm gross, and my brain hurts. If being around you is like this all the time, I sympathize with Ames a _lot_ more."

"Hey!" I complained, a little hurt.

"No, I'm not roastin' ya," she lazily waved a hand in my direction, almost bumping into a wall. "It's just. You're. . . intense. Not extra, but high-key dime. You're _constantly_ hundo, like, do you even sleep?"

"I can," I shrugged, not understanding half of what she just said, "But I mostly meditate a couple hours a night. I'm like Miss Militia in that way." She just groaned again, and I laughed. "I'll make lunch. Go take a shower," I told her, opening the base's door.

Grilled cheese with ham and avocado were easy enough to make _and_ had everything she needed to work on repairing the damage the sparring inflicted, plating hers as she walked into the lounge in sweatpants and a t-shirt, hair wrapped in a towel. Pouring her a glass of soda, she asked, "Aren't you gonna tell me that's not healthy?"

I rolled my eyes, "Your sister can _literally_ repair any non-brain damage, it really doesn't matter. Besides, try my tea."

She took the proffered mug and sipped, almost gagging. "Holy shit Vejy! How much sugar did you put in that?"

"Enough," I replied, accepting it back and taking a long sip.

She looked at me incredulously, "But don't you drink black coffee?"

I shrugged, "So? That's coffee. Tea is entirely different."

She shook her head, eating her sandwich, looking over to me when her phone buzzed, "Can I?"

"We're done for the next few hours," I replied. "I've learned, for most people, downtime can be just as important as training."

That got me a look that said ' _really?_ ' before she started texting. Checking my own phone I saw Quinn had replied telling me that the others were originally not invited, but they were now. Opening up the database, I saw that the transport to the birdcage was leaving Brockton Bay at eleven P.M. in a Dragon Controlled van, with the route it was going to take displayed. The base had the van's schematics, and it looked like destroying the engine would also sever Dragon's link to it, allowing us to get in and out easily.

"Vejovis?" Glory Girl asked, "Is it okay if I go see Dean? I haven't seen him in days an-"

I cut her off with a raised hand, "I understand Victoria. I'm also your teacher, not your father. Go, have fun, use protection, etcetera. If you're spending the night send your sister a text so she doesn't worry, and we're starting training at eight tomorrow morning, same place as today."

She gave a quick "Thanks Vejy!" before disappearing back into her room. I rolled my eyes, picking up and washing the dishes she left behind while I called Taylor.

"Hey Lady Bug, you in your Lair?" I enquired, hearing a low drone from the other end.

"Yeah," she responded, "Do you want to come over?" she sounded. . . off. The buzzing picking up when she talked.

"Taylor," I asked carefully, "Are you answering the phone with your bugs?"

". . . No," was her response, the buzzing gone. "So, should I come over to your base or-"

"I'll drop by your place," I cut her off. "And please don't lie to me Taylor, you're better than that."

"Sorry," was her muted reply, hanging up.

Sighing, I gathered what I needed and flew towards her place, making sure to take a circuitous route, now aware that I might be spotted mid-flight. In range, I felt Taylor's presence amid the network that was her base, dumping self-hate. Looking though the insects near her, she jumped in surprise as I set them to open the skylight, likely forgetting my range exceeded hers, now dumping panic as well. She scurried from her hammock-chairs, down to the floor below the slowly opening hole in the roof, smoothing out her costume. I felt her try to pull back her emotions from the Swarm, and succeed, but she grew tense as she did so.

Resisting the urge to roll my eyes, I landed and gave her a smile. "Hello Taylor, how are you?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't want you to be mad at me!" she blurted. She was unmasked and looking at me earnestly with her big green eyes.

"Why would I be mad at you?" I asked honestly and without judgement, wondering what her answer would be. My first instinct was to go the 'how dare you lie' route, and that would probably give me a minor feeling of power, of moral righteousness, and of dominance, but it was a trap I was used to ignoring.

"Because I wasn't talking to you, I was getting my bugs to?" she asked back, a bit confused, probably by the fact that I _wasn't_ chastising her.

"And?" I prodded.

"Uh, you sounded angry?" she offered, shoulders slumping forward.

 _Gotta love insecure teenagers._ I walked forward, and she stiffened, looking down. "Taylor, _look at me_ ," I directed firmly, removing my mask. "I wasn't angry, I was surprised. I _was_ upset that you lied to me, when I try so hard not to lie to you. Don't try to hide things because you think I won't like it." I gave a laugh, "I know it's counter-intuitive based on what you're probably used to, but I'll _always_ rather be confronted with harsh truths instead of comforting lies."

She winced as she looked at me, before nodding. "Same," she agreed. "I'm sorry."

I ruffled her hair. "Just don't do it again, okay?"

She accepted the ribbing, eyes a bit bright. "I won't," Taylor promised.

"Just do your best," I replied, changing the topic. "So, how did the design session with Parian go?"

She grinned, moving over to a desk covered with papers. "It was amazing! I knew a bit about costumes, but there was a lot more than I ever realized!" Holding up several different designs, all in a vibrant yellow with grey trim, she went over each, talking about their pros and cons as quickly as she could, only pausing to breath when she had to. I stressed protection and durability, as the more eye-catching nature meant that it'd make it a lot harder for her to hide and be stealthy, along with nixing one idea that had no space for additional equipment at all.

"Even I have tools Taylor," I told her. "Even if half of these pockets are just to hide me using powers. For instance," I slipped a hand in a pocket, extruding a Lutetium ball and tossing it to her.

She caught it, looking over it, poking herself between the eyes as she tried to push up non-existent glasses. She shook her head and concentrated as she sat down across the table from me. "Silver? No, not steel. Pewter? No, the colors off. Too dark to be aluminum." She glanced over at me, "Is it an alloy?" I shook my head. She looked at the small ball in her hands, hefting it, smelling it, and finally shrugging. "Platinum?"

"Lutetium."

Her brow furrowed, "That sounds familiar. It's. . . wait." Her eyes widened, "You can make _rare earth metals?_ "

I grinned, "Kaiser's limitation is _metals_." I made a golden ball, which was actually a bit easier, before tossing it to her as well. "I could probably crash the gold market in a week."

My teammate gazed at the orb, which I grew in her hands to the size of a baseball. "That's. . . You can't tell anyone you can do this," she said seriously, looking me in the eye.

She sounded more concerned than the situation warranted. "I wasn't planning on it, what with the entire 'three powers per person' thing, but _why?_ "

Taylor looked at me before being obtuse. Shaking her head, she muttered, "Right, you didn't grow up here. After. . . after I got my powers, I read _everything_ I could about capes. The one thing that stops Tinkers? It's materials." She held up the Lutetium ball. "This? Probably worth way more than this," she held up the larger golden orb. "Though Gold is pretty expensive too, good for a lot of stuff because it conducts but doesn't corrode. It's why you have to recycle electronics," she added as an offhand comment, pausing as she saw my look of confusion. "You didn't have to?"

I shrugged. "You _could_ , but it was more of a 'hey if you want to, save the earth from pollution' kinda thing. I'm guessing it's different here?"

"It's a pretty nasty fine, or at least that's what dad says," she replied, shaking her head. "If people knew you could create stuff like this on demand, there's a _lot_ of people who'd want you to join, and they might not take no for an answer."

 _Oh. Shit. Brass balls from here on out with Glory Girl_ , I thought. "Good to know," I replied faintly, mentally shifting gears. "If something comes up where you think I might _not_ know something, tell me, okay?"

She nodded firmly, "I will." Shaking her head, she slumped back in her chair. "Sorry, I just assumed-"

"Not your fault," I cut her off. "I don't know what I don't know, which is the _worst_ type of ignorance. You're used to things that are just common sense here, and it's natural to assume that I'd know about it, since I seem to have a handle on most things. Actually, there is something I want you to help me test."

"Yes?" she sat up straighter. "Does it have to do with my power?"

"No, but if it works, it might me more possibilities for gear you could use," I replied, holding a hand over the table. I extruded a steel plate, as well as a knife handle and sheath. "So, I have certain powers, but I haven't figured out range limits, and I can't exactly _ask_ the original users," I explained, Taylor nodding as I layered a Speed Zone three deep on the plate. "This is pretty self-explanatory, but you know the Air Blades I can make?"

She nodded, looking at the sheath. "Is that the sword you used yesterday?"

I shook my head, holding out a hand, demonstrating. "No, that's a bit more complicated. If I take an Air Blade and cover it with a shield to keep it from breaking apart if I use super strength, I get the effect you saw Boardwalk use." I held the ghostly blade up, before dismissing the shield. "However if I use Grue's power on the blade first, the entire thing goes black, hiding the fact that it's glowing my colors."

She nodded, following along. I took out the knife handle from the sheath, passing my hand in front of it, and holding it out for her to do the same, which she did without hesitation. "However, I can make an Air Blade and center it on a physical object," I explained, doing so, focusing on making the blade as sharp as I could make it. "Looks the same, right?" She nodded, carefully taking the weapon. "The handle is shaped so the thinner end has the blade. Point it so the blade points upwards please."

Once she had it in position, I ripped a blank piece of paper from her notepad, rolled it into a tube, and hit it against the air knife's edge, shearing it in two without the weapon moving at all. She held the blade up, trying to see it and failing, offering it back point up without saying anything, but looking a little disturbed.

"Imagine trying to fight someone with this," I smiled.

She just shook her head, "Do I have to?"

"The thing about the blade is that it's actually fragile." I took two finger and rapped the blade hard, the sound of the impact barely audible, but my hair moving a bit in the breeze it created. Passing my fingers where the blade used to be, I explained. "Blade on, most of the force is diverted to either side, but it works on the same principle as the shields. However, it's so thin it can only take a single blow. I can just make another," and I did, "But that takes time. What I want to test is how far away I can get before these unravel."

I took out my phone, calling her. She looked at me in confusion as she accepted the call. "So, I want you to have both of these down on your main floor, away from everything, and be up in the loft. I'll fly away, and I want you to tell me when they de-power." I explained. "The Speed Zone glows, so that should be obvious, but you might want an expendable insect to stand on the blade, since the decompression might be a bit. . . explosive. Makes sense?"

She nodded, walking up to the office overlooking everything while I moved the steel plate and reformed blade to two different areas of the floor that were clear of bugs. She placed two flies on the flat of the Air Knife, and told me "Ready when you are," over the phone.

I nodded and lifted off, swinging north-west over the city before just heading west, asking "Still there? Every couple minutes. I pushed my flight a bit faster, hugging the ground to keep my phone in range of cell-towers as I exited the city and started passing over forest. I kept going, and once I was a good ten miles out of the city and coming up on a small town I finally said, "Not that I don't believe, you, but can you double check? Because If I was going to hit a range limit, I probably would've by now."

I could practically hear her shrug, "I'm looking right at them, they're still there."

I had an idea. "Can you move them, and see if that does anything?"

"Um, not really. Was it supposed to?" She responded after a moment.

"I wasn't sure, Be back in ten minutes." I spotted a sandwich shop below me. "Want me to pick you up a sandwich?"

She gave me her order and I hung up. I got a few odd looks when I walked in, but there were no problems, and I got rid of the ants that were trying to find their way inside the building. When I got back, she was still in the office, and I waved her down, collecting the materials. "I'm not sure what Parian can do with it, but I'll add Speed Zones to your costume if you want. Furthermore," I handed the knife to her, secure in its sheath. "This'll make a good holdout weapon, and if you can incorporate it into your costume, I'll make one whatever shape you need."

"Thanks," she replied, sounding touched.

I shrugged smiling, "You're my friend, and I try to help my friends. That brings me to the _other_ thing I wanted to give you."

"You don't have to," she objected, sounding worried for some reason. "I mean, the costume, and now this. I haven't gotten you anything!"

"Taylor," I laughed, "I can literally _make gold_ , and that's one of the _least_ impressive things I can do. I value things like friendship far more." I paused. "Also, I'm not doing this to buy your friendship, or anything messed up like that. It's just dangerous to be a hero, so I'm trying to outfit you the best I can. Though I would say that if I was trying to buy your friendship, and could even bring it up to try to ease worries that might be warranted, but I'm _not_ , but, ugh," I sighed. "You are my teammate Taylor, and I hope, my friend. That means when I think of some way to help, I do. Nothing more, nothing less. Okay?"

She was looking back, expression complex. I resisted the urge to check the Swarm as she nodded after a moment. "Okay. Same."

"Good," I breathed out, clapping my hands together. "So, last thing, can you hand me your baton?"

She did, and I felt its weight. It was a bit lighter than I thought, but not by much. Nodding to myself I reached into a back pocket, taking out a copy of the weapon in shining metal. Instead of the rubber grip I'd textured the metal with a diamond patter, but other than that their shape was identical. I leaned over, carefully handing her my creation.

Taylor turned over the gold and white weapon in her hands. "What is this made of?" she asked, looking at the spiral pattern of the marbling, and laughing when she saw the Arachne Assemblages logo made from the same marbling on the butt.

"Orichalcum," I informed her, wondering if she'd know about it.

The movement of the weapon paused. "Isn't that, like, not real?"

"Normally yes. It's Tinkertech," I couldn't help but grin.

Her head snapped up, "Wait, what? You're not a Tinker, how did you. . . Kaiser!" she looked down at the weapon in her hand in shock. "He could make _Tinkertech_? God, Nazis are idiots."

"Yes and no," I replied, ignoring her eye roll and "well _that_ explains everything," to continue, explaining about Alberich.

She nodded, understanding, "So you can't replicate what he does, but you can make the material. That's _still_ awesome," she commented tossing the baton from one hand to another, jumping as I shouted "NO!" and held it in place with air, which took _far_ more effort than it should've needed.

Taylor jumped back immediately, "What'd I do?" she asked anxiously.

Sighing, I leaned over and plucked it from the air shell I'd encased it in. "So, I can't make the things he does, but this does have one, _very important_ , effect, it seems to amplify momentum on impact."

"And you didn't think to warn me?" she cried, shaking her head. "Sorry, but I mean, _really!?_ "

"I didn't think you'd start using it before I could explain what it did!" I shot back. Sighing, I apologized, "I should've led with that, but if I give you new gear, _please_ let me finish telling you what it is before you start playing around with it. I wanted to surprise you, James Bond style. Panacea or I could heal you, but it's a bad habit to get into." I grew a steel slab out of the ground, two feet wide, six feet tall, and one inch thick. "This is what I was going to do next. Not too hard, but go hit that with your hand to make sure it's stable."

She did, walking back. "Okay," I continued, "Now, just by looking at it, _without knowing what it does_ , what do you think would happen if you threw the baton at that?"

"I'd say it'd bounce off. What'll it do, explode?" Taylor asked, eyeing the weapon as if it might do just that.

"That'd be a stupid enhancement on a melee weapon," I told her as I handed her the weapon. "There's a reason I didn't toss it to you. Now give it a try. Throw it at the target."

She considered the weapon before carefully taking it by the end, glancing at me to make sure that was okay, and hurling it to spin end over end like a throwing axe. It moved like a normal baton should've but impacted the metal with a sound like a sledgehammer, damaging the metal as it rebounded off to land on the metal ground with force to be expected of an object that size. _That's odd_. Testing a theory, I picked it up with air and tossed it towards me, catching it easily, but my shield didn't drain. Tossing it to my other hand _did_ create the effect however, pushing my arm back slightly. I used air to move it back to my original hand. No additional momentum.

I looked over to Taylor, "So what can you tell from this?" I _thought_ I figured out how it worked, but a second opinion was always appreciated.

She stared at the weapon in my hands. "Can you throw it at the target without actually _throwing_ it at the target?" I obliged her, the baton bouncing off the metal target just below the massive dent the first blow had created with a ping and landing on the cement. She nodded to herself as I retrieved it. "You have to throw it. Or, at least someone has to. It hits harder when you swing it too?"

I used Aerokinesis to ferry it over to her and motioned for her to give it a try and she walked towards the target. Taking a deep breath, she hit the side of the target with a solid blow, metal shearing off with a screech to impact the air shield I'd prepped behind it. The shredded steel rebounded slightly, falling far short of her and crushing a few wayward flies. She froze, looking down at the innocent looking baton in her hands. "I could kill someone with this," she whispered to herself, eyes wide.

I walked up next to her, putting a hand on her shoulder, "You could do that with your _regular_ baton Taylor. With this you could hit someone hard enough to take them down with a tap, just like a grown man could with a normal hit, or do damage to Hookwolf if you swung as hard as you could. It's a tool Taylor, just like a gun. There is one thing you do need to remember though." She looked up at me, concerned. "You know how much damage this can do, but until other people see you in action for themselves, they won't. If you throw this at someone expecting them to dodge, because of how badly they'll get hurt if they don't, they won't. Mind you," I added, "You could also use that to your advantage to surprise an enemy."

Taylor nodded, and I could practically see the plans and tactics forming in her head. "Hookwolf wouldn't dodge a metal stick," she smiled, and her smirk had an edge to it. "Hell of a way to play fetch."


	78. Milestone 7-11

**Milestone 7.11**

After I cleaned up the mess I'd made of Taylor's base, she had lunch while I sipped my drink and we tried to make small talk. We were absolutely _horrible_ at it. With Amy I just let her talk about whatever and didn't try to explain anything or work out the why's of it unless she explicitly asked, but Taylor had shown me what she and Parian worked on, and I showed her some of the things _I'd_ been working on, and neither of us really knew where to go from there. I _wanted_ to discuss power applications, but for some reason I also wanted to spend some time where I _wasn't_ doing that. The topic of dimensional differences had come up, but it didn't supply much conversation fodder as it was very much a problem of not knowing what questions to ask.

Apparently after Reagan was president Griffon, instead of Bush Sr. He'd set up the PRT/Protectorate, which expanded into Canada, which made _no_ sense. I'd assumed they were American, and the Guild was Canadian, and sometimes they worked together. For better or for worse I could see Canadians going "oh well," and ignoring the Heartbreaker situation, but Americans? Containing a situation like Nilbog and then putting it on the back-burner I could see, and the Slaughterhouse Nine were Murder Hobos constantly on the run, but Heartbreaker allowed to roam free? _Never_.

Though, given what I remembered of the corruption of the United Nations 'peacekeeping' force, that made a bit more sense. Collaborative militaries were just as subject to the problems of diffusion of responsibility as people after all. The current president wasn't Obama but given how the timeline had split that didn't surprise me. Instead they had a man named Gillen, who was trying to take a harsher stance on a number of things, from dealing with Endbringers, to hunting down the S9, to, ironically, making a U.S. controlled Cape prison instead of the Birdcage. The last one he was getting no traction on, as, since no one had broken out, most politicians didn't see the problem with _imprisoning U.S. citizens with no hope of appeal in an extranational lawless complex filled with the worst villains in North America._

I was trying to figure out how to get the information I needed, when Taylor suggested that maybe watching TV would help, since she'd heard you could tell things about a culture by their entertainment. I groaned, immediately agreeing and asking myself why I didn't think about it. Taylor'd picked up a cheap laptop with the money the Undersiders had given her, and set up the phone as a hotspot, getting us online if a few minutes. We successfully wasted hour watching an episode of a hospital show, where the doctors, when they weren't too busy being examining each other, treated a number of villain-based injuries. I sat back, stretched and considered.

"So?" Taylor prompted, "what'd ya think?"

Honestly, I wasn't sure. I had some ideas, but I _hoped_ they were wrong. "I need to see a couple more things: A kid's show, something comedic, and a reality show," I rattled off.

"What's a reality show?" she asked. "Like, watching other realities? Like Aleph?"

I shook my head, "No, something that follows the daily struggles of someone, or a group. They're normally at least _partially_ faked, but mostly to keep things interesting while conforming to popular belief. They still have _some_ truth to them, but what they try to say is just as interesting." While she wouldn't get the reference, _The Jersey_ _Shore_ was interesting both as an anthropological study piece, and a slightly disturbing view into what the network thought appealed to my generation.

"Oh," she rolled her eyes, voice thick with derision. "You mean _Capes_." She considered it for a moment, brow furrowing in thought. "I mean, it's obviously fake, everyone knows that, but it stays on the air, _somehow_."

"Subsidized, most likely," I guessed. "Yes, _definitely that._ Also, do you have a couch or something? This is gonna take a couple hours."

* * *

While she didn't have a couch, she repurposed one of the hammocks for us both to sit in. We watched the shows, the laptop on a stand of brass, shaped to amplify the sound from the speakers, occasionally snarking when things got _really_ stupid. I'd refused to say anything about my theories, but now that the second episode of _Capes finished_ , I unfortunately had mentally put together something that had been bugging me for a while. This episode followed a hero named Clastic who had control of concrete that he created it from his skin, infusing it into pre-existing concrete to control that as well. His main trick seemed to create concrete gloves, which he used to enhance his strength, while controlling it to give him maneuverability. He could also fire them like flying shackles.

I did notice that whenever he did so, the camera never showed how long it took him to regrow the gloves, usually having some kind of subtle edit between the shots. If I had to guess it took around thirty seconds between when he'd fire them from the one fight he'd gotten into with a villainess, a Brute with a corrosive touch. The woman called herself "Basic", though her powers were _obviously_ acidic in nature. Whether thirty seconds was his actual limit, or if he was just trying to get a good shot in, I couldn't tell. He captured her, and everything seemed fine when the show ended; the screen faded to black, and the credits rolled. As she had for the previous episode, Taylor had shown me what the show _hadn't._ A woman in grey robes, who seemed to be constantly shifting back and forth between being made of wind, had swooped in and grabbed the Brute, shifting them both to vapor and escaping.

"So?" she asked, sitting back in the hammock. "What do you think?"

I breathed out a sigh, "I think I understand things a bit better. Did you notice how even the villains weren't _really_ made to look bad? They didn't mention the guard that Basic burned at all."

Taylor frowned, "She didn't. . ." she trailed off, leaning forward and rewinding the video to the beginning of the fight, where Clastic neared the jewelry store Basic had been robbing. The Protectorate member called for her to come out, and as she busted out a window to jump him, Taylor froze the image. Sure enough, with the window broken you could see a dead security guard, covered in horrific burns but slightly out of focus. When she pressed play the camera shifted to follow the fight, and while the image of the corpse was only there for a half a second, it was clear as day if you were looking.

"I was looking to see if she had minions, or someone else that would jump him while he was distracted," I supplied. Having seen more on the second pass, I instructed her, "Now watch it again and pay attention to Clastic's expression." The man wore a helmet made from concrete, only his mouth and eyes visible, and you could see his eyes widen slightly, his mouth set in a grim line, but only _after_ he had thrown her over his shoulder and glanced backwards into the store.

"He saw it," she realized, setting the fight to play without sound.

"Yep, but her victim didn't even merit a mention in the end card," I sighed. "So, where _I_ come from you have people who are occasionally violent. It's not nearly as common as the fights here are, and, if its more than few people killed, or if it's politically useful, it's _national_ news. Something like a kid shooting up his school, as long as it wasn't in the city, or some idiot running down people because his religion said it's a shortcut to heaven gets _everyone's_ attention. It happens, but not that often."

I thought about it. "What happened when Herb and I stumbled into E88 territory, and then they tried to kill us and we. . . objected?" I shook my head, "I tried to go non-lethal, but I probably killed a few Nazis that were trying to shoot me. Herb and Enter had _no_ such compulsions. We got away, but that kind of death toll should be _national_ news. Did it even show up in the local channels?"

"Not really. They said it was gang violence, and moved on," she agreed.

I nodded, things falling together. "Back home, the Slaughterhouse Nine _wouldn't exist._ I looked into them, and they stay in place for a few days when they're wrecking something. The first time or twelve, sure, they get away before the locals can get their feet back under them. But for _years_? After a certain point you look at the damage they've done and have forces you can scramble in hours. You find out they're in town? Swarm them with heroes, like you would an Endbringer. If that doesn't work? Find their location, lead off with an Alpha Strike of _cruise missiles_ , and _keep going._ "

She looked at me, horrified, "How, but, you can't!"

 _Thought so._ From what I could tell, there was a cultural taboo on using standard weapons against capes. If the PRT troops with Clastic had laid down supporting fire with rifles, they could've taken her, her Brute rating would've made the shots non-lethal. Hell if they'd used the containment foam sprayers they'd been carrying, they could've distracted Basic and let Clastic take her down much faster, but they _hadn't_. They'd sat back and waited while the "Hero" fought the "Villain", and only after she was down did they turn their sprayers on her. However, the foam was meant to let air in, so they could cover someone's head without risking suffocation, and _that_ had let the air woman in and out as well. I mentally made a note to pop down to Birmingham once things calmed down to grab that power. With it I'd never have to worry about containment foam again, and it would blend well with the Vampire cape concept I'd been thinking about. Returning back to the moment, I looked back to her and asked curiously, "Why, Taylor?"

"You just don't _do_ that! Besides, Crawler and the Siberian would survive," she informed me dismissively.

I held her gaze for a second before asking, " _And?_ You'd go from the Slaughterhouse Nine to the Slaughterhouse _Two._ What are they going to do in retaliation, kill _more_ people? I'm sure there are a lot of Protectorate Tinkers that have black, 'never tell anyone you accidentally made this' inventions. The kind that they design to fight an Endbringer, but wouldn't work for whatever reason. Use them against the S9. I need a reason other than 'you don't' because if it was use missiles or allow them to hurt the people I cared about, I'd launch them myself in a heartbeat."

She looked conflicted, worried, and a little scared. "You, you just don't," she reiterated, sounding a _lot_ less sure of herself. "But why?" she asked quietly, mostly to herself.

"Let's look at the shows," I said, standing up and starting to pace. I don't know why, but walking always helped me think. "Starting with the hospital one: The patients, the ones that got hit by powers, what did they have in common?"

"Um," she replied, thinking. "They were white?"

I started to shake my head, but had to nod. "I guess they were, that didn't seem important, but what _else_ did they have in common? Not a visual detail, but what were they _doing_ when they got hurt?

She lapsed into thought again, before frowning, and looking up to me in dawning realization, "They were stopping villains, or trying to."

"Bingo. You had a store owner who tried to stop his store from being robbed, A cop who didn't wait for the PRT, and a firefighter who tried to save people while the Protectorate were fighting the villainess who set the building on fire in the first place, along with the kid he was saving. The kid, who didn't do anything wrong, survived without permanent injury, but the firefighter, who was helping in a non-combat capacity, got a bit scarred. The cop will have a permanent limp, but the shopkeeper? He _died_ on that table. The show was focused on how losing a patient affected Dr. Horny McScrewsalot, and how he called it off with the nurse with more cleavage than professionalism, but the message was still there."

Taylor had started to nod, but gave me a raised eyebrow instead, "Horny McScrewsalot? _Really_?"

I threw my hands up in a 'duh' gesture, "Dude's sleeping with _six_ different people, who don't know about each other, and at least four of them are sleeping with _other_ people, and there was _no_ mention of even _basic_ protection being used. You'd think a doctor would know better than to put himself at _extreme_ risk of a venereal disease, but not only is he doing so, he seems like the type of douche-nozzle that wouldn't warn his partners if he finds out he's got something, just dose _himself_ with antibiotics and break it off rather than admit where he got it in the first place. That's gonna blow up, and blow up badly," I paused, "Which is probably on purpose to create 'drama', but it's still reprehensible behavior. There's a _lot_ of reasons I don't watch a lot of tv."

She looked at me, as if I'd said something that _wasn't_ obvious, before shaking her head clear of whatever she was thinking. "And then the cartoon. . . It's the same thing, isn't it?"

I nodded in agreement. "The Wards had to let the bad guys get away because they were busy saving civilians who'd stopped and gawked instead of running like the heroes told them to. That it let the new team come together because, despite their differences, they all wanted to help people was the overt message, but in the end while no-one got seriously hurt, and while the unpowered people weren't openly blamed, the fact that the villains getting away was the at least partly the civilian's fault was still there."

I looked back at the computer, using Aerokinesis to type on the keyboard while I still paced. "There are shows without capes as their focus, but I'd bet that if you picked any, there's an undercurrent of 'only a cape can stop a cape' in _everything._ From what I could tell about other cities, like Chicago, there's a distinct breakdown. If two groups fight, the capes fight capes, and the minions fight minions. If there's an uneven victory, then the attacking side usually backs off back to their territory, and the defending side _lets them_. It's almost like ritual combat, to be honest. Very Samson versus Goliath. Brockton Bay _isn't_ like that. Everyone fights everyone, which _I'm_ perfectly fine with. But the PRT still seems to almost be working under the other's cities rules, where if they don't come in with overwhelming force, they don't come in _at all_. They have their own 'territory' in the middle of downtown, like New Wave has the upper-middle class neighborhood they live in, but that's about it."

I let a video I'd found when researching a few nights ago play. It was of a cape fight between gangs in Chicago. The two sides went at it with powers and guns, but if you looked the non-parahumans seemed to be mostly fighting each other and vice versa. When a cape got to close, the minions would take a few pot-shots, but that meant the _other_ side would attack even harder, getting the regular people's attention back on them. "There's also the fact that while lethal force is totally okay against normal people, even the capes tend to pull their punches against each other."

Taylor started to give me an incredulous look, before her expression turned introspective. "If Lung really wanted to kill me, he could've just covered the rooftop in fire, couldn't he?" she asked, voice small.

"And he would've died before he got close," I reassured her, sitting back down and giving her a one-armed hug. "Herb and I were watching, and if he had I would've blown his fucking head off. Unlike Aegis, he couldn't come back from _that._ "

She looked up at me, confused, so I grew an approximation of my rail-gun design from the floor. Then I layered Speed Zone after Speed Zone down the trough until it was a nice eggplant purple. I'd assumed that my device would've knocked Lung down at the time, but with experimentation and some math, I'd realized that it would've been more likely to break his ribs, and possible burst an organ or three, depending on how much tougher his internals became when he ramped up. I made sure to keep the insects free of the weapon's intake as Taylor saw the webs around us sway and twist in the strong air currents the device created.

As her eyes went wide with understanding, I stripped off the Speed Zones, fully extending the device, breaking it off from the floor, and folding it up with Air Control, depositing it in the corner. "Like I told the team we were on during the Truce, most parahumans play softball. When it comes to protecting those I care about, _I don't._ "

* * *

After that, and after Taylor had calmed down a little, I realized it was getting late, having been watching tv for _several_ hours. She turned down my offer of a ride home, and I didn't press, so I took a quick circuit of the city to do that entire "patrol from the air" thing and fly the metaphorical flag. It nearly bored me to tears. Rooftop jumping at night as Boardwalk, it was easy to tell how people moved and the streets were clear enough to spot individual groups. Doing that I could follow someone for several minutes, but if I flew even sixty feet above the rooftops as Vejovis, people stared. If I flew higher, it became much harder to tell what was going on.

Having wasted a good two hours on _nothing_ , I sent a text off to Panacea asking if she wanted to go out for dinner or have me make something like I had been. She instead replied with 'Already home. Already ate.' Turning towards the railyard, I varied my route back, and dropped down half an hour later, strolling inside to the scent of someone baking.

In the kitchen was Herb, cleaning up after having cooked something. "Hey man, what's up?"

He turned, giving me a nod. "Panacea's in her room," he told me neutrally, waiting for my response.

"Did something happen?" I asked, and he nodded.

"Yeah man," he sighed. "Brandish showed up. Fuckin' whore." He laughed maliciously, "Security ended up throwin' her out when she took out that lightning sword of hers. Dumb bitch tried to say Amy was her daughter, so they had no right to do anything, and they told her that since she'd _just said_ that Panacea was no daughter of hers, then they didn't believe her, but if she came back with the _proper authorities_ they'd of course comply." He shook his head, laughing maliciously. "Skank tried to pull rank, so they asked for identification, but she didn't have any that said she _was_ Brandish, so they told her she could leave, or _they'd_ call the PRT for threatening people. She even tried to call their bluff, but left when they started to call the cops. Bitch."

"Is Amy okay?" I asked, concerned. She couldn't heal herself, and honestly, I wouldn't put it past Brandish to hurt her to get 'her daughter' back at this point.

He waved my concern away, "Just tired, and depressed. Can't blame her."

I nodded in agreement, walking off to go see if she needed to talk. She seemed fast asleep, and I let her rest, quietly closing the door to her bedroom. Herb made dinner, and Victoria got back in time to have some. Herb told her the details before he and showed us both the video that 'someone' had taken of the incident, which had already been uploaded to the internet. I gave him an approving smile while Glory Girl watched in horror. Brandish was in full 'I'm in charge, I can bully people with my position, and I can do what I want' mode, reminding of a story I'd heard where a lawyer had threatened a cab driver, assaulted him, and told him that she'd use her position to make his life hell if he reported it, not realizing he was recording everything. It pissed me off, but no one was hurt, and there wasn't anything I could do that wouldn't alienate either sister.

"I'm gonna go talk to her," Vicky declared, standing up.

"She's asleep," I told her, still annoyed at her mother.

She just rolled her eyes. "No she isn't, she just does that when she doesn't want to talk," she informed me, before striding off.

Herb and I shared a shrug, and I did the dishes, since he cooked, taking the time to try to cool down. It didn't work, and I was still angry in a directionless manner that rankled me. When Victoria came back out, a bit more subdued, but looking surly, I asked, "Is she okay?"

"Not really," she said, getting herself a coffee. "Can you believe she told me she wanted me to leave her?"

I nodded, "Yeah."

Vicky gave me a disgusted look, "You think I should just abandon my sister?"

"No,' I replied, offended at the thought, controlling the quick flare of temper that ran through me. I'd heard of the apple not falling far from the tree, but we'd _just_ watched her mother attack her sisters with unfounded accusations, and now she was doing it to me? If Amy was still up, I didn't want her to hear me dress down her sister, so I dropped a Sound Bubble around the room.

"Don't put words in my mouth, _Victoria._ You asked if I could _believe_ Amelia would want you to go home. Yes, I can completely understand that she would not want to hurt you and so want to not be, to her, the one that causes a division between you and your mother, even though all she's doing is standing up for herself. _No,_ I don't think you should abandon your sister when she needs you the most."

Her glare evaporated, and she looked chagrined, but it felt fake. "Sorry, I just thought-"

"You thought you heard what you were _expecting to hear,_ " I interrupted, feeling a bit tired, but with the dull ache of useless anger in the back of my head. "Being a Hero is more than just handling yourself in a fight Glory Girl, and this is part of it. People don't tend to listen to each other, they look for confirmation of what they believe. _You_ thought I wanted you out of the base for some reason and were expecting me to seize on this chance to make it happen, so you already had _your_ reply ready and were waiting to use it."

"No I wasn't!" she denied. I gave her a flat look. "You didn't want me here to begin with," she defended.

I took a deep breathe, calming my rising anger. _She is still a child, and should not be held up to the standards of an adult_. "And _now_ we have two mutually exclusive statements. You either believe that I'm wrong in my assessment of what you were expecting, or that I was right, but that what you were expecting was correct, presenting evidence to that effect. Which one is the lie Victoria?"

She looked shocked that her attempted manipulation was laid bare immediately, likely used to people her age not calling her out on it, and her mother just returning with manipulations of her own when caught. "I didn't lie!" she lied.

My expression smoothed out to nothing, and I realized I was going cold and professorial, but this needed to get nipped, not quite in the bud, because we were _long_ since that stage, but before it could fully bloom like it obviously had in her mother. That and the bold face denial in the face of logic and facts was something that _irked_ me on a fundamental level. "There is an argumentative style whereupon one throws out lies, hoping they will not be seen as such to gain a victory," I presented coolly. "The user does not _believe_ the things they say, and thus for any long-term engagement requires the opponent to either _not remember_ what was said previously, or to succumb to other pressures if they realize this, usually with a guilt trip of 'would I lie to you' whereupon the user feigns indignation if their opponent goes 'yes, because you did'. It is a style that a number of people, _including_ _your mother,_ prefer. This is because it allows for quick, easy victories where one does not need to even entertain the barest possibility that _they might be wrong_."

Glory Girl looked stubbornly back, "I wasn't lying," she threw out again, as if repeating it would somehow make it true. As if she could make her word stick in flagrant denial of reality, though there was something else there. Doubt? Fear? I didn't care, and I was starting to get a migraine, which didn't help.

"You gave me two _contradictory_ statements. Either you were lying, or you are insane, and you _aren't_ insane. Now, instead of owning up to it and apologizing, taking responsibility, _like an adult_ , you're doubling down, _like a child_." I could go farther with this, chase down lie after lie until I _made_ her confront the truth, but that wasn't why I started this. I needed to stop this before she hurt Amy, and I would do so by stripping away her delusions and make her face _truth_. "You seem to have had some pre-conceived notion of how this was supposed to go. Maybe you're the valiant martyr, staying with you sister, but deep down _blaming_ her for your mother's actions, _hating_ her for your own actions so you don't have to have the _responsibility_ that comes with agency. Maybe you're trying to psych yourself up into talking her into going back home, mentally casting _me_ as the antagonist without any proof. But who needs proof to condemn someone when you can use _emotion_ instead of _reason_ , as _so many others_ have. Maybe you're getting ready to abandon her, trying to find someone else to say it was okay, so it wouldn't _really_ be your fault."

She opened her mouth to speak, but I didn't let her, silencing the words with a wave of my hand, negating the sound. I was in no mood for her to move onto her mother's _next_ favorite tactic of interruption. " _I don't care Glory Girl._ You, like so many others, _don't listen._ You _never_ do, because you've never _had_ to. In that respect you are _just like Brandish._ Not because of genetics, like she believes you are, but socialization. You probably saw her win fights by lying; with other adults, with your father, with your sister, with _you._ That can be excused because you were a child and you didn't see how _vile_ it was, because no one that you thought was good could possibly do something bad, because she was your _mother._ "

My headache was getting worse, and while I _was_ angry, I was more tired, resigned disappointed. I'd seen this _so many times before_ , and now this heroine was doing it as well. She started to turn around to leave, but I _wasn't done._ With a wrench I solidified the air around her. She drained her shields struggling against it, but all that did was blow her backwards into the hold as I reformed it around her, constricting tighter and tighter until the only reason she could breathe was because I _allowed_ it. I turned her to face me, to face the _truth_. "You don't get to run away from your problems that easily, but thank you _so much_ for exemplifying what I was going to say next Glory _Girl._ You learned to lie to get your way, most popular people do, god knows _I_ did before I learned better, and your mother gave you a model to build yourself off of. It only makes sense. She's your mother, she's powerful, respected, liked, _everything_ a young girl aspires to be. But after a while, you lie so much you need to start lying to yourself to still think of yourself as a _good person_. That's a stopgap measure though. At a certain point, it isn't enough, so you start needing to outright _ignore_ _reality_ to keep it up."

She was _just like_ so many I'd called friend, until I realized they weren't listening to me, just assuming what I said. It _always_ ended badly, and each time I'd convinced myself that _this time_ it'd be different, and each time it wasn't. This time though, this time it _was_ different. Victoria would listen, _had_ to listen, because if she wouldn't, no one would. I could stop it here, save someone who deserved it, no matter how much I wanted to _beat_ some sense into the heroine. I would try words first, I _always_ tried words first, but it almost _never_ worked. "You stop listening, because you hear things you don't like, and it's so much easier to just assume what people will say. Most people work off internal scripts, so it works. . . right until it _doesn't_." She glared at me hatefully, unable handle the _truth_ , and I wondered why I was still talking. She was a woman who worked through _physical_ means, and that meant she wouldn't change her way for something as silly as _logic_ , but I still had to try. If that failed, well, I _was_ a healer _._ "Then you get angry, because obviously _you_ couldn't do anything wrong, so obviously it's _their fault._ Then, when attacking doesn't work, you _flee_ , because you can't handle _what you've become."_

"Dude. Enough!" Herb's voice was a whip-crack, and my head pounded as I turned to stare at him.

"No, it really isn't." I spat back, _why didn't he understand? I **needed** to do this!_ "This lady thinks she's a paragon of virtue, I'm showing her how that while she could be, more than I could, right now she's _not."_

"Who's, said she's that. I mean she is, but. . ." He looked confused, as he thought about it and _obviously_ realized I was right. "Dude!" I dropped her into a bubble of absolute silence, I wasn't done with her yet, and I didn't want her thinking she was going to get someone _else_ to fight her battles for her, to handle things she didn't want to face. Not _again_. "Her Aura!"

I gave a bitter laugh, the pain in it matching the pain pounding in my brain, "What about it? I've _told_ her not to use because it works badly on me. I've told her _multiple times._ She wouldn't. . ." _Actually, given what we were just talking about, I wouldn't put it past the lying bitch._ If only to put my friend at ease, I looked at the lady before me with my Power Sight. The White & Gold of her shields showing them about to recharge, but her power was _weak_ compared to my own. There was something else as well, a latticework of fire, expanding out in fractal patterns as well. I'd been avoiding Seeing it so I didn't copy it by accident, didn't _taint_ myself with it, but the _Master_ power was clear as day now. Charm Field; it was a mind control effect, thirty-foot range, which caused the user to think better of the user, feeling guilty if they'd acted against the user and prodding them to make it right.

 _Figures that even her power lets her avoid responsibility._ It spread out and seemed to thicken with use in four directions. One was off where Boojack likely slept. _No help there for you, 'Hero'._ Another went off towards where Amelia slept. _You've overused that so much, 'Hero'. I wouldn't be surprised if she was in a stupor, but you're so self-centered you never even noticed, did you?_ One branch led to Herb's head. Likely why he was bothering to stand up for this _bitch_ in the first place. I wouldn't hurt him, but I wouldn't let him stop me either.

The last ran directly to me, pouring power into my brain. _She dares!?_ A small part of me pointed out that she couldn't exactly _exclude_ me from her Aura. She was having enough trouble just turning the damn thing off, which her parents hadn't even bothered to teach her, completely wasting her _incredible_ potential. _And she never bothered to learn to control her **mind control field** herself?_ I internally raged. _That's on **her.**_

Well, she'd start controlling it _right the fuck now._ With a practiced motion I pulled out my sword handle, igniting the dark saber as I let her hear again. "Your powers don't make you any less of a _liar._ You will stop Mastering me _right now_ , or I'll start removing _limbs_."

The feeling of pressure, and the splitting pain in my skull, both stuttered, fluttering in and out, before they cut out entirely. I swayed on my feet, my head clearing. I. . . what was I doing again? I must've been daydreaming or something, because I would never do what I remember doing. I had a hell of a headache, the damn thing was overwhelming, but it was clearing, and pressing my face into my hand helped. Starting from a few minutes ago to determine where I drifted off into deranged fantasy I remembered being annoyed at Vicky, because she was being a childish brat. Then again, she was a teenager, one of her parents was the definition of negligence, and the other spoiled her so much it was a miracle she wasn't rotten to the core. Honestly, it was to her credit Vicky wasn't _worse._ But then, it all started to get a bit fuzzy, but from there it started to get warped. What I remembered though made _no sense._

"Dude!" Herb called.

"What?" I asked looking up. Following his arm as he pointed, I saw Glory Girl floating not five feet in front of me, splayed out in the air in a way that I'd only played around with conceptually, a sound bubble on her throat keeping her quiet. "Holy shit what the hell!" I cried, dismissing the sound bubble around her immediately.

"I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry," she kept crying over and over. I dismissed the Air Prison and she fell, flight not engaging. She flinched something fierce when I caught her, crying into my arms.

"It's okay," I reassured her, mind settling as I mentally went over the past few minutes in detail. _Fuck, not again._ At least I now knew that if she used her Aura slowly, it didn't provoke a _kill_ response as much as a _punish_ response, though one bereft of even _my_ scant amount of subtlety and kindness, along with disorientation and a good deal of pain as well. I sighed. "I was being. . . harsh," I ignored Herb's snort. "But what I was saying wasn't exactly _wrong_ , at least the first bit. You need to learn to _listen_ Vicky. Your Aura, it does something _bad_ to me. It doesn't make me like you or feel guilty like it's supposed to, it makes me want to _hurt_ you, and I _don't want to do that._ "

She'd been so good about it too. Yeah, there were flashes, which were annoying, but nothing like _this_. _Well Lee, what did she do?_ I asked myself as I comforted the girl who had stopped shaking. All she'd done was visit Dean. _The same Dean that's immune to her power?_ my subconscious prodded me. _The same Dean that she can stop holding back on, a skill she's only **now** started to develop? Well. . . Shit._ I put her down in a chair. "We need to talk about what just happened. I'm not mad, and I'm not going to hurt you, but we need to figure out _why_ this happened. Herb, can you make some peppermint tea?"

He gave me a searching look, "You want me to handle this?"

"No, I partially dug this hole, I need to put it right." Which was true, if I'd realized what was happening faster, I could've stopped it before it spiraled. _God, I'm going to have to check her power every time I'm annoyed with her when she's nearby_. It'd be a pain, but it would keep me, _me._

He nodded, and I sat down next to her. "So, tell me if this sounds right," I asked. "You hung out with Dean, who's immune to your power, so you stopped holding it back, right?" she gave me a shaky nod. "And you came back, and you pulled it back a bit, but you normally don't pull it _all_ the way back unless I'm around, right?" She hesitated, knowing that wasn't what I'd been asking her to do, but nodded again. _Good on her._ "And then you watched your mom, and you got mad, and forgot all about controlling it, because you were worried about your sister?" The hesitation was longer, and she looked like she was worried about my response but nodded for a third time.

I took a deep breath, double checking that the annoyance I was feeling was mine. It was. "Vicky, you need to keep it off _all the time._ I know it's hard, but remember our talk this morning? Powers shape themselves with how you use them. You've been letting it flow out unrestrained for over a _year_. It's gonna take a while before your power understands that turning off the thing that makes people like you is more than just an emergency thing to avoid an asskicking. Or worse. It needs to get that it's something you need to activate, not repress."

I gave her a moment to fully process that, but I needed to argue this on another level. We covered primal fear a bit _too_ well, and that covered logic, which just left emotion. "On a purely moral level, imagine if Dean could control his beams more than he let on. If he could fire a beam that was weak as a sparrow's wingbeat, and it gave off so little light as to be almost invisible. Imagine if instead of creating strong feelings, it just. . . _pushed_ you a little to like him more, but each hit pushed you _just_ a little bit more. Imagine if you weren't immune to his power. The first few hits you could ignore, but after twenty? You'd think fondly of him, even if he'd done nothing to make you feel that way. A hundred? He'd be a dear friend. A thousand? Could you even stop yourself from loving him? Even if the first time you met him you thought he was a complete creep you'd _never_ even give the time of day to? Dean can't do that Victoria, _but you do_. I imagine you got more friends when you got powers?" She was silent.

I sighed, "I'm not going to force you to, but _please_ , answer the question."

She nodded, letting out a choked laugh. "I thought they liked me because I had powers. 'cause I was cool."

"They did at first," I agreed. "Your power, unless you crank it up like you used to in combat, is slow, subtle, _seductive_. I'm assuming that the people who became your friends before you got powers became _more_ of your friends? That after a month or two after you got your powers they just became better friends? They never got jealous of you, angry at you, even really disagreed with you?" She gave out a chocked sob and I patted her back, trying to be comforting without excusing.

"Dude?" Herb asked, bringing over three mugs of tea. "This _really_ the time to be doin' this?"

"Herb, I was ready to start cutting pieces off her _because_ her power had twisted around my emotions," I said, ignoring her shiver. "I was justifying it to myself because I could heal her, but still, _I don't do that to my friends_. Even if she _isn't_ my friend, and I'd understand if she didn't want to be after what her power pushed me towards doing, I've still offered her shelter here, and I take rights of hospitality _seriously_." I sighed. "If Amy were here she'd be trying to make her sister feel better, even if it meant lying to her, and the _last_ thing _any_ of us needs is _more_ comforting lies."

He shrugged, "I wouldn't mind a couple."

"You have _such_ good judgement that you haven't hurt _anyone_ innocent because of your plotting," I told him, deadpan. I _didn't_ need him undercutting me right now.

He frowned, "Low blow man, you could've just asked me to be quiet."

"I just did," was my reply. While I was still working with him, I _hadn't_ forgotten about Dinah. It was possible I never would. Until Leviathan flooded the city, Coil wouldn't turn to Tattletale for help, and I couldn't find his base without that. I'd gone through dozens of plans, but any interaction with him had to be pre-planned days in advance to avoid him learning information I hadn't realized I'd given him.

"So," Vicky said, trying to hold back tears. "You're saying none of my friends are real?"

 _And we're back to what started this entire thing._ "I pick my words _very carefully_ Vicky, it's a trait I picked up from both of my parents, though for different reasons. _Did I say that?_ Not 'did I say something kind of like that' or 'did I say something that means that', did I say _that exactly?_ Drink some tea, it'll help."

She did so, sniffling. Herb got her some tissue, and she gave a quiet 'thanks'. After a few minutes of deep, teary thought she shook her head, "You're saying none of my friends I made after I got my powers are real."

 _The girl can learn, will wonders never cease_ , I mentally snarked, before rebuking myself _,_ _Okay, that isn't fair._ "Close," I told her encouragingly, "but not quite. I'm saying that, except for Dean, because he's _immune_ to your power, you can't be _sure_ they're real. They might be, and your power is doing nothing but reinforcing pre-existing good feelings. They might be, and your power just let you avoid common teenage drama. They might _not_ be, and the only thing that keeps them around is your power, _pulling on their minds_ every time they see you. With your power running uncontrolled you _can't know._ " I sighed, "Inversely, there might be people who are bit different, like me, that anywhere from dislike to actively _hate_ you because they're getting their emotions pulled on, and some part of them realizes that it's _wrong_ and it's coming from _you._ "

I shook my head, taking a sip of my tea. "I'm glad I have the same main power you do, it's damn useful and _really_ powerful, but I would _not_ wish to have your secondary ability. It turns your allies into slaves, or enemies, and there's no telling which one until its too late. Even if it didn't make me go all knight templar, I'd still be arguing for you to control it, because it's an indiscriminate power, just as if you set everything around you on fire, or nullified gravity, or caused things to melt. The only difference is that this Shaker power, and I'll admit it's _both_ Shaker and Master, but this Shaker power is one that you can't see."

She looked defeated, which is not what I meant to do, but this needed to get taken care of _now,_ before it caused _more_ problems. "Your parents should've done something, said something. The Pelhams should've, when it became clear that your training was being neglected. Flashbang was too depressed, and Brandish was so sure you were already perfect by sheer dint of being her daughter." I snorted. "You don't expect babies to swim. Even if some look like they can, if you fool yourself into thinking they have a skill they don't, it's only a matter of time until they _drown._ "

"Seriously?" Herb asked, looking skeptical. Vicky looked at me quizzically as well, self-incriminating spiral of thought broken.

I nodded, dead serious. "Look it up later, they call it 'Infant Swimming'. Babies naturally open their eyes and hold their breath when submerged. That combined with them _flailing_ can make it look like their swimming, and a lot of parents have convinced themselves it's real, despite the _reams_ of evidence to the contrary."

"I'm not a baby," she replied a little sullenly. _Good, she isn't freaking out._

"No Vicky, it's a metaphor." I explained, smiling. "Think of it this way, compared to my use of shields, I'm like an, I don't know, a nine-year-old. I can do some stuff, but I'm still a _long_ way from achieving that power's full potential. You were like a toddler, now you're like in Kindergarten to my second grade. It won't take us a year to go up a grade, but it'll take time and effort."

She didn't look happy with that, but nodded. "What about Amy and your healing?"

I sat back, thinking. "That's a lot more difficult. I'd say that I should be starting middle-school, but I don't have her diagnostic power, so I'm sixth grade special ed, when they're still trying to get us to recognize patterns and maintain eye contact. Amy? As she is now? High school sophomore. If she started to cut loose and experiment, especially in a safe and controlled environment? College, _easily_. Her two powers feed into each other, letting her understand her powers' mechanics intuitively, and more than that understand exactly what her powers _can_ do just by using them."

"So she's got you beat?" Victoria teased weakly. "Go Ames."

I snorted. "In her area? It's not even close enough for me to _try_ to argue. When I talk about learning from her? When I make it clear _she's_ the senior healer and I'm just assisting? I'm not being nice, only honest."

"And Bug Girl?" she probed.

I caught Herb's warning look and checked her power. _Nope, my annoyance is all me, and it's deserved._ " _First of all_ , I don't _seriously_ call you Glory Hole, or Collateral Damage Barbie, or any other number of insulting things when you're not around, nor do take kindly to others that call you that. Call her Lady Bug, or LB if you must." I waited, but she didn't say anything. "I'm waiting for a response. That was disrespectful, and you know it." I _didn't_ want to be her father, but god-damn it _someone_ had to be a parent to her.

"Sorry," she muttered under her breath. I waited. "I'm sorry," she said again, louder.

"Good, please don't do it again. As for that question, that's more difficult. In terms of _raw power_ , I outstrip her easily. I have more range, I have more experience, and if I had to, I could rest control from her. _However,_ she has _far more_ individual control. I wouldn't be surprised if she has a Thinker rating. I can give the Swarm general directions; 'go here', 'attack this', 'scout there', almost a general's level of control. _She_ can take the Swarm in its entirety, several _thousand_ different insects, and control each one _independently_. I've seen her do it, and it's _damn impressive_." I smiled, "I'd put myself at high school freshman, but she's the kid who got into college at age ten because she's _that good._ "

I took a sip and saw both Victoria and Herb giving me similar, unreadable looks. "What?" I asked, not sure what they were thinking of. "She's part of the Penumbral Defenders. _We don't accept weak people_. Herb's a melee powerhouse, Purity's ranged damage output is on par with _Legend_ , and I'm not that bad myself."

Pointedly ignoring Herb's snort, I continued, "Once you two find your feet and wouldn't feel pressured by it, I'm planning on offering both you and your sister a place on the team. You have the possibility of out Alexandria-ing Alexandria, and Marquis _wishes_ he could do a fraction of Panacea is capable of. Remember, that man was the _only_ cape in his group when the other games in town were the Allfather led Empire and the _Teeth._ "

I took another sip when the base proximity alarm went off, a soft ping that wouldn't be noticed if you didn't know what it is. By his look of confusion, Herb never read the base manual like I asked, but that wasn't surprising. Bringing up the display on my phone, I saw a young man poking around the alley next to the base. Pressing on his face, the computer ran a check and gave me a name.

"Victoria," I asked carefully, and she looked over in confusion, and if I was being honest, a little fear. "What is your boyfriend doing outside our _secret base?_ "

"I didn't tell him where it was!" she replied quickly. "Honest!"

"I believe you, but the problem with lying is that my first instinct is now _not to,_ " I informed her. "When you left his place, did you head _straight_ here?"

Glory Girl looked confused. "Um, Yes? Hey!" she complained in response to Herb covering his face as he laughed: "Fuckin' white people."

"It's not a race thing," I defended, "We just didn't have the same kind of family you did." Turning to Vicky, I explained. "He saw which direction you went and headed off that way to find out where you were staying. Don't feel bad about it, I didn't realize that was a thing until The Lady, Bug told me she figured out where the base was by triangulation from when she met and left me."

"She would!" Herb laughed harder.

"Not. Helping," I growled. "Ugh, from what I know of Dean, he deserves his cape name. He's not gonna stop looking, is he?"

Vicky shrugged, "He's just worried about me. He kinda, sorta, freaked out a bit when I mentioned I was staying in the same place as Break." She smiled to herself, "It's sweet that he cares."

My friend was of _no_ help, laughing _even harder_. "Of course he cares Victoria," I replied matter-of-factly. "From what I know the boy practically loves you, _and_ is absolutely immune to your powers, so you know it's genuine."

My casual statement caused her to brighten, voice full of happiness " _Really?_ "

I facepalmed while Herb fell out of his chair, wheezing with laughter. "No more," he begged. "It hurts!" I considered kicking him.

"Yes." _Might as well get this all over with._ "He planned to propose to you after you both graduated college. Instead he died, and I'm training _you_ to, among other things, protect him to make sure he _doesn't_."

That sobered her up a bit. "Who killed him?" she demanded.

"I'll tell you when the time gets closer. Just focus on general improvement for now, in case we've shifted things enough already." She glared at me, but there was fear there as well. Not of me this time, but the future. _Ugh._ I still felt guilty about what I'd almost done not even half an hour ago, even though that _was partially her fault._ After a quick check to see if her Aura was up (it wasn't), I threw up my hands.

"Fuck it, I'm training you, and it's a matter of fucking time until he finds this place or, more likely, tells his bosses in the PRT. I'll train his ass too. Bring him over tomo-no, that's the Gala. The day after that, at. . . five," I decided. "Bring him over to the base then. I'll give him a briefing, and _if_ he agrees not to screw me over I'll let him _visit_. And I promise at _least_ one training session to make him not suck as bad with his powers. He'll never be Penumbral Defenders tier, but he's done a lot with what he's got, and I'll see if I can make him even better."

The girl looked like it was her birthday, which helped my _completely natural_ guilt. "Thank you Vejy!"

"But!" I insisted, holding up a hand. "No fucking him in the base!"

She looked like I'd slapped her with a carp.

"We got booze, available bedrooms, and very little adult supervision," I explained. "Promise me you won't."

"I wouldn't," she said, sounding offended I'd even suggest it.

 _That's not a no._ "Yeah, that's nice," I snarked. "Give me _your word_ that you won't, and I'll trust you."

Victoria huffed, "It's not that big a deal." _She isn't lying, but she ain't exactly truthing either_ "Glory Girl."

"Fine, I promise I won't." She didn't sound happy, but she didn't seem like the borderline panicking girl I'd let out of a _coffin of air_ a few minutes ago. I took the win. "Send him a text so he doesn't run into the Merchants or the base defenses. They're set to nonlethal, but he doesn't deserve to get tased because he's worried about his girlfriend."

She nodded, thanked Herb for the tea and left. "Fucking Mind Controllers," I sighed. "If she wasn't a good kid I would've fucking killed her, and it would've been her own fucking fault."

Herb just gave a 'what can you do' shrug, having recovered from his hysterics but still smiling. "There's a reason people don't like 'em."

It was my turn to snort. "That's a hell of an understatement." That niggled at my memory, and I checked my phone, the alarm I'd set a few minutes away from going off. "Actually, funny you mention that."

"We killin' Heartbreaker?" he asked hopefully.

I gave him an incredulous look. "When I do, it's going to be at _long_ distance and you won't be _anywhere_ near him. Neither of us have anti-Master protections, as should be incredibly apparent. No, remember Canary?"

He thought for a second, before realization dawned. "Oh right, she was on the same transport as Lung!"

"Which is moving tonight," I agreed. "So man, ready to go free that Jailbird?"


	79. Milestone 7-y (Über & L33t)

**Milestone 7.y (Uber & L33t)**

The video began with two suited figures facing a camera behind a desk, both wearing simple domino masks and each with a stand microphone in front of them. Both men were of indeterminate age, the smaller of the two wore a light colored formal suit, complete with bow tie, the word _ULTRA_ emblazoned on his breast. He smiled hesitantly, eyes darting off to the side as he tapped on keyboard hidden from sight, the faint sound of clacking keys giving away its presence. The larger had his collar popped, shirt unbuttoned to reveal a muscular physique, and wore a light grey suit jacket, similarly emblazoned with the same _ULTRA_ symbol.

The more muscular man spoke first, "Welcome loyal viewers! We come to you live to bring you another cape fight, direct from Brockton Bay!" Their image shrunk to a corner of the screen, revealing what looked to be a humanoid dragon flying over tenement buildings, steel scales shimmering with heat as its powerful wing beat. "Our drones have caught sight of Lung, and _boy_ does he look pissed! Any idea of where he's going L33t?"

The smaller man squinted at something off camera, hands moving faster over his keyboard. "Think so Über. There's been reports of gunfire in the direction he's flying. I've got a drone near there and. . . there!" The image split, half the frame keeping above and ahead of the Asian supervillain, the other showing a warehouse, half wrecked, dead bodies strewn in front of the building. "Jesus," the Tinker exclaimed under his breath.

Über was only taken back for a second, before smiling easily, holding onto the microphone in front of him tightly, "They're the ones who decided to start killing, but it looks like the ABB guards bit off more than they could chew." As the feed continued, several figures emerged from the building, gathering around the front. The forms of three monstrous dogs were easily distinctive, as was the glowing form of Purity. A metal platform maneuvered out of a torn hole in the roof, two people, one dressed in white, one in green, perched atop it. "The cloaking still working?" he asked his partner. "Take them in," he instructed when he got a nod in reply.

The viewpoint lowered, getting close enough to pick up what the gathered capes were saying. A muscular black man in a suit, face shiny with a clear mask, was addressing the rest. "-veryone! Blitzing in _totally_ worked, but you guys new that already, right Krieg?" he said, winking at the Nazi, whose name appeared below him.

"We still lost Genesis," one of the figures on the platform, a boy dressed up like he was at a renaissance fair, commented blandly. The word _Regent_ appeared below him.

The black man scoffed, "We didn't _lose_ Genesis. She'll be back tomorrow. She's like the Duracell bunny, if the bunny was a giant butterfly that could change its shape." The man's expression firmed, "'sides, this should be the _last_ fight we'll have to do."

Über sighed, shaking his head and talking over the armored cape's response, the word Crusader identifying the metal covered man, "He's gonna have rude awakening. Whoever that villain is, he's forgetting the first rule of fighting Asians: you're bloodthirsty again in an hour."

His partner paused typing to shoot him a look, " _I can't believe you just said that._ That's Break by the way, of the Penumbral Defenders. He's a hero."

"Coulda fooled me," Über muttered, glancing at the dead bodies around the man as his name appeared below him. "Time until their next challenger appears?"

More typing. "Thirty seconds."

Über's smile was malicious, "Then let's sit back and enjoy the show!"

"All I'm sayin' is," Break commented. "If ya guys hadn't spent so long with France, ya might've actually taken England. I mean, it's France. What kinda fight could they've put up, _really_?"

Krieg sighed, "It's not that simple. There were factors that- what's that?" he asked, a dull roar echoing from Lung. The camera above the man-dragon shifted to follow him from behind, showing the group gathered in the distance as the leader of the ABB came flying down the street right for them.

Break stiffened, all joviality gone. "Fuck! Scatter!" Purity took off straight up, the girl and her three monster dogs loping off down one alley while Crusader and Krieg fled down another. The two on the platform crouched as it lifted up and off to the side. Break slid one leg back, seeming to brace himself.

"It looks like Break of the Penumbral Defenders is looking ready to throw down with The Dragon of Kyushu," Über commented, "But the leader of the ABB has other ideas!" From the vantage point behind him, it was clear the flying villain was angling upwards, towards the two on the platform.

"NO!" yelled Break, leaping off the ground with a speed that spoke of powers, but it was too late. Lung reached out one oversized hand, razor sharp talons stretching out to disembowel the girl in green robes.

The boy wrapped one arm around her shoulders, pulling her backwards as the platform started to tilt, throwing himself backwards as his free arm swung downwards in a flailing motion.

Lung's claws _almost_ missed them, leaving bloody furrows across the girl's stomach _just_ as she fell away. Lacking the purchase he expected, the dragon's talons tore through the platform, digging ragged gouges out of the steel they were standing on. The platform tumbled down, whatever was letting it fly gone, as Lung pulled upwards in an arcing loop to arrow down at the pair falling towards the street below. His dive missed as a black blur smacked into the dragon's jaw, knocking off the mask that seemed to blend into its scaly visage, revealing an almost feline face. Lung's inhuman jaw spread into four appendences as he yelled incomprehensibly. The villain grabbed Break, whose momentum was spent knocking the dragon off course, and hurled him into the warehouse that he'd originally came out of, breaking back first through a blacked-out window.

While the leader of the ABB was distracted, one of the monstrous dogs leaped up, grabbing onto the boy with his jaws and landing smoothly, the sharp teeth somehow not piercing the flimsy cloth of his costume.

"Oh, that looks like it hurts!" Über groaned theatrically, "But is that throw enough to take Break out of the fight?"

"Better defenestrated than disemboweled," replied L33t, "And with the Brute rating he's supposed to have, I doubt it. More importantly, what's Regent's costume made out of? It's not cloth."

"Whatever it is, he better hope it's fireproof!" called Über as Lung descended on the two.

"You wi'' die 'or 'at you ha'e done!" the dragon roared, the lack of lips impeding his speech. As he stalked forward another monstrous dog jumped him, but the animal was thrown to the side easily, the cracked scales from the beast's bite visibly repairing themselves. Regent stumbled to his feet, trying to drag the girl, named Rune by the broadcast, away from the dragon, the arm he had been flailing before hanging limply at his side without obvious sign of injury.

"And a save from Bitch's dogs does nothing," Über crowed, "Will Crusader pull a St. George, or will this fascist fail?"

Several ghostly copies of Crusader ran past the pair, trying to spear the dragon. "With the reach his spears have," L33t commented, "He should be able to hold him off for-" Lung roared and impaled himself on the ghostly weapons to rip the ghosts to shreds, weapons disappearing as the copies died, wounds sealing almost instantly and healing to pristine condition in seconds. "Or he could just do that," the Tinker finished lamely.

"I a' going to enjoy this," the dragon grinned, slowly reaching towards the pair. From the overhead feed, a dark shape blurred from the warehouse, twisting and growing. With an audible crunch the ankylosaur slammed its mace-like tail into Lung's side, sending the villain flying into a building.

"And a sucker strike from Break," Über announced. "Not very heroic, but undeniably effective, but will he follow it up or will he let Lung get back up nastier than ever?

The dinosaur's formed shifted back and down into Break, who pulled a phone from an inside pocket of his suit and tossed it to Regent. "Call Panacea!" A roar drowned out whatever he was going to say next as Lung emerged from the building, now on fire, and started to leap for Break.

A blast of white so bright the screens of both drones momentarily darkened blasted into the dragon, sending him right back into the building. Another blast followed the first, then a third, until the building collapsed on top of the villain. Glow dimming, Purity landed next to Break. "That should do it," she commented, dusting off her hands as her name appeared below her in white.

Break shot her a disbelieving look. "As ramped as he is? No. Purity, grab Regent and Rune and get them somewhere safe. I'll hold off Lung."

The white shape that was Purity turned its head to look at the two children, visibly starting when she saw Rune's injuries. "Oh my goodness!" she called out, before shaking her head. "If Lung's going to get back up, you'll need my help," she started to argue.

" _No._ " Break argued. "Get those two to safety. The safety of the _children_ is important."

As Purity hesitated L33t remarked, "Is it just me, or does that sound like they're talking about something else?"

Über started to shake his head before slowly nodding. "She's supposed to have left the Empire a year ago, maybe Purity isn't that _pure_?"

L33t winced. "Dude, you can't say that kinda thing on air!"

His partner laughed, "We're wanted criminals, what are you scared of, the FCC?"

"Nah man, I just don't want ya to scare away viewers!"

Über grimaced, glancing off to the side to where L33t was pointing. "Really? That caused a dip? Fine, point, and it looks like Purity's getting some R&R as she takes Rune and Regent off to safety!"

"Yeah, and- What the Hell?" L33t called, shocked. "Are those _snipers_?"

A pair of men on a rooftop nearby had taken a shot at the retreating heroine, the round going wide. Now that they'd moved the second camera picked them up getting in close with the second tried to keep up with Purity, slowly falling behind. The snipers second shot barely missed as she poured on the speed and disappeared in a streak of white, the drone following turning back towards Break. The drone approaching the snipers showed both men were clothed in urban camouflage and body armor, each with a patch depicting a twisting white serpent.

"That they are," agreed Über. "But I don't recognize the patch. You have anything L33t?"

"Not unless they're Whitesnake fans, _were_ fans," L33t corrected as Break launched himself with a roar, closing the distance with the speed of an oncoming train. His form warped as he turned back into an ankylosaur and landed back first on the shooters, crushing them to red paste on his spiked shell.

Lung chose this moment to explode out from underneath the ruined building, even bigger and with a long tail. "And Lung's back in the fight, who'll he go after next?" Über asked, dragging attention off the remains stuck to the dinosaur's spikes. The dragon-man's head whipped around, neck elongating slightly as he moved to the next street over. As a drone lifted up, it was clear that he was heading towards Bitch, who was staring at Break. "Looks like he's going after the younger fighters first. Is it to take them out, or have the Undersides tickled this dragon before?"

When Lung stomped out of the alley, Bitch's head snapped towards him and she let out a whistle. All three of her dogs, monstrous things bigger than tigers, tried to take him down, but barely slowed his steady progress. Break landed in front of her, becoming human long enough to yell "Run!" before elongating into a stegosaurus and twisting to strike the dragon.

"Well," Über started to say, cut off by L33t's upraised hand. "What?"

"You wanna hear this," his partner promised, a fourth window appearing and growing to show an argument between Crusader and Krieg.

"-une's safe, it's time to leave," the older Nazi commanded.

Crusader's face was covered by his full helmet, but his voice carried his offence well enough. "And leave them to fight the chink on their own? Fuck that, I'm not letting a nigger fight while I run like a bitch! We're workin' together under truce, and I'm not about to let some porch monkey show he has more guts than I do!"  
Krieg looked around, not seeing the drone floating above them. "The Truce is over Crusader, we're not even supposed to be here!"

"Says who?" challenged the Nazi.

"Says _Kaiser,_ " reposted Kreig. "I didn't tell you because I hoped we'd find it today. We haven't. We're out. Let's get Rune patched up and leave." A saurian roar matched a draconic one, and on another screen Break, now a Triceratops, charged Lung while Bitch rode one of her dogs to keep out of harm's way but in range to coordinate the other two to try to help. "With any luck, they'll kill each other and solve that problem for us," the Nazi commented dryly.

"Fuck you. And Fuck Kaiser!" Crusader declared.

Kreig took a step forward, "Don't be an idiot Justin! Think!"

"Now you're calling me dumb!" the armored villain yelled. "Fuck this. You can go suck Kaiser's fuckin' dick, playin' games, but here in _'merica_ we keep our fuckin' word! Even if it is to fuckin' race traitors and coons! Breakin' your word, that's the kind of shit _they're_ supposed to do! You can go _follow orders_ , but I'm gonna go help _my_ fuckin' team put down _that_ fuckin' Jap!"

Crusader took off towards the sounds of the fight while Krieg shook his head, muttering to himself, "Bloody berk," in an English accent he hadn't had a moment ago, turning on his heel and walking away from the fight.

Both L33t and Über were speechless, but the omnicompetent villain rallied. "Well, I did Nazi that coming!" he commented, flashing a smile to the camera. "But that's what happens when you have truly live and uncut entertainment. How's Break and Bitch fairing L33t? _L33t,_ " he prompted, his partner snapping himself out of his shock and hitting some keys, bringing the battle back to the main screen.

"Break seems to be holding his own," the Tinker commented. The shapeshifter had turned into something tall, feathered, and with three feet long claws. He took a swipe, only for Lung to catch the blow, twisting the arm with a carrying _snap_ as he broke the hero's arm. "Or not."

Lung tossed Break to the side, the hero shifting back to human form, arm still twisted unnaturally. "Looks like the injury carries over between forms," L33t observed. Lung moved towards Bitch, whose dogs growled as they backed away, trying to get her to safety without turning their backs. Small fires that seemed to have no source now clung to Lung's scaled hide as he stalked forward, only to pause as Break jumped at him from behind, punching the dragon in the back of the head with his good arm. "He must have enhanced strength, to even _effect_ Lung as he is now," L33t observed.

Break darted backwards over a dozen feet in a single leap, coming in for another blow, only to have this one caught by the dragon. Über shook his head, "If only he had skill to match." With a loud crack Lung broke his other arm, tossing him into a building through a brick wall.

As Lung once again started to stalk towards Bitch, both of her dogs jumped on him. Their flesh sizzled as they tried to hold him, but he took a deep breathe, letting it out in a stream of flame that forced the beasts backwards. "As he is she can't win," commented L33t. "He's too ramped up."

The front of the building Break had been thrown into exploded outwards, a Tyrannosaurus Rex charging with a reverberating roar out to plow into Lung, forcing him back several dozen feet until the man-dragon dug his feet into the asphalt. Flames licked across the dinosaur's flesh, but seemingly left the reptile untouched.

With a matching roar Lung tightened his grip on the T-Rex's snout, lifting the carnivore up into the air by its head. "Is he?" L33t asked.

"He _is!_ " crowed Über as the Dragon of Kyushu flipped The King of Dinosaurs over, slamming him back-first into the building Purity had buried Lung in. "Lung drops Break with a Power Bomb!"

Break shrank down into the smoldering rubble, disappearing into the smoke. "No!" Bitch called. "I'll kill you!" Her dog started to charge forward, but it was brought up short by a ghostly spear barring her way.

Five more ghosts charged Lung, flying through the air to attack him from all angles, spread out to avoid the charge that had dismissed them before. "I've got this," Crusader told her as he walked up next to her, more phantom copies coming off of him every time Lung killed one.

The leader of the ABB breathed a cone of flame over the copies, only to have the spears, untouched, stab at him from inside the inferno. "That's odd," commented Über.

"Not really," disagreed L33t. "Crusader's power is favorably Manton Limited. It _only_ affects, and is affected by, living things. Fire isn't alive, so they ignore it." Lung seemed to realize this as well, forgoing flames to tear into them as he moved towards the pair. While he obsorbed body blows with ease, the way the dragon defended his head showed it was still vulnerable, a fact that Crusader took notice of, forcing the ABB leader to spend time protecting it.

"Leave," Crusader told the remaining Undersider. "You're just going to get in our way."

She hesitated, before jumping in surprise along with her dog when Break seemed to appear next to her, arms still obviously broken. "He's right," he said, wincing. "Get to safety. He's too hot for you to help right now."

She nodded, giving a whistle as all three dogs bounded away. Lung tried to give chase but found a forest of spears in his way, the time he wasted ripping them to pieces letting her get away. The dragon, now twenty-five feet tall, having almost doubled in size since the fight started, roared and charged the two remaining combatants.

Break darted off to one side, seeming to jump on the air itself to change vectors and avoid the charging dragon. Crusader was carried by two of his clones that rose straight up into the air, lifting him out of range as more pulled themselves off of him to harass Lung.

"You got a plan, darkie?" the Nazi called as they evaded the still growing dragon.

"Hit 'em a lot, whitey!" the hero called back.

Crusader laughed, "Sure, why not?" As Lung launched himself at Crusader, the knight grabbed on to the end of a ghostly spear, its wielder seeming to brace itself on air and hurl its creator away from danger before being shredded by the dragon. More ghostly copies emerged from the Nazi to grab hold of him as he moved through the air, directing his flight further upwards.

"Those spears can't really do any kind of lasting damage," commented L33t, frowning. "He has to know that."

"He does," argued Über. "He's not a threat, he's a _distraction_." Lung, chasing after the errant Nazi, didn't see Break dart in, turning into a stegosaurus mid-flight. The spiked tail pierced the dragon's wings as they raked the villain's back, ripping through them and sending Lung to crash to the ground.

The tears visibly stitched themselves back together, but the distraction allowed Crusader to get away, floating two hundred feet above Lung and raining clones down on him. Break shifted back to human form, landing on a rooftop and stretching out his arms without pain, a few flames clinging to his form quickly being patted out.

Break dropped down to street level, turning into a Tyrannosaurus Rex once again, charging the dragon. "They say that doing the same thing and hoping for a different outcome is the very definition of insanity," Über commented.

L33t smirked, obviously disagreeing, "Crazy like a fox!" As they were about to meet once again, Lung's arms outstretched to take the blow and grab his foe, Break shrank, three horns growing from his head as he accelerated, not even touching the ground.

With Lung wide open Break's Triceratops head slammed dead into his chest, horns sinking up to his crest. Lung folded up, coughing up blood as Break shrank, leaping out of grabbing range. The wounds in his chest healed as Lung roared, blood sizzling as his growth spurted him upwards, reaching over thirty feet in height. His growth, a constant slow progression, stopped entirely as he charged Break.

" _Holy shit_ ," whispered L33t.

Über looked at his partner in worry, "What is it? Is it too hot? Are we losing the drone?"

"Nah man. Lung's as big as he was when he fought _Leviathan._ "

" _Holy shit_ ," he agreed, looking to the camera. "We hope you all enjoy the show! and we hope he doesn't destroy Brockton Bay after this fight," he finished, muttered to himself.

Lung swiped at Break, who tried to block the tail-whip and was sent flying fifty feet down the street, only to return a moment later, striking with his gauntleted fist hard enough to dent scales, seeming to not notice the inferno that now covered the dragon's body. Crusader ghosts rained down from on high, targeting Lung's wings to keep him grounded and Crusader out of range.

Lung spat a fireball at the Nazi, who barely dodged by having his clones catapult him away again, chaining together ghosts to pass him along at high speed through the air. From there Break and Crusader fell into a pattern: Crusader shreded Lung's wings and kept him distracted while Break fouled Lung's aim by punching him in the head every time the ABB leader tried to spit fireballs at the flying Nazi.

"I don't get it," Über finally admitted after this pattern had played out over a dozen times. "None of them can hurt the others. Break and Lung both regenerate, and Crusader's out of range. Crusader knows help isn't coming, and Break hasn't called for any either. I'd almost say they're trying to tire him out, but it's _Lung._ "

"What?" L33t asked, obviously enraptured by what he was watching, having returned the display to only a single drone and themselves. "Don't you see it?"

"See what?" he asked incredulously, before shaking his head, glancing at the camera. "Why don't you explain it. To our viewers, of course."

"Watch the next blow Break takes," the Tinker instructed. Lung backhanded Break, who skidded back ten feet, jumping to dodge the next blow.

Über frowned. "He can't match Lung's strength when he ramps, nothing short of an Endbringer can. It's stupid that he's still tryi-. . . . _No._ "

L33t grinned back at him. " _Yes."_

"Is he?" Über asked, not finishing the sentence.

Whatever he was asking, L33t understood but disagreed. "No, man." The Tinker zoomed in on Break, who's clear mask _almost_ hid his vicious smirk. "No scales."

"But how"

"Repeating patterns. Slower scale, wider reach, different expression," L33t explained, the two of them seeming to forget they were putting on a broadcast and speaking in shorthand.

Über's eyes went wide, looking at the camera feeds they'd set up off to the side of the camera. After dodging another two blows, almost a blur, Break let another land in the same way the last one had. He was pushed back _six_ feet. "Dude!"

" _Dude."_ L33t Agreed.

They both turned to watch the feed, Über's hand wrapping around his microphone and jumping as he looked back at the camera feed. "Well viewers, while it may appear that this fight is going nowhere fast, appearances can be deceiving. It looks like Lung's not the only parahuman in Brockton Bay that _ramps up_."

Lung, overcome with frustrated rage, once again tried to rip into Break. This time, instead of catching the blow on the forearm, the hero _caught it._ The leader of the ABB paused, staring at the offending hand in shock. The thirty-foot-tall dragon roared his anger and struck with his other taloned hand, claws ready to rip Break to shreds. The six-foot-tall man caught that one as well, almost forced to his knees by the blow. _Almost._

Lung roared, breathing a great torrent flame down on the offending hero, obscuring him completely behind the fiery tempest. When he stopped, having to take a breath, Break was revealed to be standing completely unhurt. The hero roared back, _in laughter._

Lung bore down on the hero, using his increased mass and still superior strength to force Break down to his knees before Lung staggered forwards as the hero seemed to disappear. From above Lung Break reappeared, twisting into an ankylosaur, mace-tail streaking down with a whistling sound to impact the back of Lung's head in a blur.

The villain tried to twist out of the way, getting an arm up, which snapped with a crack like thunder. The limb started to straighten, but this time Break allowed him no reprieve. The flow of ghosts stopped as Break dropped down, ducking under Lung's tail to shift to a long, thin stegosaurus that looked to have plates on its tail instead of spikes. Twisting around and past Lung, the plates showed themselves to be sharp, somehow cutting into Lung's scales and through the flesh beneath.

Break spun around the villain's leg like a living chainsaw, quickly slicing completely through the dragon's limb in its entirety, the limb dropping to the ground as Lung roared in pain. The dragon's wings, barely repaired, spread out, lifting him up into the air, away from Break, up past Crusader, obviously trying to escape.

A twist of flesh and Break was a pterodactyl. A single flap of super strength and he disappeared, reappearing as he impacted Lung's wing. Shifting back to human form Break was quickly obscured by the flames.

Lung roared in pain again and dropped like a rock, both his wings flying off in different directions, trailing blood. With a bone-shattering impact he landed on the very warehouse where the fight had started, cratering the ground and destroying everything below him. The fires wreathing his flame lessened and Break could be seen, standing on the dragon's back.

The hero casually strode to the villain's tail as the stumps that were the villain's wings tried to regrow themselves. Teeth seemed to sprout from Break's arms as he used them to saw through the tail, casually tossing the appendage twice his size over his shoulder. Lung's roars of pains grew weaker as Break repeated the process on one arm, then the other.

With four separate points all trying to regenerate at once, they were all healing much slower, but it evidently wasn't enough, as Break repeated the process for both legs, one partially regenerated.

After this grisly task was done, Break almost negligently flipped over the dragon, casually walking up to stand on Lung's massive chest, gazing coldly down at the villain whose actions had led to the deaths of hundreds. "We done?" Break asked scornfully.

"Kill you!" What was left of The Dragon of Kyushu growled weakly. "Kill you! Your 'riends! Your 'a'ily! E'eryone you care a'out!"

"Have it your way," Break agreed, jumping off Lung's chest, and standing below him. Break's form twisted and grew larger and larger, until he looked like a Tyrannosaurs Rex, but half again as large, easily fifty feet from nose to tail. With a level of care that seemed incongruous for something so gigantic, it took Lung's torso in its mouth, and slowly bit it in half. The sound was unsettling in its meaty, gristled slowness, almost drowned out by the Dragon's roar of pain.

Turning its head to look Lung in the eye, it chewed mouth full of flesh and swallowed, staring at the once mighty dragon until it passed out. Lung's form shrank until he returned to looking like a man, only his head and the upper half of his torso intact, but oddly enough, not bleeding.

Break shrank down as well, seemingly untouched from the fight except for some dust on his suit and a few scuff marks on his mask. The. . . hero spit on the villain before he turned his back and strode off.

Crusader dropped out of the sky, ghost dismissing as he landed softly next to his teammate. "Is the coolie dead?" he asked, as if he wasn't sure which answer he wanted.

Break shook his head. "I left him his brain, heart, and lungs. He'll grow everything back _eventually_. Maybe he'll even grow some common sense!" he laughed.

Visibly picking his words carefully, the Nazi held out a hand to Break, "Nigger, that was a sight to behold."

"Couldn't've done it without ya, honky," Break replied with a grin, shaking Crusader's hand.

The two of them walked down the street companionably, both taking to the air when the sounds of sirens approached them.

The image of Über and L33t grew until it covered the screen, both looking a little green.

"Retire?" asked the Tinker.

"Definitely," agreed his partner, turning to face the camera. "To wrap up, we would like to take this moment to announce our retirement from villainy. We are going rogue and starting our own channel: **_ULTRA!_ **We'll be bringing you live, raw cape fights like you've never seen before!

The word appeared on the screen, unfolding into: **Ü** ber & **L** 33t: **T** itanic **R** umble **A** nnouncers!


	80. Premiere 8-1

**Premiere 8.1**

"Are we there yet?"

I sighed, wishing I had a hand free to pinch the bridge of my nose in frustration. Then again, even if I had, I was in Boardwalk's regalia, so I'd have to remove my mask first. "No Herb, we're not," I replied for the. . . honestly I'd lost track. To keep under the radar I'd cloaked us both in Shadowform, carrying him to fly low over the ground and leave no trace of our passage. The only thing not wreathed in darkness was my left hand, holding my phone and displaying our target.

The real time updates I was getting was incredibly useful, almost _too_ useful. I couldn't help but get the feeling I was walking into a trap, but Canary _needed_ to be saved. I'd failed Dinah, and I couldn't risk getting too close to Coil without a plan. I couldn't be sure that my Blindspot ability, expanding as it was, would work against him. His power didn't let him see the future, it let him split the timeline and pick the optimal as they both moved forward in real time. Alternate worlds were real, as evidenced by Scapegoat's power, so it very well could have been using a similar principle. That meant that it might work to protect me, like it did against Tattletale, or it might not, and by the time I got close enough to tell, I might already be snared by his power. However, the man could only split the timeline into two, and used his power often enough that a plan that lasted two days would be unaffected. That meant I needed the intel to _build_ a foolproof two-day plan in the first place, with no possibility of losing track of him. It was that or go in with overwhelming force, which would tip my hand as being _far_ more powerful than I was.

I felt like a bit of hypocrite, having reprimanded Herb for following the Stations of Canon, following the original plotline, when that's what _I_ was doing. _No_ , I argued to myself, _this is different._ He was trying to make no waves whatsoever, I was just. . . limiting mine, not flailing about like a fool, getting the attention of things I couldn't handle. Yet.

"Are we there yet?"

"For the last time," I almost snapped, glancing at my phone. "N-yes," I corrected. We were there.

"N-yes?" my friend asked, trying not to laugh. "That like y-no?"

I shifted the phone into Shadowform, losing connection to Cauldron's servers as I slipped it in my pocket. I pointed to a seemingly unremarkable panel van driving along a two-lane road. It was on the first leg of its four-day trip from one coast to the other, the Birdcage in British Columbia, north of Washington. It was just after midnight, and it was the only other car on the highway.

"The car's electric, and both the engine and Dragon's connection to it are under the hood," I instructed. That was the other thing, it wouldn't take that much to put in a second connection, and backups were just common sense.

"So smash and grab?" Herb asked grinning.

I nodded, "Pretty much."

He winked, form twisting out of my grasp, forming himself into a jet black Pteranodon. It was only my enhanced night vision and knowing exactly where he was that let me pick him out against the night sky. I planned to stay phased until I was right on top of the truck before detonating a Light blast on top of its hood, grabbing hold of the roof to keep it from hitting anything.

I wasn't sure what he had planned, since we hadn't talked plan beforehand. Technically, I'd found override codes for the truck, but I'd rather it had no chance to transmit the identity of who hit it by breaking the connection completely. Pulling up behind the truck, I moved to get ready to grab it if need be while Herb did. . . whatever Herb did. He'd pulled up far ahead and had landed, form shifting into a. . . moose?

Herb, appearing as nothing more than an overly large bull moose, charged the transport from the side. Bounding in on a crash course with huffing roar, he impacted the front of the van with a meaty thunk and the sound of tearing of metal.

Putting an unphased hand on the roof, I held on as it spun around, lifting it slightly with a force field to keep it from tipping over. After three and a half spins, using the presence insects all around to keep myself from getting nauseous, the truck came to a squealing stop, half off the road.

"What'd ya think?" my friend asked, walking over as I looked at the front, confirming that the transmitter and receiver had been wrecked.

I flipped to the back, carefully bringing out a thin beam of Light that I used as a cutting torch to cut through the complicated looking lock on the back of the truck. The information from Cauldron _also_ came with the unlock code, but I didn't need it. "Well done Bullwinkle," I quipped, finishing with the door.

"Canary we're here to. . ." I trailed off. Inside were two figures. One was a woman with unnaturally yellow hair, feathers poking out of it. She wore a mask that gagged her and her body from the neck down was _completely_ encased in containment foam. Around her neck was a collar with several vials of clear liquid.

The other took me a second to recognize. At first I thought it was a quadruple amputee dwarf, but the tattoos peaking out from the orange prison uniform were ones I recognized. The illusion of shortness was created by the fact that he seemed to be missing half of his abdomen. "Break," I asked carefully. "What happened to the bottom of Lung's torso?"

He shrugged unrepentantly, "I told you I ripped his arms and legs off," as if that explained everything.

"I didn't ask about his limbs, I asked about his _torso,_ " I shot back.

Another shrug. "He was goin' on 'bout he was gonna kill me, kill you, kill my dog, all that bullshit, so I made it so he'd take longer 'fore he could try again."

"By eating his dick."

Herb paused, "Probably not? Maybe it hadn't grown back yet? If I did it was too small to notice."

I didn't respond to that, instead stepping inside to carefully pick up the sleeping Canary, laying her cocooned form down on the grass.

"They foamed her?" he asked disgustedly. "Fuckin' _why?_ "

" _Basic_ psychological trick," I commented absently. "If you take unnecessary protections, people will assume what you're dealing with is more dangerous than it actually is. Because people are lazy, they assume if you're doing something like this, it's because you _have_ to. It's security theatre." The mask was easy enough to remove, being a simple fake leather contraption, which reminded me of fetish gear. That was oddly disturbing, but I moved my way down to the obviously technological collar, studded with vials of clear liquid.

"Fuckin' assholes," my friend spat as I considered different ways to cut it off, but I realized I didn't need to. Grasping it, I focused, shifting it, and only it, into Shadow. The back of it had no electronic parts, so I simply brought it forward, tossing it off to the side, hissing as syringes attempted to pierce arteries that were no longer there. The containment foam posed its own challenge. It was supposed to degrade over time, but I'd rather _not_ have to worry about that coming apart as I flew. Trying to only bring Canary into Shadow wouldn't work, the material covering her thoroughly enough that even if I _could_ , she'd be naked.

"Why are they still out?" Herb asked. "I mean, even if the crash'd knocked 'em out, they shoulda woken up by now."

That _was_ concerning. Canary was still breathing, but she should've at least stirred. Wracking my brain, I remembered the interlude she was in as having the trip as _far_ shorter than it really was. I'd been surprised that the Birdcage was in British Columbia, as from New Hampshire that was a trip of about fifty _hours_ , when the trip described in the book seemed to be fifty minutes, at the longest.

Reaching over and opening one of her eyes, it was red, the pupil unnaturally wide. Bringing forth a bit of Light, it only constricted slightly. "They're drugged," I pronounced, letting the eye close while I dismissed the Light. Pulling back a finger of my leather glove, I laid the exposed digit on her forehead. Channeling 'Get Better', I felt it take effect, the dark circles under her eyes slowly disappearing and her complexion regaining some color.

"What?" she muttered, and I Saw her, the Aura of Suggestion a mix of bright yellow with streaks of green that flickered feebly around her. "Who are you?" she asked, blinking in the darkness we sat in, only able to see us by the light spilling from the interior of the truck.

Her power flickered as she asked, and I felt a gentle push to tell her. After all, telling her would make this all go easier, wouldn't it? My own power reached out gently, taking a copy for itself as its use reverberated in my ears. _Not again!_ I internally snarled, anger returning me back to the reality. "I'm H-" my friend started to say before I silenced him, and her as well. "We're the ones who are saving your ass," I ground out, feeling the pressure ease. "And I get you're fuckin' groggy, but you try to Master me or my friend again and we _will_ leave you here to get picked up by the fuckin' PRT, you get me?"

She moved to answer, but her words didn't come. More importantly, her power didn't flare again. Dropping the Sound Bubble she could obviously feel the difference, whispering, "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to!"

"You ain't the only Master we're helping who's got that problem," I gave, still feeling guilty from earlier but keeping up the Boardwalk Persona. "You do yer best to control it, and don't use it without a good fuckin' reason, and we'll be fine. I'm one of the assholes that those powers fuck up on, and it's just plain fuckin' _rude._ "

"Sorry!" she whispered again.

"Why are we whispering?" Herb asked as I focused on the containment foam. It was sticky, insulated against temperature and electricity, and was rubbery to absorb kinetic force. Most importantly, it was porous, allowing the free passage of air. While I couldn't turn her to air like the villain had, I _could_ manipulate the air itself.

As Canary explained the collar, not realizing I'd already taken it off, I felt out the foam with Aerokinesis, sensing the hundreds upon hundreds of tiny bubbles that interconnected into a matrix. Focusing on a section on her leg, in case I _really_ messed up, I tried to make the bubbles expand upwards, away from her flesh.

The foam expanded organically, but it didn't break. Herb glanced at it, then me, before distracting her by holding up the collar and asking, "Yeah, that's nice and all, but why are you still whisperin' when you're not wearin' it?"

She reflexively tried to move her hands, but they were incased in foam by her side. "How? When?"

Herb dropped a hand on my shoulder as I considered the problem. "My friend Boardwalk here is full o' surprises."

I might be able to use pure force to do it, but I wasn't sure I could micromanage all the details to do so safely. I wasn't _Taylor_. Light was useless unless I wanted to blast it off of her, Shadow wouldn't because it was too well attached, and Speed Zones would have the same problems as Shadow. Something like Stellar Creation combined with Stellar Negation I _might_ get to work, but I didn't have _nearly_ enough practice to pull off shaving her legs with a _sun_. That _did_ suggest several other uses for using those two in concert that I hadn't considered before. Too bad I couldn't get Marissa on the team.

"Who?" she asked, eyes going wide. "I don't mean to offend you. Are you new?"

"Yeah, and I'm _busy_ ," I growled. _Concentrate on the now,_ I reprimanded myself. I'd done most of my work with Aero and Acoustokinesis, both of which were _incredibly_ open ended. I could theoretically vibrate the foam off her, but at the forces I'd be working with I'd have to be careful I didn't vibrate the skin off her as well. Air control it was.

"Sorry!" she apologized again, and Herb said something I'm sure was comforting, but I tuned him out. Forming an Air Blade, I skimmed it on the edge of the foam. It caught, cutting slightly but not enough.

Concentrating on the edge, sharpening it even further I tried again, easily peeling off a strip of foam where she couldn't see. _Bingo._ Shaving it off like this would take far too long, but I _already_ had a medium to work with. I put my hand on her shoulder, darkness spreading down across her form as I propagated darkness to hide what I did next. The other went to her forehead, colored light shining through the darkness of my arm to get her attention. "Don't move," I instructed, encasing her in a Lift Field to avoid problems.

Starting from the top layer, I envisioned a tiny blade in each bubble, impossibly small and impossible _sharp._ I spun it three times, once horizontally, once vertically, and once diagonally, before dismissing it and repeating the process with the next layer down. The first set took a good thirty seconds. The second. twenty. The third, _ten._ As I did this the foam started to fall off of her like vanilla covered sand.

"Um, man?" Herb asked when I started the process of curving it around to leave the layer next to her skin intact, the lack of bubbles providing a roadmap. "I get you're focusin' and all, but how much longer are we gonna be here?"

I ran the numbers. It would be another five minutes to fully disassemble the foam, but I blinked as I realized I didn't need to disassemble _all_ of it, just the parts holding onto her. "Thirty seconds," I ballparked, implementing the process all around her.

Lifting her up weightlessly by my hand on her forehead, she stiffened, repressing a squeak but I'd dismissed the blades so she didn't brush against them. Moving her to the side, I set her on the grass and dismissed the darkness, revealing the shredded material and the bottom half of the foam, a rough, Canary shaped mold.

"Cover your eyes," I commanded, having to stop my power reaching for my copy of Canary's to enforce it. I sighed internally, _This is gonna be a pain._ Stretching out my hands I poured Light into the foam, utterly destroying it, her muzzle, and her collar. "'kay, we can go." If she had any tracking devices, Shadowform would render them inoperable until we got back to base, which was shielded.

Herb held up a hand. "'fore we go, can you wake up Lung? Please?" he added when I cocked my head.

I shrugged, there wasn't much he could do as a torso. "Sure." I walked over to the still unconscious villain, covering my hand with Darkness to hide what I was doing from Canary. A quick shot of 'Get Better' seemed to kickstart his own power, heating him up and likely purging the drugs from his system, but he didn't seem to be healing more than that. Closing up my costume, I let Grue's Darkness fade, walking back to Canary who was shakily trying to get to her feet. "Make it quick," I instructed, offering her a hand. The thin film of foam that covered her body colored her a uniform yellowish white, like a sepia ghost.

She took it, standing on unsteady legs, likely not having used them for several days. I lead her away from Herb, who was having a quiet conversation with the ex-leader of the ABB. "Where," she started, voice hoarse from disuse, "Where are you going to take me?"

Covering our heads with a connected sound bubble, in case she had some sort of listening device on her, I replied, "Our digs are in Brockton Bay. You'll have to lay low, but you won't be locked up. You shouldn't've gotten a fuckin' infinite prison sentence because you accidentally offed your asshole ex when your power shifted."

"I didn't kill him!" she nearly shouted.

Blinking, I asked, "Didn't you tell him to go fuck himself, and your powers kicked in with full Suggestion instead of just emotional direction, so he did, until he died?"

"No!" Canary asserted. "I mean I did say that, and he did, but not until he died! I'm not a murderer! Did you think I was?" she took a step away from me, almost falling. "What kind of person do you think I am?"

I regarded her levelly, "As the exact type of person you fuckin' are. Yer powers changed and surprised you." I shrugged, "I just thought the outcome was worse. So if yer not even fuckin' capable of issuing an _absolute_ command, then this," I waved towards the Birdcage transport, "is even _less_ fuckin' deserved. What _were_ you charged with?"

"Sexual assault." While she couldn't see my face, the fact that I was staring was obvious. "The judge said he wanted to send a message," she supplied helplessly.

"Legislating from the bench. Fuckin' lovely," I commented, wanting to run my hands through my hair, but settling for running them across my hood as this new paradigm set in, all the implications spreading out like waves in a mental pond. "And in doing so he certainly _did,_ send a fuckin' message that is. However, instead of saying that the legal system will 'take crimes seriously' or somethin' retarded, what he _actually_ conveyed was that even the _government_ won't follow the rules. Three strikes before you're Birdcaged is how it's _supposed_ ta work."

"With what they've _officially_ tried to do to _you_? The only rule a cape can count on now is that there _are_ no fuckin' rules." I growled. "What's to stop villains if that happens? A single accident with powers working in a way they've never before, which they do _all the fuckin' time,_ and your condemned to the closest thing there is to a death sentence to parahumans. What's the government going to do next? Reveal secret identities in the name of 'accountability'? Immediately use lethal force against anyone with a power in the name of 'safety'? Government sponsored Mastering? I hate slippery slope fallacies, but they exist because half the time they're fuckin' _true._ " I glanced over to Canary, who was staring at me with wide eyes. "Sorry, but if someone at least _died_ then it would just be a 'travesty of justice' or some shit. This? This is _suicidally_ stupid."

I wondered if I could schedule some time to take a quick trip. If she was sent to a _normal_ prison her case could've been appealed, but Birdcaging, like death, was irreversible. The fact that it _didn't_ have the numerous requirements, steps, and checks a death sentence had was just another of the _dozens_ of reasons it shouldn't exist. I got the distinct feeling that there was something about this that I was missing. "Was there anything else about your trial that was off. I know they hooked you up with restraints ya didn't need ta make you look dangerous, which was a shitty thing, but was there anything _else_?"

"I couldn't say anything. I mean, I _know_ my power is my voice, but I couldn't even write or type _anything_! How hard would that've been!" she revealed angrily.

My brow furrowed beneath my mask as Herb started to walk over. "But, how could they fuckin' question you for your story without that? Your lawyer could press for a mistrial for that _alone_!"

"I KNOW!" she shouted, obviously needing to get this off her chest. "And the asshole they appointed for me just sat there! I couldn't hire my own lawyer! I wasn't allowed to get in contact with anyone, and they didn't want to wait the _hours_ it took to hear back from one!"

My brain stuttered at that statement. "I'm sorry, fuckin' _what!?_ How long ago did this shit happen?"

"I don't know, the twentieth? It's only been a week!" she ranted, quieting again as Light flashed across my form.

"Are you fuckin' telling me that you were denied the fuckin' ability to fuckin' defend yourself, someone was selected to defend you _over your fuckin' objections_ who then did a, fuck it, probably _intentionally_ shitty job at it, and then you were sentenced to fuckin' _lifetime imprisonment_ in a foreign country? Actually, fuck _that._ Even prisoners have fuckin _rights._ You wouldn't even get fuckin' that, and you're fuckin' telling me that all this shit happened in the less than the space of a **_fuckin' fortnight!_** " I finished, voice full of repressed rage as colors rapidly flashed across my form in shades of red.

"Told ya man, it's fuckin' Australia here!" Herb commented, slapping me on the back. "We should prolly leave. I'm kinda surprised no-one's shown up yet."

"Australia?" Canary asked, confused.

"Because if that isn't the _definition_ of a fuckin' Kangaroo Court, _nothing is,_ " I explained. The fact that this trial was publicized and _still_ happened meant that this America was _far_ worse than I feared. _If this guy wanted to send a message by ruining someone's life, it was only fair to do the same to him after all,_ a darker part of my mind commented, the part I pulled on when I was Boardwalk. There were a lot of powers I wouldn't use against people, but this judge'd gleefully thrown away that title, shitting all over the system he'd sworn to uphold and enforce. I hated Lawyers, but at least it was their _job_ to try to twist the law to their advantage. It was a _judge's_ job to make sure it wasn't outright _broken._ I needed to brush up on parahuman law, and I didn't have a lot of time. While I found Victor's power distasteful, it was a fucking _sirloin steak_ compared to what the asshole who'd sentenced her had done.

Reaching over I grasped both Canary and Herb by the shoulder, covering them with Lift Fields while shifting them to Shadowform along with me. The renegade rogue stifled a gasp as we sank into the ground, moving undetected back towards Brockton Bay.

We'd only been flying for a few minutes when there was a great rumbling, my Acoustokinesis kicking in to protect us from the sound that roared past us, even underground. "What was that?" Herb called, voice reverberating oddly. Reaching out with Aerokinesis I felt something stirring before a wall of wind blew through, almost like a shockwave. From underground we heard the muted crashing of trees hitting the ground.

I wanted to see through the insects, but the ones I could find were unresponsive. Forming a dome of hardened air above us, I lifted us upward to see what the hell was going on. The woods, pitch dark when we'd arrived, were lit by an almost hellish red light.

Looking in that direction I saw the forest where we'd left Lung had been set alight, a crown fire burning voraciously in the trees. Canary gasped and pointed with her free hand, still wreathed in darkness. Following her finger, I saw that the smoke above wasn't smoke, but a mushroom cloud lit from below, glowing a dull red, rising high in the sky.

Turning to face my friend, who had just _finished with Lung_ , I demanded, " _What did you do?_ "

He gave a half shrug, not looking away from the evidence of the detonation. "Dude, it's totally probably not my fault."


	81. Premiere 8-2

**Premiere 8.2**

We flew back to the base in silence, making much better time once I didn't need to worry about being spotted. Still, it was almost two when I lifted us up in the trainyard, skimming over the rusted maze of metal wreathed in shadow until we landed in front of the base. Letting go of Herb, he returned to reality and opened the door. I took us in, not dropping Canary or I out of Shadowform until he'd closed the door. "Okay. Canary. _Canary_ ," I called, getting her attention. "You okay there."

"What? I'm sorry," she apologized, which she seemed to do a lot of. "I'm, just, I was never supposed to make it to the Birdcage, was I?"

I shared a look with Herb. I'd been thinking about it the entire way back, and I was sure he had been too. "No, if you made it there you probably would've been fine. The van got hit _after_ it lost connection. Once you were locked away in that fucked up excuse for a prison, it would've been a done deal." I looked her in the eye, " _Someone_ was watching that fuckin' van. They probably weren't hangin' around, but ridin' the connection back to Dragon. Once that was fuckin' cut," I nodded to Herb, "They probably tried to reconnect for a minute or two. They might've waited to get a satellite view, but after that they probably launched. Hell, maybe there was a tracker in that collar, and they launched when _that_ stopped workin'. Either way, they wanted to make sure you didn't go free." I sighed, looking for an excuse to leave. I wanted to discuss this rationally, and having to keep terms simple and insert profanity as befitting the Boardwalk persona wasn't conducive to that.

I motioned down the hall, "Pick a room down that hall that doesn't have a name on the door, that'll be yours. They all got a shower and threads that should fit. Vejovis will fill ya in on what's goin' on. I pulled yer ass out of there 'cause he did me a solid." I gave a bitter laugh, "Shoulda asked him for fuckin' hazard pay. See ya around Tweety." I waved to her as I walked to the door and slipped into Shadowform, phasing through it, having turned off _that_ defense system before we left.

Bringing out my phone, I connected to the base cameras and waited until she was in her room before phasing back through the door and re-activating the base defenses, the inside of the door electrifying. Letting my costume shift to civvies, I walked back into the kitchen, catching the beer Herb tossed me and popping off the cap with an opener of air. "So, someone wanted to make sure she never sang again," he commented.

"It was Cauldron," I replied with preamble.

He started to take a sip of his own but hesitated. Holding up a finger, he drained it, tossing the bottle in the trash before grabbing another from the fridge. "Okay, _what?_ "

"It's all too tidy," I explained, starting to pace. "The map, the real time updates. Hell, there was even an override code for the fucking _truck!_ "

He blinked, "Wait, if there was a code, why did you have me moose it?"

"One, the moose thing was _your_ idea," I objected, "And two, all it would take was a reactivation code and they would've seen us. More than that, there was a code for the lock on the back of the truck, which I didn't use either." I shook my head, "That's probably what saved us. If they were waiting for the truck to be opened before, I don't know, practically fucking _nuking_ us then that's why we got the five minutes we had. It was a goddamned _trap._ You still doin' jobs for them?"

"I haven't for the last few days, and I'm certainly not after they nuked us!" he declared.

I winced. "No, okay, first of all, it probably wasn't _actually_ a nuke. If it was my Stellar Negation would've kicked in to negate the radiation, and it didn't. Second of all, the trap wasn't for _you_ it was for _me._ " I thought about it. "Or more likely _Boardwalk._ "

Herb looked at me, confused. "How do you mean? I thought Contessa couldn't Path you?"

" _Exactly_."

He rolled his eyes, "Oh, _that_ explains it."

"I mean, I _can't_ be pathed." That didn't seem to help. "I'm a Blindspot just like Scion, Eidolon, or the Endbringers. _If_ she was looking for it, her inability to path something _might_ lead her to knowing a Blindspot will be present. It's not exact, but if they saw their data had been accessed. . . But I cut off the data sharing from here. . . be right back."

I returned with a base laptop, turning it on and accessing the information on Canary. Following the suggested link, the web browser that I'd been using opened up, showing that her transport had been hit, with a satellite image of the strike area and the forest burning. Poking around the interface, which had seemed a bit _too_ useful, I found the Cauldron logo. " _Here!_ " I told him, turning it around to show him.

He gave out a low whistle. "Glad we weren't there when it hit. What's your point?"

"My point is that I'm accessing _Cauldron's Servers_ to get this info. That means even if there's no log of what I've done on this end, there very easily could've been one on _their_ end. That means, when I was tracking the damn thing in real-time, using the _fucking map_ , they could've had our current location _easily!_ " I ranted. "But when I went Shadowform the connection cut, and I didn't really come out of it until I got directions home, though I used a standard website to do so, so they might not know I survived. _Fuck_ , I don't know what to do with this. Do I temporarily retire Boardwalk so they think they got me? No, if I do that then they're going to realize that Boardwalk isn't the only Blindspot when they still can't Path Brockton Bay. I want them focused on me, not going after Charlie, or worse, dad. He's got almost _no_ combat capabilities, nor does he want one. One thing's for certain, _you_ still need to work for them?"

"What? No!" he rebuked. "Dude, they _bombed_ us!"

"And you were _not there,_ " I stated. "You _aren't_ a burned asset, you _aren't_ suspicious of them, and you _aren't_ working against them! I'll change the device ID of my phone and they'll think it was destroyed. Yes," I nodded, mostly to myself. "Boardwalk will show back up in a bit, and be his normal ornery self, not freaking out like he should've if someone tried to kill him a week earlier. Canary will be changed. I wonder if the feathers are required. Hopefully not. _Fuck!_ " I swore, running my hands through my hair.

I glanced up to see Herb looking at me in concern. "You okay dude?"

I let out a long breath, reaching out and taking a pull from my forgotten beer. "Yes. Okay. Here's the plan: As far as anyone is concerned, you have no idea what happened with that explosion-"

"I still kinda don't," he interrupted. "I mean, what you're saying makes sense, but are you sure?"

Shrugging, I replied, "As sure as one can be with the fucking Cape-inati." He laughed at the name and I continued, "So, something happened, you're not sure, and when Contessa comes a callin', you'll go crack some skulls or whatever it is they have you doing. I'll debrief Canary to that effect, the not knowing, not the you working for Cauldron thing. Actually. . . Yes. We _will_ tell her about you working for them, but that this _wasn't_ on their orders, so we don't get misplaced gratitude. I'll give her a full physical rework, like I do for your clones. I'd advise a race-change for completeness, but it'll be up to her. That hair has gotta change though."

Herb grinned, "So she might be a _black_ Canary?"

"Yeah, I'm not gonna suggest that, and the only other person that'll get that reference is Charlie," I shot back. "But if she wants to, sure. I'll see if I can get Panacea to double-check my work, but that requires me actually getting her to _talk_ instead of running off every morning," I sighed. "Okay, um, tomorrow's the Gala. It'll start at seven, so be ready to go at six-thirty. Other than that, talk to Kayden, have her either bring her kids here or somewhere secure when Coil outs the E88. I want to say he won't but the tail on that particular choice is long enough he's likely to go with that timeline if it doesn't blow up in his face immediately. Dude rarely keeps the timelines split for more than a few hours if I remember right."

"Spend time with Purity? Twist my arm why don't ya?" he laughed. "Seeya tomorrow man. We did good tonight."

"We did," I agreed, turning back to my computer. I needed to find a way to at least get a warning if I was about to access Cauldron's databases and tell them what I was interested in. I wasn't working against them, yet, but keeping free of their machinations for as long as possible was a _must_.

* * *

It was almost an hour later when I heard Herb's door open. "Dude, why are you still awake," I commented without looking up as he slunk into the room. "Don't you need your beauty-" I surged to my feet, Air Blade in hand as I focused on the other man. _Herb doesn't slink._

"Hey there big guy," Curtis greeted, slick smile looking a bit strained. "Didn't mean to ruffle your pubes. Chill slick"

 _He still has his modified face, good to know_ , I noted. "I was expecting the next one," I commented blandly, sitting back down and placing a mesh of air between us. "How'd your hunt go?"

Curtis winced his feline eyes, "I'm getting there, baby. Takin' my time, ya know. Shootin' the shit, enjoyin' the food, fuckin' the bitches _._ " He gave me a wink, before lazily gesturing back towards the bedrooms. "You know what I'm talking about. Canary, Glory Girl _and_ Panacea? You're knee deep in that primo-muff, _niiiiice._ "

I controlled my expression. He hadn't opened the doors; they were locked for anyone else but the user and he didn't have permission to override that. He'd just read the displays on the doors, and was either sounding me out or trying to get under my skin. The response was easy enough. "And as such they're all off limits, along with Taylor, Parian, and Sundancer."

He gave out an admiring whistle and grinned, "Damn man, you got slick bitches dancing on your di-"

"He killed you didn't he?" I interrupted, smirking and telling my self that if I _decapitated_ him, I'd have to wait another _two_ weeks to see if I could get a replicant who was _actually helpful_.

Curtis' expression twisted hatefully. "Heroes aren't supposed to kill. They're fuckin' _bitches._ "

"Satyrical?" I asked, honestly interested.

He snorted, "Little hoe-bag wasn't even there. Nix and that fuckin' pussy cat double teamed me, and I _don't_ do dudes, ain't no fag. Knew Lion-al bitchy could mess with sound, _not_ that he could teleport, and Nix is just as bad as her fuckin' sister, she just plays nice." He smiled evilly. "She doesn't know her gas didn't do shit to me though. Oh yeah, that's gonna be _real_ fun. Stupid silenced furry fuckin' double tapped me 'fore I could show her how wrong she was, but they don't know that Curtis is _back_ baby. I'm gonna off that fucker and double tap that bitch, _the way she wants it._ See ya around V-man. Have fun takin' V-cards!"

He slunk out the door, and I unlocked it from my phone, not wanting to get close to him if I could avoid it, re-locking it after he left. "Well, that happened," I commented to no one in particular, still wondering in what circumstances Herb would have turned out like _that._ With that taken care of, and without having to worry about whether I needed to greet or fight Herb's next incarnation, I went to bed to meditate.

* * *

It was six when I felt awake enough to get up, stretching out and returning back to my computer. I'd limited Cauldron database access to security level two, meaning that to access anything I needed to put in my passcode to prove that it was me accessing it. After making sure everyone from the Truce knew about the Gala and their invitation, I once again found myself wondering _what should I do?_

The sun was already rising, so I couldn't go outside to train, and a _lot_ of my powers weren't the type I wanted to test indoors. _Actually, what **are** my powers?_ Grabbing some paper and a pen, I wrote down my base powers:

Power Sight - Stranger Sight - Teaching?

Peak Condition - Healing Factor - ?

Precog Blindspot - Pericog Blindspot - Postcog Blindspot?

Immunity - ?

Unlimited Shard Works

Staring at that last one was where I ran into the crux of the issue. The question was, how many powers had I copied. I'd restricted when I used it, keeping it limited to those that had abused their powers and those whose powers would let me help them, but even then I found myself working to remember them all. However, I didn't _have_ to. I closed my eyes, visualizing the feeling in the back of my head where my collected powers laid. They all laid there, dancing flames hidden away within my own. I could see them all, reading the powers through their colors as if they were written in plain English:

Speed Zones, Aerokinesis, Acoustokinesis, Shadowform, Bug Control, Biokinesis, Personal Shields, Lightform, Shadow Propagation, Neurological Control, Metal Projection, Space Warping, Weapon Projection, Skill Theft, Adaptive Armoring, Personal Size Manipulation, Stellar Creation, Stellar Negation, Hard Light Weaponry, Hard Light Sphere Shield, Suggestion

The powers that needed a human target: Skill Theft, Suggestion, and Neurological Control were right out. In addition to their general repugnancy, which was enough on its own, I couldn't train them alone. Those that had large effects were out as well. Adaptive Armoring might have some side effects, and while Panacea would _probably_ be able to undo it, I'd want her on hand before I even started. Selecting Space Warping, I felt out with it to see if I could sense Vista's use of the same power. Not able to do so, I stretched out with it, twisting the air above the table into a mobius strip. "MC Esher, eat your heart out," I joked as I tossed a paper ball into the structure, only for it to freefall in a sideways figure eight. However, making even something small like that took a good deal of skill and I quickly found that that copy and pasting uses like I had with Acoustokinesis was non-viable.

Even without anyone moving around, the presence of everyone in the bedrooms was enough to change the environment to the point that when I tried implementing the shapes, they twisted a bit depending on where I placed them. The distinctions were slight, but that was with just four people in static positions. More people, all moving around and effecting her power, _especially_ in combat? Missy, like Taylor, took an unwieldy power and made it work far better than I could without a _lot_ of practice.

Next was using Brandish's weaponry, which I called to my hand. Red and purple lightning sprang from my hands, freezing in place when they formed two scimitars. The frozen bolts hummed against my palms, ready for battle. Concentrating, I shifted their colors, until I was holding one of each color. Then I shifted them both to red, then purple. Trying to pull the red out of the purple to make it blue felt odd, but actually worked. Focusing on the deep blue blades of hard light in my hands, I shifted the shade and saturation with another effort, forming first pure white then pure black bolts. Trying to shift them to the orange-white Brandish used, I felt myself hit a block. Any combination of red and blue I could do, but I was incapable of green, ruling out the entire yellow spectrum.

Using what I'd seen when the power's original user attacked me as a template, it only took a few minutes to get the weapon moving on its own, pulling me with it. It was far slower than the top speed I could get from Vicky's shields, but it was a still a good clip. Letting go, the weapons dissolved into the air as if they weren't there. It seemed that, like her daughter, her power had an unavoidable Striker component to them.

Forming a simple longsword was easy enough, and I felt as the power shifted to the form. Trying a series of other weapons, dismissing each in turn, I gained comfort and experience with how each formed. The leading edge always formed first, and just like Brandish I could form them mid-swing. The unpredictability of not knowing what the weapon that was about to hit you was a _definite_ advantage.

Sitting down, a pure white dagger in my hand, I took a second to think about this new power. I only Saw her long enough to make sure her power was what I thought it was, but that didn't give me the deep understanding I'd gotten from Seeing Victoria for hours. . . and I needed to never put it that way again, I resolved, shaking my head. The point still stood, I wasn't sure about the specifics, and I could only see how a person's power worked by Seeing it, not new applications. If I could there'd be no need for the cycle after all.

The feeling of the weapon's formation each time was a bit like Miss Milita's when she manifested her weapon, but _she_ didn't need to dismiss them between forms. Summoning a dagger made from that Protectorate member's power, I slowly shifted it to a short sword, the handle a coiling Entity. Replicating the feeling with Brandish's power, the hard-light blade extended to match.

Grinning, I switched the Weaponry Projection power through a number of instruments, forcing Brandish's power to follow suit. Forming a pistol, Brandish's power followed suit instinctively. With a raised brow I formed a target of air and levelled the hard-light weapon, pulling the frozen lightning trigger. Nothing happened. _The hell?_

It hard formed into a pistol, even moved like one, trigger moving and hard-light hammer pulling back before striking a non-existent bullet. I dismissed Miss Militia's power, both from the pistol and from the pen-knife it tried to stick around as, and formed the hard-light pistol into a revolver. Pulling the trigger made it move like it was supposed to, even down to the rotation of the cylinder, and I caught a flash of movement when I did. Staring carefully into the gun I realized it _was_ firing a hard-light round, which then dissolved into nothing the instant it left the barrel.

The power seemed a _lot_ more open ended then it seemed on the surface, forming projectile weapons as well, even if the need for it to be a single contiguous piece made them useless. Weaponry seemed like a bit of a misnomer for what it actually was, and I wondered what _exactly_ it meant. English, while being an incredibly diverse and useful language, also ran into the problem where the same diversity meant meaning could be mis-interpreted. I mean, technically, people used _bricks_ as weapons.

I felt my power grab onto that, and sure enough I was now holding a brick formed from pure white lightning. I twitch of thought created a 2x4, then a ladle, then a pen. Grabbing a piece of paper to write with it just set the paper on fire though, and I gathered the smoke with Aerokinesis, crushing it into ash before it could set off the fire alarm. I looked up just to make sure it wouldn't reach the alarm, only to stop as I realized that there _wasn't_ one. _Well, that's not up to code_ , I remarked, before I shook my head. _Right, secret base means no inspectors._

That led me to another aspect, the creations were burning hot, but she used them as shields _without_ burning whatever they blocked. Trying to feel around the power for the heat control, which was somewhat like wandering around a pitch black empty room trying to find a light switch that might not even exist, eventually led me to it. I had to focus on the _intensity_ of the weapon and dim it, something I never had to do with Miss Militia's. Visually there was no difference, but now writing with the pen did nothing other than push the paper a little. Focusing on turning it up a bit, to write by targeted burning, I got the first L, which was a bit uneven, and started with the e before the paper caught fire again.

 _Yeah, gonna need to practice that._ Going back to my previous project, I formed a laptop from the power. However, it, like all constructs, was not only completely monochrome, but mono-shade as well, looking like someone had just 3d printed a model laptop.

Shifting it back to a dagger, I tried a different track. I could move it without having to _physically_ move it, could change its form at will, with the restriction it needed to be in constant contact with me. The next step just seemed obvious. Lifting the dagger from my palm, I simultaneously extruded a chain from the bottom, looping it around my wrist. The dagger rose into the air, like a charmed snake, swinging back and forth as I extruded link after link from the pommel.

Focusing, I twisted it around to face a piece of paper I held up with air control. It felt odd, and I had to control each link as well, but I moved the dagger forward in a stab, completely missing the paper. Trying again, I caught the edge, cutting it slightly. I took a second to consider the problem, using Aerokinesis to get a feel for everything's position in space relative to my target.

This time I hit it, off center but close enough to pull it from my hand. I tilted the blade up and careful brought it back to me, retrieving it from the blade. Another hour of similar dexterity exercises and I'd gotten it down, growing three more to work on multitasking, adding each after I got past the 'drunken flailing' level of control I reset to with each new weapon. The noise of my stomach growling interrupted me as I started to create a fifth.

It was almost seven and no-one was up, so I started making breakfast. Grabbing a seat at the table, I reformed the black lightning daggers into a bowl, a whisk, a skillet, and a spatula, each pair of tools connected to a different hand. Keeping the skillet hot, but not _too_ hot was a challenge, and the first piece of French Toast I made was more carbon than bread, but keeping a constant temperature wasn't _that_ bad. I ended up mentally labelling that level of intensity 'cook' in my head and kept it there, holding it steady while I used the spatula to flip the toast, _almost_ simultaneously stirring up the eggs, but spilling a bit of the mixture when I wasn't careful.

It was enveloping work, and I distantly registered the sound of one of the showers as I focused on my task. For something so mundane, the use of unfamiliar powers made it into a training tool all its own. I got a passing memory of 'Martial Arts Construction' but for the life of me I couldn't remember where I'd heard the phrase. Returning to my task, part of me wondered why capes didn't use their powers like this, barring the rare Rogue. _Is it their powers trying to conserve their reserves, or is it they don't want to use their powers for something mundane?_

Either way, either they or their shards were morons, as I was learning a _lot_ of fine point control doing this. Shifting the links in the whisk to be smaller but more numerous led to more fluid motions, but also upped the concentration required to move the entire assembly as I wished. Finishing up I moved the utensils over the sink and dismissed them, forming graspers to turn on the faucet and grab paper towels to clean up, I realized someone was in the doorway to the bedrooms staring.

Looking up, the four black lightning chains holding paper towels freezing, I saw Panacea standing there, staring.

"Um. . . I made breakfast."


	82. Premiere 8-3

**Premiere 8.3**

Amelia stared at me, two pure black hard-light constructs coming from each wrist, and sighed, pinching her nose. "Whose power is that?" she asked, walking over to the table.

"Ummmm," I stalled trying to think of how to explain this. I was sure Herb was going to be the first one up, but now that I thought about it that made no sense.

"I know you're a power copier," she deadpanned, "You weren't exactly trying to hide it. Whose power is it?"

I winced, using the tongs on chains I'd made to open the fridge and grab the condiments while I put out the silverware. "So, I've not been trying to hide it from _you._ I just haven't mentioned it because ,while I don't to deceive the people I trust, unless you ask I won't tell you things that might put you in danger. The rest of the world? That's a different story. You _can't_ let anyone know I'm a power copier." I paused, "Well, you can't if you don't want Brockton Bay destroyed."

She blinked at that, before once again pinching the bridge of her nose. "It's way too early for this," she announced, getting up and starting the coffee maker. "That sounded like a threat, but you don't really do those. Not in that way. What do you mean Brockton Bay would be destroyed?"

Reviewing what I'd just said, I suppressed a grimace. "So, how many other power copiers do you know of?"

Amy was silent for a moment as she pondered, "There's Eidolon."

"Not a power copier," I countered. "He taps unassigned powers."

"How does that work?" she pondered, "How do You. . . right. Future knowledge. Um, okay. . . I can't think of one actually. Othala can give powers, but that's not the same."

"Oh, there's one," I informed her, "She's in the Birdcage. She _voluntarily_ entered it because _everyone was trying to kill her._ " Amelia looked at me, not understanding what I was talking about. "Glaistig Unaine."

Her eyes went wide, before she shook her head, "But that's different! She takes the powers of capes when they die, you don't. I mean," she motioned to herself, " _I'm_ alive!"

I shook my head back, "But here's the thing, Ciara never hunted down capes to kill them. As soon as word got out about her powers, team after team tried to take her down for fear of what she _might_ do. Hell, a group of _fifty_ jumped her at once, only retreating after she'd killed thirteen of them _in self-defense_. And the best part is, the fairy queen is limited to only expressing three of her copied powersets at a time. Me?" I shifted one leg into Shadowform, one into Lightform, created a small star in one hand, and a ball of Darkness in the other, all while keeping Brandish's power active. Dismissing everything but Brandish's I finished, "If people find out what I can do, they're not going to stop until I'm dead or out of reach. They'll convince themselves that I'm 'stealing a portion of their power' or something completely idiotic, and attack me, even though I actually seem to do the _exact opposite._ "

"Wait, what? What do you mean you do the opposite?" Amy asked, staring at me over the top of her coffee cup, sip aborted.

"Shouldn't'a said that," I replied, feeling a bit like Hagrid. "Okay, so. . . Your sister."

Amelia narrowed her eyes, "What about my. . . you've been making her powers _stronger_?"

I waved my hand in a 'kinda' manner. "It's something that Herb noticed. After I've developed a power that I've copied, if I'm helping the person who originally had the power, they get better far faster than I did. It's more than just knowing what to do, but as for the specifics?" I shrugged. "We just figured this out a couple of days ago. I'd never trained someone who's power had an objective marker for improvement like Victoria's does."

Amy was quiet for a moment as she considered this, helping herself to some French Toast. "Okay, I can see why you don't want to tell anyone, but destroying the city?"

"If I _really_ wanted to, I could do it on my own. Some of the villains whose power's I've nabbed are uncreative idiots, and that's a _good_ thing. But think about it, the Protectorate has an effective monopoly on parahuman power in the states. Yeah, there are some individually powerful people, but they stay in their fiefdoms and don't rock the boat. There are some independent teams, but they're not _that_ powerful. Even the Elite, as bad as they are, work like terrorist cells, which you don't need to do if you're the top dog."

I waved down towards the bedrooms, "Herb? Triumvirate tier, _easily_ , and does some off the books work for them, not that they'd ever admit it publicly. But me?" I shook my head. "The only ratings where I _don't_ have at least a threat level seven power are Tinker, Thinker, Changer, and Stranger, and except for Tinker, I'd _still_ have a rating in them."

She paused cutting off her next bite and carefully put her silverware down. "You have a Master power. One with a greater threat rating than. . . what does seven mean?"

"It's not _really_ clear. Five or greater is essentially 'this power is strong enough to determine how we fight them," I told her. While I might be able to hack into the PRT's computers to get their internal operating documents, I didn't have time to _read_ the damn things. That reminded me, I needed to get back to reading the base manual soon. I was almost done with the damn thing, but life kept on getting in the way. Returning to the here and now, I continued with, "Nine or greater is a 'dear god be careful', where not only is the power classification important, but so are the intricacies of the power itself. You're a Striker 12, by the way, with a note that it may be higher, but they don't _have_ a scale that high."

Amy pinned me with a flat stare. "What."

I couldn't repress a smirk. "Amelia, you are _powerful_ , on a scale that no one realizes because you've limited yourself so incredibly much. If things hadn't changed, you would've had a mental breakdown and a _glimpse_ of your true potential would've been seen. You were so distraught that you said you should be Birdcaged for what you'd _accidentally_ done, and rather than comfort you and have you try to fix it, which you did a few years later, Brandish marched you right up to it and threw you in before you could calm down. The reason that everyone _else_ was okay with an injustice so great it should've _broken_ the entire legal system in half was that those in power were _terrified_ of what you could do. It's not going to happen now, and I'm not going to pressure you into developing those aspects of your powers if you don't want to, but once you're okay with some experimentation, I've got some ideas that would put you right up there with Herb in terms of power."

She stared at me like a deer in the headlights, and I could almost see her brain rebooting. "I. . um. . _what?_ " I said nothing, merely eating some of the breakfast I'd made. "I. . . you. . . what ideas?"

I took a sip of my coffee. "No."

"What do you mean _no?_ " she demanded.

"When you start trying new things, I want you to have myself or Herb there to help and oversee. The sheer capacity for getting in over your head once you start trying new things is so great that I'm _not_ going to tell you, just in case you decide to give them a shot for the hell of it, or because you're frustrated, or drunk, or tired." She gave me an aggravated look, but I held fast, "It's for the same reasons that Tinkers are _supposed_ to have oversight. The reason they _actually_ do is bureaucratic bullshit, but Tinkers can make some _very_ dangerous things, and they _have_ plans to work off of. You? You'll be doing things that are completely new, which means that all of the limits Tinker powers have aren't there, but so aren't the _safeties._ If you wanted to, you could make a zombie plague. For the love of god, _don't_ but you could. You could also make a counter virus that cures AIDS, probably in a long afternoon. However, you need to be careful that it won't have other side effects, and it _can't be traced back to you._ "

"Okay, I get how zombies would be bad. How would I. . ." she trailed off, jumping when I snapped my fingers in front of her face. "Hey!"

"No creating zombie plagues!" I chastised. " _This_ is why I'm not telling you about the high-end uses of your power."

"Curing AIDS _isn't_ high end?" she demanded incredulously.

I snorted, wanting to make a Zerg reference, but I wasn't sure if they were a thing in this universe, so instead informed her, "Not in the _slightest._ "

"Then what-" she cut herself off. "Right, not telling me. Fine. Why should I hide it if I can cure AIDS?"

I just looked at her in disbelief. She _couldn't_ be this stupid. "You want a Striker twelve plus rating and people looking for any excuse to push you into the Birdcage? 'cause that's how you get a Striker twelve plus rating and people look for any excuse to push you into the Birdcage. In a couple hours you release a viral infection which in a manner of days would spread across the globe. The fact that it _cures AIDS_ wouldn't matter!" I declared. "'What if the next one is a _zombie plague?'_ they'll ask. The people at the top are absolute _control freaks_ and would convince themselves that all it would take was one bad day to doom the world, which, considering how psychological projection works, should scare the crap out of you. God knows it does for me. No, you quintuple check that it won't go wrong and give it a slow reproduction time. That means it'll spread slower and have less chance for mutation. Yeah, more people will die from AIDS before it reaches them, but less people in general will die then if those in power decide to nuke you from orbit, _it's the only way to be sure_."

I sighed, "It's the same reason that once things get bad in Brockton Bay, I'll need to create a secondary, tertiary now, identity." I tapped Kaiser's power, extruding two separate pieces of platinum-steel alloy. Put together, they'd make the pseudo-caduceus that she wore on her uniform's robes. Breaking them both off from the table I held both pieces in the air. From the bottom of the top piece I grew a thin orichalcum blade, the surface rippling violently but not out of the grip of my Aerokinesis. In the hollow in the bottom piece I grew the metal inwards to provide a secure sheath for the blade. From the top piece, I formed a long, thin platinum chain outwards, ballparking the appropriate length before creating a clasp.

Smiling, I slid the blade home in its sheath, growing a small clasp to make sure it wouldn't uncouple by accident, before I handed it to Amelia, who'd been staring. "One should always have a holdout weapon, and while a thin layer of armor will stop your power, it won't stop _this._ Just be careful, it will cut _far_ easier than it seems like it would."

"You have Kaiser's power," she commented dumbly, accepting the pendant and turning it over in her hands.

"Yes, and when I start using it to make people's lives better, like you do with yours, I'll need to make a third identity to cover that fact up. With a bit of creativity, I could clean up the Boat Graveyard, or at least make it so that it would be incredibly easy for others to do so," I divulged. "But not yet."

We ate in silence, Amy occasionally picking up and turning over my gift. As I was starting to clean up, she finally said, "You never answered my question."

"I didn't?"

"No, you didn't," she insisted. "Those black lightning chains. Whose power was that?"

"Oh, that was Brandish's" I replied, having forgotten she'd asked about it.

She frowned. "No it isn't," she challenged.

"Yes it is," I reiterated, holding up a hand when she opened her mouth to object. Pulling on the power, I created a white hard-light longsword, the weapon appearing to be made of frozen lightning. Still holding a hand up I darkened it until it seemed to drink in the light around it. Then I shrank the blade until it was a pair of tongs, and extended a chain from the bottom, wrapping it around my wrist. Doubling checking that it wasn't hot, I then extended it outwards to lightly boop her on the nose, holding it in steady in front of her.

She blinked in shock before carefully putting a hand out, almost touching it. Not feeling the heat, she poked it carefully before carefully taking hold of it, turning it over in her hands. "I've never seen her do anything like this," she marveled. "How?"

"She thinks she knows exactly what her power can do, so she never experimented with it. It's a blindspot I've noticed a lot of capes have. They use their powers for the first time and assume that that first expression is the _extent_ of their powers. They might further develop it down that line, but almost never check to see if they're wrong. It's basic confirmation bias." At her confused look I explained, "People want to be right. Being right feels good, and people don't want to feel bad. Because of this, once they have an idea, they are almost always going to test to make sure they're _right_ , not that they're _wrong._ "

"I didn't do that," she objected.

I raised an eyebrow, "Yes, you did, but again I'm not going to tell you about it until you're ready to experiment." I held up a hand to forestall any more arguments. "We're not talking about you, we're talking about the woman who adopted you, and parahumans in general. That instinctive reflex to make sure you're right because you want to be? It's why the Scientific Method took so long to come about," I explained. "The premise for that is come up with an idea and do your damndest to _disprove_ it. It's completely counter-intuitive but is far better than a bunch of people all having different ideas of why they're idea is right and not paying attention to the evidence that they're wrong. A few, like Miss Militia fully explore their powers," I hesitated, getting an idea, "Well, probably. I've got some. . . nevermind. For most though, they get an idea, and never try to disprove it. Brandish made medieval hard-light weaponry, so she assumes that _all_ she can make is medieval weaponry: swords, shields, maces, spears, and so on."

"Her power is orange-white. Does it have to be? She can control the heat of her weapons, or else anything that struck her shield would burn like things that her blades touch do. She can move her weapons, and uses them to move her around, could they move independent of her? The answer to that last one is yes; however, she needs constant contact with them, but add a chain and bob's your uncle!" I heard another door open down the hall and dispelled Brandish's power, the black construct evaporating in an instant. "That's about the only aspect of Brandish's power that Victoria seems to have, most of it obviously coming from her aunt and uncle."

"Hey Lee," the girl in question as she walked in, "You talkin' ab-is that French Toast?" I waved for her to help herself and she did so, giving me a nod of thanks when I made her some coffee. "So what were you two talkin' about?"

"How you get most of your powers form Aunt Sarah and Uncle Neil," Amelia told her, looking straight at me.

"Wait, really? I got my powers from my mom and dad," Vicky countered. "Everyone knows that parahuman parents pass their powers down to their kids."

"So how are your weaponry projection or light grenade powers?" I asked sardonically. "Your power is strength and defense from the utilization of forcefields. Your power comes from Manpower or Lady Photon, heavily patterned off the one you didn't get it from. You have the touch requirement from Brandish, though that might be from Manpower as well, and as far as I can tell nothing from Flashbang. Powers don't work through bloodlines, they work off of proximity," I nodded to Amelia, "but because parents spend a lot of time with their kids it _looks_ like that, coupled with the fact that most parahuman parents don't raise kids near other parahumans. Once you have the capacity for triggering, it can't be overwritten by spending more time with other parahumans. That's why Amy's power is based off Marquis, who she spent a year or so with, not off New Wave, who she lived with for considerably longer."

"Um. . . okay," Vicky nodded, seeming to understand but not have anything to add, focusing on her breakfast. "This is really good."

Panacea similarly didn't seem to know how to respond. "I'm gonna go get changed and head to the hospital."

I nodded, "Okay, please be back here by six, the Mayor's putting on a Gala to celebrate the end of the Bakuda Bombing and we're all invited."

"Oh, I don't think I need-" she started to say.

"Come on Ames!" her sister objected. "I'm gonna go, and Dean'll be there, and I mean it's like in _our_ honor, how awesome is that?" I double checked to make sure she wasn't leaking Aura to convince her sister and was glad to see she wasn't. I'd realized I couldn't use my own feelings as a barometer, since her power was more insidious than I'd first thought, but she was being good about it. Hopefully she would remain so.

Her sister, unaffected by any parahuman influence, caved anyways. "Fine, I'll be back by six."

"And if Brandish bothers you again, call me. I have lawyers on retainer for a reason, and while I doubt she'll try anything again, if she does it's best to handle it through official channels," I added. Victoria winced, smile fading, but didn't say anything.

Panacea blanched. "You, you know about that?"

"Yeah Ames, someone recorded it and the video's online," Her sister informed her ruefully.

"Ugh, why can't they leave me alone!" the healer complained.

I gave her a deadpan stare. "You mean why do people care when there's drama in a public place, especially with two public figures? No, of course, it's not like there's an entire _industry_ based on that."

"But why do I have to be a public figure?" she asked.

"Um. You cure Cancer?" Vicky rebutted, smirking slightly when I waved both hands towards her in a 'this!' manner.

"There's a reason that "Praise in public, reprimand in private," is a phrase, though it can be misapplied," I added. "just be careful, and if you need help, call."

* * *

An hour later Victoria and I landed in the trainyard, suited up, a long, wrapped bundle in my hands. "Okay Glory Girl, ready for today's training?"

"Huh, yeah, sure," she replied. After her sister had left her cheerful demeanor had slowly faded.

"You okay?" I asked, concerned.

Vicky shook her head, as if clearing it. "Yeah, yes, I'm good. Training. Yes. What are we doing?"

I sighed, "There's obviously something wrong, but I'm not going to press, just, if you to talk, I'm here to help."

"Really?" she remarked, surprised. "I'm sorry," she quickly added, "Just, you seem kinda pushy sometimes."

Wincing, I apologized, "Sorry, I just want to fix problems whenever I see them. Take the time you need, but I'm not bringing you into a live fire situation if you've got issues that are distracting you. That's a good way to get yourself killed. Onto why we're here, I've got something for you that you'll need to work with before using it in the field." I handed her the bundle, motioning her to unwrap it.

She did so hesitantly, looking surprised, and a little scared, when she removed the covering to reveal an Orichalcum Katana in an Orichalcum sheath, a long strip of white fabric trailing from it. My broad smiled dampened when she shook her head and tried to give it back. "No, I can't."

"If it's an expense thing," I started to say.

"No, it's just. . . swords _kill_ people!" she objected, ending in a panicked whisper.

I blinked at her, not really getting her point. "Um, yes? So does Super Strength, but you've got no problem using that all the time. I'm sure that if Gallant concentrated he could kill with those beams of his, unless there's some inner limit to his power. Powers, like weapons, are tools. Besides, it's not a normal blade. Unsheathe it."

When it became clear that I wouldn't take it back she held the weapon at arm's length, carefully unsheathing it like it might bite her if she weren't careful. With a slight ring and a meep from her the blade came free of the sheath, glinting white and gold in the morning light, almost the same colors as her power. She held it awkwardly in front of her, looking at me with trepidation.

"You're shielded Glory Girl," I sighed, "It's no going to hurt you if it bumps into you. Look at the blade, notice anything odd?"

She hesitantly brought it up, squinting at it still two feet away from her face. "Um, Vejovis, I'm not thowin' shade, but aren't swords supposed to have blades on the outside? Like, so they can cut stuff?"

I nodded, smiling harder, "I know I'm a total weeb."

"Um. . . that's like, not a word," she informed me.

I started to reply, but remembered that in this world, Japan got hit by Leviathan in the early two-thousands. That would mean that entertainment would quickly drop off from there, survival taking precedence. That combined with Capes emerging in the eighties would mean that Anime never would become as widespread as it did back home, let alone the ones that I loved: No Naruto, No Full Metal Alchemist, No Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. _Truly, this is the darkest of timelines_. On the _other_ hand, that meant I could shamelessly rip from them and only Herb, my brother, and maybe my father would notice. Every cloud must have a silver lining after all. More importantly, that meant that no one would have heard of the peace-loving swordsman, Kenshin.

"It's a niche term. Anyways, it's a feature, not a bug," I rebutted. "The point of that is that you won't cut unless you want to. It's effectively just a curved bat as it is, and I'm sure that anyone who knows how to _actually_ fight with a katana would want me crucified for that, but it's what you're going to be using it as. I might be able to swing studded gloves later, but this is what Arachne Assemblages could get me on short notice. Besides, no one says you can't have both."

"If it's supposed to be blunt, why have a blade at all then?" she asked, still not comfortable with even holding the blade.

"Because sometimes you need a blade. Powers being what they are, it's best to keep your options open." I thought for a second, coming up with suitable examples. "Against Skidmark you might want to use the blunt end, though if he tries to shoot you with a gun you'd be legally in the clear if you just killed him. Against Kreig you'd want to use blunt end. Against _Hookwolf?_ Go ahead and cut off bits if he transforms, it's not like it'll actually hurt him, and the blunt end will just knock him around. Now, You don't need to, and until I can get someone who actually knows what the hell they're doing all you'll be doing is brawling with your blade, but there's two different ways we can go about this."

I indicated the sheath, "That's just as strong as the blade, and able to hold up when you use super strength. You could use it when you fight, to block blows and occasionally strike, and using your other hand for the sword. It'll take longer, but you'll be more effective in combat. The other way would be to use two hands with the sword. It'll be a bit more traditional, which means it'll be easier to get you a real teacher, and be easier to wield along with giving you more power, but you'll lose versatility. Choice is yours."

She looked at the weapon, still subdued, but not nearly as fearful. "Do I have to choose right now?"

I considered the question, but while I had a good deal of brawling experience, we were quickly reaching the end of my formal instruction knowledge. I had a fleeting idea of springing Crane the Harmonious, but that seemed overkill. I wasn't sure if my recent actions against the ABB would make a teacher harder to find, because I'd decapitated the Asian criminal influence in the city and pissed on its corpse, or easier for the _exact same reason_. "No, what I have in mind are two completely different styles, and when we get you a proper sensei I'll bow to his experience, within reason. Let's start with the easier style."

I had her tie the sheath around her waist using the strip of reinforced white fabric I'd grabbed from the base's closet. We spent easily an hour on footing and proper hand placement, along with an impromptu lesson on how to use her flight to replicate the motions such footing created if she was flying. I was honestly learning just as much as she was, having never really paid attention to the idiosyncrasies of her power's method of flight. After I'd made her practice swinging "for like, the thousandth time," I allowed to her to try against a target.

With what I knew about Orichalcum, low grade steel like the train cars were made of wouldn't scratch it, allowing her to use them for practice without damaging the blade. Making sure there was no one around, I positioned her in front of one. "Okay, now do this carefully. Form is what matters here, not brute force."

"Got it," she grinned, carefully raising it up and taking a few slow practice swings, blade not touching steel. Letting out a long breath, she resolutely brought the sword up to ready and swiftly brought it down on the car. I expected the metal to part like butter, the strength of the blow overcoming the blade's bluntness.

What I did _not_ expect was a thunderclap, a flash of light, and a dust cloud. A tweak of Aerokinesis moved the dust down and away, revealing that the train car, folded in half, had blown _through_ two more train cars and a _not_ -empty warehouse, before embedding itself in a third car. Also everything in the path of destruction was on _fire._

Victoria stood in front of me, shocked speechless. Well, not _quite_ speechless. " _WHAT THE FUCK VEJY!"_

"So, how much of your super strength _did_ you use?" I asked, nonplussed.

" _All of it! What the fuck Vejy!"_ she reiterated.

I frowned, trying to figure out the force levels involved. "Didn't I say to focus on form instead of brute strength?"

"Yeah," she replied, "But I can do both 'cause I'm _awesome_. Again, _what the fuck Vejy!_ "

I looked around, seeing the dust cloud spreading up and around. As big as it was, there was no way I could tamp it down without obvious power use, and I hadn't thought I'd needed to set up a Sound Bubble for _sword_ _practice,_ so they probably heard that clear off in The Rig. "We shouldn't be here when the PRT shows up."

"Ya _think?"_ She asked sarcastically. "I'm gonna keep asking until ya give me an answer, _what-_ "

"I'll tell you, let's just head back first," I interrupted, taking off and motioning for her to follow. Once we were a good distance, zigzagging through the maze of metal I spoke again. "So, that sword? Tinkertech metal. Arachne is still getting a handle on what it does, but it's a force multiplier, though it only works if swung by or thrown by a person. Always set it down, don't toss it or the sheath unless you want to wreck whatever it lands on. The effect only kicks in after a certain threshold of force and _might_ be intent based."

Glory Girl stopped flying for a second, speeding to catch up as she yelled, "Who the hell gives someone with Super Strength something that makes you hit _harder_!"

"Um, someone who isn't dumb?" I shot back. "If you have a static multiplier, it's more effective with a higher base value. That's just _Basic Algebra!_ "

"But-" she started to object, but I kept on going.

"Besides, you think anything short of Tinkertech could hold up to your strength? The fact that it was a twofer is just a straight windfall if you ask me."

"I-But-You!" she spluttered, finally giving a defeated sigh. "Had to work on my controlling my strength anyways," she muttered to herself.

"Definitely," I agreed, surprising her, "But I should apologize, I wasn't expecting you to pull off that with proper form at anything close to full bore. You did have good form, as far as I could tell."

"Damn straight, and don't you forget it," she quipped, smiling to herself.


	83. Premiere 8-4

**Premiere 8.4**

Landing back at base Glory Girl left to go wash her uniform, as the sleeves were covered with dust. She walked by Canary, saying hi, freezing before looking back at me, mouthing 'Canary?'

I nodded, "Her trial was so borked that a _single_ aspect of it should've triggered a mistrial. She's not a danger to us."

"Oh, okay," Vicky replied, nodding to the fellow Master. "Glad to see you're okay, IMO the entire thing was sus AF." She left the blonde blinking in confusion as she continued towards her room.

"Um, what did she say?" Canary asked.

"She's glad you're not in the Birdcage and agreed with me that your trial was unjust. . . I think. Sus means suspect, right?" I yelled down the hall.

"Duh!" was the teen's response.

"Yeah, so what I said," I remarked. "You doing okay?"

She nodded slowly, holding onto her mug of tea as if it were a lifeline. "I. . . Yes. I'm just. . . I'm a wanted criminal, aren't I?"

I shrugged, getting a cuppa myself and pouring an adequate amount of sugar into it. "Yes, though you don't need to stay that way." She looked at me in confusion. "Ah, right, where are my manners," I offered her my hand which she tentatively shook, her grip light and unsure. "My name is Vejovis, of the Penumbral Defenders, but you can call me Lee, welcome to our semi-secret base. I've been told you've already met Herb, and Boardwalk, who isn't a member, but we trade favors."

"Um, Canary, but my name's Paige, Paige Mcabee, but you already know that," she finished ruefully.

"How would I know that?" I asked. I vaguely remembered her name had started with a P from the book, but she honestly was barely in the main body of the work, and by the end I'd started skimming.

"Um, they told everyone?" she asked. "You didn't know?"

My smile fixed itself as I questioned carefully, "Are you telling me they _unmasked_ you?"

"Um, yeah? Kinda? It wasn't really that much of a secret I guess?" she hazarded.

I sighed, "So, combined with what my sources have told me they didn't grant you a fair trial in half a dozen different ways, sent you to the Birdcage on your first offense, _and_ unmasked you? Yes, it was worth it to make sure those oath-breakers didn't get their way."

"I'm sorry, oath-breakers?" she asked hesitantly.

I took a seat across the table from her, "They violated their overt oaths to uphold the law in your trial, and violated the collective agreement that keeps the status quo amongst North American parahumans. The second, one _could_ argue about, but the first shows they don't truly care about law, only power. The thing is, I know the type that would do this. They would openly and flagrantly violate the rules governing their own side whilst expecting the other side to still keep to the agreement they themselves ignored."

I gave a rueful chuckle, "Of course, when those particular chickens come home to roost they'll be surprised, outraged even, that they're reaping the whirlwind. They will furthermore use it to try to grab _more_ power, portraying the understandable reaction to their own mis-deeds as the inciting incident and claiming the moral high ground. Most civilized people understand why DARVOing's bad when they grow up, but a dismayingly large percent just learn to lie _better._ However," I clapped my hands together, accidentally startling her, "That is no longer your concern. Have you heard of Panacea?"

"Th-The healer?" She gathered herself, "I'm not hurt though, not in a way she can fix anyways."

"I have a healing power as well, though mine is a bit. . . different. It tends to skew towards surface level changes, not curing cancer. Working with Panacea I _can_ heal like her, but not nearly as effectively. With her help though, I can completely change your appearance however you like. If you want to, and how you want to, is up to you, but it'll make any new identity you assume much easier to pull off. If we can find a way to stop the feather growth," I indicated the long yellow plumage that blended in with her bright yellow locks, "Then even better, but if we can't we can still probably do something about the color. The physical changes those super smoothies enact are probably intrinsic to the power set though."

She blanched, looking around fearfully, "I-I don't know what you're talking about!"

I rolled my eyes, "Relax Tweety, Herb does jobs for Cauldron and I already know about them. For the sake of safety though, you probably shouldn't mention them by name. The Cape-inati didn't hire us to break you out, but they _did_ have the info on your route which I passed along to Boardwalk. General rules of the Base: knock if the door's closed, if it won't open, don't force it. Don't talk about what you see, and everyone else will hopefully return the favor. You don't have to fight if you don't want to, but if you want to talk to me first to get the kit and training you'll need to do so effectively. If you need something, aske Herb or I. And lastly, _no Mastering_."

I looked her straight in the eye, or as much as I could while still wearing Vejovis' mask. "Both Boardwalk and I react badly to it, and it's just _rude_. Accidental power use is one thing, it happens to everyone, but _protracted_ accidental use is likely to get you killed by your own power overreacting and thinking that the solution to your mind control not working is obviously _more mind control_. I'd feel bad about it afterwards, but mind control is _mind control_. You've been warned, please don't make me warn you a second time. I won't warn you a third. Understand?"

"Y-Yes!" she replied, eyes wide with fright.

I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose. "I'm sorry if I scared you, but a lot of Master powers backfire pretty hardcore when used on non-neurotypical people. There's a girl who empowers dogs in this city who gets a completely random effect instead. I get whatever the effect is supposed to be, combined with a deep and abiding need to _hurt_ the one Mastering me. Glory Girl has an emotion altering field that makes people like her more. The first time she turned it up near me I nearly gutted her, barely restraining myself to just break her nose. The second time I shot her in the leg. Your control is a lot more conscious, though the effect can linger, apparently. I don't want to hurt you, which is why I'm so adamant about this. Sorry."

"No!" she quickly reassured me. "You're just trying to be clear. I understand. The fact that you're letting me in your home, knowing what I could do. . ."

"Canary, powers don't determine a person's threat, their use does," I informed her. "Do I find your power morally repugnant? When it's used like you accidentally did, absolutely. As you were using it for _months_ previously? Not at all. Now, make yourself at home, I have more business to attend to."

Leaving her to her tea, I took my own mug and gathered up a few key items before I wandered over to the tv room, which Boojack had claimed as his own. Opening the door the stench of pot was overpowering, but a bit of Aerokinesis in my nostrils helped. Somewhat.

Boojack was passed out on the couch, Mauri Povich playing on the screen. Grabbing the remote I turned it off, only for the stoner to immediately stir. "What the fuck dude? Oh Lee. How ya doin buddy? Can't you friggen see I was watching Mauri? So good when you're stoned off your fuckin' ass."

"Yes, I'm sure the back of your eyelids added a certain je ne sais quoi," I snarked.

"Dude. Stop using weird language. I don't need to see to hear her reaction when ya find out she's a hoe."

I nudged him with my foot, taking a sip of my tea. The smell of marijuana flavored it in strange and unpleasant ways. "Get your ass up."

He fell off the couch, kicking in my general direction, missing entirely. "What the fuck dude?"

I shook my head, screening the air around my mouth to take another sip, which helped, a little. "You're moving out into an apartment that isn't in the secret fucking base."

He looked up at me blearily, bloodshot eyes squinting, "No shit? I get my own pad? I don't have to pay for it, right?"

"It's been paid for. Furnished and everything," I nodded.

He cocked his head, as if wondering what the trick was, "And I don't have to deal with the fuckin' mini-brats?"

"Half the reason I'm moving you out," I nodded again.

"Fuck them kissed. And I could walk around naked if I want to?" he pressed. "'cause I wanna get fuckin buck."

I started to nod, but stopped, giving a him a hesitant one anyways "Um. Yes? Is that a thing you've been wanting to do?"

He shrugged, "Ain't nothing like wang swang when you're puffin on a bud balls deep on a couch."

". . . Yes. Also, thank you for not doing that up till now."

He snorted in disgust, "I'm not fuckin' gay."

I took a second to parse that. _He'd be okay naked around strange women, but not strange men. Gotta love double standards. Then again, he's never claimed to be egalitarian._ "Yeah, okay." I agreed, tossing what he needed onto his broad chest. "Here's the address, here's the key, Rent's paid for and everything. You can order food with this card, and if we need you we'll call you on this phone. Any questions?"

"What about weed?" he questioned, because _of course he would._

I shrugged, "The Merchants are a short walk away, and might get closer now the ABB's toast. They like to sell to kids, so go 'confiscate' it. Just don't get caught by someone who matters."

He shrugged in return, gathering his supplies and his duffle bags, most of the drugs they once held gone. "I have to work for my fuckin' weed. That sucks. Alright, call me when you need some noggin knockin'."

"I'll need you for the next Endbringer battle, definitely," I informed him.

He paused, looking at me like I was an idiot. "Duh." He gathered the rest of his supplies and trundled out of the base, leaving a trail of weed-stink behind him.

* * *

I left the door open when I left, having pulled the smoke out of the air and tossed the crystal it formed in the trash. It made it bearable, but hopefully some fresh air would help get the pungent patina of pot out of the room. If not, I'd probably have to get entirely new furniture, or find a new way of using my powers to clean it.

Canary was gone, as was Herb, and I'd gotten myself a sandwich when Victoria breezed through. "I'm heading to Dean's!" she announced.

"Okay," I acknowledged, "Just be back-"

"By six-thirty, got it," she interrupted, heading out the door.

After a quick lunch, I leaned back against the counter and tried to figure out what the hell I was going to do in the hours before everyone gathered. As much as I hated putting everyone in danger, not to mention the stress it put my teammates under, the Raids had given me something to do, and a direction to train people I liked, eating through the days pretty cleanly.

If it were night I'd go out and work on powers, but with so many people out and about it would just be asking for trouble. To do so I'd need to build _another_ identity, and that wasn't something I wanted to do until I'd got a good power combo figured out.

 _Then again,_ I considered, _I already have a secondary identity._ I hadn't used Boardwalk because of the clash I'd had both with Oni Lee and the PRT. However, the only reason the clash with the PRT had turned out so badly was because I'd let them trap me and I hadn't wanted to bust out using lethal force. As for the first, that wasn't going to happen in the city at large. As for the second. . . _Well, if they attack me,_ I resolved, _they'll deserve what they get._

Course set, I left the base, and once I was out of sight I sunk into the ground in Shadowform, costume shifting once I was safely underground. Coming up by the Boardwalk as Boardwalk, I rose up into an empty alley, insects serving as scouts. From there I shifted myself into Lightform, the colors playing across my body. Testing something that I'd wondered about, I tried to sink back into the ground.

I could do so, though my colors automatically shifted to be more muted as passed through solid matter. Trying to shift fully into Lightform while phased through the ground, I could feel resistance to the change. I might be able to force it, but the resistance felt more like a. . . a warning more than a problem. I had no idea what would happen if I forced the change, but it seemed like the type of thing I'd want Panacea on hand for, which I threw onto the ever-growing list of powers with that requirement, along with Adaptive Armoring and deeper Biokinetic changes.

Pulling back out of the ground I shifted to Light and blasted upwards, my trail a riotous panoply of colors. Cutting the flow to the bare minimum I produced a prismatic glow around my hands and feet, while twisting around showed a similar glow emanating from my back. I was easily two hundred feet up, and I took a moment to appreciate the view. Peering back the way I came, I was happy that I hadn't damaged the concrete.

It seemed as if unless I was pushing it out in a blast, the Light diffused harmlessly when used as thrust. I found myself drifting and realized that keeping steady was harder than it first seemed. Wracking my brain, I tried to figure out what I had been doing differently. Trying to reproduce the flight I'd used before when fighting Oni Lee, the glow expanded to encompass my entire body. My flight immediately steadied, and moving around became easier, but that came with a concurrent increased draw on my reserves. I had enough that it shouldn't matter, and the day was bright enough that I was more than refilling my metaphorical tank, but it made an interesting change.

Shifting back to the hands, feet, and back methodology, I moved back and forth before slapping myself in the forehead, quickly knocking myself over and spinning before I could stabilize myself. I was pulling an _Iron Man._ By mimicking his hand and foot repulsors I was increasing my efficiency. More than that. . .

I reached for a handful of Light to use as a projectile, and found it collected almost instantly. Shooting it straight up to get rid of it, I shifted to Purity's method. The projectile still came, but it took almost twice as long. Enough that I could grab and throw with alternating hands as quickly as I could 'throw' it, but the difference was obvious. I let that one go straight up as well, shifting back to an Iron Man configuration.

Blasting off I had to account for a difference in output and vectors, but the thrust from my back helped a bit with that. I was careful to never unleash a blast or the kind of cutting beams I'd used against Oni Lee, but that left a _lot_ of options open.

I quickly found that a concentrated blast of thrust would retain coherence, and danger, for a good distance before diffusing. It was nothing on a full blast, but I could feel the displacement of the air it created. Spreading the blast spread the force, though if I didn't make it circular it would push me off center in odd ways. When using them I had to account for the fact that it didn't move _me_ as much as it moved the limb, which made a difference when one was forced to deal with the center of your gravity as a tangible thing, directly affecting your movements. It was a problem that certain directions from certain limbs could be used to correct, or they could be paired with a different limb placement for new and interesting results. Once you added in spinning's effect on semi-fixed vectors in three-dimensional space things got _really_ complicated.

I lost myself in that exercise, pinwheeling across the sky with a sense of pure exhilaration and wonder that I hadn't felt for years.

Blasting across the city, having ended up in E88 territory for the fourth time, I heard my phone ring. Slowing down I discerned the tunes of 'Staying Alive' over the wind. "Hey Herb, what's up?" I asked after answering.

"Hey man, you wanna go shopping?" he said, sounding ambivalent about it.

I brought myself fully to a stop. "Um. No? For what?"

I could practically hear the shrug. "Clothes."

"Dude, I've got that covered," I replied, wondering if this was some sort of elaborate code that I just wasn't getting. "I'm kinda busy. Is everything okay?"

He scoffed, "Yeah man, of course it is!"

"Okay," I told him, "Then no. I'm kinda busy."

"Okay," was his response, followed by the click of him hanging up.

I looked at the phone, shrugged, and slipped it back. From the display I'd been doingthis close to an hour, and still had completely full reserves. I'd paired together Boardwalk's abilities almost on a whim, and hadn't realized I'd essentially chained three mover powers together. Shadowform was pretty straightforward, and most of the tricks I'd conceptualized revolved around selectively bringing things in and out of Shadowform, which, just like Vicky's and Brandish's power, was limited to touch. Lightform had a good deal of interesting implementations, but the more. . . creative of which needed some kind of firing range. Speed Zones, however, I hadn't really used creatively since that first day.

Rocketing across downtown I found a convention center, the top a nice, flat, open area. Cutting my power completely I flew on a ballistic course for the surface, flaring back to Light in the last second, the prismatic radiance flaring around me as I came to a stop, a bit of dust flaring in the backblast. I landed lightly, making sure not to cheat with Glory Girl's power, settling myself in place.

With a wave of my hand I laid out a single Speed Zone, the sky-blue energy field rippling in front of me, stretching up about a foot from the ground. Taking a step onto it, I was pushed slightly, but not enough to move me. Walking in the opposite direction was doable, like walking into a stiff wind. As before, the field seemed to be pushing all of me, not just the parts touching the field. Doubling the field darkened it slightly, and seemed to triple the force, causing me to stumble and have to brace myself if I didn't want to be pushed over.

When I stopped bracing I was pushed in that direction, but when my feet left the ground the movement was off, somewhat akin to flying with force fields. As I tried to go in the direction of the field my steps were lighter than they should be, almost moon-like. It was inaccurate, but the phrase seemed to stick in my mind. I reached the end, landing a bit harder than I meant to. Frowning, I created a two layer field parallel to the first, but running in the opposite direction.

Stepping onto it pulled me along. I stopped moving and just stood, feeling the sensation. The force almost knocked me off my feet, and seemed to be pitching me forward, my feet providing the focal point. A short hop and the rotational effect ended as it carried me along, only to kick back in as soon as I landed.

Jumping again and again, practically playing hopscotch, I moved at an okay clip, quickly reaching the end and hitting the ground hard, nearly losing my balance. Striding back to the first track, I entered it again. Jumping as hard as I could, without powers, the effect lasted until my feet left the field, the push gone but the momentum still in place. As soon as my toes touched the field though my descent slowed, and the push was more insistent, accelerating me. Touching the ground, the greater momentum forced me forward but while I was in contact with the ground the pushing dropped, only to kick back up when I started to rise with a leap. At the apex of my jump, still within the field, it fluctuated a moment before increasing back to normal as I slowly fell.

Taking the now practiced slowing steps at the end I thought I had it. Stalking to the side of the entrance to the second field, I jumped into it on a perpendicular vector, only for my forward momentum to slow while I was pushed sideways, downstream as it were. "Yes!" I announced. Part of what made these fields work is that they didn't just push, they. . . absorbed? No, they _redirected_ motion that conflicted with their stream. Jumping and falling were both less effective, as the respective upward and downward momentum was redirected into pushing.

Reaching the end of the track I laid another, curving it around to connect to the first track. Keeping airborne, I found myself being pushed along the curve to the other track. It wasn't perfect, I'd been pushed to the outside edge of the path, but the concept _worked._

Connecting the first track back into the second, I laid it track three deep, the u-turn a shade darker than the path it connected to. I moved myself to the center of the path before I hit it, having to work to do so as the perpendicular movement translated itself to more pushing, resulting in a curved path as the sideways momentum translated into more downstream speed. Hitting the triple layered curve I sped up, but barely moved from the center of the path and no longer needed to jump, carried along by the Speed Zone.

Back on a straightaway I started to slowly fall, needing to jump again, but barely slowed down. Reaching the two layered curve I found myself flying straight off it, needing to use Light to slow myself down. With a wave of my hand I made the entire track triple layered and tried again. I did notice that once I jumped in I still fell, just very, _very_ slowly. I completed one turn at speed, drifting outwards, and the second once again tossed me out, though at the very end of the second turn. Dismissing the turn, I had to blink as the entire thing flashed into nothingness.

 _That was. . . bright,_ I thought with a wince. Rebuilding the tracks took a moment, and I considered the turn. Laying it down like a path worked a bit, but too much of a directional change overrode the Speed Zone's path. Increasing the Speed Zone's layers helped the conversion of kinetic energy from one direction to another, but also increased the amount it pushed. On a straightaway one reached a consistent speed and stayed that way. Actually. . .

I stepped to the side, creating one long Zone that nearly stretched the length of the roof, layering it three deep to reduce the inconsistencies constantly jumping introduced. Flying over to one end I stepped into it, getting pulled off my feet and carried along its length, reaching a pretty constant running speed. Pushed out at the end I took a few steps to slow down before flying right back to the start. This time I sped up, moving faster than the speed it pushed me before entering.

I immediately sped up _far_ faster than if I just added the two together, blasting down the path, my route immediately smoothing out to follow the stream of the Speed Zone. Coming out I tried to slow down but fell right off the roof, quickly pulling up as a couple people below gasped.

Looking down I saw that a small crowd had formed, and I waved to the, "Yo!", before quickly flying back on top of the roof. I tried to dismiss a single layer from the long track, and it started to work, but maybe I pulled to hard because the entire thing dismissed in a flash.

Shaking my head, I layered a single Speed Zone, and flew into it, getting maybe a twenty percent speed increase. Another layer and with about the same incoming speed boosted my velocity by over half. Maybe. Possibly. I _really_ needed to get some better equipment. Maybe I could claim an abandoned Warehouse like Taylor had and set it up to test in? That. . . was probably smarter than what I'd been doing, even if going back to the same location upped the chance I'd get spied on or ambushed.

All this experimentation was well and good, but it only handled a _third_ of what I used this power for. With a wave I covered the bottoms of my boots with a single layer of Speed Zone pointing forwards.

Unlike before, where I was being carried and only really felt the force if I tried to fight it, my feet were jerked backwards, slamming my chest and raised arms into the metal roof as my body twisted around my center of gravity.

Rolling over I laid there, considering the problem. I'd pulled this off _just fine_ when I needed it, but now I was having problems. _Why?_ _Well,_ I considered, _what was I doing then?_

I was running from Lung, but that didn't help. Mechanically speaking I was running, so I was already moving in that direction. More than that, I knew it was going to have a kick so I hunched down like I'd seen skaters do. What I _hadn't_ done was stand straight up like an absolute moron. _Whelp_ , I decided, dismissing the still active Speed Zones on my feet, _time to isolate the cause._ I'd probably fall again, but it wasn't like it'd hurt, just surprised me.

Standing up, I hunched over and reapplied the fields pointing forwards. I jerked backwards, and held somewhat upright as I went the _wrong direction._ Before I could figure out _why_ I once again ran out of roof. Dismissing the Speed Zones I flew back and considered the problem. _Why was I going backwards?_

I bounced my palm off the forehead of my mask, _right!_ The skates used the backlash created when the fields tried to move something with less inertia than what it was attached to. Even at my fattest I'd never outweigh a road, let alone _the earth_ so it moved me instead.

Getting back in position I hunched and layered them _correctly_ , and with a jerk I was moving forward at an. . . okay pace. I could probably jog this fast, but I had a limited amount of space, so it was probably for the best.

After a bit of moving back and forth, getting the turning down, and once I figured out how _that_ worked I was ready for a bit more. Honestly, the turning was the worst part, as it was more akin to skating on ice with wide, parabolic turns as the Zones converted my speed from one direction to another. I also found, accidentally, that pushing two Zones together would cancel out each other's push if opposed, but if skewed would almost add to each other where they weren't opposed. I had a feeling I could probably math it all out, but that would require a space I could measure everything involved. What it meant _immediately_ was that I could use emplaced Speed Zones to modify the output of ones on more mobile surfaces.

Resolved that I'd gotten as much as I could, and that I still had over _three hours_ before I needed to out, I figured I'd just get more practice moving around. I dismissed all the Zones except the ones on my feet. Those I added a second layer to, bringing them up to the level I'd first used when we tried to escape Lung.

Skating right off the roof, I waved at the small crowd that had formed, as well as several police and PRT, and fell towards the road. A slight burst of Light pushed me towards the empty sidewalk instead, where I created a double layered Zone that pointed forward and up. Landing on it negated the force from my fall and accelerated me, blasting me down into the road at a good forty miles per hour.

I dismissed the Speed Zone behind me as I metaphorically flew down the road between cars. Reaching a red light, I dropped a Zone pushing directly upwards, hitting it and launching up, passing right over the traffic with a flash of light behind me as I dismissed the jump pad.

My speed started to bleed off, returning to the norm of what the double layered Speed Zones probably pushed me to. I considered a third layer, maybe on one foot, but instead reached for Light, pushing me forward and leaving a prismatic trail which quickly faded behind me. At one intersection a truck was passing through, my jump pad not _quite_ giving me enough air. As I reached for the Light, I found myself shifting fully into Shadowform, passing waist-down through the top of the truck before shifting back to normal, almost hitting a stopped car in surprise.

 _That. . . worked, actually,_ I conceded, continuing my progress across the city. If it'd been a refrigerated truck that might've been unpleasant, but it hadn't been. I'd been moving randomly, but I needed somewhere with a bit less _trucks_ , so turned towards the ocean at the next intersection, gently grabbing a light post and using it to swing around the corner _._

Reaching the Boardwalk decreased the probability of hitting a car, but presented its own problem: people. You could trust anything with wheels to move in a small number of directions, but legs made prediction _complicated_. Still, it was a great exercise, twisting around people as I sped down the wooden path, using bits of Light from my hands to course correct when needed and when I lost my balance. I'd bumped a few people, but a quick Speed Zone righted them in the instant before I was gone.

By the time I'd reached the northern ferry station, and the end of the Boardwalk, I knew this was a good idea. My maneuvering had gotten more exact, my dodging of others tighter, and my use of my Boardwalk powers unequivocally _better._

A quick check of my phone showed that'd burned a good half an hour, and I turned around ready to do it all again. As I started to gain speed I heard an odd hammering, and a red shape streaked towards me from down the Boardwalk, immediately stopping in front of me and keeping pace as I started to gain speed. It waved a hand to stop so I leapt, dismissing the Speed Zones on my feet and putting in ones going the opposite direction. As soon as I slowed enough I dismissed them, taking a few last steps to complete my stop.

The figure stopped as soon as I did and all of the blurring disappeared. In front of me was a man in a red costume, two yellow racing striped coming over each shoulder to make a V on his chest. Velocity waved a welcoming hand and pointed down the Boardwalk as he said, "Hello Boardwalk. Can you please not do that again?"


	84. Premiere 8-5

**Premiere 8.5**

I regarded Velocity levelly. He'd only talked, but as soon as he seemed hostile I was going to blast off into the air, and if he got caught in the shockwave that was his own damn fault.

"Not do what?" I asked.

Velocity pointed down towards the Boardwalk proper again. "Not go running off down through crowds of people at highway speeds."

On one hand, he had a point. They didn't know me and didn't know that I'd been going out of my way to make sure I didn't hurt anyone. On the other hand, _Fuck the PRT._ "Anyone hurt?" I challenged.

Looking at him, Seeing him, I spotted his Time Dilation flicker to life for a brief moment and, only because I was looking for it, spotted him blur _just_ a tad. "No, but people are worried," he replied seemingly smoothly.

 _Had to think about that for a second, didn't ya?_ "People are worried about car crashes, doesn't mean ya outlaw fuckin' cars," I shot back.

Blur. "We do on the Boardwalk."

I raised an eyebrow, and then realized he couldn't see my face so I shifted to an obviously incredulous stance. "I run inta somebody they ain't gonna be as messed up as if they hit a car."

Blur. "No, but they still might be hurt. Do you want to accidentally hurt someone just because you were showing off?"

"Wasn't showin' off," I replied immediately. Now it was time for _him_ to look incredulous. "I was fuckin' training. Only so much ya can do with static fuckin' obstacles."

He didn't blur, but nodded, "I can understand that, but you're still surprising people. Spilled drinks, people jumping out of the way even if you weren't close and falling, things like that." He held up a hand before I could respond, "Not your fault, but still, I'm asking that you don't. As one hero to another."

I was about to tell him to take his request and shove it in the crater I'd left in his base, but the man seemed honest and hadn't _personally_ done anything to me, or anyone in the PD, so I considered it. I still wanted to train, and honestly I'd probably gotten the most training from the Boardwalk I'd get today. If I did it again they'd be actively trying to get out of my way, which didn't fit with what I was going to use this persona for.

Evasion/chase training however, especially with another speedster was something that I _could_ use. Shifting my weight to my left leg, I idly scuffed the ground with my right, resting it toe downwards, the sole of my foot not visible to the hero. I nodded five times in a bobbing fashion, adding a Speed Zone to the sole of my right foot with each downward movement of my head. "Sure, on one condition."

Velocity didn't say anything, just waved for me to continue.

I smirked, shifting my weight onto my foot and blasting Light from behind me to close the distance. Velocity started to blur and move out of the way but it wasn't fast enough. I tapped him on the shoulder, immediately turning and blasting in the other direction, slowing down and dismissing the Speed Zone a good two dozen feet away from Velocity. "Tag, you're it."

He didn't un-blur and said something, sounding like a chipmunk on crack. My Acoustokinesis captured and stretched the sound into "Boardwalk wishes to engage in non-violent training exercise. Permission to do so?"

I didn't hear what response he got, but he shot forward a moment later. I started to dodge, but I knew he couldn't do anything dangerous, given my head-to-toe costume coverage. He tagged me in the _exact same_ spot I tapped him, moving past me and un-blurring. "No, you're it," he quipped, smiling, before blurring and taking off in the opposite direction from the Boardwalk.

Triple-layering Speed Zones on my feet I shot after him, using a weak stream of Light to increase my speed even further. Quickly catching up to Velocity, I Saw he was barely using his power, and by the repeating patterns of his movement, appeared to be walking _backwards._ As I closed on him he turned around and started to jog, picking up speed. As I was about to reach him the asshole turned a corner on a dime and continued on, looking over his shoulder.

Easily going sixty miles an hour, I leapt into the air, turning sideways to put my feet at a four o'clock position and blasting Light to bleed off forward momentum. As my momentum shifted towards him I stopped overcorrecting and poured out more Light, rocketing back up to speed, and starting to catch up. The Light was a tiny fraction of what I used for flight but was more than enough to completely change how moving with the Speed Zones worked. Closing on him I reached forward to tag him, but his power flared and he dodged, moving out of reach and widening the gap between us.

I added a fourth layer and shot forward, closing once again. Velocity's form was more heavily blurred, likely his increased personal time messing up light a little. Reaching forward he dodged to the side but kept constantly ahead of me. Another four attempts resulted in the _same thing_. _If I want to tag him, I need to surprise him_ , I realized. His power, when active, equated to super reflexes at a level I couldn't match. If I was actually fighting him it would be sudden Area of Effect abilities all the way, but I said _tag_ and I meant it.

As I reached for him for the sixth time he dodged past me, ducking under my outstretched arm to run back the way I'd came. Twisting around to point back the way I came, I blasted Light to slow myself down to try to reverse direction, the recoil kicking up dust and grime on these abandoned streets. Pouring Light from my hands as well compounded this effect and I was thankful that Lightform seemed to negate G forces on my body. In two seconds I'd slowed to almost a stop, and three later I was rocketing back at Velocity's blurred, smiling form.

As I closed he dodged back and forth down empty streets, _always_ turning down the path with less people, not that I could blame him. Still, the high-speed navigation, sudden turns, and using Light to enhance speed instead of just covering my mistakes made for _great_ training. Turning a corner, I checked my phone and was surprised to see that we'd been doing this for nearly an hour. Velocity seemed still good to go, but close attention showed that he actually seemed to be breathing pretty hard.

I'd been focusing my attention on my own movement but most of the heavy lifting had been done by my power, physically just requiring me to twist, grab, and ride the propulsion my powers created. However, while I'd been at this for one hour, Velocity must've been jogging or running for the past _twelve._ Staring at his power for so long showed me the Time Dilation effects, it's limitations, and its secondary powers, so I knew that while his power gave him an endurance a boost, his stamina wasn't _infinite._

I slowed to a stop and Velocity was there, blurred for a few seconds while his power kicked up to twenty times dilation. He dropped down to regular a moment later, having caught his breath and with the appearance that he wasn't tired in the slightest. "You calling it quits?" he asked. "I think that means I won."

"Eh," I shrugged. "We've both been tagged once."

He laughed, "I am pretty sure that is not how tag works."

"That's what I'm tellin' V-man at least," I offered, furthering the con. At his head tilted in confusion I clarified, "The flyin' one. 'sides, I came here to train, and ya obso-fuckin'-lutely helped with that." I offered him a gruff nod. "Misses-with-Militia's might be a bitch, but you're okay."

I glanced towards the ocean. There were just over four blocks to the edge of the water, and here in the docks there was little in the way of traffic. We'd never really left the area near the northern ferry, never breaking line of sight with the Rig for more than a few minutes. Glancing back at him I played around with the idea of writing 'TAG' in Speed Zones on his back, but I hadn't shown I didn't need either skin or visual contact to place them and that might tip my hand. But that wasn't the _only_ idea I'd had.

I offered him a hand and he took it, giving it a solid shake. "Wanna see somethin' cool?" I asked.

He regarded me carefully, "Is it destructive?"

"Shouldn't be," I shrugged, "Might have a bit of a wind, but not all of us can have time bullshit."

He froze, blurring slightly, "It should be obvious; my power isn't time, it's speed."

I snorted, "Bullllll-shit. Ya turn on a fuckin' dime, can dodge like fuckin' mist, and ya don't leave any fuckin' wind when ya move. Even motorcycles make a bit of fuckin' wind, but _you_ don't, speedster. Sides, if you were that fast ya could run up buildings, but ya don't. It's cool man, Æonic's got time bullshit too, but he's an okay dude." I shook my head, my tone one of grudging approval, which wasn't really faked, "Serious props though. For how long you've been fuckin' running? Ya put fuckin; Philippides to shame. So, wanna see somethin' cool?"

He blurred, before nodding, "Sure, what is it?"

"I've been workin' with Light and Speed Zones," I explained, "Using the strengths of one to cover the weaknesses of the other, but I haven't combined 'em. Not _really._ I'm about to fuckin' do that, so turn up that fuckin' dilation and check this shit out, but ya might want to take a couple o' steps back."

He hesitated before doing so, blurring and at high speed saying "Console, cameras on Boardwalk. You're going to want to see this."

I smiled and gave him a thumbs up. Piggot already wanted to take me in, hopefully this would get her to _back the fuck off_. Lifting up in the air I layered the Zones on my feet until they were a nice eggplant purple. Holding my hands down and to my sides I gathered Light, ready for a hard burn while I did so on my back. Legs, arms, and head wreathed with Shadow, reducing air resistance as much as I could while keeping the needed portions in Light.

I nodded once to the Hero before I looked forward, letting myself drop to the ground. As soon as the Zones on my feet met the asphalt, I was dragged forward, blasting Light from my back and hands, keeping me stable and pushing me even faster.

The first block took a few seconds, the second a little over two, the third, one, and the fourth was past before I could even blink. My acceleration lessened once I left the ground, but the Light pushed me even faster, carrying on me on the front of a rainbow road. Dropping down to the water's level I found that the water still gave me an added bit of speed and layered on another set of Zones. Now that I didn't have to worry about destruction, I ratcheted up the Light flow to full stream, finally draining my reserves as I moved faster and faster.

As I passed parallel to the rig I felt a strain, what little of me still in the real-world encountering enough air resistance to matter. Mentally opening the floodgates of my reserve of Light and actively pushing it out, I reached out and flicked off the base of this city's 'heroes' as I felt something give and a trail of sound rippled out behind me through the air like the wake I was leaving in the water.

In a manner of moments, the city had shrunk down to nothing, sinking below the horizon, and only the Rig remained. All to quickly that too was gone. Dropping fully into shadow I started to slow immediately, dropping into the water at speed and disappearing without a trace.

* * *

It took a good twenty minutes to head back to the city, flying below the ocean floor in Shadowform. Lifting up as Vejovis in a side alley in the slums, I checked the time. It was only three-thirty in the afternoon. _Maybe I should just go take a nap?_ I wondered.

I didn't have enough time to do more than a cursory patrol and patrolling _sucked._ It was a massive risk of getting ambushed for practically no gain whatsoever. Everyone was out doing things, and with only two hours to spare I didn't want to bug them. I didn't even have to worry about the Undersiders crashing the party like in canon because they were _invited._ Coil wouldn't. . . Actually, I had no Idea what Coil would do. The entire dude's Modus Operandi _was_ audacious plans because he was a save-scumming asshat. Dude's superpower was just A/B testing on crack.

That meant that I needed to scope out the battlefield, because in at least one timeline it was _going_ to become one. With the address, the top floor of the Forsberg Gallery, I dropped back underground and made my way towards it, using the sight of insects to help guide my way. Reaching it, I realized I'd passed by it a couple of times today alone. It seemed more like a tower than an actual skyscraper, the metal sections sticking out giving it a somewhat stacked-together appearance.

Lifting up into an empty apartment a block away from my target, I was glad that as clean as they tried to make it, one could never truly keep out insects short of extreme measures. Leaning back on someone's Lay-Z-Boy, I closed my eyes and concentrated on my Bug Sense, turning the arthropods into tiny little security cameras. Mobile security cameras. Mobile stealthy secure- They were drones. I was turning them into drones, but I'd never admit it to Herb because of the _numerous_ likely inappropriate jokes I was sure he'd make.

Focusing on the entire reason I was here to begin with, I noted that there was an increased police presence, and the top was abuzz with activity. Mentally berating myself for that _horrible_ pun I realized that the efforts were not solely limited to tower itself. What I did _not_ expect when I read about the gala was a full red carpet, stretching out the entrance before turning to the side and continuing on for a good bit past that, with a number of people setting up lights, audiovisual equipment, and more. Focusing on my target, the top of the building where the gala was going to take place, I saw it was bustling with technical personnel, most wearing the same uniform. There were kitchens two floors down, where a second group worked to prepare a large number of dishes. A third group was carrying things in from a couple trucks parked in a side alley, setting them down in locations that the first group picked up and assembled, placed, and tweaked to the manager's demands.

I'd had a thought about double checking the area for Bakuda's Bombs, just in case, but A) the gala was high enough up that there weren't a lot of places bombs _could_ be hidden, and B) the PRT already had Bakuda's computer so that would be locked down. Still, in at least one timeline I was sure that that the Travelers would crash the party, so I might as well set up some cameras to cover my ass.

Dropping through the chair and floor I shifted my costume to the uniform of the people moving things inside, a pair of shades covering my eyes. There was a good two dozen of them moving things around, so I waited until no one was looking and lifted out of the ground, just out of sight of the security cameras, and grabbed a box from the truck, following the others through the loading entrance.

Following the others into the freight elevator one of them gave my choice of eyewear a questioning look and I just shrugged. He luckily didn't say anything, and the elevator opened, allowing me to head inside at the front of the group, my scouting allowing me to unerringly head towards the drop-off point. Dropping it off I headed back, watching the hall with a few flies and stepped into the men's bathroom when no one was looking.

Several stalls were occupied so I stepped into an empty one and locked it, shifting my uniform to those of the gallery staff, changing the design of my shades. Dropping a bit of solid air into the toilet to make a suitable sound, I rolled some toilet paper off the dispenser, dropped it inside, and flushed.

Stepping out I made sure to wash my hands, another guy in the gallery's uniform stepping out as well and not bothering to do so as he left. _Gross._ I mean, technically, I was still immune to all diseases, but _still_. Drying my hands I walked out, moving with a relaxed purpose as if I'd already been given a job and was getting back to do it.

I couldn't quite keep track of what everyone was doing through my drones, but I got a good enough idea to follow the flow of movement. Most of the decorations were already in place, and I was able to discreetly lob a few cameras into them, Aerokinesis assisting the spiders I'd gathered to each location in catching and reeling them in, securing them as I moved to a new location. It wasn't the best plan, but I'd only had a few minutes so to would have to do. The tables had been put up, the stage assembled, and the flooring for the dancefloor set up.

Looking around, I could see them placing little nameplates for where everyone was supposed to sit. Striding around, I quickly found my own, along with everyone that had fought with me in the Truce. We were placed on two tables in the back and off to the side, well away from the stage. However, Glory Girl and Panacea's names were nowhere to be found.

I considered moving us all far closer, but I was sure they'd catch something like that. The tables set up for us _did_ have less cards than normal, though the chairs and place settings were still there, which presented an opportunity. Whether it was an oversight or an attempt to make it look like there were villains who refused to come, it didn't really matter for my purposes.

Moving around I found where New Wave was going to sit, with Glory Girl's card right next to her mother, with Panacea on Vicky's other side. Again, I wasn't sure if this was deliberate malfeasance or merely incompetence, but I snagged the cards, moving to place them on my table, next to Lady Bug's. The three hadn't had a lot to talk about, but from what little interaction they'd had in canon I could see Amy and Taylor becoming friends.

Another quick arrangement put Purity next to Herb instead of between Rune and Crusader. I didn't see Kreig's name anywhere, so he must not've accepted the invitation. Faultline, Gregor, Newter, Tattletale, Grue, Imp, and Æonic were set to sit at the other table, and I saw no need to move them. More than likely Aisha would bounce between the two villain tables, but she was a tween, and it wasn't like anyone but Herb or I would notice.

Checking my phone I had a little less than an hour to get back, which meant it was time to leave. As I started to head back out to find a place to change a squad of PRT came in. I hesitated for a second as I squashed the spike of panic that ran through me, keeping my face neutral. _Were they here for me? Did I not spot a camera? What'd I do?_ But they weren't charging me, sprayers blazing, gushing, whatever. They were ambling inside, lazily taking in their surroundings.

 _I wish I could work with him, but only after I kick his teeth in_ , I thought, one trooper in the back catching my attention. _Wait, what?_ I didn't know these people, and why was I focusing on that one in particular? My eyes itched and I let my Power Sight flare to life. A warm glow sprung up around the trooper that was drawing my attention, like a comforting campfire in the night that I wanted to push him into. His power, Camaraderie, emanated from him. It changed him to better fit him in with those around him, tweaking his appearance to make him more accepted by those in his proximity, giving him the skills needed to fit in. Even looking at him now I could see that it was instructing him on PRT methodology to fit in with those around him, while also telling him how to set up an event because of the dozens of people around him doing just that.

"Stop staring and get back to work," One of the managers told me. "They're just here to set up for tonight. You'll be gone by the time the capes show up."

"Right, of course sir," I replied immediately, getting a strange look from him as I moved off to help someone set out flower arrangements. _Who the hell was that?_ I dimly remembering mention of other independent heroes and villains in the city but they'd _never_ shown up in canon. I'd figured it'd just been a throwaway line to let Wildbow add more characters that he'd never really used, but was this one of them?

"Not that one," the woman I'd been helping said, pointing towards the flowers I'd been about to pick up. "Those are for the villain tables."

"Villain tables?" I echoed, feigning fear. "Is there, like, a bomb in them or something?"

"Huh? No. At least. . . I don't think so?" she replied, now glancing at the displays with trepidation. "The PRT did something to them, and they wouldn't do that, right?"

I gave her an incredulous look, "I'm not so sure of that." We shared an uneasy movement before I sighed. "I-I'll take them over if you want me to," I offered, grimacing.

"Could you?" she asked. "I mean, it's my job, but-"

"It's fine," I cut her off, "I'll do it." Picking up the first one I carried it over to my table, bringing two spiders over to drop into the basket. Crawling inside to see what was there. Placing it in the center, I turned around and walked as the arachnids found something hard and metallic nestled inside. As they crawled around, feeling out the shape of the item, I turned my thoughts back to the parahuman.

Cauldron vial recipient, and while those accounted for a third of the cast of Worm, they were, in actuality, much rarer than that. Those people tended not to be independents, Cauldron using them to shore up the PRT and create more stable villain groups. That meant he was part of a group, which meant he was either PRT -unlikely as parahumans were screened out and pushed into their Protectorate Program- or working for Coil. That meant. . . I almost facepalmed as I set down the second 'special' centerpiece.

 _Oliver._ The overlooked member of the Travelers. I'd assumed, from what little screen time he'd gotten, he was a full shapeshifter, limited to human forms, but this fit as well. Didn't help that I wanted to punch him in his stupid, sexy face. Wait. . What? I wasn't gay, so why did I think. . . Ugh. I hated mind-effecting power users, and apparently you couldn't _swing a dead cat_ in this fucking town without hitting one.

Shaking my head, I slipped into the bathroom, shifting costumes and leaving as one of the movers. Timing it so that I'd be at the back of the group, I slipped down through the bottom of the alley and headed back home.

* * *

I stepped inside the base in my Vejovis guise, ready to leave in half an hour, announcing, "Hey Herb, I'm Home."

"Hey dude," he called from his position at the kitchen table. "Wonderin' if ya were gonna make it in time. Hit me."

"Um?" I asked, turning the corner and seeing him across from Taylor, both of them holding cards. I knew it was Taylor because I could feel her in our shared Bug Sense, but her costume was completely different.

Underneath everything was a form-fitting body suit, a light, matte, grey. Layered over her arms and legs was stiff body armor, covered with a eye catching yellow silk. It reminded me of the color of those Indian dresses, but I couldn't name the actual shade. At the knees and elbows the grey material could be seen, the gaps in the body armor giving her a bit of an insectile look. Her shoes were armored as well, overlapping plates that came down to a pointed tip and appeared almost Victorian in style. Her hands were unarmored save for a segmented yellow section across her knuckles.

Across her chest rested a small, yellow breastplate. I considered her lower abdomen, but it was obvious that she'd prioritized stealth and movement over full coverage, trusting the spider silk to keep her from getting _too_ injured. I couldn't blame her, but if I figured out something I'd suggest it immediately. Tracking upwards, her helmet was grey, with large yellow eyes, a smaller pair of 'eyes' above and closer together which gave the sense of eyebrow instead. The helmet had two section, pushed up, which obviously could fold down to cover her mouth in a mandible like configuration. Her long hair flowed back over her shoulders, free just like her last helmet. Leaning against a table bag was a beetle like backpack, yellow and grey splotches furthering the likeness. Across her waist was a belt pouch with hooks to secure her backpack, her Orichalcum baton hanging at her side, not looking out of place with her armor.

"Well?" Herb asked, and I realized I'd been staring. "Pretty fly, right? Get it? Fly?"

I glanced at him disapprovingly before turning my attention back to Taylor who tried not to fidget, a nervous smile on her lips. "It looks great," I smiled, walking over. "Combines form with function and suits you well." I noticed the small pile of chips each of them had. "You guys playing poker?"

My friend shook his head, rolling his eyes. "Nah man, Blackjack."

I paused, "Is that the twenty-one thing?"

Taylor laughed as he nodded, "Yeah, that's it. Go get ready and pull up a chair."

Looking at him, I noticed he was wearing a different suit than normal, but with the same gold and purple color theme. Shrugging I grabbed a chair, "I am."

He gave me a once over and frowning at me, or, tracking his eyes, my costume. I checked to make sure I didn't have any irregularities but couldn't find any. "You wearin' that?" he queried incredulously.

Glancing around to make sure no one else was looking, I quipped, "Well I can't exactly wear this," shifting to my Boardwalk costume before shifting back to Vejovis, "Can I?"

He looked like he wanted to say more, but just shook his head. "I think he was expecting you to wear a suit," Taylor offered, ducking her head down.

"Like, a suit and tie?" I hazarded, looking between them.

Taylor shrugged, while Herb indicated himself and went, "Duh! Why do you think I'm dressed like this?"

I lifted a hand in an aborted gesture of confusion. "Dude, your costume _is_ a suit!"

He just shrugged, "Hey, I've got good taste."

Taylor stifled a laugh while I groaned in frustration. Whipping my phone out and setting it to chime if any of the bedroom doors opened, I concentrated and shifted my costume to a formal suit, black with a red tie, Vejovis' Entity caduceus in white on it. White gloves covered my hands, leaving only my head 'bare', Vejovis' normal mask still in place. "This work?"

He frowned at me, before shaking his head. "Nah man, no black. Black's a villain color." I motioned to his own black suit. "Yeah," he agreed slowly, as if I were being obtuse. "That's why I'm wearing it."

I glared at him as he refused to say anything else and Taylor laughed again. "Maybe a white suit?" she offered.

"Thank you!" I praised. "That's something I can use, why can't you be more like her?" I demanded, shifting my jacket, shoes, and pants to an immaculate white. Looking down at it I changed the white gloves and undershirt to the blood red of my tie, then inverted _that_ , displaying the red Entity caduceus on a white background.

My friend looked between the two of us, smirking. "Well, first off I'm not," I gave him a warning look, "A hero, like you two," he finished, as if that was what he was going to say the entire time.

Taylor blushed and I shook my head, holding out a hand, "Whatever man, deal me in. Also, how the hell do I play?"


	85. Premiere 8-6

**Premiere 8.6**

After a quick instruction on how to play Blackjack, and losing to both my friends, a soft chime rang on my phone and I looked to the hallway leading to the bedrooms, Herb and Taylor following suit. "Come on, you look great! Trust me, I know these things!" Victoria announced, half dragging Amelia with her.

Victoria was in a white evening gown, an over the shoulder thing that was shorter in the front for better mobility, which I approved of, and with her hair up. Amelia was in a summer dress, white with roses patterned across it, conservatively cut. Across her bare shoulders was a red silk shawl and her hair was partially braided back in a crown, the rest hemmed in but flowing down in waves.

"You look nice," I observed, "You both do." I glanced over to Taylor who was looking at me, "Don't they?"

"Yeah," she mumbled, looking away while Herb started laughing.

I pinched the bridge of my nose and closed my eyes, letting out a long sigh. "I'm sorry," I addressed the sisters. Vicky was staring at Taylor while Amy seemed to try to shrink into her shawl. "The Lady Bug is shy and you already know Herb's an asshole. You both look good. Vicky, I'm sure Dean will love it."

She beamed, "Thanks Vejy, That-" she cut herself off. "Vejy!" she reprimanded, motioning to Taylor, "Secret identities!"

It took me a second to realize what she was saying. "He's going to be here tomorrow, and for at least part of his training he'll need to remove his helmet. Besides, Lady Bug won't talk. I trust her not to, just like I trust you not to give _my_ identity away to people not worthy of trust. Besides, were you really going to call him 'Gallant' the entire time he was here?"

"I was gonna _try_ ," she shot back. I didn't respond, just looked at her. "Okay, it makes sense, but still? You don't do that!"

I wanted to reply with, 'You also don't master people or fatally wound the ones you want to arrest', but that would both escalate this, and I was pretty sure she wasn't as upset as she seemed. Instead I went with a shrug and a "I'm not one for doing something just because people think I should. I regularly pick fights with armed criminal, you can't tell me that's normal either."

"It is for Brutes," she shot back, before sighing in turn. "Fine, whatever, I guess that's not that big a deal. But you can't just do that!"

I shrugged, "Your family's played fast and loose enough with those rules so you don't have room to talk, but fair enough. I should've checked." I looked to Taylor, "Lady Bug, don't tell anyone that Gallant's name is Dean."

"I won't!" she promised. "Um, whose _identity_ do you know?"

I hadn't really compiled a list, and it took me a bit to think of them all. "Half the Brockton Bay Protectorate; half the E88; half the Merchants; all of the Travelers, not that it really matters; Coil, but he's a slippery bastard; the Undersiders, who are good kids in shitty circumstances; Dragon, who really _is_ as nice as she seems; The Triumvirate, who aren't; The Slaughterhouse Nine, again doesn't matter but for different reasons; Parian; Æonic, and some others," I rattled off.

The others all looked at me in shock before Herb just shook his head. "Seriously man, you need a muzzle."

"You know who the Triumvirate are?" Vicky demanded, "What do you mean they aren't!"

I glanced at my phone, "Herb, it's six-thirty. Where's Purity?" He just shrugged. "You did tell her to be here at six-thirty, right?"

He nodded as Glory Girl repeated, "What did you mean they aren't?"

I shook my head standing up, "Arthur's a cool dude, and one I'd be glad to have on the team. David and Becky though? They're both narcissistic, self-important _dicks_ , both sure that they're always right and both believe that the ends justify the means. Honestly, they've probably been that way ever since Nathan died." I shrugged, starting to walk out. "And Purity's five minutes late. Kaiser's a dick, but at least he was _punctual._ "

Standing outside, tapping my foot in impatience, I was getting increasingly annoyed. Herb followed me out, shaking his head, followed by the other three girls. "Are you telling me that Alexandria's name is _Becky?_ " Glory Girl finally asked.

"It's short for something else, obviously," I commented absently, watching the sky. _Found her._ She was on her way only. . . ten minutes late. If this had been a fight not _only_ would it have already been over, but the PRT would've already come, arrested the losers, and cleared the crime scene. "But you were just telling me how you don't want me talking about secret identities, so that's all you're getting."

Ignoring Vicky's strangled sounds of frustration, and her sister's ill-hidden laugh, I watched, face neutral, as Purity descended from on high. She landed lightly, her glow reducing to its bare minimum. While identifying her features would still be impossible for someone without her power, the lessened glow showed off her dark, poofy, 50's style dress. The contrast between light and dark gave it the appearance of a sunspot.

She smiled at Herb, "Break, you clean up well."

Herb practically beamed back, "And you look radiant my dear."

Blushing, she turned to the sisters, "You two look lovely."

Vicky flinched, biting back her first reply, before nodding, "You too." I glanced over at her, but she shook her head.

"And, Lady Bug," Purity continued, not commenting on Glory Girl's reaction, "That works I suppose. But you really should wear the dress at some point, but we don't have time to change."

 _No shit._ Looking over, I asked the girl in question, "Dress?"

She blushed, looking away, "Shut up."

Herb laughed, as I turned back to Purity. "You're late," I told her without preamble. "Let's head out, there's a Limo waiting for us at the edge of the Railyard."

"Really?" Glory Girl asked, smiling, while Purity made a hmmm of disapproval.

I regarded her levelly, waiting for her to actually say something, not in the mood to deal her passive aggressive BS. After an uncomfortable moment she finally stated, "We should have better."

My expression didn't change. "Than a limo?

"Yes," she pronounced.

I waited for her to elucidate that statement, but she didn't. "Do you have any suggestions for that or are you just going to stand there?" I practically growled, _so_ not in the mood for this. Herb seemed to be rubbing off on her in the _worst_ way.

She smirked, lifting off the ground, "I don't stand, I fly."

It was obvious what she wanted, but I'd be damned if I'd give her an inch when she couldn't even ask like an adult. When it became clear she wasn't going to say anything, I prodded her with an, "And?"

"She's saying we should fly," my friend chimed in. _Damnit Herb._

Purity nodded, but I wasn't about to let this go, "Then why didn't you say so in the first place? Possibly days ago _before_ I paid for a Limo."

She sniffed, "I shouldn't have had to."

 _Yeah, not letting that go._ "Listen. Purity," I addressed her, tone carefully neutral. "I'm not going to go into how you couldn't even have the courtesy to give me a ten second phone call when you were running ten minutes late. You are a _part_ of the team, not the _leader_ ," I informed her, irritation creeping into my tone. While hypocrisy was my main hot button, leaving people to wait for you, not sure if they were ever going show, was another. I'd had too many bad experiences with that sort of thing, and the lack of respect it conveyed rankled me something fierce. A more Machiavellian part of me wondered if she'd been late on purpose, just to see if I'd put up with it, in which case I needed to stamp on this _now._

"I'm not your minion," _or your boyfriend,_ I didn't add, "trying to do what I think you want without you ever saying anything. Also, while I'd like to think I'm perceptive, I can't _read minds_. If you think we should do something, just fucking _tell me._ If you're reasons are good, I'll either agree or explain why I can't, but I can't consider you reasons if you don't give me any. If you don't ask me to do something, there's a good chance it will never happen. Furthermore, I'm not going to take responsibility for _your_ childish anger because I didn't do what you never even _asked me to do_."

Purity stared at me in shock, Vicky letting out soft "daaamn", and Herb looked at me disapprovingly. I raised an eyebrow in challenge, wanting him to tell me what part of what I just said was in any way _incorrect_. Conceding the point, he shook his head, but not in the mirthful manner he had before.

I sighed, "Now, what is your reason you'd prefer to fly?" I asked Kayden.

She seemed surprised I was asking, but rallied. "Over half of us are fliers," She said quietly, and a bit more respectfully than she needed to, but it was better than the alternative. "Arriving that way displays our power," she hesitated, continuing at my expectant look, "And arriving in a limo is something Kaiser would do."

 _And there it is._ Wanting to ask 'was that so hard?' I resisted, turning to the girls, knowing what Herb's answer would be. "I'm ambivalent about it, but I can see her argument, what do you three think?"

The sisters shared a look. "We're not part of your team Vejy," Glory Girl pointed out.

"If that's your answer," I turned to Lady Bug, "What do you think?"

She looked around at us, obviously surprised to be put on the spot. "I, I think we should fly," She told me.

Nodding, I fired an email off to Quinn, telling him we didn't need the Limo but that I would still pay for it. "Fly it is. Given that we need to be there in ten minutes, it's the only way to be there on time, and even _then_ we still might be five minutes late." I paused, "Everyone's armed, right?"

"What?" Vicky asked, frowning as she glanced back at the base. "Do I have to take the sword?"

Herb, who had been walking back inside, turned and looked at me incredulously. "You didn't," he reprimanded.

Everyone's attention now on me I shook my head, ignoring my friend, "Not if you're not comfortable with it, and not until you've trained to use it. You _are_ a weapon Vicky."

As she smiled at that pronouncement Taylor frowned, "Wouldn't a sword break if she used it?"

"Not if it's made of strong enough metal," I replied.

"You didn't!" she questioned, hand moving to her baton.

"I did," I smirked back.

"But why?" she demanded, likely having the same objections Vicky had.

"Because I can do math?" was my immediate reply.

She looked at me sourly, likely seeing my point but not liking it for some reason. "Hookwolf?"

I snorted, as if Hookwolf would be rendered more than a metallic smear on the ground once Victoria was trained, "Lung-equivalent." No need to tell her that by that I meant _Leviathan_.

"Glad to see you're gettin' along, but what are you two talking about?" Herb interjected, startling both of us.

"Right," I replied, dragging myself back to task. "Last thing before we leave, and we _need to leave_. You know the crafting group I've been in contact with?" I got a chorus of yesses from everyone except for Purity.

"The Tinkers?" Vicky asked.

I shrugged, "They'd say no, for a number of reasons." Which was true, since neither of us were. While I disliked misleading them, neither Kayden nor Victoria were read into my true power, so an unfortunate level of. . . pageantry was required. "They've been working with materials creation, and cracked Orichalcum, a Tinker metal. They've found that weapons made from it multiply momentum upon impact, so I commissioned two-three weapons from them," I corrected, recalling the quarterstaff in the workshop.

Motioning to Taylor's belt I disclosed, "A combat Baton for the Lady Bug, A merciful blade for Glory Girl, and a staff, possibly for myself or for someone else if they need it. It's incredibly strong and once their wielders get used to them, it'll be worth a Striker rating all its own."

"Wait," Panacea interjected, "What do you mean, 'merciful blade'?"

"You brought this on yourself," Herb told me, and I promptly ignored him.

"Nope, that was it, we're going to be late as-is. If you want to know, ask your sister," I replied, offering Taylor my arm. "Lady Bug, if you would?"

She threaded hers through my own and I extended a Lift Field over her, both of us lifting up into the sky.

* * *

In the hour and change I'd been gone the gallery had changed quite a bit. Lights were set up along the entrance, along with a red carpet. An e-mail from Quinn had instructed us to land at the end of the red carpet and check in with the person there, which seemed simple enough. Purity was a glowing comet, keeping pace with the rest of us. Glory Girl was carrying Panacea in a front carry, who was holding both of their purses and her shawl tightly. Herb was the biggest damn Pteradactyl I'd ever seen, if it even was one. Instead of the cone coming off the back of it's head it had a little mohawk, and we all could've comfortably rested on his back without him noticing. It was like if a giraffe, a bat, and a bird had a kid, but I supposed it was some kind of dinosaur. I'd preferred the sleeker creatures like raptors and archaeopteryxes when I was going through the mandated dinosaur phase of being a little boy.

We were a good ten minutes late, since the Glory Girl and Purity didn't want to move too quickly so as not to 'mess up their hair'. Why a flier would style their hair in a way that was messed up by flying was beyond me, but it was too late to do anything about it.

Looking at our landing zone, I saw that it was unoccupied, an older obvious wealthy couple having just moved on from it. "Want to make an entrance?" I asked Taylor, not able to suppress my grin.

She glanced up at me, before following my pointed finger to the end of the red carpet. "Sure," she grinned back.

"Good, hold tight," I instructed reaching over with my free hand to grasp her arm that was interlocked with mine, and put on a moment of speed to get the trajectory correct before cutting out my flight completely. We hung there, untouched by gravity for a long moment before we started to drop, picking up more and more speed as we hurtled towards the ground.

Taylor's grip on my arm tightened, but she didn't say a word. Several people had seen us and the flash of cameras lit us up as the ground rushed up to meet us. _Glad I'm flash-proof,_ I thought, _or this would be a lot harder._

About three dozen feet from the ground, and a very nervous looking member of staff, I threw my shields into full reverse. We slowed, but no-where near enough to come to a full stop, landing with a heavy thunk, the shields on both feet draining as they absorbed the extra force. Lowering Taylor the extra three inches to the ground, I looked at who I hoped was the person I was supposed to check in and blandly commented, "The Penumbral Defenders are here, along with Panacea and Glory Girl."

Behind me there was a glow and another heavy thunk as Purity and Herb landed, followed shortly by the last two of our merry band. "Jesus Vejy, you're not supposed to do that with people. You okay LB?"

"What?" Taylor asked confused, checking herself, "Should I not be?"

"Yeah! With the g's you were pulling. . ." Vicky started to say, eyes narrowing as she took in Taylor's appearance and stance. "You weren't, were ya?" She turned to me, "Vejy, spill!"

I just grinned impishly, "You still have much to learn kemosabe. Now," I turned back to the staff member and waving down the crimson path, "I assume we proceed in like the others?"

"Y-yes," he stuttered out. "And please no power use while inside."

I quirked an eyebrow, "We'll keep it to a minimum if everyone else does," before turning and confidently walking to start the whole rigamarole. I'd expected the light, but not the cavalcade of sound that greeted us, our entrance quieting them for a moment.

Taylor, to her credit, started to freeze but my insistent steps pulled her to move with only a moment of hesitation. I could feel her start to dump her emotions into the Swarm, and I suppose she could feel me checking because she stopped, muttering "sorry."

Dropping a sound bubble around us I disagreed, covering my mouth and pretending to chuckle at what she said, "No, it's a good idea in moderation. This is social combat of a type that I'm not ready for. Honestly, I'm kinda looking forward to the inevitable ambush."

She stiffened, and I could feel her using the Swarm to scout out the area, "Where?"

'Likely during the mayor's speech,' I wrote in an empty room of the gallery. I reformed them to say 'but that likely won't be for an hour, so in the mean time just follow my lead and relax.' Giving her a moment to read it I continued, 'Don't discuss secrets, either identities or powers, and you'll be fine.'

She hesitated before nodding, taking over the small swarm to write 'Okay. I can do this.'

I patted her on the head, messing her hair a little as I actually chuckled, "If I didn't think you could do this Lady Bug, I wouldn't have asked you to come." I could practically feel the eyes on us, but I didn't really care. "Besides, I think Panacea shares our disposition on these types of events."

She followed my connection to the Swarm, focusing in on the sisters behind us. Victoria was basking in the attention, smiling and posing for the cameras. Amelia's body language practically screamed resigned acceptance, following her sister but not doing anything special unless her sister directed her to. Herb and Kayden were closer to Glory Girl's attitude than ours, the former Nazi radiating confidence while Herb was grinning like a fool, moving from photographer to photographer to pose with her.

'Don't worry, you're the woman who defeated Oni Lee' I wrote, a feeling of confusion shunted into the Swarm by her in reply. As she started to form a response I overrode it, spelling out 'I was trapped in a stalemate, and made sure he wouldn't break out again.' I continued with, ' _You_ are the one who defeated him. After that, what's the press gonna do? Spread nasty rumors?' She stiffened and I snorted in disagreement 'Do you really think that _I_ care what people who don't know you say?'

Watching her, she gathered herself, unable to deny my claim. "Shall we?" I asked with a smile, as we'd slowed down to have our quick conversation.

"We shall," she pseudo-commanded, the edges of her mouth quirking into a matching smile.

Moving through the first portion of the gauntlet we stopped for pictures, using the insects in the crowd to better position ourselves with respect to the cameras. This was _incredibly_ useful as learning how to pose wasn't something I'd ever really thought of, and it was apparent Taylor was only slightly marginally better.

After the first leg it became apparent that we were supposed to walk down one of the two edges answering questions. I'd really rather not, but it would probably look bad if I didn't so I bit the metaphorical bullet and walked over to one journalist who was calling. "Boston Globe," he said as an introduction, smiling in a way that didn't reach his eyes. "What made you fight side by side with murderers?"

I could feel Taylor physically recoiling from the question, but merely quirked an eyebrow, having expected something like this. "Things must truly be dire in Boston; you have my sympathies."

This time the reporter was taken aback, and I had the attention of those around me, both press and guests. "What do you mean by that Vejovis?" the reporter rallied.

"Well, to not have any internet, or television, or newspaper to find out that I answered that very question in my press conference a few days ago, you all must truly be in dire straits," I replied, matching his fake smile for one of my own, stopping and taking an exaggerated thinking posture. "But wait, _you're_ the news." I sighed, "Tis truly sad how far the noble field of journalism has fallen." Turning away from him I addressed my teammate, "Let us see if we can find someone with a question that I haven't _already answered_."

Moving on I was flagged down by a different paper, with a name I didn't recognize, whose reporter asked us a number of softball questions. How are we doing, how we like Brockton Bay, the only one I refused to answer was asking if we were locals, to which I replied, "A bit of column A, a bit of column B, but we won't be saying more than that. There's a reason we wear masks after all," I laughed, and the reporter laughed in kind, which either wasn't faked, or she was _very_ good.

Taylor was asked a few questions as well, and while she was restrained and nervous at first the woman asking the question helped guide her through harmless answers. Lady Bug got a bit more animated, becoming more comfortable with the entire affair, and we must've talked to the reporter for a good five minutes before moving on, needing to catch up to the others.

Past that the carpet turned to _actually_ approach the entrance to the gallery, with people milling about, a couple camera crews working with reporters to talk to some of the guests. Joining Herb and Kayden, I twitched my power to dampen the sound slightly, allowing us to have a conversation unheard by those around us. "This seems like a bit much, doesn't it?"

Herb snorted, "Dude, they ain't even got bleachers. This shit was rushed as _fuck_."

" _Bleachers?_ " Taylor asked incredulously, "Are you serious?"

This time it was Purity who responded, nodding, "Yes, he is. For only two days this is impressive."

"I've worked a couple," Herb added. "This one's pretty laid back."

I shared a shocked look with Taylor, before requesting, "Okay, so what comes next?"

My friend glanced around before commenting "Well, unless ya want to do another interview," I shook my head, "Then we grab the girls, head inside, take a few pics, and go up to the party. Then the fun _really_ starts."

Taylor suppressed a groan, I didn't. "Fine, stay here I'll be right back," I ordered, leaving Taylor with Herb, spotting the girls moving between interviews. Striding over to them, I called "Glory Girl, Panacea, ready to head inside?"

Vicky started to say something, but Amy's "Yes!" beat her out. The elder sister pouted, before shrugging with a "Gallant's probably inside," and moved past me, Amelia giving me a thankful smile as she followed Vicky.

Grouping together we moved inside, posing for a couple of group shots in the entryway before being led to a far fancier elevator than the one I'd used earlier. The attendant pressed a button and the elevator started to rise, the change barely discernable. Surrounding us all with a Sound Bubble I stated, "He can't hear us. You've more experience, what's next Break?"

He looked at me for a second before laughing, "Dude, calm down. It's a party, loosen up."

My expression didn't move an inch. "We're heading into enemy territory where they've prepared for us. This is just as much a fight as the raids were, just with different rules. They're going to try to split us up, and the tables are trapped, but I've already taken care of the first, and I'll handle the second when we sit down. Now, _what can we expect?_ "

"Wait, what?" Glory Girl asked, shocked.

Herb however just smiled more, "That's what ya were doin'. Fair enough. They'll show us where to sit-"

"I couldn't change the registry, but put our seat markers at the same table," I interrupted, "So Vicky and Amelia should ignore them when they do so. Please continue,"

"Once we've got our seats, we can move around, schmooze, network, all that shit," he explained. "We don't have to though. Dinner won't start for another hour, we hear a bunch o' people su-" he glanced at Kayden, "Singin' each other's praises, dance a bit, and out."

"Wait," Taylor objected, panicking. "I don't know how to dance."

I shrugged, "Neither do I. Just sit out the first few and then just do what everyone else is doing. It shouldn't be that hard." Everyone else stared at me as the doors opened. "What?"

Herb shook his head and walked out, Kayden following, looking at me a bit disgustedly. Glory Girl's expression showed me that she thought I was an idiot and Panacea obviously shared my confusion at the others' responses. I dismissed the Sound Bubble as the employee turned around.

"Come on," I _didn't_ whine, not understanding. Combat was difficult, requiring precise movements and fine control to dodge and strike effectively. It had nothing to do with just walking around in pairs. "It's just dancing, how hard could it be?" The incredulous look the lift attendant gave me didn't reassure me in the slightest.


	86. Premiere 8-7

**Premiere 8.7**

Striding down a lavishly decorated hall with Taylor next to me into an equally lavishly decorated ballroom I saw the trouble had already started.

"Glory Girl, your table is this way," One of the gallery staff instructed. "Glory Girl?" she asked as Victoria followed Herb and Kayden towards our table. Glancing over, I could see New Wave was already here, Brandish having stood up and now being pulled back down by her sister. Resisting the urge to wave, I scanned the room, noting that most of the Protectorate was already here.

Miss Militia, Assault, Battery, Dauntless, Triumph, and Velocity were spread out through the room. In addition, a woman cloaked in dark veils and shadows was also around and by the way she looked to Miss Militia I assumed she was part of the Protectorate as well. _Was she transferred here to balance us or is she a new trigger?_ I wondered. Either way, her presence was an undeniable indicator of the ripples that our actions were causing, the uncertainty that I needed to start to plan for.

Also present were Gallant, Vista, Sophia, and Clockblocker, all sitting at the same table on the other side of the hall from our own. Looking to were Herb was going, I was relieved to see that some of the Truce had accepted the invitation. At our table Crusader and Rune were seated there already, the second looking nervous and the first staring at Purity, expression unreadable behind his helmet. Æonic was at the second table, chatting amicably with Faultline, Gregor sitting back and relaxing while Newter already had a plate of appetizers. Lisa, Brian, and Aisha were there as well, the last getting up and sprinting towards us.

"V-man!" she called, "This place is shamncy as shit!"

"That it is, Imp," I smiled, patting her on the head and letting her bat my hand away. "Are you behaving yourself?" I could practically feel her flat stare through her mask. "Are you doing anything that will make _me_ look bad for getting you invited?" I amended.

She scoffed, "Ya don't need to worry, I won't get caught."

I jerked a hand towards the gala's camera hidden in the corner, "Your power doesn't work on people if they are seeing you through another medium. Security can see you just fine."

"Oh, um, I'm gonna go return some lost items," she said, repressing her power. "Like the monkey suit, but your regular digs are better. Lookin' Good Lady Bug. You're like a golden stick bug with attitude!" Her power kicked back in and she headed back to her table, reaching under it and extracting a half dozen wallets.

"Do I really look like a stick insect?" Taylor asked self-consciously.

"You're going for an insect theme. You don't have wings, and you aren't round or ripped, so that rules out like half of them," I reassured her. "Besides, Imp has _zero_ filter, or tact, and coming from me that should say something," I smiled.

She frowned, "If you say so," following me to our table. Finding her seat next to Panacea she asked the healer "Do I look like a stick insect?"

Amy looked over Taylor's costume before hesitantly replying, "No?"

My fellow bug control looked at me motioning towards Amy in a 'see!' manner. I shrugged, "I didn't say that you did, I was explaining why Imp would say so." At her frown I apologized, "Sorry Lady Bug, you're thin but you're not _anorexic._ Some people tend towards thin, some towards fat. I used to be the latter, so I forgot to think people would worry about the former."

Mollified, Taylor turned to look around at the crowd as a whole, joining Amy in the time-honored tradition of people-watching. One unexpected landmine defused, or at least attenuated, I spotted the Wards heading over en-masse. "Gallant!" Vicky cried, getting up from her place to drag him over to sit next to her. Seeing Assault and Battery following the kids, I hardened a dome of air over both of the tampered centerpieces. While spiders' sight wasn't the best, it was enough for me to read the writing on the canisters, identifying them as containment-foam grenades.

"This is Lady Bug, she's okay, we haven't hung out that much," Vicky announced, pointing to Taylor before moving to me, "And this is Vejovis, who's, like, the best coach ever, and Break, who's a big teddy bear!"

"Uh, what?" Gallant asked, staring at Herb and freezing like a dear in the headlights.

"Don't worry," My partner grinned, with a bit too many canines, "I don't bite. . . heroes." His intimidating statement was undercut by Purity and I hitting each of his arms almost in unison. "Dude, you're ruinin' my vibe," he whined at me.

"No scaring the junior squaddies," I reprimanded lightly, Taylor's suppressed laughter defusing the situation even further. Rune looked at me like I was high, but I ignored her. "Boardwalk was glad to hear that you and Vista had recovered," I told the both of them.

"You know Boardwalk?" Sophia demanded, interrupting Gallant.

I shrugged, "He turned down my offer to join, but we keep in touch. Why?"

"You tell him that I want to talk to him," she commanded, glancing at their chaperones. "There's some things we need to. . . _discuss_."

I blinked at that. There was aggression there, but something else as well. "Um. . . okay?" I replied, but her attention was already on Herb.

"And you," she said, pausing for a second before giving a short nod. "Good job with that fucker Lung. Respect."

Herb looked as surprised as I felt before he shrugged, holding out a fist. "Thanks." She fist-bumped him before she turned around with a swirl of her cloak and stalked back to her table.

I shared a 'what the fuck?' look with him, Gallant getting over the shock of what just happened and asking me "Please thank Boardwalk for me." Vista adding, "Me too!" Behind them Assault frowned at me and glared at Herb. "Glory Girl called you a coach?" Dean prodded, trying to keep the conversation going.

I shrugged, "I was a teacher before I got my powers," noting Battery wince at that. "What's. . . Oh right, there was a villain by that name. Fine, whatever," I rolled my eyes, "I was an 'educator' before all this, and a bit of an amateur scientist, so I approach powers the same way." I considered Assault and Battery, Seeing them. Assault had the Red & Light Green Flames of Kinetic Redirection, using the things he was touching to counterbalance his changes to an objects energy, though it wasn't a one to one deal. Battery had the Cyan & White Glow of Temporary Personal Enhancement, which was fairly self-explanatory. One bit of information that caught my attention was that she'd learned to use it to massively enhance her body's electromagnetic field to produce the electrical effects she was known for, _interesting_.

Assault cleared his throat, and from her body language I could tall Battery was staring at me challengingly. "For instance," I said, not breaking eye contact with the heroine. "If a Tinker in the PRT had a device that could ran out of energy quickly, but could accept a recharge from an outside source, you could likely use it to great effect, assuming that you could control the voltage you create. That's ignoring, of course, the one thing _all_ electricity users can accomplish, but for some reason none of them do."

"And that is?" she inquired with guarded curiosity.

I shook my head, "If we were on the same team, or working together I'd tell you. However, I just met you, so would rather not put it out to be abused."

Herb looked at me questioningly, so I replied, "A Certain Scientific. . ."

His eyes went wide as he got the reference, "Holy shit."

I nodded, "Indeed."

"Manpower?" he asked, the others looking confused at our tête-à-tête.

I nodded, "Assuming that I can have a civil conversation with New Wave without Brandish attempting to murder me. Again. _Or_ if I could believe that they won't turn around and use my techniques to try to take me down." He grimaced, nodding. Gallant moved his head like he was going to say something, but spotted Glory Girl wincing but holding her tongue and did the same. "But," I clapped, "that's a topic _far_ too depressing for this august event. So how are you kids all holding up after the week we've had?"

"It's been better," Clockblocker shrugged. "What'ya got for me?"

"Nope," I shot back without missing a beat.

"Nope what?" he asked.

"Nope I'm not telling you how to use your powers. That's what the taxpayers pay the PRT to do," I explained.

"The Protectorate isn't the PRT," Assault objected. I looked at him for a long moment, before turning to Vista.

"How're you holding up?" I asked her. "I heard you got messed up by Oni Lee."

"Don't ignore me!" Assault growled, but I ignored him.

She glanced over at him before sitting up straight and looking me in the eye. "I've been hurt worse," she pseudo-bragged.

I shook my head, "Not what I asked, but okay." Still ignoring Assault, who Battery had pulled back by the shoulder and was whispering to, I looked at Herb. "So, how long do we have until dinner starts?"

He checked his phone, "Like, an hour."

I groaned, leaning back in my chair, crossing my arms, and closing my eyes, "I should've brought a book."

Vicky snorted, "You _don't_ want to talk. That's a first."

I opened one eye to mock-glare at her, "I talk around people I trust, and I don't think Sir Bounce-A-Lot would like it if I busted out Tinkertech to keep us from being recorded."

"We're bein' recorded?" Crusader asked, looking around. I pointed without looking at one of the more obvious cameras. It took longer without being obvious, but I'd started to map out the room with insects, Taylor saw what I was doing and took over the process while I attracted attention. "That's not fucking okay," he objected.

I shrugged, "It's for security reasons, but if you think the tapes aren't going to get passed around, I've got a bridge to sell you." I paused, considering that with Kaiser's power, I could _actually_ make bridges to sell to people. It'd take careful power use, and instructions from engineers, but it would be completely doable. _Well_ , I thought, _Since I'm talking to him, I might as well ask._ "Where's Kreig, by the way? As professional as he seemed, I assumed he'd be here." At everyone's looks I explained, "You know, fly the Nazi flag, all 'hey look, we're a respected part of the community' and everything."

As had become increasingly common, my looks garnerd far more attention than they should've. Sighing I opened my arms up in a 'what?' gesture. "I feel like I'm missing something, here."

It was Taylor who broke the silence, asking, "You know that video of Boardwalk fighting Oni Lee that Über and L33t took?" I nodded. "They had another one of Break's team fighting Lung."

"Oh," I said, nodding slowly. I'd fought as if I was being watched during the ABB raids, and while Herb's plans were shit, he tended to be better at keeping things under wraps than I was. "How hard did you go?" I asked him, glancing at the heroes, "Relatively speaking."

He shrugged, "Not that hard. It was only Lung."

Ignoring the heroes' exclamations of disbelief, I tried to separate truth from Bravado. If he'd gone full power-copier, the PRT wouldn't be this cavalier with us. If he'd switched to things other than dino's, then he likely would have said something, and if he did then the con of his replicants being other people would be weakened, but their differing appearances would still make it work. I nodded, going along with his declaration, "Point."

"What do you mean 'point', it's Lung!" Clockblocker objected. "It takes entire teams to stop him."

This time it was my time to snort with laughter. "Seriously? He's a ramping Brute with a fire enhancement and a linear Changer track." I opened my arms to indicate Taylor, Herb, and Kayden, "There isn't a single member of my team that couldn't _solo_ him."

"I don't see what the problem was, he ran from me like a frightened child before blundering into Break," A satin smooth voice said behind me.

"Æonic," I acknowledged dryly, and he returned with an equally dry, "Vejovis."

"Is that why he was flying?" Vista asked intently.

My brother nodded, "It was little lady. We'd met the previous day, but he was a bit too. . . heated to do anything about. Upon seeing my handsome visage, he fled in shame," My brother quipped. "As to your original query," he told me, "Kaiser apparently showed his scales and pulled out of the truce after the second day. Poor Kreig was caught admitting to just that." I could hear the smile in his voice, "Truly a pity."

Both Herb and I turned to stare at Crusader and Rune. Rune fidgeted while Crusader puffed out his chest. "I keep my word, unlike that fucking Kraut. I said I'd fight, so I did," the man contested.

Herb gave him a manly nod and I thanked him, "Glad to hear you both have honor. It's an unfortunately rare trait." I could hear Assault scoffing behind me but ignored him. Turning to Æonic I asked, "And how are you enjoying our fair mayor's gala?"

He shrugged, "Once you've been to one, you've been to all of them. The names and faces change, but that's all that changes once you dip below the surface." Which sounded nice and all, but I knew Charlie'd never been to one of these in his life. "I look forward to hearing the Mayor's speech, I'm sure it will be. . . illuminating."

He stood there, smugly, as if he hadn't just pulled some stupid prophetic bullshit. However, by looking around it seemed the locals were buying into it, so I decided to run with it. "Indeed, I wonder who it will be the Mayor thanks for saving his city."

He nodded wisely, looking over the table and noting the cards placed, "Did you secure invites for everyone in the Truce, Vejovis?"

"No, just those that stuck around after the press conference. Why?" I replied, wondering where he was going with this.

"Because there are far too _many_ seats here for those at that little presentation between your table and mine, but far too _few_ for the full Truce's attendance," he idly commented. "Most curious."

I joined the others in counting the chairs set up while Herb just smiled, "Noticed that, did ya?"

"Of course," Æonic replied smoothly "It's _obvious_. Especially when you look at the other tables," he waved around languidly.

I hadn't really paid it too much attention, but now that it was pointed out every other table had ten chairs, while ours had twelve crowded around it. Without Glory Girl and Panacea with us, our table would have looked very empty indeed. I wondered if that was on purpose.

"I, of course, would not be presumptuous," he said with mock humility, "but it does not bode well for the resolution of the night. Though, given our powers we don't have _that_ much to be worried about."

"You think you could take on the entire Protectorate _and_ the Wards?" Clockblocker asked incredulously.

My brother shrugged, "We'll see when the _time_ comes. _You_ though? Tell me, _Little Watch_ , how would freezing things in time help when time's already been stopped?"

With that he turned on his heel and lazily headed back to his table, cane tapping on the floor, turning his head to visibly admire Lady Photon as she approached the group. _Is there a queue for coming to annoy me_? I wondered. To her credit she didn't break stride as the two tables full of villains fell quiet to stare at her. She glanced at me, but addressed Glory Girl, "Victoria," she started gently, "Why aren't you sitting with us?"

Vicky glanced at me, but I crossed my arms, letting her handle this one. "My seat's here Aunt Sarah," she said, motioning to the name-card at her place.

Lady Photon glanced at me again, before telling her niece, "There was a mix up. You were supposed to be with your family."

Victoria reached over and grasped Panacea's hand. "I am Aunt Sarah."

The heroine winced, obviously uncomfortable with the situation. "Your mother wants you to come home Victoria."

"Both of us?" the teen asked, not missing a beat. If I had to guess, she'd been thinking about this quite a bit in the past few days.

Again, Lady Photon winced, "I'm sure that Carol wants you both to come home, she-"

"She what?" Panacea asked, looking at her adopted Aunt sadly. "She didn't mean it when she said I was evil because of who my father was? When she said I was 'corrupting' _her_ daughter? When she claimed I had 'bad blood'?" at Lady Photon's pained expression she pressed scornfully, "I spend time with doctors every day, I understand enough Latin to know what she meant!"

Trying a different tack, she turned to me. "What you're doing is kidnapping, you know," she stated.

I was willing to stay the hell out of this, but since she decided to bring me in, with threats no less, I raised an eyebrow. "I'm not even a _lawyer_ and I know that doesn't work. I'm holding no one against their will, I'm not asking Brandish for anything." I paused, "I suppose I'd like her to stop trying to _kill_ me, but that's just common decency. And _actually_ against the law, since we're discussing it. Trust me, you _really_ don't want to go the legalistic route on this."

"Why?" she challenged, getting upset. _Likely because I'm the first person she **can** allow her self to get upset with._ "What will you do?"

"Did you not hear me?" I shot back, "You _really_ don't want to do this."

"Is that a threat?" she demanded, scrabbling for anything to use against me.

"Aunt Sarah!" Vicky objected, but I held up a hand.

"She's looking for someone she can be mad at," I stated calmly, naming the beast. "If you want to play it that way. So be it." I looked past her to the sisters, having read up on what I was about to state this very morning while I was waiting for Vicky to get ready for training. All it had taken was a five minute google search, but then again the problem with the internet was knowing _what_ questions to ask in the first place. "Panacea, Glory Girl, New Hampshire has no laws allowing for Emancipated Minors, for teens to step out of both the protections and controls of their parents. However, there _is_ a national law allowing for young parahumans to do exactly that. It's a process you can't undo, and I wasn't going to tell you until this became a legal issue." I nodded to the shocked leader of New Wave. "It has now become a legal issue."

"You can't just threaten to do that!" Assault objected. _Aren't you supposed to be the funny one?_ I wondered, but he seemed to have a serious hate on for Herb and I seemed to be tarred with the same brush.

"I haven't _threatened_ to do anything. I've merely, when _knowingly threatened_ with _false charges_ , made two minors knowledgeable of their options," I replied coldly. _Why did I think it was a good idea to come here again? Right, to make sure we got the credit we deserved for defeating the ABB and to short-circuit the party crashers, not that they'll be grateful._ _Fuck it, might as well go all in._ "I assume the three of you didn't know you had that option?" I asked the Wards. "Unfortunately, the way it works the PRT finds out about your secret identity, though they're legally barred from using that information against you, so the only time it seems to be used is when they are extracting someone _they've_ recruited from a bad situation. However, because Panacea and Glory Girl where denied that basic protection afforded to _all_ capes when they start, they have no worry about being pressured to join with the reveal of their identities," I finished, looking Assault right in the eye.

 _Let it go,_ I mentally urged. _Let us sit here in peace and this ends here._ Assault started to say something, but Battery put a hand on his shoulder, stopping him. "Have a good evening Vejovis," she wished professional. "Wards, I think it's best if we return back to our table."

Gallant started to object but Glory Girl put her hand on his arm, "We'll talk tomorrow, okay?"

"Okay," he agreed, "I'll see you then." The Wards followed Assault and Battery back to their table.

I turned my attention Lady Photon and waited. She looked at me sourly before turning back to Vicky. "Please Victoria, come home."

"Not until Ames can too," she stubbornly stated.

Sarah Pelham looked imploringly at her niece and promised, "I'll try my best," before walking back, not looking at me.

There was a moment of quiet before Herb asked, "Did ya have to go that hard on her?"

"When a lawyer starts threatening to have me arrested on _false charges_ , even by proxy? Yes." I replied without hesitation.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Vicky asked, sounding hurt, and I sighed.

"I hoped that it wouldn't get taken this far?" I shrugged. "I know, expect the lawyer to _not_ go legal, but still. I'd hoped she would have been able to handle things without threatening people with _false charges_."

"Thanks," she offered, another silence stretching.

"So that's depressing as shit," Crusader observed. "Uh, I know! Break, Vejovis. If you fought, who would win?"

"Me," "Vejovis," we replied in sync.

Crusader blinked beneath his helmet. "Well, shit. You sure?"

Herb laughed, "Not even fuckin' close."

He nodded, "Huh. You versus Time Guy?"

I rolled my eyes and took out my faux tinkertech jar, flipping the switch and surrounding us with a Sound Bubble that didn't include the table itself. The PRT troopers a couple dozen feet away stiffened, lifting their foam sprayers, but did nothing else. "There, now we won't be giving the PRT actionable intel. Break, you want to answer his question?"

"Even worse matchup," Herb said simply. "Vejovis can fly, he can't."

"Kaiser?" Crusader offered.

"Herb would beat him like a red-headed stepchild," I quipped.

"Hey!" Panacea objected.

I froze as I realized what I just said, "Sorry! Sorry. It's a phrase. Herb wouldn't fight him, he'd play with him until he was bored," I amended. "The iron idiot's already threatened to kill my family and my teammates while we were supposed to be under Truce, so I wouldn't even give him _that_. You don't torture a rabid dog, you put it down."

That pronouncement got expressions of shock from Purity and the two E88 members, and a reproachful look from Herb. "Was that too much?" I asked.

"Yes!" he exclaimed exasperatedly.

"Right, so, I _suck_ at small talk, which is apparently the entire point of this, so I'm just gonna stop talking now," I decided.

"You really do Vejy," Glory Girl agreed, Panacea nodding fervently.

* * *

After a bit of an awkward silence conversation slowly sprang up, Victoria heading over to the Wards table to talk to Dean while Taylor and Amelia talked about insect anatomy, Taylor pulling out the house spider that'd set up in the bouquet to demonstrate. Purity and Rune talked about being female in the E88, and how Night didn't count _at all_. Herb and Crusader started talking about professional wrestling, which I quickly tuned out. I'd seen all of one match on tv, and, knowing how to _actually_ fight, it had been an almost painful experience. If I had to compare it to something, it would be like a professional pickpocket watching a magician, or a cop watching a crime drama. It was just so _obvious_ what they were doing was fake that it'd annoyed me on a _fundamental_ level.

With that taken care of I had all the time I need to look around and See those around me. The Black and Green flames of Personal Weapon Projection surrounded Miss Milita, who was stealing a glance at my table when I caught her eyes. At least she held it instead of looking away. With a friendly wave to the bitch who shot me in the back I moved on. Battery and Assault were minding the Wards, the latter glaring at Herb, and at me when he noticed me looking. From the fluctuations of his power, apparently Clockblocker kept freezing his plate, likely in boredom.

On the other side of the room Velocity stood and talked with a PRT officer, his Yellow and Red fires of Personal Time Acceleration flickering faster than the others. At the front, on either side of the stage were Dauntless & Triumph. Dauntless' Navy Blue & White flames of Item Purpose Distillment clinging to his shield, boots, breastplate, and the spear on his back. Triumph's Gold & Green Glow of Personal Sound Manipulation almost covered up his Healing Factor. _Wasn't he the Mayor's son?_ I thought. _Right, he got powers to cheat at baseball. Dick._

New Wave was a tight group, chatting with each other. Brandish was giving me a death glare. _No surprise there._ Actually, she wasn't glaring at me, she was glaring at Amelia. _Classy._ Lady Photon had the White & Purple of Kinetic Force Fields, Shielder's flames were White & Blue, same power but with a shield specialization, and Laserdream had the same power with a Beam Specialization written in White & Red. _I'm sensing a theme._ Flashbang was there, and he didn't _seem_ depressed, but having been depressed myself I knew that didn't mean shit. His Green & White Flames of Photon Grenades were dim, but not as bad as Panacea's had been when I first met her. Finally, Manpower's Gold & White flames burned brightly as he was cloaked in his Personal Electromagnetic Control. Taking time to study it, his power took his own electromagnetism and built it up into a power all its own, similar to how Battery could work, but without the charge timers and far more open ended.

Stupid Sexy Oliver was still in uniform chatting with the other PRT, but he was the only member of the Travelers I could see. That just left the unknown cape, cloaked in darkness. As close as they were to her, it took me a second to realize the Black & Purple flames surrounding her _were_ flames in the first place, and not an Aura as I first thought. More surprising was her powers. She had Shadow Construction, able to create ghostly objects from darkness itself. The constructs actually existed in the same dimension that Grue and Sophia used, so they'd absorb free energy, but it came with a secondary setting. She could shift into a state similar to Sophia's, but too much light on her skin would force her out. Not sure about lasers, but a sunny day would stop her. More importantly, when in this state her shadow creations did not exist in that other dimension, but _this_ one.

More than that though, she had a secondary power, which, seeing everyone in the room, I could tell was patterned as an inverse to Clockblocker's. To put it simply, time powers _did not affect her_. Full stop. I _needed_ that power, dearly. No matter how powerful I was, Grey Boy would still make his bitch when he returned without it, and Khonsu even more than that. _Well, you don't **know** she's a hero,_ part of me pointed out.

This presented me with a problem. Technically, by the restrictions I'd set, I shouldn't grab it if the option presented itself. _Okay, why?_ I asked myself. _Why am I not copying the powers of heroes?_ _Because it removes what makes them special._ It sounded silly, even in my own head, but if I didn't draw a line somewhere, I could very easily go mad with my greed for power, just like everyone else who had a similar ability. _I'm no Uchiha._

 _What about Taylor, Victoria, and Amelia?_ that inner voice prodded. _They're heroes and you copied their power?_

 _And the support I've given them has more than balanced their scales. Taylor isn't a villain, Amy isn't going slowly crazy, and Vicky isn't going to get flesh-coffined!_ I argued with myself, wondering for my sanity when I felt like I could lose an argument to myself, but I was _right_ damnit!

 _And you can't help her?_ it proposed.

I snorted internally, _I don't even know her cape name. And before you start, I only grabbed Missy's to save her life, Miss Militia **shot me in the back** , and are you really going to argue that Armsdick and Brandish are heroes?_

 _Point,_ that part of me gave, _but on the other hand,_ _you're not copying her shadow construction. Heck, she probably doesn't even know about her other power! Copying that wouldn't go against the spirit of my resolution at all._ I growled to myself, Herb and Taylor both glancing at me. I needed a second opinion.

Gathering insects from below, I pulled together a small swarm in the air vents two floors below us. 'I need your advice', I wrote.

She looked over at me incredulously, asking Amy to wait for a minute. The healer looked between the two of us, nodding slowly. "Take your time," she assured. "Is something wrong?"

I shook my head as Taylor took over the scribe swarm, spelling 'why me?'

Looking at her, I raised an eyebrow. 'Because, while utilitarian, you're a moral person.' I formed.

She looked down, hiding her masked face with her hair as she wrote 'No I'm not.'

'The trio don't have fleas. You are.' I wrote back, reforming the swarm to spell 'I don't copy heroes powers unless I have to to save them, but the dark lady has one I _need_.'

Taylor looked through the Swarm to focus on the woman I was referring to. 'Paninla?'

I formed a crude bust of myself, which shrugged, 'If you say so.'

'Why do you need her shadows?' Taylor asked.

'Not that, her _other_ power. She's immune to time powers.'

Taylor's control over the Swarm slipped for a moment as she looked at me in shock. ' ** _What?_** _'_

I nodded once, 'You see my dilemma.'

'Can you copy that?' she asked, which was actually a really good question. If I couldn't then this entire thing was academic, but I had an unidentifiable feeling it _wasn't_. _Master ability?_ I panicked, but I didn't feel the slightest bit of anger. Okay, I still wanted to punch Ollie in his handsome face, but other than that? Nothing. 'what's wrong?' she pressed, looking concerned.

I shook my head. 'Assume I can.' I spelled. 'Should I?'

She considered this. 'Why do you need it.'

'Time-Based Endbringer.'

She went entirely still as she dumped her emotions into the Swarm: Shock, Anger, Fear, Confusion, and much more. 'There will be a time-based endbringer?'

 _Shit, did I not mention that?_ 'Pull your emotions back when you can. Also, yes, but not for a while.'

She took a deep breath, shuddering as she pulled her emotions back. Panacea gave her a concerned look but she nodded her head. 'Yes.'

'Yes what?' I wrote back, keeping the yes intact.

'If it helps you fight an Endbringer. Yes.' she elaborated, doing the same. 'what does it do?'

'Khonsu's main attack is column of sped up time that ages anyone caught inside to death,' I wrote, reforming it to add, 'but the area lights up for a few seconds first. It also flies. And teleports.'

She shook her head, 'Wouldn't be an Endbringer if it were nice. Yes, take the power.' She hesitated before she grabbed my hand under the table, adding 'I don't want you to die.'

'Same. Thank you.' I spelled out, returning the gesture and resetting the scribe swarm to its blank state, keeping it together in case we needed it again. Amelia glanced at me and I shook my head, "Later." She gave me a slow nod, picking up her conversation with Taylor, who pulled her hand back and stumbled over her words a little, but regained her composure.

Leaning back, mind made up, I waited until it was time and casually noted the PRT throughout the room. They were congregated by the exit, by the stage, and by _us._ Olliver's group closest to us, which I was of two minds about. Wait staff circulated around the room, taking everyone's dinner order, getting to our table last. _This was intentional then_ , I thought. As the waiters had moved all around us first. _Or possibly not_ , I amended, as the waiter approach, fear ill-hidden.

After taking our orders he practically scampered off, and people started to settle down into their seats. _Showtime._ Vicky wandered back, smiling when she saw Amy & Taylor talking. Taking her seat, her sister smiled at her, "Hey Vicks,"

"Hey Ames," she replied, "having a good time?"

Panacea nodded, "We're talking about the how the hydrostatic nature of spider muscles optimizes speed and efficiency over the versatility of mammalian flexors and extenders!"

Her sister blinked, "Um, sounds fascinating."

"It is!" Panacea reassured her, Taylor nodding in excited agreement.

The room started to darken, lights coming up on the stage, and a woman in a black sequined dress walking up to the podium. "Thank you all for coming today as we honor the heroes who helped save our city from gang violence gone rampant." She waved her hands around and down, indicating New Wave, who had the good graces to look uncomfortable with the undeserved praise, the Wards and the PRT heroes. Notably left out was our two tables in the back of the group, off to the side of the room. _They aren't even being subtle about the snub. Oh yeah, this video's going out._

She introduced Mayor Christner, an older, only slightly overweight man in his fifties. He once again thanked "…the efforts of the heroes of our city, among others." From the way he said it he _could_ have meant us, but his gestures indicated the PRT. A scattered selection of those attending glanced back towards us, some in concern, some in fear, and some in obvious disagreement with what was being said, but most acted like we didn't exist. The speech started to drag, and I wondered if he'd hurt his shoulder, with how hard he was patting himself on the back. That or gag, given how hard he was sucking the PRT's di-

Æonic shot to his feet and jumped on the table, leaping from it as the traps in the centerpieces went off. The milky-yellow of containment foam spewed out, hitting the domes of air and solidifying as he yelled "Incoming!"

Not even bothering to stand I flew backwards, dragging Taylor with me as the PRT officers nearby turned their foam sprayers on us, that magnificent bastard Oliver leading. Glory Girl grabbed Panacea, and Herb did the same for Purity, whose glow ratcheted up as she shouted in outrage.

With a flash of light the table overturned, protecting Rune and Crusader from the PRT close by. Miss Militia pulled her weapon up, formed it into a shotgun, which fired something sparking across the ballroom towards Æonic, who dodged it adroitly.

My brother made a bee-line for the Mayor, twisting out of the way of every shot, New Wave starting to get to their feet when there was a sharp crack intermingled with the crash of breaking glass behind us as everyone within thirty feet of Æonic froze in place. There, hanging in the air a few feet from the Mayor's head and pointing right at it, was a thumb sized bullet.


	87. Premiere 8-8

**Premiere 8.8**

As half the room fell into chaos and the other half remained frozen in time, I turned to look at who just tried to _snipe_ the Mayor with a _fifty-caliber bullet._ Before Taylor and I could mobilize what little Swarm we'd gathered I twisted out of the way of the next shot, my Aerokinesis nudging it off its course for my forehead. The third was nudged away from me as well, the shooter covered in biting insects before he could take a fourth.

Taylor took over the Swarm as I scanned the room for threats. I tried to ride along her connection to try keep track of everything going on in the room, but the change in perspective, along with the variety of responses, was too disorienting and forced me to look around myself, wasting time. As the PRT tried to foam us and the unfrozen Protectorate moved to engage us, the doors to the kitchen slammed open and two men in full E88 regalia armed with submachine guns rushed out. "Race traitors don't deserve to live!" shouted one. "Brockton Bay belongs to the Empire!" yelled the other, both opening fire.

Miss Militia, who had been moving to shoot Herb, turned to fire on them but was forced to take cover along with everyone else. Pushing Taylor behind me as I flew us both in front of Amy & Vicky, I nudged the ballistic spray that would've hit them, redirecting a few rounds to land on the crystallized shields in my palm to give the appearance that I caught them. "Get to safety!" I yelled as what little common sense was left in the gala evaporated, attendees shrinking back in fear, hiding behind the tables but _not leaving_. _At least snubbing us helped a little_ , I noted, as we were free to move, not surrounded by terrified rich people.

Inside the bubble of stopped time Paninla charged Æonic, pushing him back as he avoided her electrified baton, hands held up. _She can't hear whatever he's saying_ , I realized. With time frozen, things would be utterly silent, meaning he couldn't tell her why he did what he did. Worse, several dozen bullets had been caught at the edge of his bubble, and if he were to drop it at least five of the innocents held in stasis would be riddled with lead. My own power lashed out, taking her anti-time power ability for my own. I could feel it kick in immediately, and when I tried to turn it off, it refused.

Before I could focus on it further there was a _crack_ and the gathered forms of Faultline, Gregor, and Newter all dropped out of sight beside me, leaving behind a perfectly circular hole in the floor. _Good._ I'd pressed to invite the villains here and if they got hurt it would partly be my fault.

As one of the E88 reloaded, Miss Militia shot him with a taser round, but other than twitching as it sparked on his arm, it did nothing. _High or hardcore?_ I wondered. The _second_ PRT team tried to spray us with foam as well, seemingly ignoring the E88 _right next to them_ , but Purity hurled a blast of light into the tide of yellow-white. The detonation threw the foam back at them, covering them with it.

I moved Taylor and Panacea back towards the appetizers, and safety, While the Lady Bug started to pull the Swarm up towards us, our lofty location vastly reducing the pool she could call on. If the fight dragged on it would be useful, but the top floors of this building were regrettably clean.

A third E88 came from another doorway and fired a shotgun point blank at Purity, but Herb was there the instant before the thug pulled the trigger, arms raised to cover his face, blocking the shot with his body.

With a roar my partner shot forward, bleeding form shifting into his familiar Ankylosaur as he spun, mace-tail impacting the Nazi with a crunch. His broken body hurled through the air, impacting the frozen time and stopping mid-air, limbs crushed to pulp.

While this was happening the other two Nazis turned to hose the unfrozen crowd with fire. Enter appeared in front of them, twenty feet from Break, form shifting into a stegosaurus which shielded the civilians with its bulk. While I tried to protect the villains from one side, Rune and Crusader held off the PRT on the other, and Oliver was nowhere in sight.

Rune had both tables now, turned on their side as shields, while Crusader sent ghosts through them to tackle and beat the PRT with his mail-clad fists. I realized that I should do more, but there was _too_ much going on _too_ fast and if I moved those who'd I'd brought with me might be shot by the E88, which included Rune and Crusader, which was just _odd._

Gallant fired a blue beam up over the overturned table the Wards had taken cover behind, the table-cloth hanging in the air unnaturally. _Frozen in time_ , I realized, the dozen crushed metal slugs on the ground a testament to its utility as a bulwark. The beam, bent by Vista's power, hit one of the gunmen who staggered back from the force but didn't stop firing. The thug's face, still twisted in rage, was unchanged by whatever emotion he _should've_ been feeling.

As the civilians nearby screamed in fright I saw the hole that Faultline's crew was cut was covered in an impenetrable black cloud. A touch of power use showed the Undersiders scrambling towards it, Brian leading Sarah and Aisha to safety. From the Wards a crossbow bolt shot at Grue, but he dived for cover and it struck a blinded civilian instead, the tranquilizer knocking her out.

Rune moved a third table to cover them while Taylor, _finally_ getting to cover with Panacea, fully took over the Swarm and freeing me to attack. I started to fly towards the gunmen when the sniper, covered with stinging, biting insects seemed to throw himself off the roof. Path diverted, I flew out the broken window to grab him, if only to ask some goddamned _questions_. Something about this entire damn thing felt _off_. I'd been expecting the Travelers, _not_ the E88, and this didn't seem like Kaiser's style! I just didn't have enough time to figure out _why!_ _If only Velocity was a villain!_

Matching the snipers speed, I grabbed him by the arm, wrapping him in a Lift Field and stopping his surely fatal fall. He stopped flailing immediately and pulled out a pistol, shooting me four times in the head without hesitation, smirking in a way that seemed oddly familiar. Every round flattened itself the crystalline shield over my face, not draining it. The thug looked shocked, before smirking again, smoothly lifting up the gun to his head and pulling the trigger over and over again. The first round drained the shield protecting him, the second struck true, and the third, likely just a reflexive movement by this point, did even more damage as his body went slack.

I couldn't very well drop his body into the street, so turned and flew back to the fight, glad my costume was self-cleaning as the corpse leaked crimson fluid. Coming level with the shattered window Rune and Crusader flew out, both riding on an overturned table, the bottoms of each covered in containment foam, with the third behind them, screening them from fire. "We didn't fuckin' know!" Crusader called to me as we passed each other.

"I believe you!" I called back, "Get home safe!"

He nodded and I flew back to the battlefield, negligently dropping the body to the side as I took in the room. Panacea was with Taylor, safe from fire, and the Travelers had made an appearance. Ballistic was firing off chairs and place settings at everyone, but especially those in the time-bubble, and the Wards, along with Assault & Battery, were fighting a giant fucking snake. Clockblocker touched it, only for the scale he touched to come free and the snake-thing to reach around to bite him, mouth full of fangs dripping venom.

Gallant shot it with a bright red ball of energy, knocking it off course, and as I tried to close a chair hit my right arm like a cannonball, draining the shield and knocking me towards the time-bubble. Flying up I dodged it, not wanting to show it didn't affect me, and the chair was held in place when it hit the frozen time. I ducked a serving dish, taking Ballistic's power for my own, and started to head towards him, ready to beat some answers out of him. To my side Glory Girl dropped down from above to strike one of the shooters.

A moment before she struck there was a loud pop and the gunman was replaced with Panacea's crouched form, which was the only thing that let her sister divert her blow, striking the ground instead of her sister's skull, putting her fist through the hardwood floor. _Trickster._ The Nazi's reprieve didn't last long as Taylor swarmed him, my friend leaping for cover as he shot wildly towards her at point blank range.

Darting back in towards him when his aim went wide, Orichalcum baton in hand, she struck the gun with a thunderous crack, the weapon breaking apart and the man's hand becoming mangled by shrapnel. Without concern for his wound the shooter immediately pulled out a pistol and tried to shoot her, but Taylor was just as fast, hitting that as well, with similar results. The Nazi, bleeding heavily from both ruined limbs, charged her but she dodged out of the way, only for him to pitch right out the window with no one available to catch him.

While this was going on the second gunman turned and tried to shoot the sisters, but pulled back when Panacea reached for him, a blue beam from Gallant fouling his aim even further. The Nazi stiffened before shouting "I'm not going back to prison to get raped by rancid ragheads _again_!" before turning his gun on himself, doing enough damage that even Panacea couldn't save him.

Gallant froze, staring at the dead Nazi. The giant snake, likely Genesis, took the opportunity to strike at him, but twisted in mid air and struck a table instead. Aborting my run towards Ballistic I started to fly to help the Wards, dodging a flying table only to get struck in the chest by a knife made of dark green smoke which drained a shield as it lost cohesion.

It smelled _terrible_ , and I turned towards where it came from. A new girl, likely in her teens and what appeared to be fetish wear, looked at me, shocked. She ran her fingers over the tablecloth next to her, leaving behind a second scorch mark, nearly identical to the other that surface sported. The smoke that rose from the smoldering fabric collected in her other hand, taking on a green tint. As I flew towards her she threw out her arm, the fumes forming into another knife and shooting towards me.

Twisting out of the way of the blade I closed, only to be struck in the side and knocked off into a pile of decorations. Wincing, as _that_ shield hadn't recharged yet, I turned to see an Asian man in a red leather trench coat, body armor visible beneath it, His face was covered with a black bandana with red stripes, a wide brimmed red fedora on his head. More importantly, six tentacles of fire reached out from his back, five twisting back and forth, snake-like, one retracting from where it had hit me. On the end of each of his tentacles was an alien looking head: eyeless and with a mouth full of fangs that protruded from their closed mouths, like something from the depths of the ocean. From the feel of the blow he hadn't bit me with one, merely punched it forward to headbutt me. I felt my ribs gingerly, wincing. _Damn,_ I thought. _Feels like I've been hit with a sledgehammer._ My costume couldn't be pierced but didn't do _shit_ against blunt force trauma.

Before I could come up with a strategy with my powerset that _didn't_ show I was immune to fire Battery shot forward, trailing electricity as she tried to strike this new cape. He jumped ten feet in the air, fire eel arm things hitting the ground to either side and throwing him up and over her effortlessly. I tried to move forward to help, only to be struck by a centerpiece from Ballistic, draining the shield on my other side, broken glass flying everywhere but unable to pierce my costume. Battery moved to strike the fire guy again, but there was another pop and he was replaced by a man with in a rumpled tuxedo who cried out in fright. She pulled back, only for the girl to pull the smoke the fire-villain had created when his arms had touched the floor and blow it in the heroine's face in a verdant stream, the older woman choking and falling over.

Getting clipped in the leg with a flying chair for my distraction, I rushed for Battery, twisting out of the way of another fire eel, which tried to _follow_ me, pulling back once it was fifteen feet long. Flying into the noxious fumes, I yelled, "Assault!" getting his attention and throwing his wife towards him. His head snapped over and, seeing Battery, glared at me with murder in his eyes before realizing what I'd done and froze in shock. He broke out of it in an instant, moving to catch her easily and bleeding off her momentum into a chair which crumpled in on itself.

Looking back I saw that Taylor had swarmed Ballistic, the Traveler shooting them off one handful at a time, but it didn't help him against the Swarm. With another pop he was replaced with a woman who screamed in terror before passing out.

Opening my Power Sight to take in the battlefield, despite what distractions it might cause, I caught the Eggplant Purple & Seafoam Green Aura of Transposition shining from a man in a suit who seemed to cower behind a table. His power reached out as he waved his hand, transposing Ballistic with someone else as Glory Girl closed on the momentum infuser, causing her to shout in frustration.

I started to charge Trickster as I heard the sound of a shotgun going off. Miss Militia had shot Genesis with something that left the projection bleeding from multiple wounds, and it had two tranq bolts sticking out of it, but the false body moved as if it were perfectly fine. It twisted towards the woman and she shot again, knocking it backwards. As the weapon shifted to a rifle and she took aim for its head Miss Militia leapt backwards, a jet of flame licking out where she just was. An androgynous woman in bright colors flipped over the snake and swung a hammer at Miss Milita, pushing her back even farther.

By the time I was almost on Krouse, ready to take him down, he glanced up at me and winked at me from behind his mask as his power reached out, switching himself with _another_ innocent. _This breaks the unwritten rules in so many ways it isn't even funny_ , I raged, immediately turning to follow him. If I could cut loose, he wouldn't be more than a _smear_ , but I needed to play the role of the PR friendly hero. I knew no amount of pointing out how he was trying to _get innocents killed_ would mollify the control freaks in the PRT, and until Leviathan hit they were a group I _couldn't_ afford to be in open conflict with.

Herb closed on Ballistic, but the Traveler was swapped with the same person Trickster just swapped himself with. The villain shot off the chair he'd been holding struck my other leg as I tried to dodge the enemy at my back, draining _another_ shield. _Shit, I've got the ones on my feet, my head, and the one in my palm. Fuck it, I'll just remove a limb._ Drawing my pistol, I turned to shoot Ballistic but he took cover. My Speed Zone enhanced rounds punched right through the table he hid behind, but they weren't enough to do so _and_ get through his armor.

I heard Herb yell "NO!", grabbing my attention. Purity, about to blast Trickster, checked her fire.

The Traveler, whose power was ready to switch him with Assault, the hero unaware of anything else as he crouched over his downed wife, frowned. "Oh you're no fun!" the Traveler taunted, shifting his power to Ballistic. Switching himself, the other Traveler opened his hands toward Purity, broken glass flying towards her at high speed.

She dodged out of the way and I sighted in on Trickster, who had no armor to attenuate my shots. His power flared again, but I was already turning as he switched us, ready to put this asshole _down_. I wouldn't kill him, but that still left me a _lot_ of options. I pulled the trigger, but Genesis came from the side, tanking my three remaining shots. Her broken body hit the ground, twitching, and as I moved to reload Trickster glared at me. "Guns? That's cheating," He declared from across the room, his power reaching for the Wards.

"So's using innocents as meat shields," I glowered, slamming the new mag home as I closed on him, hoping to hit him before he could finalize his next switch. Trickster switched himself with a table before he threw himself out the window, making me unable to hit him without curving the bullet, switching himself with Gallant in my moment of hesitation.

"NO!" yelled Glory Girl, blasting off after him as I swung my gun around to kill Krouse. Clockblocker turned to tag Trickster but he switched himself with Miss Militia, who was promptly temporally frozen.

Dancing backwards, away from the swarm of insects coming for him, Trickster waved his hand and Ballistic disappeared, replaced with a cabinet from the next building over. I moved to shoot the bastard, but he switched himself with the Sophia, who fired her crossbow at me reflexively. She swore as I dodged the bolt, the delay giving him enough time to jump out the window again, passing Glory Girl who had her hands full holding onto Gallant.

I wanted to follow the Traveler, hunt him down like I had Oni Lee, but I _couldn't_ leave my team behind. Looking around, Circus and the two new capes were gone, the doorway the original two E88 had come through was obscured with thick clouds of greenish smoke. Herb and Enter were going into it to pull out the bodies of the staff, bits of forest green vapor drifting from the mouths of those they rescued as they breathed shallowly. Break and his stand handed off those people to Purity and Taylor who moved them down into growing rows, being careful not to breathe in the poisonous mist.

Genesis' corpse was dissolving into the air, and there wasn't any sign of the others, meaning this battle was effectively over, though that _wasn't_ guaranteed. Paninla and Æonic were working together now, moving back and forth in the stopped time to redirect the projectiles and maneuver those frozen in place out of harm's way when that wasn't possible. Amusingly both active PRT teams were now encased in containment foam, thankfully neutralizing them.

Panacea was crouched over Battery and I moved over to see if I could help, holstering my empty pistol. Assault stepped in my way, "You've done enough!" he challenged.

"What's the smoke, Panacea?" I asked over his shoulder, completely ignoring him.

"Paralytic," she called back as Battery started coughing, trying to sit up, "Not lethal, but can cause mild lung damage." The healer shrugged, "It's still smoke."

Assault started to say something, but I'd already turned my back on him, flying over to the green cloud as I mimed pulling something from a belt pouch and covered my nose and mouth with my costume shaped into a white and red breath mask. I helped Herb pull people out of the poison-filled kitchen, in part just to give myself time to _think_. For whatever reason, the smoke wasn't dispersing as fast as it should, but it wasn't expanding out into the ballroom either, for which I was immensely grateful.

It was the work of only a few minutes, Panacea moving from person to person, each one coughing up fumes and curling up into the fetal position after she was done. I started to move to do something else, I wasn't sure what, when Panacea grabbed my arm. "I need you for Vista," she said unhurriedly, but in a way that spoke of psychological distance, not unconcern.

"What _about_ Vista?" I asked, as she led me to the girl hidden behind a table, frozen in a spasm. "The snake bit her," she motioned to the frozen tween, a puncture wound in her thigh. "Clockblocker froze her, but I can't get a read on her until she unfreezes. I might need your help."

I bit back my first reply at the small girl, curled up on herself, face a rictus of agony. Keeping my emotions controlled, I nodded to the Ward in question and stripped off a glove. "Good call," I told him as I resolved to out Genesis' power to the PRT.

"Thanks?" he replied nervously. "She's gonna be okay, right? I mean, you guys are both healers, so she'll be fine, right?"

I put a hand on his shoulder, "We've handled worse. Same setup as Sundancer?" I asked Amelia.

She bit her lip before nodding, "Yes, as soon as you can. How much longer will this last Clockblocker?"

He shrugged and I Saw his power. It was affected by a whole mess of factors that I barely understood but were slowly revealing themselves as I Watched him. Before I could decode more than a dozen factors, ranging from ambient temperature to stellar radiation levels, his power removed itself from Vista and she shuttered, biting back screams of pain. We were on her in an instant; I grabbed one hand, pushing 'Get Better' as much as I could, while Panacea grabbed the other, doing the _actual_ healing.

The wound in her wept dark fluid as she slowly relaxed, her reaction reducing itself to muffled whimpers. As the hole in her leg closed up she went limp, falling asleep. "She'll be fine," Panacea promised as I suited back up, glancing at me for a second before facing Clockblocker fully. "Just make sure she gets enough to eat to replace what she's lost. The usual."

We walked towards her sister and Panacea divulged, "It wasn't lethal, but would've activated every pain receptor it could while it ran its course." I nodded, sighing, and winced at the pain it brought. "You're hurt!" she exclaimed reaching a hand towards my face before pulling it back, "Can I?"

"Of course," I replied, pulling back the costume covering my face and allowing her to do her work, the pain in my side quickly fading. "Thanks," I smiled, re-covering my face. "I ran into the same problem I was warning your sister about." At her curious look I shook my head, "Later."

As we neared Glory Girl, who was fussing over her boyfriend, I looked around, making sure we had no more threats incoming. Taylor had blanketed the rooftops all around us with the Swarm, making sure _no-one_ else tried the same trick. I considered hardening the air in the window, but with the wind blowing in from it, doing so would be _incredibly_ obvious. Everyone was either healed or only lightly injured, and while the non-frozen two-thirds of the room was a mess, it wasn't _that_ bad.

 _At least I didn't have to fight Sundancer_ , I mused as Vicky demanded her sister check over Gallant, with the Ward saying he was fine. _With the close quarters, I would've had to reveal my heat immunity to stop this from getting worse._ Actually, where _was_ Marissa? At this thought my Power Sight kicked on, revealing the threads coming from my costume that connected it to the others I'd made from it.

Bitch's was pointing off in the direction of the Undersider's base, as was Regent's. Sarah's, Aisha's, and Grue's were all together, in generally the same direction and moving slowly. The domino mask I'd made for Taylor was still in our base and Newter's was north-west, but he hadn't been wearing it at the Gala so that didn't really mean anything. Marissa's however, was pointing south-east and down at an angle that suggested she was on the first few floors of a nearby building, but staying still. _That makes no sense_ , I thought, _If she was nearby she should've fought or still be running. If only this thing gave distance then I could determine. . ._ I froze as I realized what that could mean. If she was farther away than I thought that would mean she was _in Coil's base_. If she was then I could _find_ it and I wouldn't need to wait for Leviathan _to save Dinah!_

 _Stop. Think,_ I commanded myself, keeping my expression neutral. Okay, so if Coil kept this timeline, I would know where his base was, and if he didn't, then I wouldn't. How long would it take for him to decide? Three days would be guaranteed, but if I could save her sooner, I _needed_ to do so. Coil did his best to make sure he was in two different places at all times, so he needed to keep to a regular work-day schedule. That meant if he was going to do anything, it likely wouldn't be in the wee hours of the morning. Following that supposition, if I planned to do something at, say, two in the morning, the chances something would come up was slim. Following _that_ , and given that he'd have either gone with another timeline or this one by this time tomorrow, I resolved to follow that lead then. Thirty minutes to track it down, thirty minutes to find Dinah, and at three in the morning _exactly_ I'd strike in both possible timelines, saving Dinah at the same instant in both.

"What's wrong?" Panacea asked nervously, startling me. "You had an. . . intense look." I studied her, wondering what I could tell her, especially here. "What wrong?" she reiterated.

"Nothing you need to worry about right now," I reassured her. Directing insects to the cameras in case I needed to gather them in a hurry, I noticed Æonic walking towards me.

"I'm ready to drop the bubble," he said as Herb and Purity walked over, the former healed but with his tux riddled with bloody holes, the latter growing a bright white and not touching down, thankfully uninjured. "Sorry I couldn't help with the fight, I-" he started to apologize quietly, accent gone.

"Dude, it's fine," I told him putting a hand on his shoulder. "You saved the mayor and locked down, like, half the battlefield."

"I did, didn't I?" he said to himself, smile evident in his tone. Stiffening as he noticed Gallant, he continued in his pseudo-southern accent, stepping away from me, "But of course. Moving before your opponent has _time_ to react assures victory."

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes, "Sure man." Noticing the Protectorate grouping together as one, I added quietly, "If things go bad: Vicky, grab your sister; Break, grab Æonic. I'll grab The Lady, Bug; and Purity, hit the floor between us with a low powered blast. I want flash and dust, not destruction. Everyone understand?" I received a chorus of nods and Charlie's power flickered, ending his time-stop.

There was a cacophony of sound as every projectile sent into the bubble sped through it, crashing into the back wall, and each-other, the people below crying out in surprise and fright as many found themselves in completely new positions. The containment foam sprayers on the backs of the previously frozen PRT agents exploded outwards, trapping the troopers and guests alike in the substance. I shot a glance at my little brother who held up his hands in a 'what?' gesture as he shrugged, turning one wrist to show the tip of the blade up his sleeve.

"Assassin's Creed?" I asked, thinking of where he got the idea.

"Tis truly a noble code," he quipped back.

Dean took this as a signal to rejoin the rest of the Wards and New Wave looked around at the devastation, hands glowing with their respective powers. Triumph picked himself off the floor and moved quickly to protect his father, who appeared to have been moved on top of the woman who announced the Gala. _Real classy Chuckles._ However all of the party-goers seemed to be alright, and I could see Velocity blurring up to twenty times speed as he took in all the details, zipping forward to Miss Militia, followed by Dauntless.

"Wait here," I instructed, calmly walking towards the group of heroes, who tensed. I stopped halfway and waited. New Wave edged forward, forming the third point of the triangle our respective groups made, though it was clear that if push came to shove they'd side with the 'heroes'.

Miss Militia strode forward, flanked by Dauntless & Velocity. _Three on one? Lovely_. _At least her gun is holstered._ _Mine isn't._ "Vejovis," She greeted me, stopping five feet away.

"Militia," I returned, ready to destroy the floor between us with a super-powered stomp if things turned ugly. Ugly-er. "Dauntless. Velocity," I greeted, pointing out the unequal numbers.

"Thank you for your assistance, but you'll need to come with us for a few questions," she said without preamble. Velocity sped up a moment while Dauntless glanced at her in surprise.

At this point I wasn't even upset, just disappointed. "No."

"You attacked PRT personnel," she shot back quietly. "That's a crime."

I opened my arms, replying in a clear carrying voice. "We saved your city, fought off Empire assassins, the Travelers, and people _I've_ never seen before, and in doing so put ourselves in harms way to defend the people here. Now after we've been injured doing just that, divested of our normal arms and armor to an event that was _supposed_ to be safe, the Protectorate is trying to arrest us when your PRT ambushed us moments before the Empire tried to kill us all? I wonder if _all_ of the centerpieces at this gala had grenades in them, or if ours were just _special._ Now, more than ever, I'm glad I didn't join the Protectorate, if this is how they act. Those that came with me are leaving. Please do not attack us as we do so, or we will be forced to act, yet again, in _self-defense_. I, for one, have had enough of fighting for a while."

Turning my back on her I started to move back to the team, watching her through the Swarm now that things had calmed down. She made no move to stop me, but Brandish did. "You're just going to let them go?" the unhinged 'heroine' demanded. Assault looked like he wanted to add in his two cents, but Battery's coughing dragged his attention off this confrontation. I didn't break stride, and Brandish charged forward, hard-light sword in hand. A light purple wall sprang up between us, wrapping around the woman when she reached it. _And, Cut._ I nodded once to Lady Photon, who didn't look happy, and pulled on the Swarm, gathering the still intact cameras to Lady Bug as I returned to the group.

"I believe we have overstayed our welcome. It will likely be best if we leave, before the PRT, Coil, _or_ the Empire try something else," I announced. Herb nodded, smiling, while Victoria looked at her mother sadly. I offered my arm to Taylor, who took it, and the seven of us flew out the broken window into the cool spring night.


	88. Premiere 8-9

**Premiere 8.9**

Purity peeled off to head back home and Herb vanished into the night to drop off Charlie at his base. The four of us that were left headed back to base, flying low once we entered the railyard. Walking inside the door I stretched, ready to pop over to my room to take a quick shower. I knew the costume cleaned me off, but after that clusterfuck I needed something to relax me. "Everyone, wash up. I'll make dinner for us, since we didn't get it there. Any requests?"

"Waffles!" Glory put forward immediately, heading to her room. "Ew, I've got Nazi in my hair."

"Um. . ." Taylor said, looking down the hallway of bedrooms. "Which one should I use?"

I shrugged, waving around at the doors, the displays set into the doors showing the names of the occupants, the other eight named 'Guest', "One that hasn't been claimed." Leaving her to it I headed inside, shrinking my costume to a wristwatch and an anklet as I let the water flow over me. After a few minutes, which was far too short, but I didn't have the time to be there any longer, I washed up. There was just something psychologically _refreshing_ about properly bathing that I hadn't realized I'd been missing. Stepping out I extended my costume to civilian gear: jeans, t-shirt, sneakers, and shades, automatically drying myself off as I left my room.

Connecting the cameras I'd hidden during the fight to the server hub, I downloaded the videos to the base's network, sending them as an attachment to Quinn as a 'heads up' on what happened. Back in the kitchen I started whipping up breakfast for dinner: waffles, maple bacon, and scrambled eggs. I discover that an unexpected benefit of being immune to heat was that I didn't need to worry about splatters of flying grease, the penance one normally paid for the deliciousness that was bacon.

Taylor was out first and took over the waffle-iron while I minded the rest, the two of us working together as Herb entered. He looked at us, laughed, and ambled over to his room, likely to change out of his bloody, ragged suit. Amelia came out, making tea and taking a seat as we set everything out, Herb and Vicky emerging moments later. Digging into the spread we ate in companionable silence.

"So," I said after a bit. "That happened." Herb and Vicky nodded in agreement. "And god that was a shitshow."

Herb shrugged, "It coulda been better. Do ya know who the flaming guy and the smokin' hot chick were?"

"Phrasing," I rebuked, but my heart wasn't in it. "No, I'll look into it later." I glanced over at Taylor and Panacea. "Sorry."

The two shared a look. "Why?" Panacea asked. "We're fine," Taylor added.

"I still put you in the middle of the fighting," I countered. "I-"

"What did you think was going to happen?" Amy interrupted.

I shrugged, "We'd already short-circuited what originally happened, but I expected the Travelers to crash the party. Maybe for the PRT to overreact a little."

"Not the E88?" she pressed.

"No!" I exclaimed, offended. "If I knew it was a live-fire situation I would've asked you to stay home, or short of that made sure you were armored!" I nodded towards Amelia & Victoria, "Or had a Swarm to call upon in an instant!" I nodded towards Taylor.

"Then it wasn't your fault," shrugged Vicky, who had folded a waffle around her bacon and eggs to make a sandwich.

"But, I made sure you were invited!" I objected.

"And they said yes," Herb reposted. "Their choice, and the Travelers weren't tryin' ta off anyone."

Vicky choked on her waffle, swallowing it with a large gulp. "That asshole threw Gallant out a _window_!"

Herb raised an eyebrow, "Yeah? It was obvious ya were goin' to go after him, so he tied up both of ya. Nah, the _PRT_ tried to get us killed."

Victoria started to object to this defense of the man who tried to kill her boyfriend, but Amelia interrupted her, "Why?"

He looked at both of them in confusion, "Because they were tryin' to tie us down while an asshole was shooting everywhere?" he more asked than stated.

I thought I understood where he was going with this, but sat back, listening. "Containment foam is bulletproof," Vicky dismissed.

"And it automatically, always covers all of you instantly? That's some impressive stuff," he marveled sarcastically.

Her brow furrowed, "What does that have to do with anything?"

Taylor however was nodding slowly. "I think. . . I think he's saying that the PRT would've made it so you couldn't protect yourself, so you couldn't take cover or dodge?" she suggested. Herb sat back, arms crossed, an expression of victory writ large across his face.

"But. . ." Vicky tried to object, got nothing, and backtracked to a topic she could win on, "But it wasn't your fault Vejy, and the PRT are supposed to help heroes!"

I blinked at that. _No they aren't, at least not here._ But she didn't know that, between Coil, Piggot's near-religious worship of the Status Quo, and Cauldron's para-feudalism experiment, they weren't going to do _shit_ here. "Okay, damn. . ." I started, thinking about this. We were getting into territory that was both need-to-know and _highly_ sensitive.

All of this was information that I hadn't planned to tell anyone that wasn't part of the Penumbral Defenders, but I could see _not_ telling them about Coil biting us _hard_. I glanced at Herb, wondering if I should ask his opinion. If this was two weeks ago I wouldn't have hesitated, if he hadn't manipulated me when it came Dinah, if he hadn't lied to my face, if he wasn't buying into that 'ends justify the means' bullshit he hated Cauldon for. If, _if, **if.**_

I once trusted him, planned with him, but he'd used that trust to his own ends. It was to help me, I could see that in his _twisted_ logic, but now, if I asked for his advice, I'd have to wonder if he was doing it again. If I thought he was, and ignored him, it would make things worse as he'd get offended, but even that might be a ploy to get me to do what he wanted if he thought it would help. It all came down to, ifs, and I hated it! This uncertainty, this betrayal, this lack of ability to _trust_.

Looking at the girls before me, I came to a decision. While emotional, they hadn't stabbed me in the back to ' _help'_ me. They hadn't made me complicit in something that I would _kill_ someone for if they weren't already my friend. They deserved to know this, and I trusted that they could handle it.

"Okay, so, Vicky, I know you were all 'no unmasking' but Coil's broken so many of the unwritten rules it isn't even funny," I started, trying to smile and failing. I had no idea if this was the right thing to do, and no one I could go to I trusted to help me with all this social bullshit. "He's raped, killed, tortured, and so much more, using his power to let him have his 'fun' without any consequences. His power allows him to split the timeline. In both he is able to act independently and use the knowledge he's gained in one timeline in the other. Once he's chosen a timeline, the other one collapses as if it never existed. He's fond of using one to torture people for information, doing horrible things to them, only to close that timeline with the information he's gained and the 'fun' he's had."

I shook my head, "Coil's real name? Thomas Calvert, Commander in the Brockton Bay PRT, and in a day or two he's going to release the identity of every member of the Empire Eighty-Eight."

Silence greeted the statement. The flat stare I received from Herb told me he didn't agree with telling the sisters but _fuck him._ I wouldn't have them caught and tortured, even in an alternate timeline, because they didn't know to be careful. "When you said he messed with the Nazis I thought it was because he was salty, 'cause he didn't get any credit. Not. . . _That._ " Vicky professed. "How'd he think he could get away with that?"

"By blamin' the Undersiders," Herb replied, possibly actually helping me, possibly just doing what he thought would 'help' _._ I paid close attention, both to what he said and what he _didn't_ say. "They know they work for him, so they'd think it was Kaiser bein' a tool, and it would give the Empire someone to fight, so the PRT has an excuse to go after 'em. Piggot can't handle chaos, so she'd screw the pooch, lookin' bad at her job, and put more pressure on her. She'd fuck up more and more, until she's kicked out, then Calvert slips in. If they put someone else in, Coil'd keep fuckin' 'em over until _they're_ kicked out and Calvert's put in."

"But the Undersiders wouldn't _do_ that," objected Taylor. "Tattletale told me about the rules and why I shouldn't break them the first day I met her. They're careful about that!"

"Yeah, but you know her," Herb stated, leaving it there.

At her obvious incomprehension I picked up the line of explanation. "Lady Bug, you saw her when she was trying to help you. Tattletale's got some pretty big inadequacy issues; it's why she pulls the entire 'I know your secrets' shtick on people on she shouldn't." Taylor frowned at me, but she didn't say anything.

"Think of it this way," I tried, "if she knows people's secrets, she _could_ use it to get along with people. Once you know what makes people tick it becomes incredibly easy to manipulate people. Say she knows you love dogs, but your parents wouldn't let you have another one when your first dog got hit by a truck and you cried for three days straight? She could make an offhand comment about dogs, or restrictive parents, or drunk drivers, because you believe that the driver _must've_ been drunk, because you can't think bear to think that person would ever do that on _purpose_."

"Dude, stay on topic," Herb prodded, and I noticed all three girls looking at me in sympathy.

"Never had a dog, just an example," I quickly backtracked. "But instead of doing any of that and gaining a sense of connection, humanizing herself to her foes and blunting their attacks she just brings it up out of no-where. She slaps you in the face with the long-forgotten memory of your dead dog, _which I didn't have_ , and re-opens a forgotten emotional wound merely to upset you and push you off balance. Glory Girl, you know how she called you Glory Hole?"

Vicky winced, "Yeah? If you're trying to make me feel bad for her, you're doin' a shit job Vejy."

I shook my head. "I'm not going for sympathy, just understanding. I assume you've been called similar things, by girls who saw that you were good looking and popular and were jealous. Since _they_ couldn't get people to like them nearly as much, likely because they were assholes and people noticed despite their attempts to hid it, they assumed _you_ must've cheated in some way to get the positive attention _they_ craved."

Her expression was one of surprise and dawning realization, likely never having thought about it that way, and I frowned back, unexpectedly reminded of the innocence of the girl I was training to fight and kill, "To women, cheating for attention normally means sexual favors, for a whole _host_ of reasons I'm _not going to touch_ , but it's a pretty simple assumption. That combined with your name provided a handful of guesses, and her power let her pick out the one you likely hated the most. Once that's done, tada! She knows _just_ the thing to call you to get under your skin. Figuring it all out in the moment from disparate facts is difficult, but backtracking after she's already done it? Much easier."

"Now Lady Bug," I continued, dragging the conversation back on track, "Tattletale now has a secret, a nickname her opponent hates, and it's one of _dozens_ of secrets she's gathered in a minute of banter. What did she do with it?" Now it was Taylor's turn to wince. "She revealed it to hurt her opposition, even when it made her _own_ situation more precarious," I said, naming what she'd already seen, making it _real_. "For _really_ bad secrets, the kind that can do permeant psychological and social damage to people if revealed in the _worst_ way possible, which is the _only_ way she reveals things, she blackmails instead. When dealing with both the villain _and_ hero communities Tattletale's _favorite_ game is 'I know something you don't want revealed', even when it's not appropriate. Do you think, knowing this, _any_ of them would bat an eye when they hear the rumor that her group outed the E88?"

Herb snorted, "Nah, they'd think she just went too far, like she's always dancin' on the edge of bein'."

Taylor frowned, "But how does that help _Coil?_ "

"Because if all the _other_ villains hate them, which at this point is just the Merchants, Faultline's Crew, and the Empire who are now being harried by the PRT because they've been outed, then the Undersiders are forced to work with Coil and the Travelers, who are _also_ under Coil's employ," I explained. "They can't leave, because Coil will make sure any organization they try to join will hear about what they've 'done', thus the Undersiders will have to do more and more questionable things, as they have no other options."

I shook my head, "That _one_ move will throw the most entrenched gang in the city into chaos, bind one of his deniable strike teams closer to him, _and_ force the PRT into the situation of trying to decide if they act on information that _blatantly_ broke the unwritten rules or do nothing and look incompetent to the greater public all in one strike." I leaned back in my chair and folded my arms. "Coil is many things, but stupid is _not_ one of them. He tried to have Æonic and I assassinated while the Truce was still in place, and-"

"And Purity," Herb added calmly. "That snake bitch is deader than a doornail on a shotgun shack."

"Not you?" I asked, interested. He shook his head. "Hmm," I replied thinking, _Definitely not telling him I have a possible lead on Coil's base then. I can't trust he'd just go try to kill him there before I can extract Dinah._ I nodded slowly, "Okay, but for best results you need to plan. If you have intel on where he'll be, make sure to plan a day in advance and _stick to the plan_. If you get a lead on his base, tell me so I can," I couldn't help but glance at Taylor, "Liberate his assets."

"Of course," he agreed immediately, as if I was silly to even ask. I repressed the twinge of guilt at the thought that his open honesty might just be another deception.

'Dinah?' Taylor wrote in insects in a nearby train car.

'Yes.' I replied, stating out loud, "So, the point of all of this is twofold. First of all, if you're captured, hold out. _Don't break_ , and know we'll be there to get you. He _can't_ keep that timeline because he'll _die_ in it, and if he keeps dying before he can see what's coming for him he'll stop trying. Second of all, _don't trust the PRT._ At best, he has moles. Hell, he _is_ a mole. At worst he's corrupted entire squads, who can capture you and make sure you _never_ reach the Rig. That's one of almost a _dozen_ reasons that I'll _never_ enter any PRT location without at least three plans to break out, and I suggest you avoid it completely if at all possible."

"Wait," Taylor said, panic creeping into her voice. "We've _worked_ with the PRT."

I nodded, "Yes, and if they had ambushed us, they would've _lost._ They didn't, which was nice, but I didn't let my guard down." She seemed to shrink into herself, "Lady Bug, there's nothing to feel bad about," I reassured her. "You didn't know to be on guard, and I didn't say anything because short of one of the Triumvirate suddenly showing up, we would've been fine."

"Now," I announced, stretching out. "It's been an eventful night, and things will likely still be a bit hectic in the next few days. Then we've got about a fortnight before the next disaster, but we'll talk about that later. Vicky, bring Dean over about noon-ish. Amy, there's a project that I'd like to discuss with you, but we can do that tomorrow morning. Lady Bug, do you need me to give you a lift home?"

"Um, ItoldmydadI'mstayingatafriend'sovernight," she blurted out in a rush.

Herb laughed and I shot him a confused glance, not seeing what was funny. Vicky suppressed a laugh while Amy gave her a sour look. "Okay," I shrugged, not really getting everyone's reaction, "Use the room you cleaned off in. There'll be clean clothes to sleep in in the dresser."

"Oh, right, thanks," she said, embarrassed, likely not thinking that far into this, just knowing that she was going to be out for an unknown amount of time. If the Gala had gone off without a hitch, she would've been home at about eleven, which was getting late enough to run into parental problems. I wish she'd asked, but she'd likely been focusing on her first appearance in a PR-friendly costume.

The girls all headed to bed while Herb cleaned up, giving me that 'you cooked, you don't clean' line, which I couldn't really argue with. Instead I headed to the computer room to review the fight. The videos were okay, not the best when it came to shot composition, but I hadn't thought to reposition them once everything started. The sound was okay, but the content. . .

To put it plainly, it was a mess. I could see myself getting diverted over and over again, never accomplishing anything. In retrospect, I could've used hardened air to protect Taylor & Amelia, freeing me to take down the shooters. Heck, even just closing instead of standing there like a dumbass would've helped. The shooters were standing still so the attack vectors would've had a single general source and moving closer wouldn't have stopped me from deflecting shots away from those that I'd invited. Doing so would've let the Protectorate regroup and jump the Travelers, letting us capture them, or at least put them on the defensive given Trickster's power.

Circus and the two new capes both entered through the same place that the E88 goon with the shotgun came from. Logging into the Cauldron Database gave me a backdoor to the PRT's systems, which let me track down the two new villains. The guy with the fire snakes was a small-time villain from Boston known as Zhulong, after the Chinese dragon, or so the notes claimed. Estimated age late teens early twenties. He could control how hot the eels from his back were, extend them up to twenty feet, and use them to maneuver himself, which didn't really tell me anything new.

The girl's name made me double check just to be sure. She called herself. . . Nicotina. Estimated age in mid to late teens, only appeared a few months ago. Paralytic smoke weapons, that could apparently cut, and a high temperature touch. Likely a runaway, she'd been spotted in Portland last. Both were apparently in Coil's employ, I surmised, and likely not willingly. However, without an in flipping them would be difficult. Neither of them had any serious charges laid against them, neither had been to jail, and neither had hurt anyone that badly so I saw no reason not to at least _try_. I wish I knew what their powers _really_ were, but it took a good ten seconds of uninterrupted time to See a power, and that was time I couldn't waste in the battle which wasn't even three minutes long.

Back to the battle, you couldn't see what Taylor was doing, so she just looked like she was hiding. That was until Trickster switched the Empire shooter with Amelia. I was proud of her; she didn't hesitate, and it was only from _being_ there that I knew how much that the effectiveness of her weapon shocked her. She'd thrown it into the Swarm and carried on, and I rewound and watched the confrontation a couple of times, from displacement to the Empire ganger falling out the shattered window. The Nazi's movements just seemed. . . off. Valefor wouldn't show up until Levi had made an appearance, so either we were dealing with _another_ fucking Master in this city, or there was something else going on.

 _Not everything is powers_ I reminded myself. With the way they hadn't shown any fear or pain, the easier explanation was that they were true believers, high out of their minds, or both. In a city this size there should be a good number of diehards, and those types were drawn to organizations like the Empire like flies to feces. That would also explain the bad reaction the one gunman had to Gallant's beam.

An altered brain chemistry from a boatload of drugs would likely react differently when altered again, and might push an already unhinged, violent psychopath into turning that violence inwards. I shook my head. Any sympathy I might have for the Mastering that'd caused him to commit suicide had already flown out the window when that asshole tried to hose down a room full of civilians for his ideology.

After that, there wasn't much to get from the tape. It was amusing watching my little brother back away from Paninla, repeatedly pointing out the fifty-cal bullet on a collision course with the Mayor's head, the PRT hero finally looking after the fourth time he pushed her off-balance and didn't press the attack. A quick gesture to the SMG bullets stuck in time got the two of them working together to move people and projectiles out of the way of each other.

As I watched the tape I was forced to admit Herb was right about the Travelers. While it didn't seem so at the time, Ballistic only shot high-velocity projectiles at innocents in the time bubble, tying up Charlie and Paninla instead of trying to hurt people. Other than Glory Girl, who got tagged a few times, and myself, all the projectiles he sent against combatants were appropriate to knock them down, not kill. Genesis, now that I knew her poison was non-lethal, made sure to always try to bite areas with blood flow but that wouldn't be lethal on their own. She only tagged Vista's thigh because she hit a bit of warped space, knocking the projection off course from her original strike at Clockblocker's shoulder.

Then there was Trickster. At first I thought his actions negated what Herb had said, but I tried to remember what I could from his arc, which I had pretty much skimmed. It took a bit to realize, but all of his potentially deadly swaps were always going to be fatal because someone was about to hit _him_ with potentially lethal force. It had a very 'I'll only break the rules if you are going to' quality to it which _completely_ ignored the fact that the Empire thugs _were_ trying to kill people, but that seemed like the kind of detail that asshole Krouse would brush off. It was the kind of thing where Trickster would get his enemies killed, but be able to deny all responsibility for it. It was just like all the clones of that time-rewinding guy Trickster had killed before Krouse sold the original into slavery to the Chinese, which was _so_ much better than just putting a bullet in his head.

Surprisingly, I'd been at it for several hours, lost in watching the same damn two and a half minutes over and over again, trying to figure out what happened and what I could do better next time. If I hadn't had healing powers I'd probably have a sore back as I stood and stretched, spine cracking in release. I retired to my room to meditate in order to dispel the mental fatigue that had started to set in. Three hours later, followed by a blissful hour-long shower, I once again found myself wondering _what to do._ With the shortened Truce, four days instead of the ten-ish of canon, a lot of the immediate timeline was up in the air. Certain things were _probably_ going to happen, but I wasn't sure when, which made scheduling a cast-iron _bitch_.

Tomorrow morning Purity would move her kids in, rooming here for as long as they needed to stay safe. Noon-ish would be talking to Gallant, and the afternoon would likely be spent getting him up to snuff. The few ideas I had, if they worked, would put him _firmly_ in the medical tents, far away from Lev the liquid lizard. _That_ night, I was going to follow up and see if I could grab Dinah. I wanted to bring Herb, but I _couldn't trust him._ This thing would need counter-intuitive and exact timing if it was going to work, and the chance of him going off half-cocked was _astronomical._

For this entire thing to work I'd need to spend long periods of time just waiting around, because while it might only have taken me five minutes to find something in _this_ timeline, there was no guarantee it wouldn't take me several times that in the other. The silver lining to this storm cell of a situation was that, given her age, moving Dinah in her weakened condition would be difficult without a healer, so the probability that she _wouldn't_ be in his secret base was infinitesimal.

Sighing, I got up and started pacing. It was the wee hours of the morning, and I wasn't sure what to do. Before I'd head out into the Railyard, but I'd been sloppy and I wouldn't be surprised if _someone_ was patrolling it now, trying to find the 'new Trigger' who'd used it for testing or something. I considered the two powers I'd picked up. Momentum Infusion from Ballistic seemed pretty straightforward. Creating a metal chair from the workshop floor that was a good approximation of the ones from the gale, I cleared an area and made an ad-hoc firing range. Lined it with hardened air walls, I created a target of hardened which I tossed a towel over for visual aiming, an air wall in the back there in case I missed.

Surrounding the entire thing with a Sound Bubble, I held the chair, about the same size as the one Ballistic had thrown at me, in the same manner that he had. Reaching out with my power I could feel it filling the chair, automatically twisting into a cone shaped pattern, and pointing towards my target. Somewhat. It was actually quite a bit more than that, but as I considered it my power as it worked on autopilot it cut itself and the chair shot off, the direction and speed the same as the one the Traveler had thrown at me.

Impacting the target, the chair crumpled inwards while the target destabilized and blew both the chair and towel back in my direction. Catching them with air, I created another target, draping the towel, now with a rip in the side, over it and returning the chair back to me. Doing all three at once was _difficult_ , like juggling three hyper-active puppies, if that made any sense.

Touching the destroyed chair to send it flying again, the sense of it I got when I touched it was different. Off. It was crumpled, and that seemed to matter to the power. Copying the same amount of infusion and the same structure of power, the chair careened off course, missing the target by a few feet. Hitting the back wall, it crunched a bit further before it decompressed the hardened air of the wall and was blown back in my direction. Catching it and reforming the back wall I considered the wrecked chair. Touching it again, it felt even more different, twisted in on itself as it was.

I frowned as I considered it. Infusing the wrecked seat with half the strength, I formed the cone and tried to aim it at the target, but I could somewhat feel how the structure of it interfered with my copied formation of power. Letting it go it jumped forward, only travelling a third of the distance, but even at that point it was off target. Sitting on a cushion of air I summoned a small star, pushing it through the chair and destroying it utterly, until all that was left was a small puddle of cooling slag.

Creating a sphere of iron a foot across, I placed a hand on it, Infusing it with Momentum. Forming a cone, I pushed into it as much as I had for the chair. Releasing it, it tossed itself a good five feet forward before landing on the ground with metallic thunk, breaking the concrete and rolling downrange. Frowning, I tried to pick it up with air, only to barely move it.

Physically walking over, I lifted it easily and saw that the concrete hadn't cracked, it _powdered_. I looked at the ball I rolled back to myself, making sure I'd made it out if iron, but as far as I could tell I had. Tossing it back and forth, I realized the problem when it broke the shield covering my left hand. Cutting back on Glory Girl's shields, I almost dropped the sphere, which had to weigh over two-hundred pounds.

I reactivated the shields and face-palmed. I'd been so focused on Ballistic's power I'd forgotten the others I kept running in the background. Actually, that might be what was messing me up. His power infused something with kinetic energy, overwriting its state of physical energy. After he let an object go it never _gained_ speed, it was just suddenly moving _at_ the speed. I'd mentally connected it to throwing, which had the same result, but when one threw something, it gained speed until you let go. Ballistic just touched something, did _whatever_ it was he did with his power (a process which, while invisible to everyone else, was apparently quite complex), and then it was flying away. There was no acceleration, no lead time, it just _moved._

That kind of instantaneous acceleration _should_ destroy most things from the G-forces alone. Hell, he'd been hurling china _plates_ with impunity. Actually, I thought, given the nature of matter, all acceleration was progressive in nature. The wheels moved the car, which, through a number of steps I wasn't sure of, moved the seat you were in, pressing you forward. However, it didn't move all of you at once, it pressed on your back, which pressed on your spine, bones, muscles, blood, all that stuff. If everything moved at once, _would_ there be problems?

I shook my head, it was academic at this point, the power was safety locked to not work on living beings. Turning my attention to the iron sphere, I tried the same cone formation of power, but poured several times more power into it. I accidentally opened the floodgates and powered it up in a second, whereupon I quickly found I couldn't take power _away_ from it. Assuming a generally flat trajectory I held it up, careful to direct the point of the cone towards the target, sure not to have anything it it's way when I let go of my connection to it.

With a woosh of displaced air it hurled itself forward, hitting the shield with a crash and breaking _through_ it, slowing down but still hitting the back wall at speed. The projectile blasted halfway through _that_ as well before it finally stopped, the air released barely enough to blow it out of the hole in the four foot thick wall it created, hitting the ground with another metallic _thunk._

 _Okay,_ I thought to myself, _That would've killed most people. Note to self, be careful with experimenting with this power._ Grabbing the cannonball, because that's ultimately what it was, I replaced the target, the towel now in tatters, and repaired the floor with created stainless steel. I wanted to try other power configurations but given how I had to _touch_ it to do so, I should probably do so with something a bit less. . . deadly. Setting the sphere on the floor, I headed back into the kitchen to grab some oranges, and promptly walked into Taylor, in jeans and a t-shirt, the ladybug themed domino mask on her face.


	89. Premiere 8-10

**Premiere 8.10**

I wasn't moved in the slightest, but Taylor was sent sprawling. Diving forward, I barely managed to grab her by the waist and shoulder before she hit the ground. We both froze and I stood up awkwardly, setting her back on her socked feet. Glancing at my phone I asked her, "Taylor, it's five in the morning, what are you doing up?"

The question surprised her, or maybe it was my sudden appearance, but she dithered for a second before replying, "I couldn't sleep. What are _you_ doing up?"

I looked at her for a moment in confusion. _Hadn't I told her this already? No,_ I realized, _that was Panacea. Keeping track of all this is a pain._ "I'm like Miss Militia. I don't need to sleep, just meditate for a few hours. What were you doing?"

"Looking for you," she responded immediately. I just stared at her, waiting for the rest of the explanation, "I wanted to see if you were up, but you weren't in your room." I raised an eyebrow. I didn't think I'd given her permission for the base yet, so how had she- "I mean the door was open so I just looked inside, so it wasn't like I was invading your privacy or anything, and you weren't in the kitchen, and half the rooms were locked and no one answered when I knocked, including the one you were in, which is why I didn't expect it to open, so were you ignoring me or did you not hear me, because there wasn't any sound coming in at all, but it's okay if you were busy, I didn't want to bother you, how are you?" she let out in a rush, trying to lean against the wall nonchalantly and failing.

I suppressed a smile at this with a moderate amount of success, the corners of my mouth twitching upward. Not only was that _adorkable_ , but it showed that she was becoming more like the Taylor she used to be before her best friend betrayed her instead of the neurotic, near-emotionless queen of escalation from mid-stage canon. "I'm fine Taylor. I was doing power testing, want to help?"

"Yes!" she smiled, standing up straight, following me into the kitchen. "I mean, sure, I don't see why not. Um, are we doing it here?"

I shook my head, grabbing half a dozen oranges from the fridge. "No, I'm doing it in the workshop, but I realized that while I can use Kaiser's to make materials, using possibly explosive powers on metal _probably_ isn't the best idea."

Her eyes went wide behind her mask, as she looked me over "Oh! Are you okay?"

I laughed, shaking my head, "Nah, I'm fine. This time I thought of that before something bad happened."

"This time?" she echoed, sounding distressed.

I looked over my shoulder at her as I carried the fruit into the workshop. "I'm fine Taylor."

"But, what happened?" she pressed.

Setting my squishy projectiles in a bowl of air, I sat down on a chair of the same material, making another one for her. "Sit," I instructed, waving towards her seat. She moved to sit where she was, and I had to quickly shift the cushion to catch her. _Right Lee, she can't see your air constructs._ She gave a muffled squeak of surprise as I moved her where I'd originally put her chair. "Okay, these 'force fields' I use. Who did I take them from?"

Her brows knit in concentration as she considered the question, and I could almost see the wheels turning behind her eyes. After only a few dozen seconds she turned to me and proposed, "Stormtiger?" I blinked in shock, surprised she got it so quickly, and she shook her head, "No that was stupid."

"If that was stupid, I'm not sure I want to think about what's smart," I contended, "considering it's _correct_. How did you get it?"

"The knife," she divulged. "It's stable, and you showed me you could make blades from air, so you can make _stable_ things from air. And this," she waved to the invisible surface she was sitting on. "I checked. Invisible forcefields _don't exist._ They're always tinted somehow, or have a glow, or are opaque."

 _They are?_ I thought. _Shit._ That likely upped how dangerous I was seen by _far_ more than I'd meant.

"That meant it had to be something else," she continued unabated, not noticing my distress. "And then I thought about the capes in the city. Actually," she frowned, "Have you copied any powers from other places?"

I shook my head, "Nope."

"So, there's a time limit," she decided, nodding to herself.

"Nope."

She stared at me, unblinking, for a long moment, before she suddenly blushed and looked down. "Right. Um. Force fields. Yes. Looking at them, I thought of the powers that were invisible, but made things. Then I thought of the knife you made me, and it was obvious?"

"Only if you knew I was a power copier," I asserted, smiling slightly, "And I expected you to take a bit longer, but that's not a bad thing. Now, once you know the forcefields are just solidified air, what do you think fire would do to them?"

"They **_EXPLODE!?_** _"_ she demanded, jumping to her feet and putting some distance between the chair and herself. She stopped hallway across the room. "But, wait, we were sitting on them when you had enough heat around to melt stone. . . Sundancer!" she called, making connections, one after another. "That's how she doesn't burn! But you said you need a visual. . . heat shimmers! You'd see it working by the effects of it. So, if they do explode the heat wouldn't be a problem, but the force would still be, but it would move through air, which you control, stop laughing!"

I couldn't help myself, the absurdity of this entire thing was too much. "I'm not laughing at you, Taylor, I'm. . . okay I am but it's a good thing." She glared at me, hands on her hips, and something about that just made me laugh even harder. Getting myself under control, I waved for her to have a seat. She did after another minute of totally not pouting. "Taylor," I told her, "You figured out in, what, a couple minutes, what took me _hours_."

She went quiet for a moment before shaking her head. "You told me there was a problem, that it was dangerous, so I was already thinking that way, you know?"

"Fair enough," I gave, "but it was still faster than I expected. So," I said, turning to the oranges. "I picked up two new powers last night."

"The time-protection power," she nodded, "And who else? Trickster?"

"Three powers," I corrected. "Paninla's secondary, along with Trickster and Ballistic only powers."

"So. . . you're swapping oranges?" she asked

I shook my head, "Nope, I'm testing Ballistic's power with oranges."

She look confused, "Doesn't he just throw stuff?"

"Think about what you saw him do," I instructed. "Did you see him actually _throw_ anything?"

She thought about it for a second, "No. He just touched them, and they shot towards people." I explained his power, and what I'd found so far. "But why a cone?" she muttered, leaning forward and resting her chin in one hand.

"That's what I'm going to test next," I said, "But I thought it was better to not have bits of metal flying everywhere if I messed up. Now, what should I test first?"

"Well, they're spheres, so why not try a sphere? But, with like, just a little bit of power," she advised, "In case something goes wrong."

Shrugging, I turned to do so. Her domino mask had clear, hardened sections over the eyes which would work as defacto safety goggles, and my shades were impenetrable. I'd laid a thin layer of hardened air over the area around us, to make clean up earlier as it was a when, not an if, that we'd end up exploding things. Focusing on Ballistic's power I let out just a trickle of power enter the orange, molding it into a sphere inside the orange. Cutting the connection, the fruit wobbled back and forth, but didn't leave my hand.

Looking back at her, she asked, "Is that it?"

"You wanted minimum power," I shot back.

She stared at the fruit, "What happens at max power?" she inquired.

"From what I saw from the original timeline? It flies faster than the speed of sound. Do you want Hypersonic Oranges, Taylor? Because that's how you get Hypersonic Oranges," I informed her in mock censure.

Her nose crinkled as her face screwed up, "How does that even work? I mean, shouldn't it just splatter before it even gets going that fast?"

"The short answer? Powers," I smirked. At her glare I elucidated, "The long answer? as far as I can tell, it's a _lot_ more complex than that but without a protracted amount of time to study him in person, it's all guesswork. The things Ballistic affects don't speed up, they're just suddenly going that fast, so there's no g-forces. More than that, in that instant when it starts moving, and possibly the entire time it's in flight, the projectile might be protected so it doesn't smash itself on the air resistance." If it hadn't the cannonball should have made a _far_ louder sound when it started to move. While the cannonball should've been fine, shooting cars at supersonic speeds, like Ballistic did against Crawler, should've turned them from solid to projectiles to ad-hoc grapeshot _long_ before it hit the mutating monster.

Taylor obviously wasn't happy with that but moved on. "Okay, so we try it again at double, no, triple the strength of the first time," she dictated.

Holding the orange up I carefully measured out the force, still a tiny fraction of what this power was capable of. Holding my hand flat, I cut the connection between myself and the fruit, whereupon it promptly exploded.

The force wasn't enough to drain my shields, but both Taylor and I were splattered with liquified orange. Glancing over at her, she had a small piece of peel on her cheek. Motioning towards the same place on my own face, she jumped a little, startled, before shaking her head and reaching up, removing the offending rind. "Well, I'm glad I didn't do this with that," I noted, pointing out the iron sphere.

She looked at that, then at the orange piece sitting on my shoulder, then at the floor, splattered orange floating an inch over the ground, which confused her for a second before she shook her head and looked back at me. "That was an option?" she asked softly, concerned, likely for my sanity.

I shrugged, "The principals are the same. Unfortunately, it kicks in as soon as I stop touching it so, sadly, infinite shrapnel grenades are out of reach," I sighed melodramatically.

I could practical feel her eye twitch as she looked at me before she waved a hand at the remaining five. "Okay. Circles are bad, because they make things explode."

"Spheres," I interrupted.

She looked at me, obviously not understanding. "Huh?"

"I made a sphere, not a circle. It's a three-dimensional space, so I don't think I could make a circle, but I could do a ring," I explained as I grabbed another.

"Hmmm," she thought, eyeing the orange in my hand. "Go for it, same strength as before."

"It's probably going to explode again," I remarked dryly. While my clothing had auto-cleaned itself, my arms, face, and hair was splattered with juice, and while less splattered for not being at ground zero, Taylor wasn't exactly clean either.

"I'll take another shower," she waved away. "It's better than the one at home."

"Don't say I didn't warn you," I said, focusing on the fruit in my hand. Taking the same amount of power, I carefully formed it into a ring and let go. This time the orange still exploded, but in a _very_ different manner. In a ring around the middle, the skin of the orange erupted, splattering outwards. The area below the ring was pressed down into my hand while the top half flew upwards like a popped cork, bouncing off the ceiling of hardened air above us and falling back down into my lap.

I observed the remains, and I could see a ring of crushed flesh impressed in both halves. Noting her outstretched hand, I handed them to her. She looked over them, hmming. Glancing up, she requested, "Can you fire one off at the same strength, but with the cone Ballistic uses?"

"Right, we need a control," I agreed, embarrassed I'd forgotten about that. I did so, firing it down the cleared range. It flew at a good clip, travelling the full twenty feet and bouncing off the far wall. Carefully picking it up with air, I flew it over to her while she handed me back the remains of the ringed fruit.

She looked over the control orange over, wincing. "Can I have a knife? I can't tell anything." Growing one from the top of a destroyed orange, I handed it to her. She shook her head as she used it to slice the control orange in half. Leaning over I noted that there was a little bit of damage to the sac filled flesh of the fruit, where it hit the wall, but that was it. "What are we doing differently?" she asked herself.

"We have three more," I pointed out, dropping the remains in another bowl of air. "Pick a shape and we'll get more data."

"A square, I mean cube," she commanded, correcting herself before I could say anything. She added her cut halves into the second bowl, as well as the knife.

Nodding, I did so, ready for the explosion. The orange didn't separate into six pieces like I thought it would, but instead ripped itself into eight. One hit my palm, one my chest, one Taylor's leg, and one smacked into the ground. The other four flew into the air in the four cardinal directions, all impacting the roof before dropping to the floor.

While I collected all the pieces with air, Taylor leaned over and picked up the one that hit her. She turned it over, rotating it as I looked at the two I had. Both had identical lines of damage, dividing each piece into exactly three equal, one hundred and twenty-degree sections. The edges of both pieces were ragged and torn, as the edges of the ringed orange pieces had been. "Can I?" she asked, holding out a hand. Handing her first one piece, then another, she rotated them, trying to put them together. "Got it!" she called excitedly, trying to hold the three pieces together to show me. There, in the bruised flesh, was the outline of the cube I'd formed.

"I think the force goes to the points," she proposed, "But if you make a cone, there should be a ring of damage on the other end. . . Unless the base is curved. Is it?"

I grabbed a cleanly cut control orange half, dumping the remaining cubed pieces in its place, and automatically formed the cone. I hadn't paid close attention to it, focusing more on manipulating the entire thing in space and working with the power I put inside, but Taylor was right., it _wasn't_ a cone, or maybe it was and there was some other descriptor to differentiate the two. Either way the back end, while circular, wasn't a flat edge. It was _beveled_ , rounded off so the only break in the shape was the point _._ Informing Taylor of this, she nodded, a giant smile on her face.

"Yes!" she practically crowed. "Okay. If I'm right his power funnels the direction of the force towards points, edges, and then flat surfaces, in that order. I wonder if the proportionality of the cone has anything to do with it?"

"That's why the sphere made it explode," I realized, firing off the charged orange half and retrieving it with air control. "I didn't give it a direction, so it tried to apply the force in every direction."

"Exactly!" she agreed. Getting up she grabbed one of the last two and handed it to me. "Okay, make the rounded cone like you normally to, point it that way," she pointed downrange, "But don't fire. Explain to me as much as you can about it."

I did so, and she leaned down next to me, putting her head right next to mine, staring at the orange as if she could see the power at work through force of will. "Okay, so it's a cone, rounded edges, pretty standard as cones go, maybe a bit long."

"Does it have a color?" she asked, adding "Are the sides smooth? What's the ratio of width to length?" before I could answer the first question.

"It doesn't have a color, it just is," I explained, enjoying being able to work with someone like this. Even when we first showed up in Brockton Bay I could've never done this with Herb. He might come up with an interesting use, but he couldn't help articulate _why_ it worked. "The cone part is perfectly smooth. Should I add a spiral pattern to it?"

"Yes!" she said immediately. "No. Damn, I wish we had another orange."

"We have more in the fridge," I smiled.

"Right, be right back!" she said, standing up straight and starting to leave, before turning back, finger raised. She commanded, "Don't do anything without me!" before turning again and heading out the door. I made a hole in the wall of hardened air for her to pass through before she ran headfirst into the invisible barrier. Shaking my head, I heard her dart into the kitchen, open the fridge, close the fridge, and dart back, holding three more oranges. I raised an eyebrow. "For all three kinds of cone, with and without screw patterns."

I considered pointing out that the depth and width of the spiral pattern would likely also affect things, but I wasn't sure we had that many oranges. "Should I add them and fire this one?" I asked instead.

She dropped the new oranges in the intact fruit bowl before quickly moving over and leaning down. Once again putting her head next to mine as she nodded, watching the soon to be projectile carefully. With precision I carved a spiral into the cone, keeping the edges rounded, describing what I was doing. "I meant a raised edge, like a screw," she said, and I could practically feel her glancing at the remaining oranges.

"We can do this again later Taylor," I smiled. "It's not like my copy of the power's going anywhere."

"Good," she replied. "You ready?"

I nodded, "Yes ma'am. Firing in 3. 2. 1." I let go of my power. The orange shot forward, spinning through the air as it did so, flying straighter than it had before. Striking the back wall, it was sent spinning off to the side, hitting the side wall before landing and continuing to roll. Pulling it back with air, I handed it to my partner, who deftly grabbed the knife and cut it open lengthwise, handing me a half.

The flesh of the impact site was even more torn up than normal, and removing the rind revealed slight bruising along its length commensurate with the spiral I'd shaped into the momentum I'd imparted. Turning to show her, I saw that she'd turned to show me the exact same thing. Laughing, we both tossed our halves into the ruined orange bowl, along with the knife.

"Now, ratio of width to height of the cone," Taylor instructed, handing me another orange. "What was it again?"

"It's about 2 to one length to width, height to width."

She nodded, "Shorten it to be the same and let it go."

I did, and she leaned back down to watch, "Okay, firing in 3. 2. 1." This time when the orange flew off my hand it deformed, bursting open into a shotgun spray of pulp that hit everything. Our next test, adding spirals, just made the resulting mess spin around the axis of the firing direction, splattering everything in front of us. We bounced ideas a back and forth for a bit, Taylor pacing back and forth in front of me as she did so.

"The shortened structure must divide the force across a larger area," Taylor finally put forward, summarizing the theories we'd come up with that didn't contradict with our data or each other. "The point gives it direction, but it's all pressing in that direction and doesn't have time or space or something to bring it all towards the same vector. We need more tests," she nodded to herself. Stretching the cone out to a three to one length to width ratio also had some interesting results.

Instead of flying normally the orange seemed to collapse in on itself as it flew, becoming more bullet-like as it flew faster and hit harder, actually damaging the far wall a little bit. Adding a spiral only intensified the effect, making the fruit look just a little drill-like right before it impacted the far wall, exploding in a shower of pulp but damaging the wall even more. It was only the equivalent of hitting it with a ball peen hammer instead of a rubber one, but for an orange that was damn impressive. The closest we got to a working theory for why was that a greater length to width ratio overly focused everything towards a single, tighter vector.

"So," I started, bringing the air walls closer to collect all the errant orange bits. "Shortening the cone broadens the area at the cost of penetration, and lengthening it does the inverse." Glancing at Taylor, leaning over and grinning like a fool, I lightly pushed her back to stand up myself. Directing her to step to an area outside of the testing enclosure, I followed her, pulling everything up into a bowl of pulped oranges, sliced oranges, and a single knife.

Taking in our fruit-soaked visages, with Taylor looking at the pristine lab in wonder I commented, "We should probably go take a shower."

She glanced at me in shock, face turning red as she realized how covered in destroyed fruit we'd become. "Um. Yes. Definitely," she said. "Because orange."

I wanted to ask her what other reason we'd need to take showers for, but I shrugged, dismissing the Sound Bubble as we left the workshop.

"So that's where my oranges went!" called Herb, and we both froze. He was in the kitchen, working on breakfast. Glancing at the oven, I saw that it was already seven thirty in the morning. "You two had fun?" he asked, grinning a bit _too_ much.

"Yeah," I said slowly, looking towards the bedrooms.

Herb, seeing this, shook his head. "They're still getting up."

I nodded, thankful that he guessed my question. "We were working on Ballistic's power. It's a _lot_ more complicated than it seems."

He snorted, "No shit, it's OP as fuck. You got a handle on it?"

I shook my head, "Making things fly? Yes. Hitting things? No. Getting even a _basic_ grasp of its fundamental mechanics? _Hell_ no. We used these," I waved to the bowl, "so if things went bad there wouldn't be flying metal. Sorry."

He waved a hand in negation as he turned away to focus on the pancakes. "Don't sweat it man, put it on the counter. I'll make juice or some shit. You two go clean up."

Doing so, Taylor followed me to the bedroom hallway oddly quiet. I noted that she'd taken the bedroom right next to mine. It was the closest free one to the door, so that made sense. Opening my door, I stepped in, shrinking my shirt down to wristwatch form. Hearing a squeak, I turned around to see Taylor in the doorway, face bright red.

"Do you need something?" I asked, confused. "Was there only one set of clothes that fit you in your room? If there was there should be some here. You don't need to worry about laundry, just dump it in the hamper and someone will take care of it." She stood there, staring. The silence started to drag, and I was getting concerned. "If you're concerned about the hot water, don't be. It should be enough for both our showers at the same time."

"Both?" she echoed, still staring.

"Yeeeaaah?" I replied even more confused. Maybe she was tired? She didn't sleep well, hence her being up early. "If I run my shower," I pointed at the room in question, "And you run yours," I pointed at her room, "we should be fine. This place has inline water heating instead of a tank, so even with everyone here taking simultaneous showers you won't have to worry about hot water. Okay?"

"Right. Two showers. Bye." She said, turning stiffly on her heel and heading into her room, closing her door with a slam.

"What the hell?" I asked the empty air, making sure to close my door this time. It wasn't until I was stepping out a shower spent ruminating on her odd behavior that everything clicked together, dozens of little oddities aligning into an unexpected and unwanted conclusion. "Oh, fuck me running!"


	90. Premiere 8-11

**Premiere 8.11**

Heading back to the kitchen from my room I joined Canary, Herb, and Amelia for breakfast. Vicky and Taylor, who had donned the helmet she wore last night, joined us. Herb kept glancing between Taylor and I, the heroine studiously not looking at me. Victoria noticed and opened her mouth to say something, but I beat her to the punch.

"Amelia," I said quickly, "About the project I mentioned last night."

"Yeah, you were pretty vague about that. What is it?" she asked.

"So," I started, "You know how I'm also doing what amounts to power assisted plastic surgery?"

She looked at me in surprise, "You're what!?"

"Didn't I mention. . . Oh well. Right, since I can't diagnose like you can, I've been working skin-deep changes instead to bankroll the PD. Because of this I've been working with a law firm here to moonlight as a Rogue, which is what lets us afford things like the press conference," I explained, but from her expression Amy still didn't approve. "I could go into how the inverse of the sunk costs fallacy negates the effectiveness of repeated charity-"

"Please don't. It's too early for one of your speeches," Vicky interrupted.

"I said _could_. Listening skills, Glory Girl, work on them," I ribbed her without malice. "Anyways, I won't go into that _now,_ but I also do it as practice for situations like hers," I waved my hand, indicating Canary.

"What?" the woman in question asked, not prepared to be brought into the conversation. "Why?"

I raised an eyebrow, hoping that question stemmed from surprise and not incomprehension of her situation. "Canary, as illegal as your trial was, short of a pardon you're _still_ considered a wanted felon, or whatever the next step up from that is that allows Birdcaging. To that effect, if you walk outside, bright yellow feathered hair and all, it's only a matter of time before the government heroes grab you and try to send you to cape Australia _again._ So, I want you to think 'if I could change something about my appearance, what would I change?'" Turning to Amy, I continued, "So, I'm asking for _your_ assistance in making sure she can walk the streets without fear. Well, with as much fear as the average Brockton Bay citizen," I amended.

"I. . . I'm a healer," she insisted, glancing at Taylor & Canary. "I'm not sure I can-"

"Make sure I don't mess anything up when you check my work?" I interrupted. _Too much too fast_ , I thought. _It took both Leviathan & the Slaughterhouse Nine to get her into actual Fleshsculpting._ "That's completely within your power. I can tweak, you can tell me if I'm doing anything wrong and _heal_ it if you need to," I pressed, willing to go along with the fiction that she was just a 'healer' for now.

Panacea considered this, before nodding, once. "Fine. But if I can't heal it you'll have to, um, tweak it back," she agreed.

Happy with that, I gave her a smiling nod back and turned to my next task. "Herb, when is Purity coming?"

The man who claimed to be in love with her shrugged, "I don't know. Soon?" As I stared at him he just shrugged again, ignoring me to eat another pancake.

"I'll be right back," I told the table, getting up and retiring to the computer room. On the second ring Kayden picked up.

"Hello Vejovis," she answered, not sounding as harried as she should've if I'd interrupted her packing.

"Hey Purity," I replied, moving onto the point without preamble, "What time are you moving yourself and the kids into the base?"

There was a pause on the other end. "Why would I be doing that?" she queried cautiously.

"Because Coil's going to out the Empire in the next few days? And when they do your house is going to get raided by CPS?" I asked. _Did she forget me mentioning that a few days ago?_ "We discussed this Kayden."

"I'm not Empire anymore," she pointed out, a little bit of a huff creeping into her tone.

"You think _Coil_ cares?" I shot back, annoyed. "And even if he did, he doesn't exactly like your new team either, so he'd make a 'mistake' and out you as a member of the Empire anyways. Where are Aster and Theo?"

Her tone this time was not nearly as sure, "They're in the other room. Surely they wouldn't-"

"They would Kayden," I interrupted. _Shit. I've got no timetable for this._ "Do you own a car?"

"Yes," she replied, "but-"

I didn't let her finish. She'd ignored me, and if this was going to work, she needed to stop doing so _right now._ "No buts Kayden. Your identity might already be blown. Don't panic: pack the basics and anything you can't replace," I commanded. "I want you and your family in the car and en route to the base no later than _nine_. Don't speed, don't attract attention, just come here. If the PRT show up don't start shooting, call us and we'll be there in a few minutes."

Sighing, I pinched the bridge of my nose, wondering if there was anything I missed. _What's the point of planning if people **ignore** it! _"I don't tell you things just to hear the sound of my own voice, _Kayden_ ," I informed her coldly when she didn't say anything. "Hopefully this will all still turn out well. If not, well, I'll call in a few favors with my contacts, but I'd prefer to get through this _without_ spitting in the eye of the PRT." Still no response. " ** _Do you understand_** _?_ "

". . . Yes sir," she meekly replied.

Aaaaand now I felt like an asshole. "I'm not Max, Kayden, but if you want me to help you, you can't _ignore_ me. I'll see you soon," I promised and hung up.

Striding back in, Herb noticed my mood immediately. "What's up?" he asked.

"Purity thought not being part of the Empire would mean that Coil wouldn't unmask her when he reveals the identity of the Empire's capes," I communicated. He winced, but nodded in understanding, shooting me a questioning look. "She's packing and will be on her way within the hour," I told him. "Can you be ready to go help if she calls?"

He nodded, glancing between Taylor and I, "Gotchya. Seeya later. Have fun."

"Wait, what?" I asked, but he was already on his way out and didn't say anything as he left the base. _Goddamnit Herb._ Sitting back down I glanced over to Taylor, who quickly looked away.

"I'm gonna drop off Amy, then I'm gonna go see Dean," Vicky announced, getting up and dropping her dishes in the sink.

"I'll take care of the dishes," I told her, "Bring him back here after noon."

"Will do!" she practically chirped, hurrying her sister out the door.

Canary looked between Taylor and I before taking her mug of coffee and retreating to her room. Collecting the dishes, I slotted them in the washer, setting it to start while Taylor sipped her tea. I stood there at the counter, unsure how to progress. The silence should have been shard-powered, given how much it pressed down on us. _Do I address the issue? Do I keep ignoring it?_ While the concept of anyone finding me attractive was still. . . _odd_ , it was something I had to deal with now. I was several years older than her, even though we were likely born within a year or two of each other, and then adding into how special circumstances many times modified normal social rules further confused the issue of how to approach this.

On one hand when I was her age I was. . . okay, I was a bit of a twat. I was trying to force the world into the rules it espoused and judging them for failing the very standards they tried to impose on me, but I'd grown since them and come to understand some of the deeper mechanics of humanity, though a lot of it still eluded me. Someone as I was _then_ dating someone as I am _now_ wouldn't be anything close to equal, and you needed to get in the ballpark for the kind of romantic relationship I wanted to have one day to have a hope in hell of working. _Don't girls mature faster than guys?_ A traitorous portion of my psyche pointed out. _Not helping!_ I told it. No, I was in my twenties and she was _fifteen_ for god's sake! I'd deal with this directly, like I did with most things, but do so kindly, because I didn't want to hurt her.

"Do you remember the morning after the bombings started?" I asked as she said, "I'm sorry!"

We both stopped, and after a moment I proceeded, wrapping the room with a Sound Bubble, "I'm not sure what you're sorry about, but you _probably_ don't need to be. Do you remember the morning after the bombings started, when you and the Undersiders were holed up in a secure hotel room?" Short circuiting denials of whatever _this_ was would help cut through the normal dance.

"No?" she muttered, more to herself than me. "Maybe?"

"You were concussed," I reassured, "Which is right up there with being _drunk_ in how well one's internal filters work so I don't hold anything you said against you, but you made some comments about my. . . attractiveness."

"Oh god," she whispered to herself, turning red and trying to hide behind her mug. "I thought that was a dream."

"Taylor," I said, leaning against the counter. My first instinct was to put a comforting hand on her shoulder, reassure her that it was okay and nothing to be embarrassed about, but that would do the exact _opposite_ of what I was going for. "It's okay," I reassured her _from a distance._ "I'm flattered, really, but I'm older than you. By a lot. It wouldn't work." And now I had to see how she'd react. I had plans for denial, deflection, depression, though that last one might backfire.

She started to collapse in on herself and I felt terrible before her back stiffened and her mouth set in a determine line. "Well, how old are _you_?" she challenged.

 _Okay, denial of the problem, this I can work with,_ I thought, suppressing a sigh of relief. Debate and academic argumentation I could handle, but I was starting to realize that my attempts to comfort her when she was depressed had. . . unfortunate side effects. "I'm twenty-four, which unless you're a _very_ young looking nineteen means you're _too young_ ," she glared at me, bright red but not backing down. _I need a comparative. . . got it!_ "That asshole teacher at your school, Mr. Glad or something."

She looked confused for a second, "Mr. Gladly? What does he have to do with this? You're nothing like him."

 _Not the point,_ I thought. "How old is he?"

Still confused at the seeming non-sequitur, she replied, "In his twenties? But that's different!"

"It really isn't," I shot back. "If he was dating Emma, or someone else, it wouldn't be okay!"

She wouldn't be deterred, "But he's a teacher, that's different!"

 _Okay, maybe a bit **too** much denial. _I groaned, "Taylor, if anything the disparity of power between you and I is _worse._ I'm your team leader, your mentor. I've literally _taught_ you how to better use your powers." The intimacy, in a non-sexual sense, that such a thing involved was _far_ more than that of a schoolteacher with his students, especially when it came to the intermingling of our Arthropod Control powers, and there was no way to even _internally_ phrase that situation that _didn't_ sound bad.

"Well. . . what if I quit and went independent?" she proposed, seeming to surprise herself with the suggestion.

There was a moment of silence at this declaration as I looked at her, not having expected something so. . . drastic. _Right, Queen of Escalation_ , I reminded myself. _Fuck it._ I thought, walking over and talking a seat across the table from her. "Then it still wouldn't matter, because you're _fifteen_ Taylor, and neither of us wants you to quit the team." She took a deep breath to say something else, and I knew I needed to break this pattern before it spiraled out of control. "What's the rush?" I asked her honestly before she could propose something else that would put her in danger because of her crush. "There's a good chance that, short of a violent death, _which I'm doing everything to help you avoid_ , everyone on the Penumbral Defenders is going to end up effectively immortal."

 _That_ shocked her out of whatever mindset she'd been working herself into. "What."

I smiled, leaning back in my chair. _Good, let's keep it up._ "While she'd rather not have people know it, Panacea's power is full, unfettered _Biokinesis._ She can rewrite the biology of any living thing with a touch, but her power _terrifies_ her."

"But, but she can't do brains. Brains age," Taylor countered. "Even if the rest of you was young you'd still get Alzheimer's or something."

 _So you're young until you're eighty instead of until you're thirty, my point's still made_ , I thought, _but why stop there?_ I shrugged at her declaration, "Says who? Imagine if she _could_ , but never let herself do so because of just what that could mean. Imagine someone who could re-write your entire personality with nothing but a touch and a few seconds, though since she only sees biological structures she currently has no idea how to do that without a _lot_ of amoral experimentation. Regardless, imagine how the public would react to even the _possibility_ of someone with that capability. I mean, technically that's Heartbreaker with a more limited range, but he's constantly on the run, and is Canadian." I shook my head, _still_ not understanding how that asshole was allowed to live. Well, when I had some time, an alibi, and a lead on his location that was going to get fixed.

Pressing on I instructed, "Now take that and combine it with an ability to create that, if she were to really experiment with it, would make Nilbog look like a child with Play-Doh. Is it any surprise that she so fervently denies even the _possibility_ of such a power? That's she's just a _healer_. Now, she wouldn't do that, it's not who she is, and with us being there for her it _never_ _will be_. She realizes just how dangerous such an ability is, which is why she has so many self-imposed limits on what she will and won't do with it, and why I don't press her on it _._ " I shrugged. "She's doing a lot of good as a healer, and I have time. Even if she _never_ does anything more with her power, I'd still support her because she's a good person, like you, doing what she can to help in her own way, like you."

"To copy a power, I need to see the physical manifestation of it, so I didn't get her _second_ power, which lets her view the biological structure of anything she touches," I explained. "It's why I have to be careful when I use it, because it would be like trying to control your Swarm without the feedback. Well, except instead of accidentally flying a beetle up someone's nose, I might seal a blood vessel, so _much worse._ "

Her mouth dropped open in shock and horror at the concept. "Now, I've figured out a general workaround for general healing, but to _change_ things? My ability is highly curtailed because of my wish to not hurt people by accident. However, while I'm handicapped with that power, given enough time I will still be able to figure out how to _truly_ rejuvenate someone," I pressed. "With Panacea helping, which she probably will, we're looking at a couple years of research at most." That wasn't even getting into how Herb's, Charlie's, and my own Peak Condition powers might affect our aging. " _That's_ why there's no need to rush into anything before you're eighteen. You're still developing into who you are, god knows I was at your age, and once you're there then we'll talk. Okay?"

She fixed me with a glare from behind her helmet, the lenses obscuring her eyes not diminishing the effect. "You'll still be nine years older. You won't say that's too much of a difference?" she challenged.

 _Well,_ I thought to myself, _given that by that point we'll have fought and killed Endbringers, the Slaughterhouse Nine, and the closest thing to a **god** that exists. I think we'll have moved so far from normal that it won't really matter anymore._ "No, I'm a man of my word. If we're both single when you turn eighteen, I'd be perfectly fine dating you."

"You better!" she declared before she froze in shock. Her face went red and she dropped her head onto the table as she whimpered, "Oh god, what did I just agree to?"

I couldn't help myself, I laughed long and loud. She'd gotten so wrapped up in winning, she'd lost track of just what she was arguing with me about. "We had a mature discussion, like adults, and came to a good and moral agreement."

She gave an inarticulate sound of frustration, despair, and embarrassment, and I had to suppress even more laughter.

* * *

Once she got over her embarrassment, or at least enough to function, I keyed her into the base's security. My first suggested password, 'eighteen', got me a flushed glare. Settling for 'Open Sesame', she headed back home, but not before asking if she could bring a few things from there back to the base. After reminding her about Herb's rule about no bugs in base, which she agreed was ridiculous but would abide by anyways, she was off.

Finding I could warp my costume into a self-purifying cloth, I got to work cleaning off everything in the TV room to try and get rid of the stench of marijuana, which had only slightly faded. Finishing up it was nine forty-five, and there was still no sign of Purity. I looked at my phone, debating calling her for a sitrep, when it started to ring, though the number was unfamiliar.

"Vejovis of the Penumbral Defenders, what do you need?" I answered.

"Fuck," the person on the other side spat out. They sounded young and female, with a bit of an accent I couldn't place. "Is Break there? Or Enter?"

"No, they're busy." I informed the speaker, wondering why she thought she'd get Herb from my number. "Who is this and why are you calling?"

I could hear shouting and pounding from the other end. "It's Rune. I need help!" I heard the sound of something large hitting something else.

Turning on the tv and switching to the news, there was a breaking story about the reveal of the Empire Eighty-Eight. I shifted my costume to my Boardwalk guise, leaving the base and taking off, flying low to avoid detection. "And the reason you aren't contacting your own organization is?"

"Fuck you," was her immediate reply. "You said you'd help!"

"And I'm sending someone towards Empire territory to do that as we speak," I retorted tartly, keeping the wind from the phone's pickup. "Now answer the question."

The sound of shouting increased, as did the pounding. "I fucking tried okay! Justin didn't pick up and Mr. F was busy and everyone else hung up on me!" She sounded near tears.

"I'm not blaming you, just trying to understand," I reassured the Nazi teen. "What's the situation?"

"The fucking cops are here! They showed up at my place and tried to bust down my fucking door!"

"Take the fire escape, I'll have someone pick you up," I ordered.

"Okay," she said, and I could here something open, followed by gunfire and the sound of breaking glass and feminine screaming.

"There's more outside!" she cried, now fully panicking. "Fuckers tried to shoot me when I opened the fucking window!"

 _That doesn't sound like the PRT's MO._ "Take a deep breath Rune, I'll have an agent there in a minute or two. Are there any heroes there?"

"What? No! It's not them! I told ya it's the fucking _cops_!" she practically screamed.

 _This isn't an arrest, it's retribution_ , I realized. Either that, or the cops were trying to steal a march on the PRT in the _worst way possible._ In canon all we'd seen was Purity's rampage, but as usual what we _hadn't_ seen was just as important. What would a humiliated, corrupt police force do when they got the opportunity to ambush villains in their homes? _This_ , apparently. "Block the windows with your power, along with the doors, and if you hear them doing something to the other side of wall, block that as well. I need your address!"

She gave it to me, and I told her my contact would be there in a minute, my GPS pointing me in the right direction. Approaching the building, there wasn't any sort of police cordon, just two police cars without even their lights on. _Off the books then._ As I settled into the Boardwalk persona, I found that I didn't have a problem with killing these fucking pigs if I needed to, but getting Rune out took precedence. Finding her room was easy enough, as the out of uniform asshats in the alley had their guns trained on it.

One of them took a potshot at me as I flew into the window, passing through my shadowy form right before I passed through the shelving unit that Rune had blocked it with. Inside was a girl in pajamas, probably younger than Taylor, who shrieked and moved her hand, a knife flew through the air to pass through my head. "You Rune?" I asked sardonically.

"Who the fuck are you?" she yelled, sending the knife through me again as she backed up in fright, tripping over a chair and falling to the ground.

On one hand, she was obviously too young for this life and I felt bad for her getting caught up in it, on the other hand, _Nazi_. "I'm fuckin' Boardwalk. Vejovis sent me. Now are ya gonna keep wasting my fuckin' time or we gettin' out of here 'fore one of the pigs does something _really_ fuckin' stupid?"

"I. . . I. . ." she stuttered.

I sighed, "Pack your fuckin' shit, you're not comin' back. Only shit ya can't replace, and no more than a backpack or suitcase or something. I'll distract the five-o." She stared at me. "Get!" I commanded, pointing towards her bedroom.

She scurried off, and I pulled out my phone, dialing Boojack. After going to voicemail, I hung up and called again, and he answered on the fourth ring. "What is it? Ya woke me up."

"It's Boardwalk," I told him. "I'm pullin' Rune out of trouble with the cops. There's a squad here outta uniform tryin' to 'arrest' her, and fuckin' shot at her. She needs a place to stay till the heat dies down."

He grunted. "How old is she?" he asked.

I shrugged, "I don't fuckin' know, twelve?"

"I'm fourteen, you fucking asshole!" she yelled from the other room, obviously having regained some of her spine now that she was out of sight.

 _How would Boardwalk respond?_ "Grow some tits and I might fuckin' believe ya!" I shot back, "She's fourteen," I told him, internally shocked and surprised at what I'd come up with.

"You're gonna make me wear pants, aren't ya," he groused.

"Until I get find someplace else to hide the _fourteen-year-old_ , yeah, I fuckin' am. You cool with lettin' her crash there for a few days?"

"You're givin' me a choice?" he asked, surprised.

"Yeah," I replied. "If it's gonna be a problem I'll find somewhere else to stick her."

He gave it a moment of consideration. "Nah man, it's cool."

"Thanks man, be there in five," I told him, hanging up. "Ya fuckin' ready?" I asked her. The cops had been quiet, and I didn't like it.

"Almost!" she called back.

Going complete Shadowform, I stuck my head out the door only to have one of the cops shoot me, the bullet passing harmlessly through me and hitting another one in the shoulder. "Ya got a fuckin' warrant?" I asked sardonically.

"Fuck! It's Boardwalk!" one of them called, bolting. The other three just glared at me, the shot one holding onto his shoulder, putting pressure on the wound.

"She's just a fuckin' Nazi," the one who seemed to be in charge sneered. "Just walk away and we won't arrest you for shooting an officer of the law," he told me, jerking his head towards the injured cop.

I just stared at him. Weighing the feeling of _fuck him_ against the fact that I didn't want them trying to pin the deaths of three 'upstanding police officers, doing their sworn duty' on me for turning them into paste. "Ya shot him with your own gun, dumbass. It's prolly registered to you and everythin."

He snorted, likely falsely assuming me talking to him was me being worried about the false charges he was threatening me with. "You think this is mine? Got it from one of those fuckin' Japs. You obviously got it when you were killing them. Just leave, this isn't your problem. What do you care, they're nazis and you're _black_." He smiled as if this was some grand revelation.

 _Well, at least that part of my deception is working_. I paused, trying to think of a reason to dissuade them while Rune finished. "Ya think a judge's gonna buy that?"

"Ya think they haven't before?" he shot back, mocking me.

The one who was glaring at me muttered under his breath, "Gonna make that bitch bleed for this," too low for me to have heard it normally, but Acoustokinesis was a heck of a power.

Noting the security camera had been busted, I sealed both ends of the hallway with solid air as I unholstered my pistol. "Yeah, no." I said, lifting it up through the door and infusing it with Light to counter the Shadow, shooting the leader right between the eyes. Repeating the process with the other two, their shots passing through my head and body to no effect, I stepped out into the hall.

Creating a good-sized sun, I tossed all three corpses in it, incinerating them completely. A few seconds of expanding my costume to clean the area and all that was left were a few casings, which were tossed in as well. Dismissing the star, I stepped back through the door to find Rune there, in costume, waiting.

"Change into your civvies," I commanded. "We can't go incog-fuckin'-nito if you're wearin' a fuckin' robe."

"But, then you'll see my face," she complained.

"Half the city's seen your fuckin' face, that's the reason you've got fuckin' pigs tryin' to kill ya," I reminded her.

" _Kill me!?"_ she cried out. "I thought they were gonna fucking arrest me!"

I rolled my eyes, "Yeah, 'cause they've got those special 'arrest' bullets they were shootin' at ya. Change, then we're leavin'."

She moved back to her room, moving a book-case to block the door. She had to know I could pass through it easily, so she must've done that so I couldn't see her. _She's fuckin' fourteen. Who the hell pervs on middle-schoolers?_ _Nazis apparently, if that's an instinctual reaction._ _I shouldn't be surprised, but I still somehow am._ A minute later she was ready, in short shorts and a halter top, carrying a suitcase stuffed with things, a bit of fabric poking out.

I motioned to the shelving unit blocking the window, not commenting on the amount of skin she was showing. If it stopped others from looking at her face, then I suppose it would work, though again I had to wonder at the type of person that would do so. "Stand behind me and move that out of the way." She did so, and I formed a ball of Light in my hand, enclosed in a shell of hardened air. "Close your eyes, and don't open them till I tell ya," I instructed lobbing the projectile out the window. From the shouts outside, some of the corrupt cops were still waiting for us in the alley. I dropped it down before inverting the sphere, sending Light spilling in all directions. There was the crack of an explosion followed by the bright white light of my ad-hoc flashbang going off and I turned, grabbing Rune's shoulder with one hand, the hand holding her suitcase with the other.

Extending a lift field over her and her stuff, I shifted us all to Shadowform and took us out the window. Rune stiffened but held back from making a sound as we passed through the wall, dropping down towards the alley below. There were five cops there, only one in uniform, all on the ground and blinded by the flash. We dropped down past them without a sound, passing through the cracked concrete, twisting around a power line, and descended deep into the earth.

"You can open your eyes, but don't let go," I cautioned. She did so and gave a little shriek, looking around as we passed through the dirt, the vagaries of Shadowform letting her see the dirt as she moved through it. I chuckled, the sound reverberating oddly. "When you're a fuckin' ghost it's stupid easy to move about without anyone knowin' you're there," I commented, turning my attention to the bugs above us as we moved. As we crossed through downtown I found some flies far below me, at the very edge of my range. Glancing at the thread connecting my power to Marissa's, it was pointing towards those out of place insects.

It explained why Taylor hadn't stumbled across his base in canon, it was several hundred feet below the surface, far out of her normal range. Arriving at Boojack's place I lifted us up, maneuvering around the occasional live wire, the prickling feeling in my outstretched hand all the warning I was going to get. Rising up took nearly as long as the trip across the city, but we did so right outside the back, in an area not covered by the security cameras. Sticking my head in the wall, I found the ground-floor apartment unoccupied and pulled her into it, moving into an interior hallway before shifting us back to reality.

She let out a shuttering breath, holding herself, eyes wide and I let her collect herself while I leaned against the wall, arms crossed. "Ya done?" I asked when she'd stopped shaking.

"I'm good. Just. . . Fuck! How do you fuckin' handle the darkness?" she asked, looking at me with, I wasn't sure, respect? Fear?

"What the fuck are you talking about?" I asked in return, not getting the question.

She waved a hand towards where we lifted up from. "Down fucking there. It was just nothing but black, and I could feel you an' hear you, but that was fuckin' _it._ "

 _Okay, maybe the ability to see while phasing wasn't a part of that power_ , I thought. But then again, no one had complained before. Then again again, Herb could borrow my Power Sight if that's what let me see, and Taylor could use her bugs to position herself, so neither would have a problem. Had I taken anyone else underground? Well, Canary, but she hadn't said anything. _Oh well,_ I mentally shrugged.

"You get used to it," I commented, pushing off from the wall. "But hopefully you won't need to, now get your ass in gear and follow me." She did so without a word, trailing after me as we took the elevator to the fifteenth floor. Heading down to Boojack's place, I knocked on the door, barely hearing him shout, "Come in." Putting my hand on her shoulder, I phased us through the front door, the smell of marijuana assaulting us as we did so.

Boojack was sitting, shirtless, watching tv and smoking a blunt. Rune went stiff, "I have to live with a Nigger?" she demanded, going pale a moment later and glancing over to Boojack.

He didn't seem to mind, replying without looking at her, "I'm not fuckin' happy about it either Cracker. Don't smoke my fuckin' weed and we'll be fine."

She looked at me pleadingly, "Can't I stay with you? I'll do chores and shit!"

I raised an eyebrow. "The only other place he's got right now is his _secret base_. Vejovis' willin' to help you Rune, but he ain't gonna trust you without good reason. I'll talk to him and see if he can find you someplace of your own later, but for now it's here or on your own."

She glanced at Boojack, face screwing up in distaste. "Fine, I'll stay with the fuckin' porch monkey."

"Okay, don't go out in fuckin' costume," I commanded her. "You rejoin the fuckin' Nazis, find somewhere else to live and you want to help, call Vejovis. Also, lay off the fuckin' racial slurs-"

"I don't care if the little honky bitch barks," interrupted Boojack. "Not like I give a shit."

"Who ya callin' a bitch ya fuckin' Sambo!" she shot back.

I released a small bit of Light with a flash and a crack, quieting them both. " _Not the fuckin' time_. Right, Rune don't go out for, like, at least a week out of costume either. Boojack has the card for supplies, and Jackhammer'll probably get them."

" _I'm_ not fuckin' doin' it," BJ agreed.

"Any questions?" I pressed on, wanting to get out of there.

She hesitated before finally asking me, "You white?"

"Who the fuck cares?" I asked, throwing my hands up in the air.

"He's mixed," Boojack told her.

 _Yeah, mixed European_ _maybe,_ I thought, but shot back, "So are you!"

"You is?" Rune asked the replicant.

He shrugged, still not looking at her, "Mom was white."

"Oh, that's not so bad then," the Nazi replied, as if that was in _any_ way relevant.

"You two fuckin' racists have a good time. I got shit to do," I told them both, heading out the door.


	91. Premiere 8-12

**Premiere 8.12**

Landing back at the base as Vejovis, I shifted to civilian wear before I walked in the door. I had an hour before Dean & Vicky were supposed to show up and strode into the kitchen when I saw a boy about Taylor's age, a tad less heavy looking than I was then, carrying a cardboard box of things. He glanced up at me and stopped, unsure what to do next.

"Theo?" I asked, and he cautiously nodded. "I'm Vejovis. You need any help?"

He shook his head, edging towards the bedrooms, "No," he said quietly, looking down.

I shrugged, "Okay. If you've got any questions, don't hesitate to ask. I might not answer, but I won't be mad."

He just nodded, still not looking at me, and moved on. Herb came in a moment later from the same direction. "Do I look like Kaiser?" I asked him.

He just looked at me like I was being stupid, "Uh, no?" I motioned towards where Theo had walked. Herb shook his head, understanding what I meant, "Dude, it's not you, it's male authority. Give him time."

He moved on and I retired to the now clean-ish tv room to continue reading the damn base manual. About an hour later, I'd finally found a map of the base, but there were two _very_ off things about it. First of all, it was labelled 'Level one', and second of all there was a room that _didn't exist_ on it, labelled 'elevator'. Standing up to go check it, I walked around the rooms where this elevator was supposed to be, which included Herb's bedroom, a hallway, and the workshop. Sure enough, now that I was looking at it, there was a space about nine feet wide and eight feet deep in the center of the base. Checking in Herb's room, I couldn't find anything out of place, and I'd moved to the hallway when I heard Vicky's voice announce, "Hey Vejy! We're back!"

Heading to the kitchen, Victoria practically pranced in, dragging in a nervous looking boy who looked at me as if he wanted to be _anywhere_ but here. Clean cut, blonde haired, and blue eyed, Dean Stansfield looked like he could've been the poster-boy for the Empire if I didn't know better. A flicker of Power Sight confirmed him as Gallant, causing me to smile. "Dean, good to see you. I've been looking forward to meeting you, especially given the account of your actions that Boardwalk gave me," I told him, striding forward and offering my hand.

He hesitated before taking my hand, his eyes not _quite_ meeting mine, likely looking at my emotions through his secondary power. From what I remember he could get a general read, but couldn't get exact emotions, mixing up jealousy with suspicion among other things. "It's good to meet you to sir," he replied. "Vicky won't stop talking about you." Was that suspicion in his tone? His grip was firm, and I repressed the urge to do the machismo grip-of-doom in return.

"Good things I hope?" I asked, wondering why the hell I felt like I was meeting of the father of the girl I was dating. _I'm worried about what exactly she said,_ I realized, _and Gallant wasn't a dick in Canon, so I care a little what he thinks._

He looked at me a bit oddly before nodding. "She said you've been training her in using her powers?"

"Our powers are similar enough there's a good bit overlap, and I seem to approach being a parahuman differently than most," I explained, "But before we get into that I would like to have a word with you in private, if you don't mind."

Now it was _his_ turn to be nervous, glancing to his girlfriend. "You boys have fun, I'm gonna go check in with Canary!" she told him, flying off towards the bedrooms.

"Wait, _Canary_?" Gallant asked, but she was already gone. He turned to me, "Isn't she supposed to be dead?"

I turned around, heading to the meeting room as I called over my shoulder, "A great many things are not how they are supposed to be Mr. Stansfield."

He followed cautiously, not saying anything until he took a seat, facing me across the table. "You have a Master in your base," he told me, unsure of how to proceed.

"Gallant, _you_ are a Master. Heck, _I_ am a Master," I reminded him. "Bug control, remember? Besides, being Birdcaged for a new manifestation of powers that resulted in no permanent harm? Especially if they have a clean record? If there is someone who is in the wrong here it _isn't_ me." Dropping a Sound Bubble around the room, I closed the door with air. "But we're not here to talk about her, we're here to talk about _you._ "

"I've done nothing wrong," was his immediate reply, and I wondered where it came from. Likely reading my confusion, he himself became confused. "You aren't here to blackmail me?"

"No," was _my_ immediate reply, amending it to, "Well, _yes_ , but not for the reasons you think."

His expression set and his hand starting to glow. "So you _are_ a villain."

I blinked at that, not intimidated in the slightest. "Um, no? People blackmail other people _all the time_ , Dean _._ I'm sure Brandish did so, holding her approval of you hostage, contingent on you following her orders when it came to her daughter. Isn't that extortion, just with a slightly different mechanic?"

His power faded as his brow furrowed, "That's. . . different."

"How?" I inquired, interested in how he'd answer.

"You really. . . ?" he started to ask, shaking his head. "Brandish isn't threatening to reveal my identity!"

Now I was _really_ confused, "Who said I was. . . Oh!" He'd made the accusation before I'd done the thing I thought might provoke a bad reaction. "No," I laughed. "I'm not threatening to reveal _that._ You know money can't buy happiness, right?"

I paused for effect, but he took that as an actual question. "I didn't buy Vicky!" he shot back incensed.

"You really need to let the person you think is evil monologue," I told him, smirking. "But while money can't buy happiness, it _can_ buy _powers_."

His expression went blank. "I don't know what you're talking about," he denied.

I wanted to point out that if you wanted to lie, you don't go expressionless, you cover it with another emotion, but explaining how to lie better wouldn't help me right now. "I know all about Cauldron, or, as I'll refer to them because of the Taboo on the name, the Cape-inati. Break does contract work for them," I informed him, opening the laptop in the room and logging in, and turning it around to show him the Cauldron wallpaper.

"What I _haven't_ done is tell your girlfriend, but I strongly suggest that you do. She might be pissed, but you should tell her I already knew so she gets at mad at me instead," I suggested. "However, due to a confluence of circumstances I gained access to a pretty powerful Thinker, who gave me a general timeline of Brockton Bay for the next few years if I never came here, and a detailed account of the next few months. I've already worked to help derail it, but there's only so much I can do."

He stared at me, likely reading my emotions, so I turned on my own Power Sight to return the favor. Just as I thought he had more powers nestled in his Aura than I'd first Seen. That first ten-second glance gave me information on the main power and allowed me to copy it. However, I'd come to realize that it took increasingly longer to see a person's secondary and tertiary powers. In addition to Concussive Emotion Beams, Gallant possessed Emotion Sight, which he was actively using, and Emotional Stability, an anti-emotion-power power.

Gallant, who had been deep in thought, spoke up. "So that's why you're doing this? You saw the future and you're profiting off it?"

I looked at him askance. "Dean, if all I wanted was profit I'd go rogue _tomorrow_ and make more money than the GDP of this _city._ I'm not exactly sure where all of this supervillain suspicion is coming from."

"You're partnered with a Break, who calls himself a villain," he pointed out flatly.

I waved a hand in negation, "He wanted to be a member of the A-Team as a kid. At worst he's an Anti-hero. Besides, it's not like the PRT are the white hats in all this."

"Protectorate," he corrected.

"What?" I asked, not sure what he was talking about.

"You're talking about heroes and villains, it's not the PRT, it's the Protectorate," he told me.

Raising a single eyebrow, I quipped, "Keep telling yourself that kid. Piggot holds your leash, no matter what Armsmaster pretends."

He hesitated, "Armsmaster isn't in charge anymore, Miss Militia is."

I was mildly surprised, but the change didn't matter that much. "So, the PRT, _who doesn't control you_ , replaced the guy who attacks teenage girls because they make him look bad when he fucks up stealing credit for their actions with the woman who shot the man who saved _you_ in the back when he wouldn't allow himself to be arrested for saving you in the first place. Wow. Such an improvement. Much autonomy. Truly the PRT has turned over a new leaf," I snarked. Shaking my head, I continued, "But I'm surprised at you Dean, I told you I know the future, but you haven't asked me what happens at all."

"I'm sure she. . ." he trailed off at my look.

I waved, "Oh, please, tell me how she was _completely justified_ to trap the man who'd saved _you_ , _Missy_ , and _several dozen cops_ from death by suicide bomber, to not even bother telling him they just wanted to ask a few questions and going straight to 'you're under arrest for saving lives', to burying him in containment foam, and to using lethal munitions on him when he tried to escape without hurting anyone? I'm sure your argument _won't_ consist entirely of 'she's in power so she's obviously correct and without fault'. Ask about the future Dean, it's a safer topic."

He paused before nodding. "Okay, what happens to Vicky?"

 _At least he has good priorities_ , I thought. "Well, your death in a month completely destroys her, which combined with several other things, including the Teeth moving into town and her mother turning against her adopted sister ends with her in a coma for several years, effectively alone. I've been helping her avoid the latter, and you're here to help avoid the former."

Dean, looked at me for a long moment, and I stared right back at him. He deflated with an "Oh. That explains. . . oh."

"Yeah," I replied, all joviality gone. "Shits gonna get a _lot_ worse in the Bay before it gets better. Bakuda's little tantrum was just the opening act, and unfortunately I don't know how to stop them _before_ they get here, so I'm working to make everyone here better instead. She's gotten stronger, but not nearly enough to fight. . . To handle what's coming." I corrected, stopping myself from naming Crawler.

I shrugged, "I'd do what I could to make sure you all took a vacation to somewhere safer, like Boston, but Victoria would never go for it."

He nodded ruefully, "No, she wouldn't."

"So," I announced, clapping my hands and standing up. "Unlike a Natural Trigger your power won't develop and change, but your _use_ of it can, so we should go find your girlfriend and work on that."

"Wait, what?" he asked, confused as he stood as well. "What are you talking about?"

I couldn't help but smile, "Natural triggers improve in power over time and come with a number of side effects. Vial recipients are full strength off the bat, but lack in those same secondary effects. Let me guess, what I'm saying goes against the accepted science about parahumans, right?" He nodded, and I couldn't help but shake my head. "Come on Dean, you _know_ why the science is wrong. You have two different types of powers with an organization that's actively hiding that the distinction exists in the first place, of _course_ the science is going to be wrong."

Dismissing the bubble and leaving, I returned to the kitchen to find Victoria & Canary chatting amicably. The younger girl brightened as we walked in, expression growing concerned when she saw Dean's deep frown. "I'm fine Vicky," he reassured her. "Just. . . a lot to think about."

Vicky glared at me. "You did the thing."

"What thing?" I asked.

"You know, the thing you always do," she replied, as if that explained anything. Herb walked in; Dean stiffened but Vicky turned towards him, "Break, Vejy talked to Dean and did the thing he _always_ does!" She motioned to her boyfriend. _Why do I feel like I just got tattled on?_

My friend looked at me, with my confused expression; looked at the young man standing next to me, equally confused; and told Glory Girl with a shrug, "He's always doing the thing, it's what he does."

" _What thing?_ " I demanded.

"The thing where you're way too fucking serious and tell people too much too damn fast?" he told me in a tone that said I was silly for asking.

"I don't do that _all_ the time," I complained.

He just _looked_ at me, "You're sayin' you weren't doin' that this morning with Lady Bug."

"I. . . I don't do that _all_ the time," I echoed, this time without much conviction. "Okay, I do it a lot," I gave, "but there's a _lot_ to do and not a lot of time to do it in!"

"Not sayin' it's always bad," he expressed, "but you do that kinda thing a lot. Hence, _the thing_."

"Fine, yeah, I guess I did 'the thing'," I half apologized to Vicky. "But it needed to be said, now let's go work on your boyfriend's power."

* * *

Having retired to the workshop and worked with him to display his current uses of his power, with a bit of prodding from Vicky and a warning to not use them on Enter, Hellhound, Regent, Night, Fog, or myself as the results would likely not work as intended, we'd reached the end of what he could do.

"Right, so blasts of higher intensities take time to charge up if you release them all at once. You can focus it into beams, and if you focus enough you can make them cut." _That_ had been a surprise. Gallant hadn't volunteered that use until I suggested it, admitting that he'd found it out by accident, but hadn't revealed he could because of the lethality of the move. I'd expected to have to walk him through how to experiment with his power, but he'd already been doing so to a limited degree.

"The emotion carried has no effect on the impact, but you can't fire a blast _without_ an emotion. Sadly, the blasts have no discernable recoil," I continued.

"Why is that a bad thing?" Dean asked.

I'd expected that question, "A weak recoil can be utilized to help you maneuver in a fight. A strong one can help larger movements, like dodging or adding to a jump. A _truly_ strong recoil? You _fly_."

"Wait, you trill?" Glory Girl asked.

Turning to look at Dean, it took him a second to realize what I wanted. "Um, are you sure?" he clarified.

 _Ah, some kind of take on 'you real?' then_ , I thought. "Yes, Glory Girl. Really, most capes who utilize Newtonian physics for flight are doing something similar, as opposed to your own Aristotelian flight mechanics." I got a pair of blank looks. "Physics based, each action has an equal and opposite reaction, rocket-like flight, as opposed to your 'fly the way you want to go' method that's intuitive, but not how physics actually works."

Both of them nodded, almost in sync. It was cute. "Purity's flight is entirely Newtonian, she's just blasting little bits of Light in a stream downwards to keep herself aloft. She just glows so brightly that it's hard to tell," I explained. "So, I've got two ideas, and you might be able to chain them together. To start with, you originally had blasts where you turned up the intensity and blasts where you tightened them into beams or concentrated them into larger blasts. Have you tried anything else?"

"Like what?" he asked, but his expression turned introspective before I could answer. He stepped up to our ad-hoc firing range and brought his hand up, palm glowing the sky-blue of calmness. Instead of a tight beam or sphere the light seemed to billow out in a translucent cloud, wisps at first but picking up speed and volume as Dean seemed to gain confidence with it. His power flowed outwards to drift downrange as if blown along on an unseen wind. Whenever the power encountered something it faded, very lightly moving whatever it hit. The cloud curled around the obstacles in its way, filling the space.

"Oh. My. God!" Glory Girl practically squealed, jumping up to grab him by the shoulders in a hug. "That's awesome Dean!"

His concentration broke as she did so, the slightly smoky cloud slowly drifting downrange. Standing up and walking over to it, I saw it wasn't really opaque, just giving the area a slightly hazy look. Cautiously reaching into it, it felt like a light breeze as it dissipated on my hand. I felt as if I'd taken a calming breath, and also slightly annoyed that he'd gotten this trick down so fast, especially when I couldn't claim credit. Pulling my hand back both feelings faded, the second seeming ridiculous now that I wasn't being affected emotionally.

Taking a breath, ready for the effect, I stepped inside the retreating cloud. The calmness came back, as did the annoyance, but I ignored it. The effect didn't gain much strength deeper in or with more coverage, which was good. Striding out of it, both Vicky and Dean looked at me, both with a bit of worry. "Interesting effect. Very low impact, which means I only got annoyed you figured this out so fast, which makes _no_ sense, but then again, Master powers," I shrugged. "We'll need a larger area to test this in full, but this is the kind of thing that will attract a _lot_ of attention."

Returning to the pair I continued, "Also, not what I had in mind in the slightest. I was going to suggest a wide range beam, turning it into a cone. Wanna give that a shot?"

Dean, with Vicky hanging off him, shrugged. Holding out a hand he concentrated, several beams of calmness shooting off at once, one from each finger. "Okay, take the feeling you get from a beam," I suggested, Seeing his power, "And channel it through you palm instead." He did so, a soda-can sized beam shooting the metal target I'd brought out from 'storage' pushing it back several feet and denting it.

As Dean looked down at his hand in shock I pressed, "Good, now pull back the edges of it. Keep the focused pushing thing, but wider, and maybe slower." He tried again, the thick beam lashing out but its shape fluctuating. He held it, and the beam widened slowly and by degrees. Watching him with Power Sight I could start to see the intricacies of his power, how it channeled itself through him and how he shaped it. In that last part it was much like Lightform, though without the volatile properties that gave Purity her destructiveness. I could feel my own power practically begging to take his for my own, but not _only_ was it a human applicable Master power, but it was one being wielded by someone who deserved it, both through his character and his inventiveness.

It was slow going, the edges spreading outwards unevenly over the course of minutes until he was about to start hitting the shelving units, but he kept with it, struggling to make his power bow to his will. The force he was putting out was impressive, the hollow portion of the target all that kept it from being pinned against the wall, my own will holding the air inside it in place. Vicky, right there with him, was murmuring feedback to him as he concentrated, eyes closed. After a moment the mostly circular, bright cone of calm faded and he slumped, letting out a shaky breath.

"That. . . That was different," he said to me, smiling at his girlfriend, "Thanks Vics."

"Duh," she replied, smiling back and helping him back to his seat. "I'm your bae. It's, like, my _job_."

They kissed, and I rolled my eyes, clearing my throat as I took my own seat. "Okay, good job. He's already dead, but that would be a _great_ anti-Oni Lee power. If it hit him, you could distract him enough to get the jump on him, and it's strong enough to knock both him back, and any projectile he might throw. As it is, it would be a good counter against a _lot_ of AoE attacks. Area of Effect," I explained. I had another idea, looking at his power, and now was a good time to suggest it. "Now, you can add emotions, but can you _remove_ them?" I inquired.

"That's not my power," Gallant argued.

"Your power wasn't emotional wind until an hour ago. Have you tested taking them away?" I argued right back. "Give it a shot. You don't even need to get up, just try a low powered blast." Sitting back and crossing my arms as I peered at him with Power Sight.

He held a hand out, power trying to invert itself, Aura spiking and twisting. His hand started to glow prismatically, a riot of colors fighting with each other, but when he shot one off it was concentrated frustration, a washed-out purple glob. He shook his head, "I can't. I told you my power doesn't work that way."

"Maybe you need a focus. Try anti-anger." I suggested.

He held his hand out, focusing again. I could See his power struggling with the concept as he himself was. _Aren't dead shards supposed to be. . . dead?_ I thought, but looking at him I Saw that _wasn't true_. It almost hurt to see on a sense I couldn't describe but I Knew they weren't dead in the biological sense, they were just. . . purposeless. Natural Trigger shards, like the one anchored to Victoria, were active, vibrant, they contained the spark of _agency_. Scion had given them a task and they were going to carry it out come hell or high water!

Dead shards weren't optimized for humanity, ready to change and mold themselves to their hosts in the pursuit of their goal of evolution, they were configured for _Entity_ use. The power was there, but it didn't grow, didn't adapt, didn't have goals to achieve other than to be used. They weren't filled with _determination._ While Entities were, well, entities, they weren't exactly _singular_. Scion wasn't just an individual, he was the lead consciousness in a hive mind made of millions, possibly even billions, of shards.

The shards were almost sentient, in a sense, but instead of working cooperatively like a hive mind should, their state was similar to that of true slaves, waiting to be used by their master but not having the capability to question, to learn, to _act_ on their own until commanded to do so.

Gallant gave up, the veil that had parted with his shard's attempt to comply slamming shut once more. "I can't do it," he told me, annoyed. "I told you, that's not my power."

"How do you know?" I snapped, frustrated. "No, wait, shut up," I told him as he started to reply. I needed to _See_ , but I couldn't, something was in the way. I moved to run my hand through my hair in frustration, bumping against the shades which covered my eyes, hiding my prismatic irises from the pair. _Maybe if I. . ._ _No I shouldn't_ I thought. I was _very_ careful to never show my eyes, the one part of me that was undeniable, unchangeably _alien._

 _Then again._ . . "Both of you, close your eyes," I instructed brusquely.

"Why?" he asked, defensive. Glory Girl looked at me askance.

"Because while I trust your innate good character enough to not blab that I've seen the future, there are some secrets that I'm _not_ willing to share with someone I just met, and I don't want to separate you both with keeping secrets from each other," I replied, and it was even true.

Dean wasn't convinced, "I'm not sure-"

"Is it important?" Victoria interrupted.

" _Yes,_ " I replied without hesitation. "If I'm wrong, nothing happens. If I'm _right?_ Practically a new power, and one _far_ more potent than what I was going for."

Gallant looked skeptical, but Vicky gave me a serious nod, turning to her boyfriend, she implored, "Please Dean. For me." He looked like he wanted to say no, but sighed, nodding as he closed his eyes.

Removing my extradimensional glasses, I turned on Power Sight and wrapped myself in a sound bubble as I bit back a grunt of shock. The world looked infinitely more _real_ than it had before in a way I couldn't describe, and everything had a clarity that took a moment to get used to.

Looking at Glory Girl information poured into my brain about her power, the previous use configurations, the intricacies of it, _everything._ Turning to look at Gallant, I Saw his powers, what they were, and what they were set up to do. I could see all three abilities laid out, how they interacted with each other and how they interacted with their Host. His beams took their que from the part of the brain that modeled the emotions of others, the part from which we all gained empathy. That was why he couldn't zero-out emotions, because he couldn't himself feel 'inverse emotions'. The Shard then sought to superimpose those emotions on the brains of his target, so designated by the recipient of his kinetic beams, stronger impacts not strengthening the emotional impact of his power at all. I wondered what could happen if the targeting parameters were changed, but had a vision of Gallant-Khepri, and moved on.

His Emotion Sight took information from the brains of others, cross referenced them with his own, and ran it the results through the part that was connected to his eyes. _Hmm, even without his eyes he could still see people from the emotional auras they'd create,_ I idly noted. Closing his eyes interrupted this flow, but that was because the shard took that as an 'I don't want to see this' command from its Host. _Fascinating._

The last power, the Anti-Emotion-Power Power was what I needed to understand. When I Saw it, I was reminded of an Antivirus program. His Shard kept track of what was going on in his brain and establishing a divide between what was a normative biological function and what was outside interference. Amusingly, anything that a Shard did to its _own_ Host was grouped into normative biological functions. The power was pointed inward, protecting himself, but it didn't _have_ to be. I could feel a burning in my eyes, but I had what I needed.

I could almost sense an Observer Effect taking place. _Something_ was happening as I Saw Dean's power, but I couldn't tell what it was. It didn't matter, if I could do this then there was no way in _hell_ they'd risk Dean in the front lines of an Endbringer fight. He would **Survive** and **Be There For Victoria**. I could feel myself reaching out, not physically, but at the same time what I was doing was more physical than physically possible.

The burning in my eyes exploded into full blown pain, but I could do this! T̺͈̺̞̘͛͒͂h̹̬͓͙̪ͤ̈́̇̾̓̚ẽ̌̓͘ ̙̤ͧ̓wͨ̾ͧͮͣ̐ͧo̟͓͉̻̗̹͗ͭ̂̓̕ͅr̭̦͉͍͓ͤ͗̓͊̽̔l̙͔͇͊d̖͔̳̳͍͙̯ͦ̉͑̄ͥ͜ ̨̭͖̖w̬͈̼̰͕̦a̠͕̖̝̺̫ͣ̉̃s̶͉̎ͪ̅͛́ͫ ͕ͪ̓̑ͨ͝s̫̣̘͕͚̥̈́̂ͦ̃͋̄͢h̸̝̪̜̬͉̼̀ͨ̍̒i̽̑ͅf̍ͤ̾͋͂̚͏͕̜͇̖ṫ̙͚̒ͤ͒̓ͩ̌i̫̤̐̀̇͞nͬ̊͊ͣ͂҉̭g̺̥͕̺̮,̹̪̑̇͆̏ͦ̚͞ ̖̥͓̤̹̜͊̓̈b͔̮̼͙̮̔̽̄͐̆̿uͯͫ̏̓̽͢t ̢̩̳̱̹͙̋̈̋ͥͦţͦͨh̨̳̿͛a̴͈̖̘̜̲͔͉t̥̮̠͎͍͕̬͑̌̍ͧ̑̅̒ ̬͒d̞͖̘͔͗i̋̔̈̌̔ͯd̬̜̣̘̠n̼ͪ̌ͪͣ'̮̟̟͎̗̺̐t̄ͩͣ̾ͤͣ ͎̲̩̠̙ͬ̍̏̔m̬̲̟̂͆aͫ̏ͧͭͬͤ̑͝t̴̹tͣͮͮ̿̈̐̓e͌͊͊̈́͝r̸͎ͅ,͕̲̹̠̹̻ͪ͊̌͛̐ A̴̶͓̲ͮͭ̑̈́ͩͨͬl̸͈̲̥̙͚̮̟̦̩ͧ̀l̷̗̥̖̐͋̈́̄̓͢ ̵̶̣̥̩̟̱͙̟̇̋͐ͬ̚I̱̗̲̰̥̜͎̮ͣ͒̇̈́̀́̀ ̶̛̹͚̔͛ͭ̍̑n͎̣̱̤ͭ̋̓eͣ̿͗̀ͤ̋ͬ̉҉̵̦̩͉̭͕̮͓̦̯e̸͎̝͉̺̮ͨ͛̈̏̓̓ḑ͍̣̰̣̮͖ͤ͑̔̍͂́ͩ͂ę̶ͦ͏̟̲͍͎̬̩̱̺d̮̘̖̙͓͚͚͎͑ͦ̿̒̔́ ̼̦͙̺́͒t̼̗͖̮̲̭̱ͯͪͩ̈ͬ͛͂͠ͅo̻̻͇̫̬ͣ̽ͅ ̈̃̀͠҉̺̗d̫̝̆ͯ͌̀ő̸͚̫ ͬ͒̾̊͝͝͏̥͉͍͔̦̳͕̣w̴̭̱͔̱̼̘̍̏̓a͚̘̦͎̬̳͛ͩș̨̧̹̹ͨͦ̑͛̓ Aͪ̊̾̆͛͌͌͋̋̍ͮ͐͌̿̔̆̇͐́҉̡͍͕̭͇͚̝̣̞̱̣̦͟d̵͕̬̞̫̻̖̞̑̏͐̿̓̑ͫ̕j̱̜͔͈̼̯͉ͧ̊̉̒ͩ͋ͨ͌ͨͫ̊̑̈́̈́̌̇ͧ̊̀u͖̘͈̺̠͔̫̇ͥ͑͌͐́̓̍̅͋̏̑̎̔ͧ̈́̾͆̀́̚͝ş̩̤̲̥͓̗̱̝̬̪͊̉̆̑ͫ̋́͘ͅt̫̳̭̥͙̺̔̇̈ͦͭ͗̍̇̄͋ͣ̒́͠ ̨̙̖̗̺͚̪̯̬͖̞̥̯̠̙ͫ̈̇͊ͬͬͯ͑͐͊͘͘͠ͅt̨̛̼͎͇̟̪̘͓̙̮̜̤̣̗̲̳ͦ̎ͮ̉̿́̄̔̀̆͒̈́̔̊h̨͇̱̲̗̖̥̬̻͓̝̬͈̙̾͒ͨ̉ͣͧͨ͋͐͂̉͗̊̊ͬ̇́͞͠ę̬͉͕͙ͭ̂̐͆ͩͧͭ̓̓̐̇́̽̃͆̈́ ̨̢̗̹͕̩̯͍̰̭͈͂̆̎̍̂͛̉͑͒̅̏̍ͣ̆̆͡p̴͚͉̯̼̻̭͖̦̳̟̥̘̼̝̟͑ͧͣ̾͋̏ͭͣ͛̋͒̍̾͟͟͡ą̛̏ͩ̀̈͏̼̪͓͉͉͉̪̰̠̟̟̱̲̟̗͓̟ȑ̴̡͈̞̳͚̞̲̱͍̞̇̌̃̆́̚͞͞ͅa͛̃̍̕͘͏̞͖̹͖̱̮̺̱̱̯͉̱̤͚͔̱ͅm̜̼̠͉̥͈̞͚͍̜ͯͣͭ͑ͬ̎ͣ͆̇͗̊̔͠e͐̒ͮͭ͌̊͂̽̉͛̒́̾͛҉̡͏̡̘̹̟͎̬̘̝̠͍͍̱̤̠̯͍t͈̳͇̙̖͕̮̪͇͛ͯ̄̉̂̃̊͂ͩ̌̽̔͗̀̚͘ȅ̸̢̲̱̗̟̞͚͈͔͇͎̬̟̟͌̉̇̔ͮ̎̿ͣ̊ͣ̒̅͋̈́̂͞r̷̷̸̭̥̠͙̰̜̱͍̙̣̦͎͔̪̝̂̈́͋́ͪ͞͝s̡͍̮̜̗̟̣̥̑̿ͥ̔͆̄́͟͝ ̢̛͎̮̣̬̭̬̮̠̫̙̼̏̆͒̂ͤͩ͐͊̊ͣ͂̐̏ͪ̄ͧ̚̚͢o͚̥̬̙͓͖̦͔̝͆̊̎͌ͭ̉͒̓̑̄̏ͭͫ͌̑̌͒͟͜͞ͅͅf̧͛̽͌̓͂̔̍̾͛́̚͏͓̬̠̫̫ ̮̱̙̫̉̐͐̏ͥ̅ͤͭ̏͑͌̋́̒͂̿̑̓́͜h̶̒͗̌ͩ̀ͧ̐́͐ͭ̓͑҉̣̦̻͚̩̙͍͎͉̯i̵̷͍͓̣̲̗ͭ̾͌͆͆͛̏̈̄͌ͧ̋ͫ̋̅s̓͊́̑͆͗̑͒͋̈̂̆ͧͨͯ͗̎͏̶̶̛͎̳͕̱̩̙̻̖̝̟ ̧͗̅̉ͨ҉͕̜̼̟͓p̴̴͔͙̩̯̦̙͎̩̫̯̰̫̫̅͊̏̎͗͐ͧ͒̾̑͂̍͑̂ͣͮ̚͝͝o̧̥̘̩̦̜͈̠̘ͥͪ̀̍ͬ̄̽͂ͣ̇ͮ́̕w̝̻̻̣̫̺̘͇͈̭̳̬̗̥̻̰͊̿ͦͦ̌̎̓͌͐̊̌͒ͤ͗̊̃̽͡e̸̽͂̃͋ͨ̋͘͟͠҉͔̞̘̪̤͇̫̞̳̲̗̦͕r̖͈̯̳͔̄͆̌ͨͧ͋̎ͫ́͐̓ͫ̒ͦͩ͜͢͞.̢͊ͫ̓ͤ̓̉ͦ͊ͮͬ͐ͨ͜҉̭͖̣̬̝̹̗̻̜̳̙̼̦̗̫͡ͅ ̴̴̥͚̹̲̖͎̦̳̄ͧ̽̏̏̇̎ͬͮͭͫ͋ͧͦ̃͘͘͢ͅR̴̡̡̟̝̘̹̉ͯ͑͂̐̎͂̋͋͋͢ȩ̴̣̘̻̭͉̞͖ͯ̽̿̓̐̒̇̈̀ͭ̏̆̏͛ͯ́͠ç̋͒̎̀͛ͤ̆͂̚͏͈̻̬̱̦̯̪̼̻̮͎͎̲͖̹̻͞ò̴̢̢͈̪̱̳̹͈̣͇͖̗̲͙̞͕͇̊̃͒̓́̊̅ͫͣ̇̉̃̒͐̚͡n̢̢͍̳͎̝̺̹̠̖̜͉͕͇̓̇ͨͦͬ̋ͫͬ͐͂̕͜ͅn̵͎͔͈̬̤̞̦̬ͧͨ͆͢͢͡e̡̨̺̰̜͖͇̮̲͙̦̻̬͖̞͔̹͎ͥ̊̾̈́͌̐̈͛͛͋ͥͯ̇̄͛́̚c̷̷̞̲̤͍͖̗̰̓̏ͩ̊͆͆̎͛̀̚͢t̢̢̤͖̙̖͓̺̫̣̖̗̱̹̰̙͈̑̽͗̈ͣ̇͊̅̈́̕ ̛̛̼̞͖̫͎̠̣̖͓̤̘̻̀͋̐̎͛̔͛̓͂͋ͯͯ̋ͣ̚t̵̡̤͚̺̜̭̦̩̪̭̱̪̪̻͈̮̪̣̰̋͗̎ͬ̑ͪͣͮͨ̈́̒̃́͘ͅh̴͉̻̮̞̱̼̭͍͙̊̓̾̇͋ͯ̆͊̾̋̓ͩ̀͘͟͜e̶̷͇̫͚̺ͩ͌͊͑ͯ̿̄̐ͭ̃ͮ̏̔̈́͂ͤ̒͘͡ ̷͌̇̇͊ͭͯ̅̅̽ͨͦͮ͆̂͋ͮ͂̈͒͏̨̭̣̩̳̳̜̻̖͇̰̪̤̠̼̗͙͎̱ͅi̢͔͍̟̲̞͓̥̭̜̗̫̣̯͉͉̜̇̎͛͋̋͆͐̑ͪ͆̍ͣͦ͆ͭ͗͒̊̾̕n̦͇̟̝̞͔̟͍̫̻͉̼̠̥̓ͬ̌͒̽̀͜p̷̧̡̮̣͈̫͔̣̭͚͈͍̊̿ͭ͒̄̃́̋͟u̵̮̞̞͉̣̲̠͇̻̫͙̱̜̭ͦ͋ͣͦ̏̈̐ͣ̑ͦ̃̾͂͆ͪt̓̾̅̄̐͌̃ͥ͏̛͇̰̩̥̙̩̬̥ ̷̪̮̺̗̣͍̙̗̖̝̪̎́͆ͯ̄͒ͭt̷̶̢̛͔̠̬͕̫͖͖̹̰͚̺̳̖̳̗̖̏̐́ͯ̾̌̾̀̂̓ͩ̓̒ͮ̒ͧ̀ơ͌ͫ͗ͫ̍̌̈̇̉͐̉ͭͨ̚҉̣̪̖̞̺͈̭̹̗̙͘͢ ̡̥͙̟͓͚͚̯͉̩̖͎̜̮̮̬̞̓̀͋̓͞͝o̧ͣͣ̃̏͌ͦ̄̐̈ͧͦ̈́ͭ̿́̚͢͠͏͉̜͓u̸͐͑ͮͪͫͨ̾̐̚͞͏͔̟̱͈t̨͇͔̳̯̠̮̫̞̩̦̖̤̝͓̼͍̮ͣ̈ͦͧ̈̒̎͐͌̂ͬ͐̊̉̂̿ͭ̽͜ͅp̶͂͒ͦ̆̑̌̓͐̉̊̉̚̚͟͏͖͔̱̞̦͍uͪͧ̑̒̅͋͑̃͡҉̼̯̺̙̀t̸̨̢͈̝̟̥̪̹̰͇̙̩̩̱̍̿̒̽̎̏ͨ̃ͥͦ̃͠,̨̡̦̺̟͉̽͑͐͌͢͡ ̨̢̨̹͚͖̮͍̥̣̮̭͍͕̺̟̭̟̘̞̫ͪ̅͑ͯ̊̑ͪ͛̅͌́̚͞ṅ̵͈͓͈̭̝ͧ́͐ͯͨ́͋̈́ͯ̄̏͒͗͢oͥ̄̇ͭͨ̉͏̴̞̫̩͕̹̥͙͖̼̻̰̩̮̭͈̱t̷̡͍̗̺̮͕̩͚̝͔̝͚̰̮̪̅̓̂͆̅ͯͯ͌̉̉ͨ͛̐̓͆͆͜,ͤ̓̋̒̃ͨ͆̌̾̆̃ͨ̃҉̵̮̤̹͖̤ͅ ̷̪̦͈̩̮̰̦́̊̔̂ͬ̏̔͆̈̈̀̀͘ͅb̴̡̬̺͈͈ͩ̽͂̀̋̄̋ͦ̌ͥ̐̈ͬ̽̚͜ĕ̡̨̛̪̬̱̺̙̘̣̙̤̟̬͓̱͚͕̝͉̑̿ͥ̈̎̋̌̇̐̌͑ͮ̓ͦ͘ͅt̉̓̊̑͗ͪ̆̇͆̉ͪ̏̋̎̎ͮͧ̓̀̕҉̸̨͖͈̩̗̮͍̖̠̜̫͚͕͉̯̲̱̖ͅt͗̔̉̾̃ͫ́ͣͮͨͥ̓́͏̹̮͔͉e̵̛̻̭͕͇͙̲̭̯̩͍̰̜̥̲̪̝ͩ͂̎̄͢͠r̋̍͋͗̄ͤ̐ͬͩ̀̐̇̄̀͏̸̟̩͖̘͙͍͎͔͔͍͕͚̜̟̱̦̝͍ ̝͕̗̳̣̣͒ͩ̿̃͊͢ͅy̨̹̗͎̹͂͐͆̆ͦ̿̌̓̎̐̒̈ͮ̎ͥ͗ͪ̚̚͟e̸̷̸̖̮̦̪͈̬̠̳̣̳͔̥̫͇͚̪͐ͥ̾ͦͮ̀̚͢ṯ͓͎̻̟̭̦̰̭̹̘̗̘̬̲̜̺͉͒̈́͛ͤ͐͋̂̆̽̽ͯ̓͒͘͜͟ ̵̶̡̧̧̲̣̲͍̣̘̝͍͙̱̄̑ͬ̓̉͌̎ͣͦͥ͒̆͆̇̌̆̅̚ͅä̸̶̻̼̟̞̫̩̜͙̤̩̪̟͈̜̐̂̎ͫ̋͗̑̚̚͢͠d̵̵̈́͆ͥ͂ͭͣ̅͋̎̑͆ͩ̏̓̾̓̈ͧ̆͝҉̣̫̤͔̖̫̪̣̙̙͖͓ͅd̮̞̞͍̘̪̐ͣ͛̀ͥͬͦͥ̇ͣ̉ͭ͑̇͆ͩͯ̀̀͜͝͡ ̫̻̖͓̤͙̞̐̍ͮ͒͗̕͟͡a̎̓̈́̓ͥ͌͐̅͂̎̀͢҉̸̴̢̮̖̰͕̣̲̪̘̩͇̞͖̫̤͙ ̨̠̱̯͍̫̱͇̖̜̳̜͓̭̐ͩ̄ͤͥ̿͗ͯ̑͂̌̈́̅ͨ̽́̚͟͞ͅt̢̨͖̣̬͎͔̑̏ͨ̊̀͛̉͊͐ͧ͛ͮͯ̕ǫ̨̦̜͙̟̹̤̩̬̪̬̖͔͔̖̅͂͌͠͞͡g̠̻͚̗̯̯͖̯̭̰̬̲̫ͤ̇̇̈́̓̅͋ͦ̈̑̅̔ͬͦ̃͑̀́́ͅĝ̵̟͚̦͔͎̳͉̞̪̟̭͍̪̰̘̈̊̑ͥ̊̓̋ͤ̽̋ͭ͂̔ͪ͝ͅl̿̉̔̈́̊͗͐͋ͤ͋̉̾ͦ̏͜͏̛̝̣͎̗̞̞̲̗͍͉͔e̳̻̙̺̩͎͉̩͂͊ͥ̎͌̎̀̋̌̌ͯ͗ͤͫͪ̀͆́͘͝ͅ!̸̴̉̍ͯ͋̾ͫ̈ͤ͋̔̎̉ͪͯ̏͊͢͏̺̥̭̟̪̝̱̻͚̖̘͈͔̞ ̮͍̠̩̮̘̬̟͎̉̓ͪ̿̈́͘Y̿̿͑ͦ̊̊͂̉͐̀̉͋̊͡҉̩̦̼͔̰̯̠͉͇̘͖̫̦̲̬̜͢e̒͛̐̚͏̸͚̹̙̬͈͓̥̭̰̟͇̰͎̼͈͠s̢̀͆́ͭ̅̈ͥ́̄͋̔̊̕͡҉͖̗͚̺͖̮̻̹̗͇͟.ͦ̃̃ͭ̉ͫ̌̽̄́͐ͪ̏ͤ̒ͮ̾̆ͥ͏̴̸̶̰͚̞̣̩ ̶̵̧̥̥͖̱ͫ̄ͤͪͦ̊̊͟͞I̴̵̴̸̘̞̬̮̝̘̼̩̦͓̱̖̺̹̟̼ͨ̂̑͒̑̇̊̈́̂̓̀̚t̵̨͈͙͔̼̠̰͈̜͌͌̈ͥ͂̓̋̇ͤͭ̄ͭ̚̕ ̸̨̧̛͓̙̥͙͕̜̫̬͇̮̩̥̙̺̣̼͑ͦͬͫͦ͋ͯ͂͒ͧͧͫ͒͑̉̀̚͞w̠̰̩̥̭̓ͣ̌͆ͮ́͒ͨ͒ͦ̾ͮͧ̔͛̀̕a͍̟̹̪̟̱̤̭͖͓͆ͤ̾ͩ͟͢ͅs̨̢̪͍̣̝͔̥̬̥͖̀ͦͮ̆͛̓̿ͨ͝͠ ̻͓̞̲̠̪̭̹̦͓̦͙͔̲̰̜̈̿ͫͥ̊ͯ̊̅ͥ̀͢͠s̛̭̩͕̜͎̖̥̯̖̹̲̪̻ͥͪ̽̇̽̄̒͐̿ͣ̀͘͟o̶̺̯̟͍̦̬̥̳̯̼̹͈̞͆̎͂ͮ̇̀͜ͅ ̤͖̬̫̯́ͯ̓͜͠͝s̸̷͈̞̮̳̬͓̫̗̒ͮ̒̒̈͑̑́̚͞į̷͚̼̼̺̪̀ͭ̆̓̆ͧͮ̿ͩ̕͘m̧̩̻͙̼ͤͪ̌ͬ͋̐̊̀̍̽̍̚͞p̸̶̢͎̯̰̥̲͎̮̰̭̦̞͕ͨͥ̊̅ͤͩ̍̄̃̑͐̔͆͑͢͠l͓͓̖̟̖͖̖̇͒́ͣ͆͘͜͠͠ͅę̴̗̗͖̺̜͕̰̭͉̫̫̙̞ͦͯ̔̓̕͘ ̛̯̠͖̫̫̹̬͉̙̭̩͕̞͈̼̭̞͚̉̔ͮ̏̅ͭͨͤ̉̃͐ͨͣ̃ͮͩ͠͝I̴ͧͨ́̑̿̒ͮ͂̊̋͏̻̱̰̮̱̬̖̲͖̜̺͇̺̪͎̩͕ ̶̷̨͎̞̪̥̖̩͕͔̰̤ͯ̑̊̍̓ͮ̎̓͘͘d̷͙̳̻̼̊́ͩ̓ͯ̆̈́ͦ̄͌̆̇̂͗̕͠ị̷̡̠͔͔̲͓͓̯͖͖̘̩̘̱͉͉̜̩̇ͯ̅ͬ̀ͭ͆̾ͣ̐̒̊ͯ͊̄̿̽̒͆͠d̲̪̞͍̝̳̞̞͓ͩ̋͑̏̐̽̈́ͣ͐͘n̡̗̖̭̺͉̰̣̥̼̬͚͙͙̫͒͆͐̊̀̔ͥ̏́̉̚͡'̂͊̿͒҉̷̸̨̦̝̠̟̥̫͖͈̖̘̞t̵̞̝̥̖̥͔͇̙̆ͣ͛̓͂͌̅̕͘͢ ̢̹̯̘͚̲͖̱̝͚̞̻͓͇͍̯̅ͯ͌́u̵̸̢̫̭̹͕͕͚̬̪̩̳̇̓͑̔͆͒̄̀͘ͅñ̡̜̖̜̱̥̩̫͇̜̻͈̱͓̪͕̘ͯ̆͂̐͗̌ͯ̒́̕͡͠d̴̛̠̪̮̪̯̲̟͚̬͖͓̙͚̤͙ͪͯ̈͌̍̚e̛̗̩̩̝̮̫̳̮̼͈̠̯̼̖̱͈͓ͦ̄̉̄͐͑ͭ̐̏̋͒̏ͫ͛ͧͧ͂̌͢r͛ͯͦ̌̎ͥͥ̑ͯͮ̄̕͡҉̭̘̲͇͚͈͔̳͇̜͔̘͓̙̖̗ş̸̡͎̜̙ͧ̆̿̀͂͠t̨̡̩̯̬̱͕͇̀ͨ͗̀́ͩ̕͠ȧ̷̙̹̘̜̫̩̫̺͈̙̰̙͕̗̞͙̔ͯ́̒ͣͣͭ̌ͦͧ̄͑̏́̍̚͢͟͝n̡͒̉̎ͦ̉ͯ͒̍̓͏̶̫͍̼̮̖̮̬̠͙͚̝͖̙̲͚ͅͅͅd̨̏͐̐ͤͬͮ̍́̍ͣ͑̏̽̈́̉̓̐̂͞͏̧̘̘̰̲̝̲̹̘͓̜̰͈̯̙ͅ ̶̋ͭ̄ͯ̿̄̎̆͑̌̓ͦ̎̓͆ͧ̈̍͏̴̤̩͙͓͓̝͔̪͡w͔̤͕̜͎̤̝͍͚̥͇̻̣̪̖͉̱̗͕̉̔ͦ̎͒̎ͥ͋̌͌͞h̻͔̘͚̠̮͖̟͑̉ͫ̄̎̚͢ȳ̧̫͍̤̦̘͚̞͈̫̯̠̹̭͚̲̲̌ͦ̂ͩ͊̋ͨ͌̐͆̾͆ͧ̿̉̇̚ͅͅ ̷̵̻̥̹̲͕̜̩̫͆̾͒̉ͨ̇ͧ̑̽͌ͧ͘͝I̧͚͎̫̟̦͖̭͍͔̤̰̗̙̯̝̙̰̦͑͑̉͑̿̑ͩͪ̅̽͑ͯ̂ͪ͊̅͗ͦ͘ͅ ͂ͧ͑́̄̊̀̑̾͆̿͊ͩ̈́͛͟͜҉̡̣̱̭̖̤̟̫͚̗͎̞̩̺̟̠ͅh͌̎̓̓ͭ̒̽̿͒̋͋̑ͨ̏ͪ̃҉̤̩͔̙̫̘̯̥̘͔̪͙̩́a̵͍̜̥̺̍͂ͯͥ̃͌̎̇̅̑ͫ̊̊̎̏ͮͮ͂ͩ́͘͞d̶̵̢͇̝͖̼̘̟̫̻̺̪̣͍̣͆ͩ̈͒ͣ̂̒ͤ͋͋͒̾̚n̢̯̟͍̦͓̳̒ͫͬͥ̍͊ͦͥͪ̅͋̏͐̐̉͋͐͐̀͟͞'̨̓͌̑́͌̀̃ͦ̓ͫ̔ͨ͂ͤ̅ͩ̽ͯͬ҉͙̪̤̹̦̻̦̩͚̼̝̗̳̭̦̤̠t̢̠͖͎͕͎̰͖̦͎̰̩̝͈͕͓͔ͩ̂ͯ͛ͭ̉̍̒̏ͫͦ̄́̕ ̫͇̤̬̘͚̼̼͉̾ͮͯ̃̑̓̐̈́̉͘̕͟͡d̶̸̯͎̯̀ͯ͛ͣ̈ͬ̿ͭ̈́ͬ͛̂̍ͩͬ̒ͮ̈́̑͜oͥ̐͒ͣ͋̿͋̽̆̊̎́̈́͒͏̖͖͔̳͚̫͖͎͎̭͈͕͖̥͕͓̹̮͞n̢̳͇̝̼̞̮̲͕̞͙ͪ̊ͥ̇̌̎̀͑̓ͥ͐̑̎́͟eͮ̇̾̇̑̽̿̅̔̐̓ͣ̓̅̚҉̵̶̡͔̖͙͍̯̬̫̜̰͚̺̦̱̮ͅ ̢̢̡̻̺̖̣͍̠͚̯̳͓ͬͦͧͤͫ̈̒̄́ͤͯ͝t̷̹̼̘̭̥̜͚̫̟̭͚͎͉ͦ͑ͫͫͥ̇́̋̔̚̚͜ͅh̷̭̻͈̼̙̘̮̫͚͚͔͍̞͛̈ͨͧ̏ͦ̃ͩͯ̚͞͝î̧̞̫̠͊̔̒̓ͣ͌̃̏̿ͮͪͪ̎̌̈́̅ͮ́s̪͖͓̳̮͈͈̠̲̺̬̙̐͐̇͋̏ͪ̈̃̾̅̔̀͂̒̈ͨ͠͞ͅ ͑ͭ̆̉̏ͣͬ̋́ͤ̂̿ͭ̑͠͏̯̰̳͇̪̮t͈̜̳̫͖̺̲͔̝ͪ̈̉͒͐̔ͣ͑͑̔̌ͮ̒̋̃̏̒̀͘ͅo̳̪̘̹̎̾̓̌̐̏̿͟͝ ̸̷̛̱̭̩̪͈̱̼̝͎͎͚̥̣̭̜̒͛͐ͧ̀́̐͋́s͎̙͓͚̼̈́͋͑̋̏̉͑ͨ̇͑ͪ̈ͨͤ͑̄̇͜͞t̢̛̤̜̜͇̝̖̪͍̬͕̹̘̣͔ͯ̒̿̿̾̊ͥ͒͛ͥ̆̓͂̊͗̋̋͐a̷͔͎͕̟̹͕̽͛̐ͪ͊͊ͥͬ̎̈́̔̐ͬ̒̌̕̕̕r͕̝̳̤̫̘̘̰̹̪͖͙̙̻͙̆̈̄̐̈́̇̾͛̉̑̓̀̀̚͞ͅt̢̩͉͔͖͈̳̥̠̫ͫͣ̋ͤͥ̏͜ ̨̜̙̯̘͕͉̅ͫ̂̐̒͂ͭ̇̏̌̿̾͛́ͦ̓ͩ̚̚͞͝w̸̨̨̜͖͓͚͙̺͎̜͓͍̤̖͔̺̰ͤ͑ͥͣͩ̽͋ͦ́̾ͤ̐͒ͩi̷̩̯̞̣̘̳͚̣̫͑͐̂ͣͣͨ̋̂͗́̚̕t̩͖͍̱͈̠̗̪͉͈̜̆ͧ̐͊ͦ̔̿͐̊̍̉̀͡hͪ̉ͦ̀͏̵̶̢͇̜̳̠͖̼̱̱͈͖̖̰̖̤̗̭̣̪͙͜.̶̵̨̛̬̱̞̜ͧ̅͊̾ͥ͆̑͊̏̔̚͜ ̌̿͛ͩ̇̐̂̆͊́̎̚͏̸̷̱̭̩͔͇͚͇̤̫͚̗̲́Tͧ̓ͬ̄̏͏͙̻̰̬̬͍͕̗͉̱̗̖͖͓̭̮̮̝̗͡ḩ̳̤̫͖̰̝̱͚̹͍̮̤̩̺͖ͯ̋̉ͣ̏̉̉̋̓ͣ̃ͧ̏͗ͫ͘ḛ̷̢̮̩͙̥̭̮ͣ͊̒̀͗͆̃͌̑̌̿̇̌͋̀̀͢n̸̨̂̎̈̽̊̈́̆ͦ͌̔͒͂͆̈́ͧ̎ͦ́҉̛͙̖̝͇̼̳̖̻̻̻̟̟͚ ̶̡͙̥̱̠̙̟̫̭̤͙͉̩̥̱̼̞͔̃̓̋̀̽̏ͧͪ̍͊̏̄̕I̩͔̞͕̲̤̹͓͕͉̣ͧͪ̎̉̈́̊ͦ́̀͘ ̢ͭ͑̃͂́͂́ͣ͝͏̺͚̘̠̘̝̗͍̲̙̺̞͚̟̦̖̜͡aͨͨͭ̌̍͏̸̶̩̩͕̞̞̮̖̲̘́͜d͇̮̜̪̺̞̟̳̳̱̻̻͍̓̔́ͥ̍ͭͩͩ̈ͤ͋ͧ̐̿̀̚͞j̧̱̹̩̺̮̦͙̦̱̟̥ͥ̿̋͛̈ͣ̀͜͠ų̧͎͍̥̗͖̳̜̉͒͊̓ͩ̾́́ͅs̡̖̺̘̮ͣ̈́̈̉́ͮ̽ͥ͊ͭ͗̓̾̊̏ͫ͋̇̍́͢͞t̸̢̨͓͉̖̯͖̟̹ͦ̅̓̇̑̉ͬ͂̓̚͜ͅḙ̶̖̰͖͖̮ͥ̊ͤ̂ͧ̈́̓̐ͥͪͫͪ̈́̚̕͜d̢̺̻̲̮͈̭̟͓̰̭̝̫̩̼̉ͧ́͌ͨ̿ͦ̄͐͗͌̔ ̈̐̋ͬ́͒ͩ͋̇͏̨҉͡҉̻̭̭͍̹͇̮ͅẗ́̂̔͆̆̅̾̄ͧͩͯͦ͊̽͘͏̢͎̘͕̼̹͇̝͉͘h͗̓͂͐̏̒́ͭͨͤ̎҉̶͈͓̲͎̜̟̤͟͞ȩ̶͈̯͇̮͚͉͕͓͇̫̄̌͋̑̊̽͆̿̋̍͢͠ ̨̢͈̯̖͈̜̏ͭͮͨ͛ͨ͞Ȇ̶̻͚͔̳̞̦̮͙̯̤̝̫͇̫ͮͩ̽̀͛ͧ̄ͪ̏ͪ̈̕͡m̡̰̗ͥͭͭ̀̎ͧ̉̉ͮ͋̀̈́̄͒͒̚͢ͅǫ̴̶̺̫͓̤̒̾ͣ̋̆̿ͬ̊̎ͧ̓̽ͮ͐ͦ́̊͜͠t̶̜͈͔̐̾̊̊̈́ͭ͊i̲͈̥̩͔̣͎̼̥̻͖͙̭͒̃̎ͤ́ͯ̽͆̄̏̂̀͠o̸̸̖͓̦̬͕ͯ̂ͭ̊̑̔ͭ͌͆ͦͮ̑̅ͥͮͫ͘ń̸̴̛̟̳̹̤̣̺͌̽ͅa̢̩͙͎͇̜͐ͯ̑̎ͩ̂̒ͯͣ̆̌ͮ͛͗͜͠͞͝l͎̥̣̗̝̭͇̲̯͚ͦ͌͛ͭ̑̃̾ͣ̍͒̔̑̉͟͝͞ ̶̏ͣ͐ͥͥ̊̅͒͠͠҉̤͉̹̝͖͍͙͎̪̳ͅS̨̨̩̩̼̗̱̻̣̱ͪͧͦͪ͊̾ͬ̄̎ͩ͗́̑́ţ̨͉̣͔̼̝̖͈͎̤̪̼̭̞͇͇͓͉̳̫ͭͮͫ̋ͭ͐ͧ̍͛̈̎̕a̡̨͍̦͈͎̦̺͉̔ͯ͒ͣͪ̓̔ͬ̔ͪ̑̍̚b̧̢̳̥̥̼̯̲̼̖̖̰̭̂̂̃͂̋̃ͩͨͫ́̉͡͠a̴̶̮̪̲̬̘̯̰̝̱̙̙͖ͥ̉̅ͪ̎̈́̾̑ͤ̈́́͑ͧ͛͌̔̽ļ̼͍̤͍̻̪͈͕͇̖̮̘̓̉́̅̊ͫ́͜͞͡i̡̛̫̙̳̥̯̤̜͈͎̙ͤͯ̃̾̇̐͒ͪ̕͟͞ͅz̶̜̼̤̫̘͓͓͕̞̗ͬ̐̓̊̉́́͟e͕̘̜̰̠̗͚̘̗͙̯̲̩̭͓̞͈͑̿̈́͆̑̾̒̊̍ͣͧͣ̑̑̎́͟͡rͩ̌ͧͯ̉͑ͬ̌ͭ͋̄̀̔ͤ͆́̚҉̨̫̥͓̤͎̫͍̟̟̱̩̭̝̝͕̞̀́͢'̸̨̝̮̝̫̫̉̉̒ͫ͂̄͆͊ͨ͛̓͑̇͘͟s̡̡̤̗̣̬̮̫͎͇̦͍̹͆̋̓ͫ̀̀ ͬ́̓ͪ̑͌̐̏̃ͭ̂͟͏̜̝͕͎̘͕̥̰̕͜ͅt̸̯̟̬͉͕̮͍̬̠͔̻̂̅̎ͥ̈́͝a̢̟͉̟͙̥̹̯̬̲̟͔̭̦̍̓̍̔̍ͫ̊͗r̶ͫͦ̄̓̍ͬ̇͂͜͏̧͖͍̲͍̠͉̩͚̬g̵̸̜̞̫̬̲͓͛ͯ͗̌̂͒̉̀ͬͪ̚ȩ͖̗̥͚̼̩̻̋̽̑͂̅̄̉̄͌̐̇̓̈̚͡͝ť̨̯͚͔͈̹͗̈́͛̐ͬͥͣ̎ͯ̏̾̄ͩ̍̈́i̢̙̖̬͉̮͔̳̋̇͌̅́͋̃́̾̓͗́͢͜͡ň̶̖͇̲̳̰̼̜̗̠̦̫͈̰͕̂̄̓̀ͬ̌ͯ͆̋̃ͨ̄̿̀̚̚ģ̩̻̫͚̙̠͔̲̗͕̏͊̄͋ͤ̒ͬ̎̓ͫ͠͝,̴̸̛͔̪̞̯̜̻͇̦̗̝͉̝̥͓͈͐͊͑͗͒ͤͪ̍̓ͪ́̚͠ͅ ̛̹̙̞͇̩̘͓̝̫͍̣͇̩̹̣̜̖̦ͥ̃̊̊̓̉ͥ̽̕̕͠͠a͓̲̳̫̼͉͍̰̭͈̬͖͎̅͆̈͋ͨ̕ͅḑ̭̳̱̞̝̙̦̰̺̱̺͉ͪ̏͛̾̔͋̆̊̇ͧͫ̉̌̚͢͞ͅd̆̔̏ͮ̆̇ͤͨ͡҉̨̧̣̲̜̣̝̪̱̹͈̬͖͇̯̻ͅͅi̗̯͖͙̖̭̝͓̥͖̬ͣ̏̌͌̓͞ņ̵͖̲̙͈̥͗̓͑ͮ̂̿͒͑̋̆̓̑͝͝͡g͂̅̓̾̑̅̊̽ͤ̋̃̀ͯ҉̸̡̳̰̱͢͟ͅ ͩ̇̑̋̅̄͒̑̓̑ͭͣͣ́̔ͣ̅̑͏͎̥͔͚͉͚̤͘į̳̦͖̬͎͔̙͓̲̺̜͍̠̤̿̓̒ͫ͂ͥ̂̎̌͑́ͣ͑̽͒͌̄̕ͅͅn̥͉̜͉͇̘̫̝̰̰̜̑ͨͪͥ͝͠ ̡̾̇̑̊̄ͣ̉͊ͦͪ͏̨͘͏̫̙̙̥͍̺̭̳t̷̝̫̙̻̳̭̻̹̳̝̮̺̘̖̮͕̮̗̣͛̓͗̆͊̋̈̇ͤ̆ͧ̐ͨͤ͢͢h̛̺̻͓̦͗̽̉ͤͪͦ̿ͦ͊̇̈́ͥ̓ͯ̽́̚̚͘͘ẻ͉͍̗̱͙͚̺̗̳̩̒̂͌ͩ̉̚̚͠ ̵̸̜̬̭͈̖̮͇̘̗͓̥̗̥̻̌ͣ͋̊̒̎̎ͬ̇ͥ̉̇̿̓̀͢a̢̻̘̝̦̺͔͎̠̮̞̳̰̝̘̭͓̓͒̽͋̏ͧ̃ͥͪ̀́̀͞ͅͅpͣ̓͂̏͆̋̐̌҉̡҉͖̹̤̞̺̯̲̼̻̲͇͓͜p̃̔̆͌̏̏͆͒͊ͯ̌̎͆͗ͧͫ̎͏͏̶̝̪͇̘͉̰͚̦̲̭͎̙̺̭̣͠ͅͅŗ̌̽͒̑̈́̕҉҉̛̞̥̖͍͈͉̦͉̣̣͈͔ͅo̡̡̩̗̥͉̥̯̭̲̻̘͔͙̫͙ͬͫ́̒ͪͯ̂̀̈́͊̒͆ͣͩ͗̚̕͟͡p̄̄̈́͑ͨͤͣ̓̚͏̴̵̬̹̝̣͔͇̥̳͟ȓ̡͖̲̳̬̪̤̜̼͓̬̘̼͉͇̲̞͔̉̐̋̈́̓̂͊̓́͜͝i̶̧̗̩͉̼̻͎̝͖̇̉̌̃ͧ̅͑̃̒͌̃̚͢͞͡ͅa̴̬̫͓̜̣̳̦̭͍̒̎ͧ̍̌̾̄̌̒̏̆ͭ̓͐̆̚͘t̢̹̳̦̪̖̫̖̲̟͍̪̞̏̾ͪ͊̍ͣ͑̉̚̚͢ͅe̛̩̟̪͎̹̻̩̘͎͎͇̯͚͉͉̗̩̞̐̑͋ͭ̂̊͋̈́̓̚͢ ̧͓͇̹̯̘̗̥̞͙̓̓̓ͧͮͨ̌͐ͬ̇ͯͣ̓̓͝v̵̨̡̨̩̗͖̥̝̳̓̓ͫ̅͋̒ͥͨ̀iͭ̄ͧ̋͑ͭ̈́͐ͮ̾͊ͦ̐͗̾̽͠҉̘͙̤̲͕̖̝̺͕̺̭͓ͅs̢̡ͭ̓̿̀́̚҉̜͚̗̩͇̤̻̹̫̝͕̜u̷̺̝̳͇̭̺̲̝̲̰͋ͥ̃͒̔͢͢͠͞a̅ͩͥ̎̈ͩ̑̌ͫ͆̊̓̄̅̓ͭ͋̚͢҉̱̲͍͉̲̙͓̦̲̟̦͕̼̳͔̱̟̹͢͠ͅl̶͕̜̞̬̝͎ͮͣ̓ͭͫͮ̓̆͂̓̒̎̈́̌̀̾̽̚̕̕ ̵̛̮̖̙̖̹ͫ̍͐̆̎̿͝͞i̶̵̢̥͚̼̬̠̲̙̞͉͂̑̋ͥ̐ͦ̇͗ͩ̚̕͜ñ̢̟̗̹̥̘̥͊́̈́͗̓͗́͟͝ḑ̗̦͙̞̼̪̫͚͚̥̬͔̪̳͍̪̆̌̉͌͛̈͂ͨ̿͊͛̓̉̂̈͌͌ͤ͜͢i̷̡̡̦͖͇̙͎͕͕̠̳̫͍͈̳͉̩̲̠̓̑͒ͬͦ̓̓͋͗̾͡c̸̨̏͌̍̈́̄ͭ͂̉͒̊̾ͥ̈̒̆̚҉̸̤̰̤̰̠͔̱̳ͅa͂̋ͯ̌͗̌ͮ͊̉̂ͪ̑̋̋ͬ͂̽̚̕͏͍̝̙̙̹̻t͈̳̲̹͍͈̪̮̪͔̥̬̰̩̖̯͖ͨͥͬ̎̐̔ͨ͑̌̑̍͂ͬ̆͞ͅo͇̙̪̩̗̮̻̥̮͂̔̑̉ͫͧͤ͆̀ͣ̈́̾̈̒ͮͩͧͯ̀͡͡r̶̯͖̥̘͖̳̩͇̫̤͖̜̘̣̰͓͍̩ͭ̏̀̾̓̀̐͑ͤ̑ͥ̋͑ͭͫ͒̔̅̕̕͟͠ͅ,̑ͬ͌̀ͧͭ҉̨̥̥͓̝̦͍̘͕̮̤̖̫̱͓͜ ̸̶̢̠̫͙̱͍̈̄ͨ̃ͧ̔͑̈̅̈́͐̀ͫą̢ͪ̊̓̇͛͂ͩ͛͏̜͔̭͓͍̮̘̰̘̰n̷̷̠̝͈̮̮̹͙̳͓͕̫̖͙̻̙̑͊ͫ́͜͞ͅd̴̢͉͇̻̗ͯ͋̌̂.̵̷͔̞͍̺̍͗̌ͥ́̍͗̇̀̅͊̐ͣ̋͛̅̓͋ ̸̸̫̘̱̣͕̱̤̤̳̻̘͚͇̮̌ͭ̔̄̇͑̀ͯ̐̆ͯ̅͂̃̒̄́̆́͡͝ͅ.̢͉͓̰͎̬̦̝͕̠͇̬̠̖͌̏̍͌̇̊̓ͨ̾̅̃ͦ̆ͣ̀̀͘ ̫̜͎͓̙̂ͤ͗̃͐̏͢͞.̝̙͚̟̞̘͖͈͑̈́ͪͬ̈́ͩ̌́͢͡ ̢̧͔͇̹͓͎͕͉͍̱̲ͫͧ̂ͬ̄̾̅͋ͬ̚͠w̧̻̟̩̳ͭ͛̐͛͠ḩ̦̪̠̠͚͚̂̇͌̾̉̏͆́̚ÿ́ͨ̎̐͆ͫ̅ͣ̅̑̎ͭ̐̓̈́̚͏̶͕͍̲̭͠ ̶̵̢̥̯̤͙͍̹̹̟͖͎̯̭̓ͦͦͪ͊̏̍͡͝w̷ͫ̒̋ͥͮ̌̇̓ͮͮ҉͕̜̯̭͖̻̜͈̟aͪ̈ͮ̾͘͏̸͈͕͈͍̲̱̝̲̖̟͔̭̯͓͈́͢s̴̛̳͇͕͚̙͚̦͈̮͚̣̱̙̱̑̃̉ͮ̍̄͂́͞ ̢̹̘͎̤̭̺̍̒ͮ̾ͩ̊̒ͤͯͬ̀͠͠͡ͅệ̖͙͈͍̝̯͕͇̣̲̗̓̍̓̃̾̔̾́v̸͎̯̘͕͔͔̪̟̜̟̗̻̺͌̅̆̉ͫ̽̏ͯͦ̒̓̈͂̒̆̅̕͝e̢̧̡̲̱͖̳̠̰̙̣̫͇̣̱̠͐̊͗͂ͫͯ̃͛ͥ͋̐̃̓ͣ͝͞ͅṛ̸͙̳̮͕̱̂͂̎ͮ̅͛ͫͫ̾̐͑́͢y̨̛͉̜͔̹̥͔̦̞͈̺̘ͪ̇ͩ͌̃̒̆̌ͧ̄̉ͬ̽́ͮ̚̚͝t̴̴̲͖̺̤͙̬̠̝̙͚̩̻̳̜̂̽̿̇̒ͅh̡̋ͧ̌̑̔́ͧ͛̃ͮ̒̍͛ͮͯ̔̀̚͏̪̜̥̹̻͎̗͇̪͙͕̼i̵̸̛̯͓̱̬͖͖͇̰̝̘ͣ̽͋̐̋ͥ̋̽̈́̓̚͞ͅņ̶̴̸̛̠͍͇̝̞͈͓̻͇̲͔̺̻̍ͣ̿͋̐̏̈́͗ͤ̒ͩ̆ͣͤͤ͂̃g̡̢̙͎̪͕͇͚͉̤̘͈̥̬̩ͩͮ̊́̑̓͌͗̑ͧ̅̌ͥ̍ͫ͟ ̯͖̥̟̞̠̖̹̳̪̯̼͙̦̝̪͋́͐ͯ͒̇̏ͮ͒̈͛̃ͦͪ͝ͅg̍̂ͭ̄ͩ͆ͦͣ̀̔̆͏̴̘͖̘͎͍̝̣̗̻̦̣͙̘͚̥͈̕͝d̵̷̡̛͎͍͙̪̫͓͚̮̳̞͐́̿̔̊̇̍ͪͨͅͅŝ̸̌ͮ͗̓̈͆̔̔̏̆ͯͨ̐̉̌ͨ̀͏̦͕̘̳̰͎͈̭͔̝̯͘͝n̲͙͙̹̪̩̝̻̠͍͔̯̰̙̏͌ͭͤ͘͟j̸̷̽͛ͫ͛͛̑ͮ̂́́͝҉͖̠̫̻̗̲̙̺͓̭̭͖̬̻̘͇ͅg̿̅̈́ͯ̅̓̽̓ͮ͏̢̙̜͈̱͇̝̣̹̪̫́ḑ̸̩̖̜͎̑̈͗ͤͧͬ̈́ͪ͋͒ͮ̆ͩ̔͆̍̒͘ş̳̭͚̰̩̮̞̖̜͖̯͚̣͓̠ͦ̂͋͒̓̓̓̀̒̌̊̚?͚̖̝̝̩̫̙̪̻̼̌̄̅ͤ̃̎̂͂̇̚͟͟

* * *

When I came to, I was laughing, or crying, I wasn't sure which. Something was incredibly sad, but it was okay, because it was going to be okay, because I was _making_ it okay. Everything was going to be _okay_. I looked around and I was on the floor of the workshop, Herb was kneeling next to me, Vicky & Gallant standing on my other side. "Um. . . hi?" I greeted as my breathing steadied. The world looked. . . less, and I instantly turned on Power Sight. It didn't help. Sure enough, my shades were back over my eyes, but as I moved to remove them Herb grabbed my hand, "Dude. Don't."

"I called Ames, but Break stopped me from getting her," Victoria said. "He put your shades back on and you stopped shaking, but. . . you okay Vejy?"

I levitated to my feet and took stock of myself. Other than a slight itchiness in my eyes, everything was fine. Turing off my Power Sight helped that lingering irritation. Maybe I over-used it? I hadn't taken that disadvantage, so that probably wasn't it. How had I ended up on the floor? I'd been looking at Dean's power when. . . something happened. I shook my head, I'd figure it out later.

"I'm fine. Kinda hungry, but I haven't eaten since breakfast," I commented.

"I'll make something," Herb said, looking at me with concern. "You sure you okay?"

I shrugged, "Yeah. But that's not important. Dean!" I shouted, a grin nearly splitting my face as the boy looked at me, frightened for some reason. "I figured it out! By cross-targeting your tertiary expression you can utilize your empathetic override's designation matrix to zero the quantum interference from Shard expressions that are modifying the neural matrixes of other Hosts!"

I got odd looks from everyone. "What?" I asked. "It's basic. . . basic. . . Okay, I've got a bit of a headache," I admitted, not realizing it until know. "but um. . ." _What was I doing?_ _Right, explaining to Dean how his power worked, which was **silly** , because it was **obvious.**_ "Okay, pretend that target has a master power on it and you want to strip it off," I instructed, waving my hand downrange.

I looked at him expectantly, still smiling. This was going to be _cool._ He held a hand out, then flinched. He looked at me, eyes wide. "What did you _do?"_ he whispered, equal parts awed and terrified.

"Pfft, I didn't do anything," I dismissed. "You just weren't using your powerset to its fullest. It's like using a different martial art, all the parts are the same, you're just using a palm strike instead of a punch." I didn't get what the big deal was, it was _obvious!_

Dean hesitated before holding his hand out. A pure black orb formed in his palm, shooting forward to impact the target. The metal rocked back, but instead of dissipating the blast seemed to sink into its surface. _Yes, take that Thinker!_ I thought, proud for reasons I couldn't explain.

"That. . ." Herb trailed off, eyes wide.

"I know!" I replied gleefully. "Congratulations Dean Stansfield, on your new Anti-Master blast! Probably won't affect puppetry capes, given those expressions usually utilize a _direct_ neurological bypass to exclude the limbic system, far easier that way and much less distasteful, but I'd put money on you healing the Heartbroken at the very least!" Everyone was staring at me, expressions of shock and concern across their visages. "What?"


	92. Premiere 8-13

**Premiere 8.13**

I woke with a start, pulse pounding and soaked with sweat. I'd dreamed of falling. Of a serpent creeping into The Garden of Eden. Of a promise made. Of things I couldn't understand.

Shaking my head, I sat up and checked the time. One-thirty.

 _Motherfucker._

After I'd shown Dean how to use his power in a manner he never would have thought of, Herb had convinced me to take a nap while he made dinner. The fucker had _promised_ to wake me up! I was going to work with Panacea to help Canary, which I could do later, but I had a schedule I _needed_ to keep! What if something Coil had done had affected how today had turned out? I could save Dinah in one, everything on track, while in this one I could've overslept!

Getting up I quickly headed to the kitchen, the entire base quiet. Opening the fridge was a burger with a note.

 _Lee._

 _You looked tired so I let you sleep._

 _Hope you feel better tomorrow._

 _Herb._

I sighed, grabbing the food. It was nice that he cared but I _distinctly_ remembered making him _promise_ that he'd wake me up. I warmed it up with a sun in seconds, my Stellar Negation capping the temperature it could hit. I scarfed it down, eating as quickly as I could. It _was_ good but I barely had enough time to do what needed to be done. Less than two minutes later that I was heading out the door in Boardwalk regalia, dropping below the surface as I followed the thread to Sundancer. Even pacing myself to avoid detection by running into a tunnel by accident, I was there in ten minutes.

Stretching out my Bug Sense, I realized the background hum of subterranean bugs was _gone_. As deep as this was, I was dealing with bedrock instead of soil. The base, however, had enough ambient insect life for me to get a sense of its layout. Several levels deep, with two tunnels stretching off into two different directions, the place was oddly spacious. There were a couple of patrols walking around, and a pair of men in what looked like a control room, if all those glowing lights were monitors.

The visual acuity of flies and mosquitos was. . . lacking. Their sense of hearing however was excellent, if odd. Sitting cross-legged in Shadowform above the base, I had time to cautiously explore it. Armory full of Tinkertech weapons? Check. Barracks? Check. Traveler's quarters? Check, and Sundancer seemed to be the type that tossed as she slept if the twisted sheets were any indication. Large rectangular space devoid of all life? I carefully lowered myself to it, pushing my head into it, keeping in Shadowform.

 _Damn._ The description didn't give Echidna credit, though that might've been a kindness to the readers. Farmyard Scylla by way of Nyarlathotep was the only way I could describe her, as either she had a high squid diet or the power that controlled her liked tongues so much it made a _ludicrous_ number of them, in shapes and sizes that didn't match even the oversized animal parts sticking out of her. _Do I kill her on my way out?_ I wondered. Grabbing Dinah needed to be the _first_ thing I did here, but did I solve this particular problem now?

I wished I could See her power, but I didn't dare risk dropping out of Shadowform anywhere near her. Kicking that particular hornet's nest would require the rest of the PD on standby in case thing _truly_ went FUBAR. _Later_ , I promised her, pulling back. If I could find a way to save her I would, but until I could check to see _exactly_ what her power was I wouldn't kill a woman cursed by her boyfriend's weakness. I suppressed a shiver; it was Paranormal Activity all over again. That movie had scared the crap out of me, but my ex hadn't seen the big deal. It was only after we broke up that I realized what had unnerved me _so damn much_ about that movie.

The monster, an invisible, invincible force had been bad, yeah, but that _wasn't_ what scared me. It was the betrayal by someone who _claimed_ to love the lead, even when she was begging her husband, the true antagonist of the piece, to stop what he was doing. She had loved him, trusted him to honor his vow and protect her, but he'd killed her, slowly and by degrees, night after night, because of his ego and greed. The concept of that was horrifyingly real to a degree that still unnerved me, and the fact that my ex _hadn't_ understood that was one of _many_ reasons she was my _ex_.

I laughed there, in the darkness hundreds of feet below the surface. The situation I was in was so far from anything she could've ever conceived of it was amusing. While some people, like my mother, my cousins, my aunts and uncles, I'd miss, I had better things to do than reminisce.

Moving on, I worked my way down around the base, avoiding power conduits. The bottom level contained all the equipment that kept the base running, the middle was personnel quarters and everything that kept the _people_ running, which just left the top. Scouting as much as I could, I found a room with several monitors, a single man at them, typing quietly. His clothing was black, with bits of white here and there. The fly in the room watching him do nothing but type for several minutes gave me confidence, so I moved to get a better look. Carefully maneuvering between walls, I positioned myself on the far side of the room from the monitors. Sticking my head inside, I saw a man at the desk. He had close cropped dark hair and was thin, wearing a black bodysuit with a twisting white snake. Sitting on the table was his helmet, ivory snake head decal up and over the back of it.

Once again, I felt the desire to See him. There was no way that I'd ever be able to copy his power, but I still wanted to know _exactly_ what I was dealing with. I _couldn't_ though, if I wanted to stick to the plan. In Shadowform I blended with the darkness in the room, the orange light his monitors gave off moving through me. If I dropped into reality, I'd become a _pure black_ presence in the room, changing the airflow, modifying the acoustics, and giving off heat, any of with could alert him to my presence.

Pulling back into the wall, I moved on, using the singular fly in the room to keep an eye on him. There'd been two doors in that room that hadn't had any insects in either of them. Slowly feeling my way, twisting around a _lot_ of power lines, I poked my head inside to see a long, tight corridor, tilting upwards. _Emergency escape,_ I surmised, extracting myself to investigate the other one.

This one was a simple room with a small bed, an even smaller form laying under it, shivering under the thick blankets. The room was _completely_ dark, lightless as a tomb, but whatever I used to See didn't rely on photons, even if that's how I perceived it. There was a table, two chairs, and a camera up in one corner, slowly panning back and forth, always keeping the bed in sight. Maneuvering myself around, I stuck my head in to look at the room from below the camera. Slowly, carefully, I let my face fall out of Shadowform and Saw her.

Dinah's power was an odd thing, the fires of her Future Sight refracted in on themselves before spilling out, Black & White flames touching everything. Everything but me. I was sure that if I ever got her, my, brother and father in the same room we'd all leave vacuums in her power, just as I left vacuums in my dad's. Something about the way her flames danced tugged at my memory, and I realized I'd seen this power before, on my very first day here. Her power, her ability to see possible futures, was almost _identical_ to the Simurgh, or at least an aspect of the Endbringer's power.

Letting my Power Sight fade, I wrapped my head in the obscuring darkness of Shadowform and pulled back, resting in the space between walls. On an above-ground structure I probably couldn't pull this trick off, but whatever construction method Coil had used left the space between walls unusually thick. Good if you wanted to keep people from bursting through them, bad if you wanted to inconvenience incorporeal capes.

Checking my phone, having to press the screen to my mask to see it, I had a good thirty-six minutes left of sitting around, waiting for the appointed time. I floated there, in the dark, and thought.

I thought on the Future. I'd planned to get some sleep after I got Dinah to safety, but since that choice had been made _for_ me I'd probably go back to trying to figure out the empty space in the base. I wondered how I could tell what was ins. . . I slapped myself in the forehead. Okay, so _after_ I'd phased through and found out what was inside, I'd figure out how to access whatever was in there, if there even was anything and it wasn't just Numberman fucking with me. Then. . . then I needed to keep my word to Newter. I'd bring Taylor along; it would be good to have her there so I wasn't showing up alone _and_ it let me brief her simultaneously. Actually, I'd bring Tattletale too. I'd been a bit hard on the girl, and more information would both let her make more accurate guesses as well as tell me what blocks on her cognition her shard imposed on her.

I thought on the Present. Well, the recent past, as at present I was just waiting. I knew something had gone. . . _wrong_ when I tried to help Dean with his power. I wasn't sure what it was, and I could feel the knowledge of it, sitting there in my mind, but as soon as I tried to access it my eyes would start to itch and my thoughts tasted funny. Galling as it was to leave alone, now was _not_ the time to try to figure that out. Somehow, I'd given Gallant a new power, or at least tweaked his existing ones. The fact that I didn't know _what_ I did worried me, and thankfully I gave him a reset button for his own power instead of pulling a Khepri. I wasn't sure how I knew the latter _was_ an option, which was a problem unto itself.

I thought of the Past. It was hard to believe that it was only May 1st. I'd been here for 23 days, and I'd done a _lot_. If I cut loose, I was Triumvirate tier, though a lot of that was mere, sheer lethality, and if they fought as hard as I would, there was _still_ a good chance I'd lose if I fought them. Cutting loose however was something I could _not_ afford to do. Taylor's path was _thoroughly_ derailed, and her power use was about where it was when she spat in Mannequin's eye. Metaphorically speaking. I didn't think he even had eyes. Back on topic, mentally, she was in a _much_ better place than Canon. I smiled at the memory of this morning. Working with her had been. . . nice. That and we'd finally discussed the elephant I hadn't realized that was in the room, so we could move forward without misunderstanding.

Amelia was _miles_ better than canon, though that wasn't saying much on its own. While she was having difficulties with Brandish, she had support and was no longer pining after her adopted sister. Or at least if she was it was because she _honestly_ was, not because she was being accidentally brainwashed.

That led me to Victoria, who was mentally a bit worse off, though that was almost entirely due to the removal of her ignorance. Then again, ignorance was _never_ a protection, it was simultaneously blinders while one ran through life and a bandage which let emotional wounds rot and fester into an abscess in one's soul. Power wise, she was better off than she ever was in canon, and was just going to further improve.

As for the others: The Undersiders knew about their boss, Purity wasn't a Nazi, Canary was free, and on a personal note I'd shot Eidolon with a steak knife. so good things all around. Movement from Coil drew my attention. Checking my phone there was another fourteen minutes before I struck, and I wondered what was going to happen. Whatever it was, I hoped he would be gone by the time I needed to move. If not, I'd kill him, forcing him to close this timeline while the _other_ me grabbed Dinah.

Coil had donned his helmet and several large men with rifles, each bearing the same sci-fi looking under-barrel attachment, walked inside.

"Good morning men," the sociopath greeted his mercenaries. "If you will, Let's start this day off right. I know the hour, but the early bird gets the worm."

Another man, this one not as large and not carrying an obvious weapon entered the room, moving towards Dinah's door. Putting in a code, he opened it and stepped inside, the room now lit. Coil followed, all but one of the other mercenaries standing guard at the door. A single fly zipped inside, my mobile microphone.

"-already?" Dinah finished asking, voice weak.

"Consider this a midnight snack," Coil told her, laughing at his own joke. "You can go back to sleep after we leave. Four questions, then your candy." The lack of proper visuals was annoying, but I think she nodded. "Good," Calvert said, "Chance of a problem here before dawn?"

"One point five three," she replied tiredly.

This seemed to surprise him. I think. He definitely nodded to himself, his helmet's pattern making it easier to track his head movements than hers.

"Problem anywhere before Lunchtime?" he requested.

"Four point zero two," came the answer.

It was obvious this was a practiced pattern. "Problem anywhere before dinner?"

"Six point eight six," she told him, head moving. I wasn't sure if that was a wince or if she was struggling to stay awake.

"Problem anywhere before I ask you again tomorrow," he finished, with almost a sigh of relief.

"Ninety-eight point two five," she told him, and she despite the pain creeping into her voice, she sounded like she was smiling. "Can I have my candy now?"

Coil growled to himself, "One more question, then candy. Problem here before I ask you again tomorrow?"

Her voice was definitely pained now, but she still answered without missing a beat, "Two point nine four. Candy."

Coil stood up, "I suppose we'll be having a quiet day then. Keep the men alert, but not ready," he commanded to the armed minion. "Give it to her," he commanded the other, sounding disappointed.

I checked the timer as they filed out, the last man taking a small case out of his pocket and opening it. _Six minutes._ He pulled out a long, thin item, flicking it before pressing it to her arm. She slumped back into the bed as he left. The fly stayed behind as the room darkened and Dinah whimpered slightly.

 _Scared of the dark?_ I wondered, _Or just in pain? Doesn't matter, she's leaving soon_. The door was closed, and I wanted to grab her and go, but I made the schedule for a _reason_. _I'm glad I left Herb behind,_ I decided. If I'd brought him he would've wanted to jump Coil, or help Dinah immediately, or put Noelle out of her misery, or any of a dozen things that I never even _thought_ of, and he, just like earlier tonight, wouldn't _talk_ to me. He'd just _act._

Then again, even if we _had_ talked, that was no guarantee that he'd even _keep his word._ I waited, watching the seconds tick down until I could save the little girl right before me. It was among the longest three minutes in my life, listening to her whimper, and having to do _nothing_. As soon as the clock struck three I closed my phone and reached out through the wall.

The preteen precognitive laid there in the darkness, holding her blankets to herself, eyes wide and unseeing. Leaning over I picked her up and she gave a quick cry of fright. "It's okay Dinah," I whispered, hoping the camera didn't have an audio feed. "I'm here to take you to safety."

Her scared expression shifted in an instant to one of wonder. "The ghost eel!" she whispered to herself. "You're here! You can't be here, but you are!"

I laughed, "I do a lot of things I can't, now hold on, we're getting you out of here."

She let go of her blankets and reached out, grabbing onto my leather-clad arms. I gathered her up, pulling back my costume where she was holding onto me, and channeled Get Better to her, more thankful than ever that I had Amy's power.

She gave a gasp before leaning closer to me. "You're warm," she murmured, either to herself or to me, I wasn't sure. Wrapping her in shadows, I pulled her through the wall and away into the darkness.

* * *

Pushing my underground flight hard, it was only a few minutes before we surfaced, somewhere around the boardwalk. Lifting up without a shimmer of light, we quickly moved to the railyard, landing with barely a whisper as I shifted back to civilian clothing, a t-shirt to allow her to continue to be healed. As I opened the door I mused, "I have to ask, Ghost eel?"

"Sometimes you're there, sometimes you're not," she told me, sounding tired but better than before, "You slip through the worlds like an eel. And sometimes you aren't where you were at all, like a ghost."

 _Blindspot interacting with Plot Convenience?_ I wondered, shrugging, "It's a gift."

Dinah hesitated, "I don't think I could answer questions about you. I'm sorry."

I laughed, "I didn't save you for your power, I saved you because you needed saving."

"Oh," she said, as if she didn't quite believe me. "Okay."

"Have a seat," I told her, setting her down at the kitchen table. Grabbing a mug, milk, and some syrup, I whipped up some hot chocolate, using a sun prep it in seconds. Giving it to her I left her there to head down to Panacea's room.

Knocking on her door, I got no answer. I knocked again. Still nothing. On the third time Amy opened the door, glaring blearily at me in her pajamas. "It's two in the fucking morning," Amy swore at me, "this better be important."

I froze, not expecting such. . . vehemence. "I saved a preteen precog from a supervillain who kidnapped her and got her addicted to drugs to control her and I need your help to make sure she doesn't go into withdrawal," I blurted out.

She just _looked_ at me, before muttering to herself, "Of course you fucking did. I'll be out in a minute," before closing the door in my face. She opened it again in a t-shirt and pants. "So, where is she?" she yawned.

Turning around I led her back to the kitchen where Dinah sat, legs swinging back and forth, not touching the ground. "Hello healer-lady," Dinah greeted her, sounding much better than she had even a few minutes ago. "I'm glad he didn't try to go after you, though he only had a seven-point-zero-five percent chance of surviving if he did."

Amy hesitated, looking at me. "Dinah gives percentages down to the hundredth place of the likelihood events. Her power puts her under a good bit of strain, so don't ask her any 'what are the odds' or 'will this happen' type of questions because she'll _have_ to answer them," I warned her.

"Okay, I won't?" she asked more than stated, the vagueness of what she said thankfully enough not to trigger the eight-year old's power. "Do I have your permission to heal you?" she asked the child, who nodded, smiling up at her. Amy put her hand on Dinah's arm, and stiffened, getting a good look at the precog's condition.

After a few seconds I spoke up, "How is she?"

Amy grimaced, "Bad, but she _was_ worse. You did your. . .?" she waved her hand in an all-encompassing gesture. I nodded. "It helped her brain a little," she told me, muttering under her breath, "Still think you're nuts for doing that." Louder she continued, "She was getting worse, I can see the progressive damage that was being done to her, but it didn't have time to set. She'll still get withdrawal, though it won't be as bad."

"You can't stop that?" I prodded.

She shook her head, brow furrowing. "No, it's a brain issue and _I_ don't do brains."

I considered this. "Could you make something that creates a substance which trickles it in low amounts? Not the actual substance, but something the brain recognizes as if it is, so she's drawing off it slowly instead of cold turkey?"

For this suggestion Panacea gave me the stink eye. "I don't know what the substance _is,_ you scrubbed it from her system. Whatever it _was,_ was a mix of a lot of things if I'm reading the damage right. Morphine, codeine, an anticonvulsant, and god knows what else. Also, I'm a _healer_ ," she reminded me forcefully, "So I won't just 'make something' to give her _drugs_!"

Looking at her, I couldn't understand where this hostility was coming from. "I'm just making suggestions Amelia," I told her. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong," she snapped, adding a moment later, "Why do you keep pushing me to do more?"

Before I could answer Dinah piped up "Eighty-three point five two chance you die in a year if you don't."

We both froze and looked at her. "What?" Amy asked tenuously.

"Eighty-three point five two chance you die in a year if you only use your powers for healing," Dinah told her.

"She can't see _my_ actions reliably but. . . that sounds about right," I admitted, turning to Dinah, "Can I ask you one more question? No is an acceptable answer." The little girl nodded. "Chance Amelia dies in the next three months if she only uses her powers for healing?"

Dinah looked at me in disbelief. "I. . . I don't have to answer?" she marveled to herself. Smiling, she winced a bit before telling me, "Seventy-nine point four zero chance she dies in the next three months if she does that."

I winced, "Damn, thought so." _Leviathan, the S9, Echidna, or some other horror, things were going to get **bad**._ If I had to guess it would be Bonesaw. If she released that prosopagnosia prion, the only way most of the city _wasn't_ going to die was if Amy made the counter-plague.

Panacea looked between the two of us. "What? What's going to happen? Tell me!"

I shook my head, "As much as I hate to say this, _I can't_. I can get you prepared, just like I'm working with Vicky and Dean and T-Lady Bug, but if I were to tell you, you'd _change_ things. Even if you promised not to, your knowledge would still lead you to try to stop things that _can't_ be stopped and just make them come in unexpected ways instead of what I'm preparing for. No, right now knowing what's coming is the only thing that's keeping our heads above water. If it's any consolation, you would've started doing a lot more than healing in about a month anyways. You wouldn't have wanted to, but the first bit, at least, was the right thing to do. But the problem with new power uses is that they're a bit. . . erratic at first. It's why I'm _so_ insistent that you have someone on hand to help when you get started."

"I. . . you. . . It's to early for this!" she decided. "I'm going back to bed."

"Is Dinah okay though?" I asked.

"What? Yeah, she'll feel like she has a bad cold, but she'll recover. I need to sleep. And think. I'll talk to you. . . Fuck, I'll talk to you when I'm ready to talk, and _not_ before then," she informed me firmly, heading back to her room.

I sighed, "I wish I knew if she's going to be okay." Dinah gave me a wary look, causing me to laugh and pat her head. "I'm not going to ask you, and I _don't_ want you to tell me." This earned me bit of a smile. "Now, little oracle, finish off your hot chocolate and we'll get you to bed. You're not gonna feel good for a few days, but I'll make you some chicken soup when you wake up, okay?"

"Okay," she agreed, draining the last of her drink and hopping down from her seat. She carefully put the mug in sink before following me to the Bedrooms. I gave her the next to Theo's, which itself was next to Purity's. Leaving the bathroom light on as a night-light, she was asleep before I closed the door.

* * *

With time on my hands before everyone woke up, I did a number of things, not really concentrating on them. First of all, I kicked a text off to Taylor and Tattletale, asking them if they wanted me to come with me when I told Faultline's crew where Case 53's came from. Then, I remembered that I needed to set up the meeting first, sending Faultline an e-mail asking if she wanted me to come over to give her the briefing I'd promised Newter at noon today.

Surprisingly I got a reply from Sarah ten minutes later with a single word: "Yes." I sent her a reply, apologizing if my text woke her up, that I'd be at her place right before noon, and I might be bringing LB.

After that I sent an e-mail to Quinn, telling him that I'd be available anytime during the next week to complete another session of parahuman plastic surgery. As far as I was aware nothing of note happened between now and _Leviathan_ , which freed up my schedule. I needed to get Vicky up to scratch, train myself, and maybe grab a few more powers, but it was time to start working on new plans. Amy obviously didn't want any help, and she didn't need to be forced into it yet; Purity needed some tactical advice, but she was more Herb's project then mine; and as effective as Taylor was against regular foes, she was useless against an Endbringer, at least for now.

Investigating the empty space in the base revealed it to be protected by the same electrified walls that made up the exterior as part of the of the base defenses. Turning those off for the base _didn't_ turn it off for the empty space, which was worrying. If I had to I had half a dozen ways to force my way inside, but that would be a move of last resort.

Trying a different tack, I turned back to reading the base manual while I tanked bullets to try to work on GG's power. While the shields strengthened, none of them split, however I _did_ reach the end of the damn thing as dawn was breaking. As I read the last page I had to resist the urge to _crush_ the phone in my hand. This several _thousand_ page document was just the _general_ _fucking manual!_ At the end of the first chapter was a note that for specific base functionality, one needed to access the primary computer network found within each base which is what I _thought_ I was doing!

Connecting to the computer network that was designated as the primary network, as far as I could tell, I started poking around, using my gifted hacking knowledge to look deeper into the structure of how everything set up. While I could connect to Cauldron's servers, it wasn't direct, but went somewhere else first.

So, I needed to access a room without a door. _Well_ , about a third of the way through the manual I'd found how to open doors remotely. Flipping through the list on the App I'd installed on the phone I'd gotten from the base I didn't find anything marked 'elevator', but I did find a set labelled 'hallway door 1', 'hallway door 2', and so on. Toggling them one after another caused doors I hadn't realized existed to close in the hallways, separating off portions of the base. Door thirty-six, however, was marked as closed instead of open. Tapping it, I received a prompt asking for my security code.

Typing the ten-character sequence in, the wall of the hallway slid open, revealing an entrance that didn't match the homey interior of the base in the _slightest_ , the Cauldron symbol inscribed across two handle-less white metal doors. Retracting my costume back, I placed my hand on the pad on the wall next to the doors and revealed my eye, both of which were scanned before the doors slid open into an almost sterile looking elevator.

I wanted to step inside, to see how far this metaphorical rabbit hole went, but I could hear the sounds of people waking up and I wasn't sure how I needed to handle. . . _this_. Stepping back the double doors closed silently, the walls of the hallway doing the same a moment later. Even knowing it was there, I could find no trace of its existence.

I was in the kitchen, whipping up the makings for breakfast tacos when I heard Herb walk in. pausing at the entrance to the kitchen he stared at me, obviously forcing a smile as he asked, "Heeeeey buddy. How ya feelin?"

 _Had he seen Dinah's name on the door? Is he pissed I saved her without him? Until he actually comes out and says something, I'm not going to volunteer any information either,_ I decided. "Pretty good," I shrugged. "Why?"

"Soooo," he said, as if he were talking to a small child. "Feeling a little _extra_ special today?"

 _Yeah, he's pissed about Dinah. Fuck him. He wants to play games, so can I._ "Not particularly," I commented blandly.

" _Nooooo_ , no not at _all_ ," he stated as if he didn't believe me, again in an over-the-top manner.

"Nope," I agreed, wondering when he would end this charade and be honest. _Then again, him not being honest **created** this problem._

He was holding a hand behind his back, and that arm was twitching slightly. Invisibly I created a latticework of air to divide us, tweaking it with sound control to not alter the acoustics of the room. If he was using my Power Sight he could see me doing so, but it would slow down whatever surprise he had for me.

"Didn't make deals with shady characters?" he asked, again like I was a small child. _Did he think I bargained with Coil for Dinah? God he is dumb sometimes, he should know there was no way Coil was giving her up willingly._ "Didn't reset your biological mainframe?" he asked, still in that insulting tone of voice.

 _What the fuck?_ I'd assumed he'd seen Dinah, but that question made even less sense than he normally did, and for the life of me I couldn't figure out what he was trying to say, so I was forced to ask, "What the fuck are you talking about?"

"Didn't, I don't know, _try to screw us all over?_ " he half demanded, half requested, anger creeping into his condescending tone.

I stared at him, completely confused. That statement would fit if he thought I made a deal with Coil, but the 'biological mainframe' crack, in addition to being complete gibberish, didn't fit _at all._

"Look," he said when it was clear I wasn't going to respond, "I understand seizures can re-write memories," _What?_ "and. . . and personalities, and can set things off in an odd way, but, look, we can make you better again." He told me, in what I'm sure he thought was a kindly tone of voice. "You don't have to do this."

 _Do what? How does seizures equal making shady deals?_ "What. The fuck. Are you talking about?" I asked coldly, doubling up on the latticework of air. It sounded like he was going to do something stupid 'for my own good', and I'd had more than enough of _that_ shit to last me a lifetime.

"Look, I don't want to hurt you," he started. _Did he forget I gutted his replicant?_ I wondered. In a fight, unless it was a sneak attack _I'd win._ He _knew_ that, and that it was crazy to try. On top of that he'd already lost the element of surprise. If his stand manifested behind me the displaced air would alert me, now that I was looking for it, so what the hell was he thinking? "But what I'm gonna do is take Dinah to the hospital, and you're gonna let me."

 _No, not crazy, just stupid, but what else is new._ "I had Panacea look at her last night," I told him flatly. Whatever this newest major malfunction was, I didn't want to have to deal with it right now.

He blinked, nonplussed. "Wait, what?"

He wasn't mad that I saved her without him, he was pissed because he thought I was keeping her from being healed when we had one of the world's greatest healers not twenty yards away? _For fuck's sake_ , Herb could pick up Dinah, walk outside of Amy's room, and heal her himself if he was so inclined. _My teammate is a dumbass_ , I sighed internally, _time to show him why._

"Yeah, and I'm surprised you're taking it as well as you are," I commented conversationally, "but I _fixed your fucking mistake_ , infiltrated Coil's base, got her out, had Panacea to look at her, she's gonna feel like she has a bad flu, and then she's going to be fine. _You're welcome._ "

Herb pulled his concealed hand from behind his back, the rending claws shifting back to human fingers, and his expression was jubilant as he jumped for me, arms open, only to run face first into the first air wall.

"No!" he cried. "You need the hug my friend, _I need to give you the hug!_ "

Thoroughly creeped out, I double checked that I was completely covered and more than thirty feet away from anyone else with a striker power before I hesitantly dropped the walls with a wave of my hand. He was on in me in an instant trying to crush me in a hug that stressed but didn't break my shields, before sprinting off down towards Dinah's room.

"Dude, she's still sleeping!" I called after him, following.

He didn't seem to care, opening the door and going "awwww!" _Did he not look in on her earlier?_ I wondered. "Another detox under my belt," he commented to himself. _What is this 'my' stuff Kimosabe?_

"The fuck are you talking about?" I asked, _again_.

He glanced over, having forgotten I was there. "Oh, I had to do this with my parents all the time," he brushed off, like that was just normal.

"That explains so much," I commented to _myself_ , "Come on, let her sleep."

"Oh no!" he exclaimed after he closed her door. "I didn't even think of waking her up! But, um, some matzah ball soup," he started listing off, following me back to the kitchen, "A glass of water."

"I promised her chicken noodle," I interjected.

He made a face, "Matzah ball's better."

"I promised the kid chicken noodle," I told him flatly.

He shrugged, "I'll put some chicken in the matzah." I nodded, and he continued, "definitely coffee."

"She's _eight,_ " I pointed out.

He shook his head, "It'll help."

"How does that interact with Morphine exposure, because that's just one of a whole bunch of stuff she was on," I asked hesitantly.

"It's a downer, coffee's an upper, and coffee shouldn't do anything bad to help her heal. If ya were giving her stuff, then it might have an interaction, but we're doing the opposite. Besides, Morphine's so much stronger-"

"I cleaned it from her system, and Panacea helped heal the non-brain tissues, so I just wanted to be sure," I interjected.

"All right, we'll see how she is when she wakes up," he decided.

Back in the kitchen I tried to broach the topic that had been flaked over. "I kinda expected you to react to the fact that I grabbed her a bit worse."

"Oh? Oh!" he said, surprised, going silent.

 _Did he really not realize that to be here I had to have extracted her from Coil. I **literally** said that I did._ "Nothing? That works for me," I agreed, turning back to the cooking.

"Just because I'm overjoyed and not upset doesn't mean I think you weren't stupid," he told me bluntly.

Ruminating on a certain phrase about flying geology and silicone structures, I looked back and raised an eyebrow, "How was _I_ stupid?"

"But you got the job done," he continued, completely ignoring me. "And I ain't got time to explain how you're stupid, Jesus Christ. But, thank you. Thank you _tremendously._ You are. . . this is why I love you."

" _Thaaaanks,"_ I replied, oddly touched, but really more offended by his blatant hypocrisy than anything. Ignoring him as he left, I turned back to making breakfast.

The sisters got up, Panacea double checking Dinah while Vicky texted her boyfriend before they left after eating breakfast, and Herb still wasn't back yet. Canary had grabbed her food and returned back to her room, and I was starting to get concerned after Purity and Theo woke up and had started eating. It was over an hour since Herb left that he came back with a couple bags of groceries.

"That took a while," I commented.

He just shrugged, "We're in the middle of what's pretty much ruins, there ain't a bodega on the corner."

"And you didn't use the car. Or, I don't know, _fly?_ " I reminded him.

He just blinked. "She up yet?" he asked, ignoring my statements.

"No." After what she'd been through, I'd be surprised if she woke up before noon.

"Then it's no big deal," he informed me, putting things away and getting started on the soup.

"Who's up?" Kayden asked, looking between the two of us.

I shook my head as my phone started to play Taylor's ringtone. "He'll explain," I said, walking away.

Leaving Herb to it I took the call, "Hey Lady Bug, what's up?"

"I want to come," was her immediate response.

It took me a second to remember what she's talking about. "Oh, sure, yeah." Looking at the clock I still had a couple hours to burn before then. "You have breakfast yet?"

"What? Um. No?" she replied, surprised by the non-sequitur.

I nodded to myself. While I was glad that Herb wasn't upset, his immediate dismissal of my intelligence, especially when I was fixing _his_ problem made me want to be anywhere but here. "I'll meet you in the park by your place in your civvies, bring your costume. We'll get something to eat before swinging by and picking up Tattletale. That work for you?"

There was a bit of hesitation, "Just the two of us? For Breakfast?"

"Yeah, while I'm trying to help her, Sarah's not the type I could relax around. No offense," I apologized. I wasn't sure how close Sarah and Taylor had gotten in this timeline.

"No, it's okay," she quickly reassured me. "See you soon!"


	93. Premiere 8-x (Interlude: Tattletale)

**Premiere 8.x (Tattletale)**

He would be here any moment, and she hated herself for agreeing to this.

Lisa couldn't stand that smug murderous asshole who claimed to be a hero. He swooped in like he was god's gift to capes, knowing things he _couldn't_ know and dropping truths like they _didn't matter_. The things he casually mentioned she couldn't find _any_ hint of, but they all fit, and because he just expected everyone to believe him, they _did_. It was _cheating!_ Worse than that, he'd saved her life and hadn't had the decency to cash in on the favor she owed him! With her power, he should've been asking her _that day_ for her to help him, not offering _her_ information!

She opened her phone looking at the message he'd sent her in the middle of the night, which she felt must be important figure out _why._ Yet.

'Going to tell Faultline about where Case 53's come from. You want in?'

Like she was going to say no to that! Where did he get off, dangling that in front of her like it was no big deal!? People had been trying to find that out since before she was _born_ , and he said it like he wanted to know if she wanted to go out for coffee! Against her will, a bit of her power escaped her control, filtering out of her mental barriers to try and tell her what she wanted to know.

 _\- Is_ ████ ███████ ███████. _Believes that_ ██████ █ █████████. _Wants to_ ████ ███ ██ ██████.

She frowned at the feeling. It didn't hurt exactly, not like when she overused her power, but it felt like her mind was scrabbling on ice, out of control, unable to get hold of anything.

Regent, playing a game in the main room, stopped, glancing up and to the side. His expression, normally placid confidence, froze. Eyes widened. Lips twitched downwards. A small shake of the head.

 _\- Knows Vejovis is here. Is worried about what Vejovis knows. Scared of Vejovis. Knows that_ ███████ ███ ███ █████. _Treats Vejovis like his father. Not sure what to make of that._

Alec glanced back at Lisa, "Your boyfriend's here," he tossed out, unpausing the game. She repressed a growl and moved downstairs to open the door before her 'guest' could knock, because he seemed like the type that would. Sure enough, he had his hand raised to do just that. _Still got it,_ she smiled.

He smiled back, but like everything else he did it just seemed _fake_. People made tons of tiny little movements they didn't realize, micro-expressions. You couldn't control them, only try to mask them with something else, and they told her everything she needed to know. Except he didn't. When he smiled, he _just_ smiled. It was almost _cartoonish_ in its exaggerated honesty. It was obviously fake, but there weren't the extra movements that should have been there: the momentary frown as he saw someone he didn't like, the tightening of the jaw at her getting one over on him, the slight movement of the head that could mean a _dozen_ different things depending on what direction he used, _any of it!_ The fact that he always hid his eyes behind those pure white lenses only made everything that much worse, denying her information on his eye movements, which is probably why he did so, the asshole.

He was looking past her, saying hello to Alec and Aisha. _I forgot, she's here,_ Lisa thought, annoyed that she'd forgotten. Even after she forgot what she was annoyed about, it was obvious that she was annoyed because Brian's kid sister was around, which was information she _didn't_ forget. While useful, Stranger powers could be countered if one was smart enough to work around it, and _she_ was.

"You ready to go?" he asked, as if she hadn't been waiting here for the better part of an hour, not that she'd let him know that.

"Almost," she replied, walking back to her room to pretend to grab something. Let him waste time trying to figure out what it was.

Walking back in a few minutes later, Regent lazily waved at her, "V-man's gonna get us costumes from Parian. I know _I'm_ worth it, but you blow him or something?"

Vejovis winced, his attempts to hide it so overt it was obviously be faked, making it clear what he _really_ felt about that suggestion. _Like I'd ever let him that close._ Taylor behind him shifted uncomfortably in the same costume she wore to the gala. The one that Parian made, and a walking billboard for what that rogue could do.

"I'm doing it because the costumes I gave you won't last, and you need better protection than lace and spandex," the pervert tried to excuse. She looked beyond the _obviously_ faked honest and concern, but while he was good enough at hiding his emotions, he didn't even _try_ to have a second layer to try to show what he really felt, which was just complete amateur hour. You _always_ hid what you felt at least three levels deep: the overt, everyone knows is fake expression; the second, people think they're smart because they noticed it one; and then you hid the third, which was what you _actually_ felt. Unless you were _really_ smart like her of course, in which case that was fake as well.

Lady Bug however, she _could_ read. The girl's emotions weren't as muted as when she'd first met her on the rooftop, which made everything much easier.

 _\- Uncomfortable with the topic. Has a crush on Vejovis. Vejovis told her he knows, but wants to wait. Vejovis think it isn't an issue because_ ██ ███ ████ ██████ █████ ████.

 _Damnit,_ she thought, _because why?_ He was obviously stringing Taylor along, getting her to think he wanted to wait while dragging her in deeper, but Lisa knew that telling the girl that wouldn't work. "I don't think _I'm_ the one he wants one from," she needled instead, Taylor's embarrassment just increasing. Vejovis was giving her an unamused look, but what did he expect for being so blatant about it? She moved on, controlling the flow of the conversation expertly, "But that can wait, let's not keep Faultline waiting."

Regent looked over at her, mild surprise on his face, which would've been shock on anyone else. " _That's_ where you're going?" He turned an appraising look toward Vejovis while jerking a thumb in Lisa's direction, "Did you blow _her?_ "

"She's a bit young for my tastes," he shot back companionably, as if they were friends exchanging banter and not 'hero' talking to 'villain', like Vejovis wouldn't kill her teammate in an instant if it suited him. His companion _ate_ Bakuda, and he didn't so much as blink after all. "Actually, while I'm here. Your father: does he have any kind of home base?"

Alec hesitated, eyes flicking up and to the left, before shifting to the right, "Not really. Moves around a lot, to keep ahead of anyone that might want to stop him. Not that people really bother anymore."

Vejovis smiled again. He did that a lot, but this one was all teeth. "Pity. I'll have to try to find him some other way."

A long moment passed between them, Taylor fidgeting slightly. Tattletale divided her power to encompass everyone _but_ Vejovis.

 _\- Taylor doesn't know why he's asking and doesn't know who Regent's father is. Assumes Regent's father is a villain. Thinks Regent might be related to Panacea. Alec isn't sure if he wants to tell him about Heartbreaker's compound. Heartbreaker's compound is somewhere in the mountains, away from the city. Why Regent lives in the city. Aisha doesn't know who Alec's father is. Assumes Alec was abused like she was. Feels close to Alec because of that._

She winced, the beginnings of a headache forming. The motion drew Vejovis' attention. "You okay there Sarah? I could try healing you if you wanted." She winced again, but not from physical pain. _Why did he keep using that name?_ She knew _why_ of course, it was a power move, and an _insultingly_ basic one at that. His offer of his 'own' name in return had been just as transparent a ploy, and one she wouldn't lower herself to even pretend to believe.

"No!" she replied, a bit more forcefully than she'd meant to. She'd gotten control of herself after that first night, but that _blankness_ he was. . . she didn't want that anywhere near her. "I mean yes, I'm fine. It's not like I could use my power for what you'll tell me anyways."

He looked at her blankly, pretending not to understand so she'd be forced to admit her weakness. "Like when you talked about how powers worked." Still blank, keeping up the charade. _Dick_. "That night in the hotel, remember?"

He gave an exaggerated start of realization, and she had to keep from gritting her teeth at the insult, as if he expected either of them to believe that he'd 'forgotten'. "Oh, right, _that_. Actually, you shouldn't have that problem this time around. It's a much more straightforward situation. You sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure, and we'll be late if we don't leave in the next forty-seven seconds," she told him, making up the number on the spot. She moved past him, putting Taylor between them, careful to stay out of hand's reach. Whatever made her power slide off him, it'd affected _her_ when he'd sealed her mouth, and she shivered in revulsion at the memory. Whatever he'd done was just like the costumes he'd given them, only instead of _wearing_ a blank it'd been _in_ her, _part_ of her. If that never happened again it'd be _too soon_.

He said goodbye to Alec and Aisha, pretending to care about them, and left him to his videogames, following her out. Standing outside Taylor wrapped herself around his arm like a lovestruck schoolgirl, which she was, and he didn't even have the decency to look uncomfortable as he offered Lisa his other hand. She regarded it with suspicion. "We're flying," he told her. "I don't need to carry you like Glory Girl would, but I need contact to make it work."

She made a point of standing apart from him, grabbing _his_ wrist, and he pretended not to understand, giving her a questioning glance before all three of them lifted up with almost no sense of movement at all. She _definitely_ didn't gasp in fear, her power escaping her grasp.

 _\- Vejovis is_ ███████ ███ ████ ███████████. _Vejovis' power is_ █████ ███████████ ███ █████████ ██████. _Vejovis can_ ████ ██████.

 _Well, **that** explains everything,_ she snapped at her ability. Vejovis wasn't paying attention to her, lifting them up and turning them vertical without gravity seeming to shift in the slightest, taking them out and over the city.

 _Think Lisa,_ she told herself, _you're the smartest cape in the city. You can figure it out, even without your power_. He flew like Glory Hole, that was obvious, but Tattletale had never seen the blonde bimbo do _anything_ like this. When _she_ carried her sister, it was literally carrying her, not. . . _this._ From the lack of wind and how they flew past things without really disturbing them, skimming over rooftops, it had to be some kind of levitation, like Rune, instead of real flight.

"You should move bases," he said, breaking her out of his thoughts. She looked over at him, pretending to not care, waiting to see what excuse he gave her. "I'm assuming the hideout is Coil's?"

" _Obviously_ ," she replied, wondering why he asked.

"Then it's bugged," he told her, as if this was new information. "You should get a bolt-hole or two of your own. Use the money you got from the bank job."

 _He knows. How does he know? Of course he knows,_ she thought, hiding her panic under snark, "It was a nice payout, but not _that_ nice. I wouldn't say no to you helping us with another." _And giving me a look at your resources._

He just gave her that stupid 'I know you're lying' look. "I meant your _personal_ spoils, not your share from the vault."

"You think I haven't already," she shot back, ignoring him revealing what she'd _thought_ she kept hidden, trying to get him on the back foot, _for once._

He just shrugged, smiling that stupid, fake smile. "You have? Great! Just trying to make sure you and the rest of the crew are safe."

 _The crew? **the crew?**_ she bristled but didn't let it show. She hadn't spent that long keeping everyone together, and Coil off her back, just to have this idiot muscle in on it. "We can take care of ourselves." _We did long before you showed up to play 'savior'_ , she wanted to add, but wouldn't within touch range. He'd shown he had no morals about using his 'healing' to hurt people, unlike Panacea, and up here there was nowhere to run, which was why he'd brought it up **_now_** _._

They landed in front of Palanquin, Faultline's club, ostentatious and tasteless in a way that Tattletale never would've stood for. She released his wrist, gravity returning as she did so. Taylor let go as well, but reluctantly. Vejovis knocked on the door, Gregor the Snail answering it. The quiet, likely Scandinavian Case 53 led them inside, the lights turned on in the large space, leading them to a folding table that was obviously set up just for this in the middle of the dance floor.

The containment specialist showed them to their seats. Vejovis accepting his offer of a drink, like a moron; Taylor did so as well, asking for tea; and Tattletale turned down the cape whose power was _chemical creation_ on his offer of a drink that _wouldn't be spiked, honest_. She opened her mouth to point out _why_ they were idiots as the snail-man moved over to the bar, but Vejovis' look stopped her. "Behave," he warned, like he was talking to a dog or a small child, getting Taylor's attention as well.

"He makes chemicals, and he's getting you a drink!" she pressed, not willing to go down on this ship made of _stupid_.

Vejovis just smiled, "And if he tries to poison us, I'm a healer, and I'll _kill_ him for hurting either of you after accepting us into his home."

The sheer _surety_ of that surprised her, and something about his phrasing. . . "You're counting on _hospitality rites?_ In _Brockton Bay?_ With _Villains!?_ "

He just smiled, "Among other things," refusing to explain.

She looked over at the sentient snail, allowing just a bit of her Insight to sneak through the barrier she'd learned to keep it behind, taking in the details. Body language guarded. Scared, but excited. Hands shaking slightly.

 _\- Not using his power. Wants to know what Vejovis is going to say. Scared of him because of his experience with Break & Enter. Was told why he was here. Doesn't want to believe it. Not sure what side of the divide Vejovis falls on._

 _At least he was scared. Scared people did stupid things, but they did things related to who they were scared of_ , she thought. She'd be off to the side, not in the crossfire. Newter came out of a back room, waving towards Vejovis and making a beeline for him. "Hey man, good to see you! Lookin' good Bug-babe. You too Tattler," he added as an afterthought, glancing at her chest.

"Newetered," she riposted, cutting off Vejovis and causing Taylor to suppress a laugh. "Still drugging your dates?"

"Only when they ask," he shot back with a wink that disgusted her. "Glad you could come man," he said, holding an arm out, which Vejovis took. When the 'hero' _didn't_ start spasming, making small talk instead, Lisa paid _close_ attention to what just happened.

 _Is he immune?_ She thought, _no, it's the **costume**._ The Case 53 tended to leave a bit of slime on what he touched, giving it a rainbow sheen, but Vejovis' costume was the same perfect white and red it always was. Looking back at her own hands, she considered the costume he'd given her. Her power slid off it just as much as it did him, which suggested. . . _unpleasant_ things. She _wasn't_ her power, and she'd noticed that even after a week it looked perfectly clean. It wasn't dirty, dusty, and didn't even smell like _anything_ which had confused Bitch's dogs _._ She'd been stabbed, shot, and bled on, but it still looked as new as when she'd unwrapped it. _What did he give me?_ she wondered. Her first guess was Tinkertech, but she wasn't so sure anymore, and wanted to take it off _asap._

Vejovis and Newter chatted about how each was doing. Vejovis asked why Newter hadn't worn his costume at the Gala, and his response of "and hide this lovely face? It would be. . . _criminal!_ " earned matching groans from Taylor and Vejovis. It would be adorable if he wasn't likely _twice her age_ , but, blatant Electra complex notwithstanding, they'd obviously been spending a lot of time together. Long enough that there was no way to turn her without angering Vejovis. He seemed like the secretly possessive type. The rest was meaningless chatter, and without her power she wasn't going to get anything that useful from it.

After long enough to display how she was more important than Tattletale, because she needed to make for her obvious inadequacies _somehow_ , Faultine walked in, face serious, flanked by Spitfire who didn't look at Lisa, probably still upset by what Bitch had done. In a move they probably practiced, her crew sat down, Melanie taking position opposite Vejovis last. "You said you had information about Case 53's?" the woman who needed to name her group after herself asked calmly, staring at the 'hero'.

He smiled, as if he were happy to be here. Knowing him, he might be, though she was probably too old for his tastes. "Yes! They're. . . Okay, I'll explain, but there's about three other thing I need to explain for the explanation to make sense."

"Try me anyways," she suggested, a single over-manicured brow rising in challenge.

He shrugged, "Okay, they're failed experiments from the multi-dimensional cape-inati to better make super smoothies and save the world. They decided to brand them before wiping their memories, because that's a _wonderful_ idea, and dump them in this America to stabilize the entire parahuman dynamic. They've got Triumvirate-tier parahumans working for them, including the most powerful Precog in the world. Oh, and the brand isn't a C or an Omega, it's a symbol, though I'm not sure if the way it's misunderstood if you didn't know which way is up on it is purposeful or just more incompetence."

 _What?_ Lisa thought, trying to parse this insanity. Faultline let out a long breath, "That. . . That's in line with what we've found." **_What?_** Lisa threw open the flood gates, allowing her power to work over what was just said.

 _\- Parahumans exist in other dimensions, so other Parahuman organizations have to as well. Gate to Aleph wasn't first connection, government response was too well formed. Powers allow crossing dimension, so organizations can as well. Other organizations from Alien planets are trying to take over, using Case 53's to test non-human acceptance. Vejovis_ ██ ███ ████ ███ ██ ████ _. Earth Bet situation is too tenuous to stay stable, is being kept that way to keep defenders off balance. Chances of only four capes as powerful as Triumvirate unlikely, organizations that seek to infiltrate have been abducting others of similar power. Faultline only knew a fraction of what he said, pretending to be more knowledgeable than she actually is._

Tattletale bit back a whimper as information flooded her. The last bit was _obvious_ , but the rest. . . she didn't know how to take. Was Vejovis one of those aliens, trying to take over, just pretending to be human? It would explain his expressions at least.

The possible alien blinked in exaggerated surprise. "Really? Hmm, no wonder they're watching you then. I'll still explain the rest, just to avoid confusion. The cape-inati's real name is Cauldron, though they've got someone who can tell when they're named, so avoid calling them that unless you want a strike team to teleport in, hence, cape illuminati, cape-inati." Faultline's crew tensed, Newter and Spitfire looking around. "Don't worry, I've given them the slip which is part of why I can say their name without a problem. If you see a glowing white triangle in the air though, run, since that's how Cauldron moves around. That's the symbol by the way, it's a witch's _cauldron_. They're lucky, not creative."

Vejovis smiled to himself, this one seeming more natural, but still off, seeming to find whatever he just said funny. _Aliens have witches?_ was her first thought, trying to keep track of what was going on and what it meant.

"For. . . reasons that don't really matter right now, they can create a substance that, if you drink it, gives you powers. However, it's unstable as all hell, and they don't really understand it that well. They grab people from other dimensions that were going to die anyways, and then they give them a choice: come with them and live or stay and die. Once at their base they give the people they saved the substance and use the result to better understand what the hell they're doing. Then they wipe the memories of the test subjects, brand them with their symbol for some stupid reason, and dump them in America on Earth Bet," he explained, as if he were talking about how _clouds_ were formed or something else mundane.

Looking at Newter, Vejovis asked, "Saluton kiel vi fartas?" stumbling a bit over the words.

"Estas iom konfuzita," the human lizard replied fluently and without missing a beat, only to blink rapidly. "What the hell?"

Vejovis laughed at the Case 53's rising panic, "So that info was correct? Good. They pulled you out of a warzone somewhere where Esperanto was the primary language right before a bomb hit, killing off the rest of your squad. More than that, I'd need to hack their servers. Again."

 _\- Moral Aliens don't exist. Aliens that powerful wouldn't have a reason to be moral. Not Aliens, **Alien**. From another dimension. Still human. Vejovis is_ █████ █████ ███████ ████ ████████. _Vejovis_ █████ █████ ███ ████ ██████ ████████ ██████. _Break escaped from Cauldron._

Lisa turned this over in her head. That explained a _lot_ , but she wasn't sure what to do with this. Faultline stared at Vejovis, hard, not finding anything amusing about what was going on. "But _why?_ " she demanded. "Why would they do this?"

"Short term? Money, power, favors. Medium term? Natural triggers breed conflict, conflict breeds natural triggers," he explained with complete confidence in what he was saying. "It's an untenable spiral. Vial triggers, for reasons I'm not going to go into, _don't_. The Cape-inati's efforts are the reason that heroes are _only_ outnumbered three to one. Also, Vial Triggers tend to have more dangerous powers for. . . reasons. Long term? They're looking for a power that will let them _kill Endbringers_."

 _\- Speaking from_ ████████ █████████ _. Natural triggers-_ she bit pack a gasp of pain as she hit something her power didn't want her to know, quickly moving on- _Explains politically connected heroes. Triumph related to the Mayor, bought his power with father's money or favors. Vista similarly connected to government, raised from a young age for large scale fights. Why they haven't given her projectiles, waiting to reveal capability during Endbringer fight against the Simurgh._

Lisa sucked in a breath in surprise, though her reason was different than the rest of the table, which _included Taylor._ "What?" the other girl asked, staring at Vejovis.

He shrugged, "Did I not mention that? Right. Break called dibs on Behemoth."

Lisa set aside her own surprise to look around the table. Vejovis was wearing an almost vulpine smile, one that was _her_ trademark and he had no right to use. Spitfire and Faultline both reacted with disbelief, but Newter, Taylor, and Gregor? They were skeptical but considering it. That _wasn't good._

"Who's the stronger fighter?" Gregor the Snail asked, accent heavy but thoughtful. "Break?"

Vejovis winced and tried to hide it, just like when Alec had made that crude suggestion earlier. "Not really, no," he hedged, "He's just is more suited to fight Behemoth."

"The Hero-killer," Faultline clarified, still not believing what she was hearing, "Who no one has ever truly stopped."

Vejovis shrugged, "Once you get passed the entire 'kill-aura' thing he's not that bad, just a high-powered, giant Dynamokinetic. _You_ might be able to mess up his day if the situation was right. Either way, not the point. Case 53's: They were supposed to die and agreed to be experimented on to get a new lease on life. Unfortunately, the Cape-inati are kinda dicks, and. . . okay, _suitably_ paranoid, but they overreact. They brand their test subjects, which gives them a shared identity, but also plants a giant 'mystery here!' sign." He shook his head, muttering under his breath, "Fucking Fortuna. Phenomenal cosmic precog, _itty bitty agency_."

The change in topic was so obvious it was ridiculous, which is what made it work. If _she'd_ tried that, she'd get called out and it would backfire on her. It was only the sheer _enormity_ of what he'd said that let him succeed, and it was obvious that he hadn't meant to talk about Break. His emotional displays were _obviously_ faked, but he was no where near Faultline's level, let alone _Lisa's_.

 _At least he's attractive_ , she thought, _a conciliation prize for Taylor to balance out his complete stupidity._ But then again, she'd had quite a bit of practice managing strong but dumb men with Brian, and it was obvious that he knew more than he was letting on. If _Faultline_ could get him to reveal more than he meant to, it should be child's play for _her_ to, and once she knew everything important she could remove him like she was planning on removing Coil.

"There _is_ a conspiracy," he continued, "But the bad things they do are due to incompetence, not malignance. Hanlon's Razor and all that. So. . . Any questions? Comments? Queries?"

After a pause, where Faultline's crew looked to her, she inquired, choosing her words carefully, "Do you work for them?"

Vejovis raised an eyebrow, mask deforming to give the effect over his blank white eye coverings, "No? I told you, they're _dicks_. Complete 'ends justify the means' types. If their plans work, it'll be by _accident_."

"Can, can we go home?" Newter asked, the pain and sheer _want_ so earnest it would've hurt the heart of someone who cared, which she _didn't_.

Vejovis shrugged, "What's home? I don't think they can restore your memories, and anyone who would've missed you has thought you were dead for years even if they could." He sighed in mock sadness, "To start with I'd have to find your home dimension, then find a way to get you there, and even then, you're still, well, an anthropomorphic newt. Sorry man, but I don't know how to fix that." He hesitated but left it at that.

"Break is immune to energy," Faultline declared, "Fire, lightning, and radiation. It's how he could fight Behemoth." _That's why he wasn't worried when he fought Lung,_ Lisa thought, _But I knew that already,_ she quickly added. Faultline just had the handicap of having to guess instead of _knowing_ like she did.

Vejovis looked surprised, obviously not expecting anyone to guess that, "Yeah, but don't spread it around. I'd rather have some villain whose power is radiation blasts or something waste time trying to blast him," he requested. "Also, be careful who you tell about all this. A _lot_ of people owe Cauldron favors, including about one in ten heroes, and a _lot_ of people in the government."

"Why here?" asked Gregor. Vejovis gave him a questioning look and the older man elucidated, "Why put us here?"

"Because this is where everything important is going down," the self-appointed hero replied easily. "Because this dimension is where most Triggers happen, and this dimension is where all the Endbringers are."

 _All?_ Lisa thought. It was an odd turn of phrase. People said 'all three', 'the Endbringers', or very rarely 'they'. They didn't say 'All'. Expecting to get nothing but more blankness, but having to try anyways she turned over that phrase in her mind, letting her power pick it apart as if someone _else_ had stated it. One of those Cauldron people, if they actually existed.

 _\- Speaker_ ██ ████ ███████ _ready_ ███ ████ _._ ████ ████ ██████ ████ ███ ██ _killed._ ███ ██ ██████ _time_ ██ ██████ ████ _. There are_ █████████ _more Endbringers. Speaker knows_ ████ ███ ████ █████ ███ █████ ██ ██.

 _"There's more Endbringers!?"_ she yelled, looking at him as the sheer _enormity_ of what that meant hit. She didn't know _how_ many more, but apparently Vejovis did, and it seemed like a _lot_ more than one or two! People had thought there might be, but he _knew._ A flicker of deep, murderous anger flashed across Vejovis' face, quickly replaced by complete calmness.

"Tattletale," he growled, voice betraying his emotions for the first time, "Are you _incapable_ of not blurting out whatever your power tells you? Don't blame your power, we both know how it works, this is all on _you_. Besides, you _know_ it's fallible, the clusterfuck at the bank should've been _more_ than enough proof of that, so maybe you should _think_ and _check_ your conclusions _before you speak._ "

He sighed in resignation, Micro expressions quickly disappearing, "Fuck it, this isn't actionable intel. Yeah, there are more, but whatever controls them is at capacity for now. I _won't_ explain any of this. Know that until one dies, we just have Behemoth, Levi, and Ziz. For better or worse, they're _really_ hard to kill, so by the time we can, we'll be able to take on the next one, and considering what Khonsu does, _we'll need that capability_. Now do you, _Faultline's Crew_ , have any _Case 53_ related questions _?_ If you don't I'll consider us even and wish you a good day. _"_

There was a long moment, and as Vejovis started to get up, Faultline spoke. "Why did you tell us this? We warned you about something you probably already knew about. This. . . we've been looking for this for _years_. That isn't close to even."

Vejovis smiled: broad, sunny, and _fake_ , "Because you deserved to know. Because you might be an ally later. Because anyone who calls themselves 'Doctor Mother' is an idiot, and the fact that no one in Cauldron has pointed that out shows what kind of people they are. Because of a _lot_ of reasons."

He stood up, addressing Newter and Gregor. "While the way they did it was _incredibly_ stupid and ill thought out, the people who changed you also saved your lives, and probably did so with your permission. They mean well, but, like I said, they're kinda dicks, real 'the ends justify the means' types. Because their ends are saving society and stopping the _Endbringers_ , they can convince themselves to excuse a _lot_ of means _._ I won't tell you what to do, just be careful, and know that once I leave they'll be able to notice you again, so avoid proper names _._ Have a nice day."

He strode out, Taylor trotting after him like a lost duckling. Lisa hesitated before moving after the pair, head hurting from overuse of her power, but she needed to know _more_.

 _\- Cauldron has been acting irrationally. Cauldron has been acting successfully. Cauldron can detect words spoken from long distances. Cauldron has Triumvirate level Precogs. Cauldron will do anything to stop the Endbringers. Cauldron needs to experiment. Cauldron gives people dangerous powers that change their bodies. Cauldron created the Endbringers. Vejovis_ █████ ███ ████████ ██ █████ █████ ███████████.

There was something else, she _knew_ it. She pushed her power harder, letting it subsume her, not just lowering the walls but diving into it and being carried away by its currents. Things she'd never thought of started to align themselves and click into place.

 _\- Tinkertech can displace the Moon. Tinkertech can kill Endbringers. Tinkertech takes time to set up. Cauldron has Precogs. Endbringers are still alive. Cauldron's Precogs cannot see Endbringers. Scion can fight Endbringers. Scion cannot be seen by Precogs. Scion is an Endbringer. Scion is the first Endbringer._

Vejovis had offered his hand and she took it, not paying attention to what was going on. There was more, _always_ more, but she could almost see it, just on the _edge_ of perception. It all made sense, whatever the Endbringers did, it was always targeted. Always with a purpose. People thought they just went wherever they did the most damage, but that didn't make _sense._ They couldn't be stopped, only delayed, but if they were just held off long enough Scion showed up and 'defeated' them, taking his time getting there. Scion, who had shown no compunction against killing, not that it was commonly reported, always let the Endbringers go, and always glared at Eidolon. Eidolon, who had more power than _any_ cape, even Alexandria, Legend, and Hero. She barely noticed her grip slacken as she was carried off in a wave of information.

 _\- Endbringers aren't attacking humanity. Endbringers are attacking **Cauldron**. Scion protects Cauldron. Scion is not under Cauldron's control. Eidolon is a Cauldron experiment to emulate Scion. Eidolon traded power for versatility and controllability. Firsthand accounts from Endbringer attack survivors report feeling overwhelming dread in Endbringer's presence. Firsthand accounts of who have met Scion report feelings of overwhelming awe in Scion's presence. Eidolon never shows his skin. Firsthand accounts of people who met Eidolon report feeling uneasy and awed in Eidolon's presence. New Endbringers will appear. Introduction of Endbringers dictated by mechanism Cauldron no longer controls. Endbringers have been getting smaller. Endbringers have been getting more human. Vejovis knows Cauldron's mission. Vejovis refuses to help Cauldron. Vejovis refuses to attack Cauldron. Vejovis is inordinately powerful. Vejovis appears human but has problems making expressions. Vejovis makes people uneasy and awed._

.

.

.

 ** _Vejovis is an Endbringer_**


	94. Leak 9-1

**Leak 9.1**

Taylor and I flew above the city, on the way to the offices of Eldington, Raul, & Calle. "Is she going to be okay?" she asked.

I just had to shrug, "Probably? Her power can tell her some _weird_ things, and she tends to believe it." Though no one called her on it, the things she'd claimed near the end of the book were _bizarre_.

"Weird?"

"Well," I explained, starting our descent, "Her power let's her make giant leaps of logic and all sorts of inferences. You ever hear the acronym GIGO?"

She tilted her head, "Garbage in, garbage out? That was in my programming class. But how, wait, so if she gets bad information-"

"-She gets bad results. Given the fact that her power doesn't _work_ on me, and that she's dealing with issues that her own power likely is tweaking the outputs of for other reasons, then it's impossible to guess what she _thinks_ she knows. Good for unpredictability, bad for, well, everything else," I finished.

Taylor thought about it as we touched down, walking inside and not noticing as I nodded to the building receptionist as we waited for an elevator. "She seemed scared though."

I shrugged again, "Given the subject matter, it makes sense." She'd been obviously using her power on the way back to the Undersider's base before she'd gone stiff, like a scared rabbit. We'd barely touched down before she'd made a mad dash to the door and slammed it behind herself, my Acoustokinesis picking up her panicked breathing as she'd held it shut with her body from the other side. If I cared more about Sarah I would've been hurt, but I'd never understood the fan following she'd had online. It might be my own experiences with manipulative women growing up, but while she _had_ gotten a raw deal, the way she'd handled it had spoken _volumes_.

"But she seemed scared of _you_ ," my companion clarified.

Instead of shrugging a third time I held up my hands in a 'what can you do?' gesture. "And unless she tells us _why_ , there's not much I can do. You sure you want to stick around for this? It's just gonna be waiting around for an hour or two." Getting the message from Quinn requesting my 'healing' services this afternoon had been surprising in its suddenness, but he had been doing quite a lot for us lately, so it only made sense his firm would want to recoup their costs.

She slipped the phone I'd given her out of a belt pouch, "I have books. What are we doing after?"

I frowned as I thought about that. From here on out the next major problem in Canon was Leviathan, but more and more I was finding I couldn't trust my knowledge of that future to carry me through this. Short of bio-engineered insects, I'd prepped Taylor as much as I could for _that_ fight. I could possibly work with her on command & control, but as fearsome as the Swarm was, the might of the ocean that Leviathan represented made it no contest. In the short term I needed to work with Purity, Vicky, and Dean to survive overwhelming force, as they were more likely to land in the line of fire. Well, hopefully not Dean anymore. I also needed to get Herb and find out what laid beneath our base. Actually, Taylor might be able to help with that.

"Are you available through tonight?" I asked, trying to figure out schedules.

"Um," was her response, surprised by my seeming non-sequitur, "Yeah! I mean yes. I am. Available. I am available. Why?"

I nodded, "Then we're going to train, and then you, Herb, and I are going to. . . explore something I've found."

"Okay!" she happily replied as the doors opened, obviously looking forward to getting stronger as a hero.

The receptionist smiled at us when we entered, the lobby otherwise empty. "Good to see you Vejovis, and Miss Lady Bug?" he asked politely. Taylor looked at him in surprise at being recognized. "How are you?"

"I-I'm doing good," she replied.

He smiled in that comforting way that only the elderly can, "Good to hear it. Terrible business with the Empire, they've really let themselves go."

She glanced at me, "Um, yeah?"

He nodded, "Allfather never would have done such a thing. You can go on ahead, Mr. Calle is waiting for you in the room you worked in last time."

"Thanks," I nodded back, walking off with Taylor following. The door was open, and Quinn was sitting behind the desk. He got up, shaking both of our hands and closing the door behind us.

"Vejovis, thank you for coming on short notice. The Lady Bug, an unexpected pleasure," he greeted us, taking a seat. "You've shown you have anti-surveillance Tinkertech, can you please activate it?"

I gave him a questioning look and took out the fake device, flicking the lights on and connecting us with a shared sound bubble. "Okay, _why_?"

Expression still placid, he explained, "The firm's previous cleaning service bugged our office after our last meeting. I believe we have found them all, but an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and I do try for efficiency. However, that is not why I asked you to come. First of all, would you be available to 'consult' for a few hours an hour from now?"

"I thought that's what I was going to do anyways," I replied, thinking. "You want the two of us to check your office? We'd need to use bugs to find the bugs, ironically, but we could."

He shook his head, typing at his computer, "While I appreciate the offer, the appearance of vermin in the office would not send the right message." Without pausing he nodded to Taylor, "No offense meant, of course, but the greater populace equates insects with disease, even if that wouldn't be the case with you."

"It's okay," she reassured as she looked around, "Who's trying to listen in?"

Quinn finished whatever he was doing and turned back to face us. "I'm not entirely sure," he admitted, seemingly unbothered by this fact. "Given how many enemies you insist on making, Vejovis, it could be any of the larger powers in the city. Our security rates have doubled, but today's session should recoup our costs. Now, what do you wish for us to do with the footage you sent us?"

"What's the news coverage like?" I asked in turn.

He blinked, "You, you don't know?"

"I'm busy," I defended. "Between saving Rune and getting her to quit the E88, training powers, and. . . other things I haven't had time. So, coverage?"

"Most of it's about how the E88 attacked the party, along with the Travelers, and how the Mayor was almost killed," Taylor supplied after a moment of shared silence with my lawyer. "And is Rune joining, you know, _us_?"

I shook my head. If I was going to induct any outright villains into the PD, it'd be best to wait until after Leviathan.

"Good, that would cause problems. Of note is that the news has been careful not to say _who_ saved the Mayor," Quinn added, "Which brings us back to my question. I'd advise we release some of it, keeping certain sections out unless we need to."

I considered it. We had more than enough blackmail material to make people do their jobs and getting a reputation for telling the public the truth would help. "Leave the parts with the Lady Bug out of it," I instructed.

"What, why?" she demanded, offended.

"Of course," Quinn replied to me understanding why without me needing to say so, explaining to her, "Because while indisputably a case of self-defense, the PRT has been known to use such situations to try to pressure parahumans to join."

"And while the PRT probably knows about her weapon, villains might _not,_ and that surprise is not something I want to give up easily," I added.

We hashed out what footage would be released, Quinn already having a selection set up. Taylor contributed, arguing the pros and cons of the clips from a public relations perspective, while Quinn argued legal repercussions and I argued tactical information. It took me a bit to realize that Quinn was letting her take that front, only adding things when he thought she missed something, though she usually had an argument for why she didn't bring it up.

Quinn gave her the rundown of the security for the healing, which amounted to 'let the others handle it, you're overkill and making money so likely to be sued', and she moved to his office to read, a couple flies stealthily making their way into the office and setting themselves as ad-hoc security cameras. I didn't comment on them, feeling her connection through the bug sense strengthen as she saw through them, and neither did Quinn, though he might not have noticed.

* * *

Two hours later the last session ended, and I was ready for a break. Quite a few of those I worked on had attended the Gala and were quick to thank my group for the help. As advised by Quinn, my standard response was to tell them they were welcome but that I wouldn't comment on it as it was an active PRT investigation, which mollified most.

Standing and stretching, Taylor walked back in the office looking equally ready to leave. Quinn raised an eyebrow, "Did someone come get you?"

She froze, "Um. . ."

"She was keeping an eye on me," I covered.

Quinn looked between the two of us, a single eyebrow raised, "Legally, I didn't hear that. Is there anything else?"

"Actually, yeah, what would it take to get something copyrighted?" I asked, extruding a small titanium circle with the Arachne Assemblages symbol on one side, the name on the other.

"You wrote something?" he asked incredulously.

"No," I tossed him the coin, "I'm working with a Tinker group and want to know what I need to do to make it legal."

He caught it easily and examined it, turning it over in his hands. Reading the name, he glanced at Taylor before focusing on me. "First of all, you'd need to trademark the logo and register the business name, but it wouldn't matter."

"Why not?" Taylor pouted.

He held up a hand forestalling any comments, "I'm a _trial_ lawyer specializing in parahuman law. I needed to consult with a _business_ lawyer to ascertain what was required to make your 'consulting' legal. At _least_ a fifth of the gross profits of this endeavor are going to fees and taxes specifically put in place as protectionist measures to stop parahuman labor from displacing existing business, and because of what _exactly_ you're doing we're avoiding over half of them."

Quinn sighed, "I can't tell you exactly why because, again, _it's not my field_ , but the very thing you want is the reason the Elite exist. The Toybox, legally, is a nonentity for that reason as well: because most of the laws on the books target Tinkertech, or so my acquaintance advised me. It's why Parian, The Neutral Party, and Babelfish are still in business here, because they provide a _service_ instead of _product_."

"Doesn't Parian make clothes?" Taylor asked, motioning to herself.

"But the clothes aren't the product of powers, the design is," he countered. "Nothing in her costume could not be created by a normal person, and even then, she likely has to pay several different, hefty fees because she's a rogue."

I frowned, "What if they didn't sell things, officially. What if they just existed like another group?"

"As heroes? Are they willing to identify themselves to the PRT and register their designs? If they're Tinkers, they legally have to," he asked, knowing the answer.

I frowned, shaking my head, thinking that would defeat the entire point of the charade, "No, they're kinda skiddish."

"Tinkers usually are, when they're not megalomaniacal. I can trademark the name and logo," he offered, "But anymore than that could very likely lead to legal trouble of a nature that lies _far_ outside of my expertise."

"That's probably for the best," I sighed, "They're still in the testing phase of a lot of their designs."

"Again, I legally didn't hear that," he smiled ruefully. "What I can ask is if they are from whom The Lady, Bug procured her baton."

"Yeah, they've got someone trying to recreate Tinkertech metals and produced that when I asked for a high strength weapon for Glory Girl," I explained.

Quinn looked like he was going to say something but chose not to. "Well then, if you can I'll see you in two days. With that amount of scheduling I can bring in those who were not available to attend a 'consultation' on a few hours' notice. Have a nice day Vejovis; The Lady, Bug."

We left the office, ready to go and do _something_ , I wasn't sure what, but waiting for us in the lobby was an unpleasant surprise. Miss Militia was leaning against a wall in the lobby, distinctive weapon formed into a knife sheathed on her leg. She spotted us immediately.

Security was standing nearby, obviously nervous, looking between us and the leader of the Protectorate, not sure what to do. Taylor stiffened, dumping emotions as she got ready for a fight but my hand on her shoulder stopped her from doing anything hasty. 'Let's try to do this peacefully. Let me talk.' I wrote in the vent above us, where she was marshaling her forces.

'Shot you in the back!' she wrote in response.

'Shot _Boardwalk_ in the back.' I corrected, the topic of our discussion walking towards us.

"Miss Militia," I greeted politely, taking a step forward and holding out my hand, noting her power now holstered on her hip, not sure if that meant anything. "I hope you won't be doing anything foolish like your predecessor. Lady Bug and I were just leaving."

She took the hand without fear, giving it a shake. "I was hoping to speak with you, just for a few minutes. We've been trying to reach you, but your legal team has been less than helpful."

I regarded her levelly, "So of course you thought the best idea was to ambush me as I was leaving said legal team." _Should I leave now, and further snub the PRT, or should I try to keep them at least a little pacified? No,_ I decided, _the risk of them lashing out is too great. Set terms, and when she argues, we leave._ "Fine," I shrugged. "But I'm not going to enter any PRT building and threatening me with arrest will not go well for you. Forgive me if the PRT hasn't shown themselves worthy of trust lately. How _is_ Armsmaster by the way?"

"In holding," she replied without preamble.

I raised an eyebrow, "Officially?"

Her flag bandana hid most of her expression, but Miss Militia's eyes narrowed with annoyance, "Not yet." She faced Taylor, "While I cannot officially speak for the Protectorate, what Armsmaster did was not officially sanctioned, and would not have been something I would ever do."

Dumping her confusion and surprise into the Swarm, Lady Bug gave her a single nod in response. I could feel her hesitation over the connection before she wrote 'I think we should talk.'

I looked at her, considering this, before I turned back to the PRT cape, "Do you know of any good restaurants around?"

Say a lot about her, Hannah was quick on the uptake, nodding, "Down the street there's a café that has good coffee and private rooms."

"Then lead the way," I directed, writing in the vents 'gather a Swarm discreetly, keep a lookout for capes or the PRT'

Following the government cape out of the lobby, to the grateful looks of the security guards, we headed down two streets to an out of the way coffee shop. Taylor already had the place bugged, and there was no rush of people getting things inside ready as we approached, which argued against this being a trap, but I didn't relax.

The head of the Brockton Bay Protectorate team had a few quiet words with the Barista, asking for one of the rooms, and we were escorted to one, a small menu presented to each us. As the door closed, a light came on over it, reminding me of the office in which I'd met my father, who I really needed to visit again soon. "I've stopped here with the Wards when patrolling," she offered as explanation.

"Order, eat, then talk?" I suggested, getting a nod from her. The light above the door changed color a few seconds before the door opened and the waiter took our orders. Sitting in silence until our sandwiches and drinks arrived. Taylor was getting antsy with the waiting, and I did my best to send her a sense of readiness and patience which seemed to calm her down. The food was acceptable, and the coffee was indeed of high quality.

"Before we begin, allow me some additional protection from eavesdroppers," I said, taking out the fake Tinkertech. Miss Militia stiffened minutely but said nothing as I activated it and wrapped us in a Sound Bubble which only included our heads. "So," I said, taking a sip of the Irish coffee, "You wished to talk. But first I must ask, is this an official inquiry?"

She shook her head, "No, it's not official." _Sure,_ I thought, _Pull the other one, it's got bells on._ "Standard operating procedure is to talk to independent heroes while they're on patrol, patrol with them, and help relieve the boredom," the bandanna moved like she was smiling slightly, "but you rarely patrol."

I shrugged, while that could've been a dig, her voice had none of the tonality that would indicate it. "I've been busy, and patrolling is a poor investment of time for the outcome of a potential crime or two stopped when one has villains running amuck. That and I'm trying to get myself, and others, up to snuff."

"And you are now?" she asked, raising an eyebrow as Taylor, having pulled her emotions back into herself, snorted into her hot chocolate. "What?"

I rolled my eyes, "No, I'm not, but I have high standards. Events led me to getting involved sooner than I'd've liked," I only half lied. More time to prepare would've been great, but I'd been working on pretty strict deadlines the past few weeks, with the next one still looming. "When you have the power to help, how can one not and still live with oneself afterwards?"

At this statement Miss Militia studied me, taking a sip of her coffee from beneath her bandanna in a move that spoke of long practice. I looked back, tapping Power Sight to get a better line on her powers. There really wasn't much more to them than I first thought.

The weapons her power made reshaped themselves under the shard's control, helping the host to use them more effectively by changing its structure minutely to enhance strikes and aim, but that was pretty much it. Any increase in the power's effectiveness stemmed directly from the user's knowledge of weaponry, training, and adaptability, not radically different power use. That being said, there _were_ a couple loopholes I could see, now that I was paying attention _and_ having some experience with them from another's power.

"Why didn't you come to the Protectorate?" she finally asked, sounding honestly interested instead of censorious, "We could have helped you, and given how they normally have to encourage some of our members to train, that wouldn't be a problem. I understand you've had bad experiences, but did you have a reason _before_ you met Armsmaster? We aren't all the same."

"I don't trust the PRT," I shot back to this somewhat subtle query about my past.

"The Protectorate isn't the PRT," she replied without rancor.

I looked her in the eye, "No, but tell me that you don't report to Piggot. Besides, my teammate is a self-described villain, though I'd be surprised if he isn't more law-abiding than some members of the PRT," I added before she could answer me. "Why would I willingly put myself and those I care about under the control of someone who would let the city burn because the response to saving it might be 'worse' in some nebulous, ill-defined way?"

"We're trying our best," she asserted quietly.

I sighed, aggression and self-righteousness I could deal with this, but Miss Militia's resolute belief in the corrupt system didn't merit my vitriol, though she wouldn't budge no matter how much _logic_ I used. If true faith could be swayed with by reason, the world would be a very different place. "Okay, riddle me this: You tried to arrest us yesterday, two days ago," I amended. "Was that _your_ decision, or the PRT's?"

She gave me a look that said, ' _I can't tell you that'_ , which was an answer in of itself, though it was more an ' _I've been ordered not to say that'_ , given her behavior under Tagg. From what little I remembered of her character, Hannah was the type that, if leading, would be someone I'd gladly fight beside. However, she was, at her heart, a _coward._

With leadership came responsibility, with the knowledge that if things went badly, they were _your_ _fault_. It was far easier to follow, to say that _some_ one should do _some_ thing, then to try yourself, fail, or god forbid _succeed_ and be expected to do it again. She fled from leadership as if it were a death-sentence, but was a slave to it, to the point that if a superior leader told her to lead in a smaller position, she would despite _hating_ the concept. Every crack I'd ever heard assholes make about the submissive nature of women was front and center in the personality of this particular parahuman.

"And there you go," I said, opening my hands to her non-verbal answer. "How could I serve masters that act in such a manner? _Did_ you actually do anything while your city burned, or did you wait until word came from on high to help, while Panacea and I worked to make sure that those you abandoned didn't die for it."

Miss Milita's eyes burned as she glared at me. _No,_ I realized, _not me._ The look she wore was not the anger of one who wore the mantel of good while doing evil and having their sins revealed, but one of guilt and self-hatred, and I felt my own anger diminish in memory of similar feelings.

I sighed. Reading about what had happened, especially given that most of the details had been skipped over, was one thing. _Living_ through it, working hour after hour trying to put injured people back together had worn on me in a way I hadn't realized at the time, was only _starting_ to realize. My respect for Amelia rose.

"I don't want to be your enemy, Miss Milita. I've read about you, and done a bit of research besides. You aren't a _bad_ person, but you aren't exactly _good_ either." She didn't look happy with that, so I motioned in an all-encompassing gesture, "In a cops and robbers type of world, the type that _you_ grew up with after you got here, you _were_ good, but the times, they are a changin'."

"And I need to change with the times?" she asked, with the shut-off tone of someone who'd heard this kind of thing before and was unwilling to consider it again.

I shook my head, "No, I won't tell you what you should do, that's your responsibility. But Kaiser isn't Allfather, Lung wasn't Marquis, and the world's been getting _worse_ , not better. While I'd love to be able to be able to work with the government, its corruption and degradation is a contributing factor to the collapse." _Mind you, that's because they're keeping things bad for a reason, but you'd never believe me,_ I thought.

"Then what, you're a vigilante?" she held her hand up in a mocking fist, "Punish all who do evil, hero or villain?"

I cocked my head, "What do you define as evil? If you could point to a hero that did what I found Lung was doing, and still call them a hero, then I'd wonder if _you_ deserved the title. I don't care if Armsmaster's a dick, I care if he lies, steals, and _attacks people who only want to talk._ " From her flinch I could tell she'd seen the video. _Good._ "I'm only one man, and even with a team I need to prioritize. I'd rather neutralize the Slaughterhouse Nine than rough up Uber and Leet, but if the latter tried to kill me I'd be well within my _legal right_ as an _American citizen_ to return the favor."

"They retired," Taylor chimed in, causing us both to jump a little. "They've switched to just broadcasting Cape fights."

I looked back to Miss Militia, making a 'there you go' gesture, "And thus not my problem. If you want to arrest them for the crimes they've committed I won't stop you, but I have bigger issues to worry about."

"Like the Empire?" she asked leadingly.

I shrugged, "Honestly, I hope not. I said I wasn't up to snuff, and I meant it. Give me time to train and I'll be happy. I make more than enough money healing to keep my team afloat and. . ." I hesitated, trying to figure out how to phrase it.

"And what?" she asked intently.

"And I want in on the next Endbringer fight," I told her, as if I'd have a choice in the matter. " _That's_ what I'm training for."

She just _looked_ at me, and I could almost see her mentally putting me in the 'Naïve Young Hero' box. "You think you could defeat an Endbringer," she stated disbelievingly.

"Before I answer that, I'd like _you_ to answer some of _my_ questions," I stated. "I know there's some things you can't say, but as long as that's not your answer to _every_ question I'll understand."

"There are a lot of things I can't tell you," she warned.

"And there are a lot of thing's I can't tell _you_ ," I replied, "You've just had the sense to not ask most of those questions. To start with, what's going on with Assault?"

"What do you mean?" she asked, but it was clear she knew what I was talking about.

"Listen, I know he used to be Madcap," I started, Taylor stiffening beside me. _Hadn't I told her. . . no that was Vicky. I'm shit at keeping this stuff straight_ , I thought. "But even when he was busting up Birdcage transports he still _tried_ to be funny. What's his deal?"

Miss Militia, looking like she'd unexpectedly sucked on a lemon, took a moment and sighed herself. "Officially, I cannot comment on the state of mind of heroes under my command. Unofficially, you should know that you, Break, and Enter all remind him of people he used to know _if_ he was Madcap, which I'm _not_ confirming. Break and Enter more than you, Vejovis. He wouldn't say who, only that they were the types he wouldn't work with if he could avoid it. He might have stated that Break was the type who would easily kill to get his way, and you were the same, only more polite about it. Are you?"

"I could talk about how battle is a clash of wills so he's _technically_ correct, but no, he's wrong. If Skidmark busted in this room and tried to kick my ass, I'd probably break his arms, but I'd gladly turn him over to you, even if you weren't here watching me do it!" I added, smiling without humor. "If it was Hookwolf, who's killed dozens of people and whose _every_ attack is lethal, I'd leave a message as I was leaving so you could pick up the corpse. If I was as bad as Assault thought I was, Armsmaster would be dead and I wouldn't have saved Assault's _wife,_ " I pointed out heatedly.

She held up a hand, "You asked why, I'm telling you why."

I winced, "Sorry. Other question, _did_ you shoot Boardwalk in the back like he claimed?"

She didn't say anything.

"Okay, unofficially and in no way admitting to anything, _why_ did you attempt to stop him from leaving then?" I tried instead.

"Orders," she replied simply, as if that explained everything.

 _Right, this is the woman who was completely okay with Tagg, or at least carried out his orders without question. Seriously woman, the Nuremburg defense is not an **actual** defense, _I raged internally, keeping my face blank. "And those _orders_ were. . .?"

"I can't say," she informed me.

"Does he need to worry about being attacked the next time he sees one of you?" I queried instead, exasperated.

She frowned at me before shaking her head, "No those orders have been revoked. He's already met with Velocity."

"Oh," I replied, as if her response had taken the wind out of my sails. "Well okay then. Anything you want to ask Lady Bug?"

She considered the offer, surprised that I'd included her. "Um, what's going to happen to Armsmaster?"

"I can't say," Miss Militia, expression warming slightly. "But he'll likely be transferred somewhere else."

"That's it? The Catholic Priest treatment?" I asked, disgusted.

"Where?" Taylor asked, ignoring me.

"Anchorage, Gallup, maybe Freedom," she shrugged, "What he did was _not acceptable_ , and he abused his position to hide it. He's not going to be given that position _ever_ again."

Those names meant nothing to me, but they meant something to Taylor, who nodded, mouth set, " _Good_."

I had to agree with the second part of Hannah's statement at least. For a glory-hound like Armsdick, being denied what he thought of as his rightful place would be a suitable punishment, though it _also_ meant I'd have to be ready in case he snapped and came after Taylor, Break, or I in retaliation. When his malfeasance was discovered in Canon it was so bad they had to appease him from talking about it and damaging the PRT's rep, even if the move would have been suicidal for him. For a lesser offence he wouldn't get as much oversight and would find it easier to slip the collar of his superior's attention for the sake of vengeance.

I leaned back. I needed to show that, if they did the right thing, I would help. "On one hand, good job _doing your job_ , on the other, I can offer a matching olive branch. Miss Militia, what's your power _exactly?_ "

From the scrunching of her brow I could tell she was confused, "How is me telling you my power you helping the Protectorate?"

I rolled my eyes, "Will you humor me? I think you'll find it worth it." Having Seen her for the past ten minutes and comparing it with my own experimentation I had a high degree of confidence that I could apply a use I'd figured out with Brandish's power to hers as well. Well, with a bit of additional testing I had _three_ possible new uses, but this trick would be one that granted utility, not a direct combat advantage.

She called her pistol to her hand, forming it into a knife. "I have this, which I can turn into any weapon. I also don't need to sleep, but I'm not sure how that would be useful."

I waited a moment, but nothing else was forthcoming. "Really? I asked sarcastically, but I was smiling. "Please, a ten second search online could tell me _that_. You can do explosives as well, and you've already figured out how to give yourself infinite ammo by replacing an empty gun with a full one with no outward signs of having done so. Anything that separates off the main weapon fades in," _2.5-7.4 seconds, depending on its' mass, "_ a few seconds. More than long enough to shoot things, but not enough to leave bullets behind. The main portion stays together even when separated from you, but can be called back with a thought. No Tinkertech, likely because of some limitation that you either haven't publicized or you yourself don't know. Now, _here's_ the olive branch Miss Militia: Who says it's _just_ swords, guns, and bombs?"

"I do?" she replied, but not as strongly as Marissa first had. "It's _my_ power," she insisted.

I couldn't help but smirk, "And it came with an instruction manual? I wish mine had." I slipped my phone out of my pocket, ignoring the knife becoming a pistol, mostly because it wasn't pointed at me. Opening up a browser, it took me all of a few seconds to find that, _yes_ , they did make military grade dirt bikes. They were about two hundred and fifty pounds, but the ten-foot-long bomb she'd created surely weighed more in case there was a hidden weight limit.

"Try making this," I directed, holding the screen up for her and motioning towards the empty space in the room.

She looked at images of its form and function, all her power needed to manifest, and frowned. "Is there some kind of gun on it?"

"No, but if you hit someone with it at high speed you might kill them," I smiled, knowing that was enough.

She looked at me incredulously, then at Lady Bug, who was grinning in anticipation. Shaking her head, she held her hand out and concentrated. It took a moment, but the pistol destabilized, flying out and forming into a replica of the image on my screen in green and black, motor idling.

Miss Militia stared at the military grade dirt bike her power manifested, the glowing black and green vehicle quickly switching through half a dozen more motorcycles, starting to change into something larger when it shrunk and flew back to her waist as a holstered pistol. She looked back and me, eyes cold and wariness writ large across what expression I could see behind her flag bandanna. "Trump?"


	95. Leak 9-2

**Leak 9.2**

I couldn't quite hide my surprise, but I _could_ hide my fear. "Observant and inventive, not _everything_ is powers," I replied, smirking, not _actually_ disagreeing with her declaration of my status as a Trump as I stood up. "But we're both busy people," I hesitated, almost saying 'despite our reduced need for sleep'. Having lunch with her and talking powers I'd relaxed, which was a _mistake_ , and I'd let slip too damn much already. While she didn't have the spine god gave a potato, at least if she didn't have a big, strong authority figure loaning her theirs, she wasn't _stupid_ , and I'd mistakenly equated a lack of morals with a lack of _mind._

 _I'd forgotten the viper in my_ lap, I thought, and while she might _mean_ well, she couldn't be trusted to do more than carry out orders. As genial as she was, as well as we'd been getting on, she'd _still_ obeyed Tagg, and that meant she couldn't be trusted while she still worked for the government. From what I knew of her that wasn't a condition for flipping her to my side, that was an irreversible state which would always put her as mercurial ally at _best_.

"And I'm sure we've both got places to be," I finished as if I hadn't paused, grabbing my 'Tinkertech' as I dismissed the sound bubble and walked out the door before she could do more than stare.

Once we were in the air, wrapped in a Sound Bubble, and heading in the general direction of the railyard I said, more to myself than Taylor, "That was stupid."

"What?" my teammate asked, confused.

"I shouldn't have relaxed, and shouldn't have shown off," I explained, self-recrimination heavy in my tone, not bothering to control it. "I need to avoid _any_ kind of Trump ability around the PRT." I'd been honestly surprised by the weapon user's comment, which _should_ read as surprise at her assuming my ability was a power and not that she'd somehow made the connection.

I'd hoped that by registering with three powers already they'd assume I couldn't have any more, but now that Miss Militia had made the comment it was obvious how she got to it. _Everything_ in this world was freaking power related, _somehow_ , so of _course_ she thought my ability to suggest new powers _couldn't_ be her _just not thinking about it_. I was _obviously_ doing something _to_ her powers. When she found out about Gallant, her assumptions would be confirmed, and I'd get a _host_ of attention I didn't want. From there they'd assume some kind of power manipulation, and then it would only be a matter of time until they thought I was manipulating my _own_ powers, like that overpowered original CYOA, then it would all come unravelling, _everything_ I tried to build.

"Hey, it's okay," Taylor reassured me, likely reading my panic through her connection. "And can you wait to freak out when we're on the ground? Please?"

My head whipped over to look at her and I saw the concern in the way she held herself, mixed with fear. Taking us down into the railyard and landing, I started walking towards the base. "Sorry."

"It's okay," she repeated, having a jog a little to keep up with me. "Trumps are rare, that surprised me too."

"Rare like a hero like me showing up and making a fool out of the PRT?" I shot back acidly. "Sorry," I echoed, looking away. "Sorry, I'm being. . ." I took a deep breath, stopped, and turned towards her. A quick check showed we were alone and the Sound Bubble over us was still in effect. "Okay Lady Bug, you're from around here. With everything that happened, with everything that you saw today and _not_ knowing my actual power set, would you think I'm a Trump that effects the powers of others? Please, be honest."

Taylor started to answer but stopped to look down and really consider the question. "Can she do more?" she finally asked. "Do more than motorcycles?"

"Yes." I replied immediately. "Honestly the only requirement is that it _needs_ to be able to be used by a single person. Hell, she might be able to make a VTOL jet. Um, Vertical Take-Off and Landing," I elucidated at her blank look. "Her power is Personal Weapon Projection, she makes anything that is a weapon that can be used by a single person. That rules out most tanks, mortars, and other weapons that need a crew, but there's a _lot_ of wiggle room. Powers, _by their very nature_ , are open to experimentation."

From the set of her mouth I could tell she was falling into the same trap as Miss Militia had originally, that I'd fallen into at first before I played around with Brandish's power. "But how is a motorcycle a weapon?"

I took a few steps to grab a beer bottle someone had left in the side of the road, holding like I'd take a sip. "Is this a weapon?" I asked. After her hesitant "No?" I reversed the grip, holding it like a hollow glass club. "How about now? If you were to limit to things made specifically to be a weapon then most knives no longer apply, as they're tools first, weapons second. A brick can be a weapon, so once you see that her power covers more than just a sub-classification like 'guns' then it's really quite a bit more open then you might think."

"So, you could give someone advice, even if you never met them?" she asked.

"Definitely," I nodded, tossing the bottle to the side. "It's be a lot more trial and error than if I could See them, but there's no reason why I couldn't. Most people, yourself excluded, get an idea of what their powers are when they first Trigger and stick with that forever. They get better at _that_ use, and maybe some creative uses of that _individual_ power, but rarely move past it." I had ideas why that might be, but they where both unflattering, and would get us off topic.

"Then you should be fine," she reassured me. "It's not like you've _actually_ changed someone's. . . you did, didn't you," she accused, comfort evaporating from her tone as I grimaced. "Who? _How?_ "

"So as to how, I'm not really sure. I kinda passed out and start to get synesthesia if I think too hard about it," I admitted.

"Syn-what?" she demanded. " _When?_ "

"I start to taste colors and hear sound if I try to remember, or something. And it was yesterday," I checked my phone, "about twenty-six hours ago. And it wasn't _that_ big a deal, I just made it so he could use his emotion beams to cancel out Master powers, which he was already doing to himself constantly anyways so it wasn't exactly _new_."

"Emotion beams. . ." she echoed as realization dawned. "Wait, you messed with _Gallant's_ powers? Why?"

"Because as he is he might be seen as expendable, and now he won't. And it was at our base," I added, to cover the where since we seemed to be going through the entire set.

"Expendable?" she replied, shocked. "The Protectorate wouldn't do that to a Ward! . . .Would they?"

I waved around us, "In almost any other city? Never. In Brockton Bay? Heroes and villains are fighting almost every day, and sometimes things go badly. In bad situations, things go badly a _lot._ Give it time and The _Teeth_ will come back to Brockton Bay, and they won't play around like the Empire does. Used to," I amended, thinking of the Gala. There was something _wrong_ about that entire thing and I still didn't understand what it was.

Shaking my head, I continued, "It's why I'm training you and Glory Girl as much as I am, and I would do so for Panacea as well, if she'd let me. Some foes out there would stop if you gave up, some would when you're unconscious, some wouldn't stop until you're dead, and some out there wouldn't give you the chance, _like the Teeth_. We've been over this. It's why even as Boardwalk I keep my shields up, because _accidents happen_. So, would you think they'll think I'm a Trump. _That_ kind of Trump," I corrected.

"When Gallant tells them what happened, _yes."_ She informed me without hesitation.

"But without that?" I asked leadingly.

She tilted her head in confusion, "Why wouldn't he?"

"Because he got _his_ powers from a bottle, and he knows that _I_ know that. It's kind of a MAD scenario. And I'm training his girlfriend," I added as an afterthought.

"He what?" she asked, thinking hard. "Then he wouldn't. People's powers change sometimes, though I didn't know about that until I started looking things up, but _they'd_ already know that, so maybe he'd blame it on that? If that then. . . You might be okay?" she offered with a helpless shrug. "I'm sorry, I just don't know, but I'll help if I can."

I let out a deep sigh, "Good. Thanks Taylor, I'm glad you're here," I told her, giving her shoulder a squeeze before turning and resuming our walk back to the base. She didn't say anything to that, but it was a comfortable silence.

* * *

It was several hours later when we called it quits on sparring, having worked with Taylor to get her used to using her Orichalcum baton. I'd thought she would be more hesitant to use it, after seeing the damage she'd done to the E88, but she threw herself into the training with gusto and I wondered if that was her Shard at work, inuring her to violence so as not to deter Conflict. A part of me wanted to see if I could check. Just take off the shades and See her, unrestrained, but the rest of me realized how _stupid_ that was.

While we trained we discovered that a tap did nothing out of the ordinary, but a regular swing from the baton hit like a sledgehammer, draining my malleable shields. A blow where she moved her body with the strike to maximize the damage drained one of my crystalline shields and felt like getting hit by Glory Girl at full strength, which prompted a discussion on what that level of force did to someone. It was a talk that boiled down to "Brutes only if you don't want to kill them, and even then not the head, unless they'r top tier, like Hookwolf or a ramped up Lung."

With each of us taking a quick shower and _no_ unfortunate miscommunications this time, we were out in time for Herb to finish up dinner. Cleaning up I asked for Canary and Panacea to stick around, which meant that _no one_ left.

"What's this about?" the singer asked, looking between Amy and I, the healer obviously wondering the same thing.

"So," I started, clapping my hands together. "Canary-"

"Call me Paige, please," she interrupted.

"Okay," I started again, repeating the gesture. " _Paige_. As you are now, the only reason there isn't a search for you is people think that you're _dead._ While good for you, that means that if you go out as you are now, plumage and all, _that's not gonna last_. However, I can shift people's appearance with my healing, and make a good bit of money doing so professionally, so what do you want to look like?"

She looked confused by the question, despite me _vividly_ remembering asking her to consider that very thing earlier. "Um," she started, looking off to the side and muttering to herself. "Maybe a Cat theme? Or a Peacock? Dog-no, that's just asking to be called a. . . Maybe an eagle? Or I could. . . no. How about. . . but I don't really want that."

"Paige?" I asked, but she didn't seem to notice. "Paige?" I tried again, a little louder.

She glanced up at me frowning, "Aren't I part of your team?"

Blinking in surprise and wondering where _that_ came from, I responded honestly, "No, you're not. We're giving you _asylum_ , but if you were to join you'd be expected to take on the responsibilities that come with it."

"Does being part of the team mean fighting?" she inquired.

" _Yes_ ," I nodded, getting a concerned look from Panacea. "It means going into combat zones, among other things. Even if you don't plan on engaging your opponent directly you'd need to be able to defend yourself. I refuse to bring someone into combat who can't handle it."

While it allayed Amy's concern, that obviously wasn't the answer Paige wanted so she pressed, "But would I be safe?"

I couldn't help but look at her incredulously, "What part of _in combat_ did you miss? I mean, I'd make sure you where as safe as I could make you, but given we live in a world where the Slaughterhouse Nine and Endbringers exist, let alone the other, lesser, threats, what exactly is 'safe' to you?"

"But you could protect me from the PRT?" she clarified.

Thinking of all the threats out there, the PRT was somewhat low on the list, so it was easy to tell her, "Definitely."

Paige nodded, "Then I'll join."

 _I haven't invited you to,_ I thought, but I could work with this. She likely wouldn't see a battlefield until after Leviathan, but for a means of calming and directing civilians it was hard to ask for a better power. I'd need to work with her to hammer out a general Master code of ethics to keep things from getting bad and avoiding unintended consequences, but it was doable. "Okay, so, back to the original question: What do you want to look like? I do better with references, but I can work freehand, so to speak."

"You just said you could protect me from the PRT!" she stated accusingly.

With the feeling of a record scratching, I tried to figure out what she was talking about. She obviously meant something completely different than what she was saying, and I tried to go over what she said to understand what she _thought_ she was conveying but _wasn't._ "Paige, for better or worse a _lot_ of people who know about your power have seen your face. I can protect you from the PRT in general, but as you are now it wouldn't be 'protecting you from the PRT' it would be 'declaring open war on the PRT.' If you want to go out in public, you can't do so _with that face_."

"Then I won't go out," she stated, crossing her arms like a petulant child who thought they had an unassailable argument.

Ignoring the fact that the chances of her actually _keeping_ to that declaration, especially given her previous career, were slim to none, short of a full helmet there was no way she was hiding her unnaturally colored hair, and the _feathers in said hair_. If she couldn't hide her identity, there was no way she could go out safely. If she couldn't go out, she couldn't help the team, thus _negating the entire point of her joining the team._

I'd stated mere _seconds_ ago that joining meant combat, which meant going out, and she'd even asked about it so it wasn't like she was just ignoring me until I got to the point that she wanted. _That_ meant that her statement of wanting to join, _knowing that joining **required** combat and leaving the base_, was a _bold-faced_ **_lie_**.

"Yeah, come and get me when you want to leave so we can make sure you won't get taken by the PRT, _again,_ " I announced getting up, having no time for adults that acted like _children._ _No,_ I thought, _that's not being fair. Vista and Aisha probably wouldn't pull this shit._ "Until then, I'm _done_ with this."

"Can't, can't you just change my hair?" she asked, panic that she couldn't just doubletalk her way into getting what she wanted clear in her tone.

"Panacea," I asked, ignoring her. "Is there anything I should know about her hair?"

"Um, do I have permission to heal you?" she said, turning towards Paige.

"Heal?" the singer asked.

"Check on your health," Amy corrected. When Paige nodded Amy grabbed her hand and nodded to herself, "It's odd. It's not like normal hair," she observed.

I nodded, walking over and taking Paige's other hand. "Carotenoids instead of melanin, right?" At Panacea's nod, I thought about the diagrams I'd looked at in preparation of coloring her hair _in addition_ to changing her face. Shards passed on after the host died so a similar physical expression wouldn't get more than a passing interest. With her face the same though, it was only a matter of time until she got caught, but I was finding it harder to care the more I talked to her.

Mentally going over the structures I'd assumed were both in the feathers and the papilla on her skull I changed the parts that created the yellow coloration to be like those of a robin, though the scale was off. Looking at Panacea with Power Sight I could see her making minor corrections to the process, syncing everything up with her bodily processes to replicate without a problem. From there I took a stab at doing the same with more feathers, switching out melanin production for red carotenoid production, Amelia helping smooth over the process and streamlining it.

Working on it I realized that her power worked on dead tissue as well, or else her power wouldn't work on hair, insect exoskeletons, or skin at all because of the layer of dead skin cells on top. It was only a biological limit, though it needed to be connected to living tissue in some way. Ignoring the image of Panacea physically walking through a wooden door like it was water, I worked on getting Paige's shoulder-length hair colored evenly.

Stepping back from her I had to admit it did help disguise her somewhat, the bright red coloration casting her features in a different light. It was _still_ quite obviously Canary if you looked past that though. "So, if you go out wear shades or something. You don't want to fight, and you won't take the measures needed so while you're free to stay here? You're not on the team. Don't tell anyone we're here or lead them here, as revealing our base would be a poor way to repay us for the risk we're taking for saving and sheltering you. Have a good night _Robin_ , I'm going to go work on something _productive_."

* * *

Herb and Taylor approached me a few minutes later in my workshop, tanking shots from a silenced pistol while I worked at trying to alter its trajectory in the air to hit exactly where I wanted without moving. "Dude, you were kinda harsh," he opened, and I was in no mood to hear him defend someone who didn't deserve it, _especially_ after the shit _he_ pulled.

"She said she wanted to join our group," I reminded him," and as soon as it meant she'd have to actually _do_ something she reneged. After we _saved_ her and _knowing_ the kind of trouble we'd be in if she got caught," I pointed out, willing to argue with someone who was only _half_ -idiot. Possibly three-quarters.

He grimaced, "She doesn't."

At first I wanted to point out that _yes she did, **you were there and it was five minutes ago**_ , but the tense mismatch gave me pause as I had to figure out _what_ he was referring to, because god forbid he state thing _clearly_. When it clicked, it didn't make me any happier. "How can she _not know_? She's a wanted fugitive, who we are _harboring_ , and she's refusing to go into the closest thing to witness protection we have, except it isn't a criminal she's hiding from, _it's the government!_ "

"Dude, calm down, I know," he rebuked gently, "but she doesn't. We talked to her, and she gets it, so she'll be careful."

Mentally reviewing what he said, as I _always_ had to now, I noted that he didn't say what 'it' was. "What does she get, Herb?"

"She gets that she's gotta be careful," he reassured. "And that making that offer meant something she didn't realize."

I waited for more, but he didn't say anything. Taylor added, "She really didn't know why she pissed you off, and it's her _face_ you were asking her to change."

" _And?_ " I asked, not seeing her point.

By his expression, Herb understood what Taylor was saying, but not what _I_ was. "Dude, you don't just change your face."

"Boojack and Curtis," I rattled off. "And if I was being _hunted by the government_ you bet I'd try to change my face."

"Boojack and who?" he asked.

"Curtis, you're second Replicant. _The one I had to kill._ Ringing any bells?" I asked sarcastically.

He just stared, nonplussed. "What?"

I threw my hands up, messing up my redirection, the bullet hitting the solidified air behind me. "What did you think was happening with your replicants? It's been _weeks_ since Boojack showed up!"

"I figured it was just acting weird," he dismissed, as if _powers worked that way._ "But," he said, as if trying to wrap his head around it. "He tried to _kill_ you?"

"Yeah, it was the night of the Bakuda Bombings. If Boojack is you but a stoner, Curtis is you but a psychopathic pimp! Got pissed off when I said. . . honestly I can't remember. He threatened someone I think, it was a long night. He turned into a pure black tiger and tried to kill me, so I gutted him and had him turned into a rug. How did you miss the rug?"

"Dude, what rug?" he asked helplessly.

"The one I put in the. . . shit, I forgot to get it and didn't have a forwarding address. Fuck it, I'll pick it up tomorrow. Right, so when he showed up the _second_ time a week later we had a. . . _talk_ and he left for Vegas to hunt villains. Third time he was embarrassed 'cause the 'heroes' killed him, I had to have another talk where he promised he'd stay away from, Taylor, Amy, and Vicky on pain of repeated death and went to try again."

"Hunt villains?" Taylor asked, her butterfly mask not hiding her discomfort with the concept.

"He was going to hunt _someone_ , so I pointed him at _actually_ evil people," I shrugged. "If I killed him again he'd just turn up again and I'm hoping that some of Herb's replicants will actually be _helpful_ , but that means Curtis has to survive the _week_." I told my partner, "He turns into big cats, so he shifted to a cheetah and bolted out of the city before I did something he'd regret. Herb?"

My teammate was deep in thought. "Anything else about him?" he queried when he realized both of us were staring at him.

"He kinda slinked everywhere, was smooth to the point of being almost _comically_ oily, and swore a lot. No, not swore," I corrected, "More was. . ."

"Slimy? Called women bitches and hoes, guys dicks and assholes?" he supplied. "Said things you don't wanna repeat in front of Taylor?"

I couldn't help but raise an eyebrow, "Yeah. _Exactly_ that."

He grimaced, "So, if BJ was me if I gave up and went 'stoner' like one of my brothers, it sounds like Curtis- Curtis right?" I nodded. "Sounds like Curtis is me if I took after my dad, and maybe a few of my other brothers."

"How many brothers do you have?" I asked incredulously.

"Half-brothers, different moms, same dad. Probably," he shrugged.

That took us both a second, Taylor looking to me, eyes wide at the implications, and I just shook my head. "Well then thank fucking Christ you're not that way."

"You really turned him into a rug?" he asked, the corner of his mouth twitching.

"Die as an animal, you stay that way," was my reply.

He nodded, relieved, "That would do it. Thanks, and sorry." I looked at him, confused. "Thanks 'cause if you hadn't taken care of him, he'd've done something _bad,"_ he explained. _"_ Sorry that ya had to deal with that."

"Right, they're not _actually_ you," I dismissed. "But back on topic, changing faces. Yes, I'd change my face if I needed to, _what's the big deal?_ "

Herb gathered his thoughts while Taylor tried to figure out how to answer and failed completely. "Dude," he said, "To look in the mirror and see someone else, that's not something that'd be easy."

I wanted to argue that, _yes, it would be. All you'd have to do is look in a mirror_ , but that wasn't going to get me anywhere, so I fell back onto the Socratic method. "Why?" I asked without reproach or anger. "This sounds like one of those 'everyone knows it' things that people get upset when they have to justify it because that means you're an _other_ , so please explain the parts that seem obvious."

As was his way, now that I'd figured out what to ask he found it easier to reply, "Your face _is you._ To look and see someone else is just _wrong,_ " he stated with a shiver of unease.

And then I had it, or at least a corner of this puzzle. "And I assume if I ask _why_ your face is you, you'd give me an answer of 'it just is' or something because that's such a stupidly basic thing to know?" He looked chagrined but nodded. Taylor just looked confused and a little uncomfortable.

"Okay, basic philosophical difference here. Luckily, we've got something closer to a normal person than either of us, so let's ask her," I announced.

"Hey!" she objected reflexively, before processing what I'd just said. "Ask me what?"

"What makes you, you?" I asked, "Your body, your mind, or something else entirely. If you say something else, like your soul, I'm gonna need you to define it."

"Um, I don't know? My mind I guess," she hazarded.

"Told you she was like you," Herb observed, smirking.

I ignored him, "And if you weren't in the body you currently are, if you looked different or were even a Case 53 would you still be _you_?"

"I guess," she replied, revising it to, "Yes?" when I didn't reply to her first non-answer.

"But you'd still feel as if you'd lost something?" I pressed. "If you were in a different body, even a different human body, even a _better_ human body?"

She nodded, and Herb just looked at me with an expression that simultaneously said 'duh' and 'I think I know where you're going with this, but I don't agree'.

"I wouldn't" I shrugged. "And there you go. It'd take a bit to get used to, and the circumstances around the change would color how I felt about it, but it's who I am here," I tapped my forehead, "That matters to me. Herb, I take it you've got a more gestalt thing going on, Mind, Body, & Soul, even if you can't define the last one?"

"Got it in one," he smirked.

I sighed, taking a seat on air, the other pieces clicking in place of a puzzle I didn't realize I needed to solve, "Which means that everyone _else_ is probably in the middle, but closer to you than me. _Shit_. That means asking someone to change their face would be asking them to change an innate part of themselves. A part they always thought immutable."

"And she's a singer," he added. I thought I knew where he was going but I motioned for him to continue anyways. He did so, with the air of someone stating the obvious, "She's been out, had hundreds of people looking at her as she performs, her face on her album, so her face is _really_ her. Only worse thing would be to change her voice."

I'd actually considered that; however, I wasn't sure how her power would interact with the changes, so I'd discarded that idea. "But if it's such an issue then why didn't BJ and Curtis. . ." I trailed off, making connections. "Because their faces weren't their own to begin with, they were _yours_ , and now that they've been changed, and considering their new one sticks with them on respawn, they can make it _theirs._ Okay, fine, you might have a point, but she _still_ shouldn't have asked to join then reneged less than a minute later," I stated, not willing to budge on that on.

"She shouldn't've," he agreed, moving to sit down as well and resting on the air cushion I hastily created, Taylor following suite.

"You really wouldn't care?" she asked, grappling with the issue. I winced, a twisting feeling deep in my gut. I'd seen this before, usually right before I thought someone was a friend abandoned me and refused to speak to me ever again. I'd thought she would understand, that she was like me, but that didn't seem to be the case. I'd made a mistake and stepped on a societal landmine I didn't know existed, my own honesty about it meaning she couldn't just pretend it never happened and let the worry fester in the back of her mind instead.

Just like so many others, I'd shown that at least one of her basic assumptions about me was _wrong_ , so now they were _all_ in question. That meant that she'd need to recheck and consider them _all_ and I'd only met one other person who was willing to put in that much effort, to take me as I was, and he was sitting next to her. Maybe that's why I put up with his bullshit, at least in part. Everyone else had left me because I wasn't _like_ them and that read as _danger_ to someone who's instincts overruled their minds. I was different, I was dangerous, I was the _other_. While we might have moved on as a species, interpersonal relationships always seemed to be so distressing _tribal_ , and in tribal times the other was to be feared, attacked, and _exiled._

Ultimately, I'd have to trust that she was one of the rare few that could see past that, which was one of _dozens_ of reasons I'd made sure to help her. "It's okay to care about that yourself. I'm odd, I know. Most of what I care about with appearance is due to how it reflects upon your character, your mind," I reassured her. "For instance, someone who colors their hair something unnatural obviously is likely willing to step outside of normal trends and spend the time and effort to do so. On the other hand, you know those people who've colored their hair unnaturally but haven't in a while to the point that their roots are obviously showing?"

She nodded, "Like Susan. From school," Taylor quickly clarified, her attention on a safer topic.

I shrugged, going alone with it, " _That_ says they're not what I stated previously, but instead that they're likely impulsive and unwilling to either stick with their decision or correct it. It says they're lazy, don't think things through, and if the hair's _particularly_ loud, an attention whore, which is _not_ attractive to me."

"What about me?" she asked, causing Herb to laugh.

I looked at him dryly, "Well, what does her appearance say?"

He grinned at me, shaking his head to regard her. "You're skinny, but fit skinny, not crack skinny. Also, you're young, so that'll change later. You know your hair is good, so you make sure to take care of it, even with what the bitches did, and now being a hero, you make it look good. You're not used to wearing the helmet, so you need to make sure you're taking care of your skin," he motioned to the side of his head.

She copied the motion and I realized she was getting a pimple, probably from sweat and irritation from her old helmet. She looked so embarrassed I offered a hand to her, which she gladly accepted. A touch of Biokinesis returned her skin to normal.

Herb just shook his head, "Dude, don't let girls know you can do that."

I shot him a smirk, "Not unless they're willing to pay hundreds." At his look I had to ask "Seriously?"

"Guaranteed perfect complexion before the red carpet? Yeah man, they might," he replied, turning back to Taylor. "You look good, but young. With what your old threads, the sweater and baggy pants, I'd say you were hiding from something, but you aren't, least not here."

Again, I hadn't really noticed but she was wearing well-fitting jeans and a monochrome green t-shirt. She looked okay, and when she saw me looking she blushed. Herb smirked, and I just rolled my eyes, glad that I'd addressed _that_ issue before it got worse, and glad that we'd moved on from the previous topic. "Well I'm glad you're more comfortable around us," I offered.

"Yeah. 'Us'," he agreed, grinning.

Shaking my head, I got up, dismissing the seats as the other two followed. Walking back to the kitchen, which was the common area of the base, I saw the place was deserted, everyone likely having gone to bed. "So," I told the pair behind me, "There's something I want to show you. Herb, you know how I asked you to read the base manual?"

"Yeah, that didn't happen," he admitted unrepentantly as Taylor asked excitedly, "There's a _manual_?"

"It's on your phone," I told her, turning to him, "So, _I_ did-"

"Which is why I didn't," he shrugged.

I gave him an exasperated glare, "Yeah, not a good reason."

"Eh, it's mine though. Wouldn't expect it to be good."

I wasn't sure if that was some excuse or him fishing for compliments, so I moved on. "Anyways, I read it and found something _very_ interesting," I informed the pair, leading them to the location of the elevator.

"A hallway?" he asked, looking at me as I took out my phone while she looked around.

"Not quite," I replied, typing in the code to remotely open the door.

Taylor and Herb looked at the doorway in shocked silence, the sterile, high-tech elevator at direct odds with the cream-colored walls. Putting my hand and uncovered eye to the scanner both were read, the seamless white doors sliding open. Stepping inside I turned and waved, beckoning them in. "So, want to see how deep this rabbit hole goes?"


	96. Leak 9-3

**Leak 9.3**

Herb walked into the high-tech, Cauldron-style elevator hidden in the center of our secret base. Taylor, the more cautious of the two, hesitated, "Wait, you didn't know this was here?"

Herb snorted, "No clue. Numberman's a dick."

"The villain accountant?" she asked, "What. . . Wait, he works for Cau- the cape-inati? I heard he was neutral."

"No-one's neutral," he told her, shaking his head.

"But sometimes people don't care about things that they consider beneath their notice," I added. "Cauldron's all about the _big_ goals, so for local problems he's neutral, mostly, unless he thinks you're a threat to the world itself. Either way, Herb rubbed him the wrong way, so he didn't mention this."

"Wait, this is _their_ base?" she questioned. "Aren't you trying to, you know, stop them?"

"Eh," Herb shrugged. "Kinda?"

"He works for them and we don't want to stop them, just make them stop being stupid. Which will probably mean going against them, but by then we'll have this place secured," I told her. Once I gave my Overwatch vial to someone they'd be able to go over the base and defuse any 'surprises' left behind. "Now come on, we're burning moonlight and _you_ need to sleep, eventually."

She joined us and the door slid shut, one of the featureless white walls lighting up with small display, the only options to open the door that had just closed or go down. I selected the latter and the walls appeared to move, the ceiling growing as I felt us descend relative to the bugs outside. It took a moment for me to understand that the actual walls of the elevator clear, the shaft itself being painted white instead.

As we descended farther and farther without end my nervousness about this entire thing only increased, as did Taylor's. Forming a thin shell of air around us in case something came at us I prepped to grab my partners and pull them into Shadowform if things went badly once we passed the hundred-foot mark with nothing else happening. _Did I miss something? Is this a trap?_ I worried. The floor was opaque white, matching the walls and flush with them, preventing me from seeing where we were going.

When the elevator finally emerged from the shaft, and descending further into an _enormous_ chamber, I almost lost hold of my defenses. Through the complete darkness I could see an entire complex stretching out around us, built into the walls of the several hundred-foot deep cavern to create a lair that would make Dr. Evil blush. "What?" Taylor asked, looking at our faces fearfully and glancing into the blackness that cloaked the structures around us.

I was confused before I remembered my Power Sight gave me darkvision, and while Herb could borrow that she had no such ability. "I'll show you, look outside," I warned before calling Light to my hand, gathering it into a shining beacon but not letting go of the volatile substance. I lit up the base, the entire thing done in steel, glass, and smooth stone.

"Is that fucking sub?" Herb laughed, pointing at a raised pool we were going to pass by, in which sat the top half of a thirty-foot-long submersible. From the glass top it wasn't military, but _still_. "How the fuck did we get this for half a mil'?"

I had to agree with him. Hell, the sub _alone_ should have cost more than that! I was about to agree when I heard Taylor gasp in realization. "What?" I asked instead.

"This place was made by powers," she stated, pointing to the darkened cafeteria we were passing, the shadows cast by my light making it look sinister. "There's no seams in the floor."

Herb and I both turned to look, and she was _absolutely correct_ , the entire thing appearing to be one continuous piece of white marble, far different than the dark rock of the rest of the cavern. I knew _just_ enough about construction to know that that _shouldn't be physically possible_ , not without a _lot_ of work and certainly not in a _cave_. "Well, that would explain the cost," I commented looking around. "This place is Exhibit A in how power use can mess with economies. This would take _millions_ to build, probably more, and there'd be no way to hide it. Furthermore it complet- _Is that a fucking tank?"_

Sure enough, on a different platform was an honest-to-god tank, ready to go with a closed door set into the wall behind it for it. "Dude, what the hell?" I asked, previous point forgotten. I just stared as the elevator descended past it to come to a stop on another platform which lit up, a display appearing over the door asking for my ID code. I dismissed the air shield to tap in the code, assuming that if this was a trap it would've gone off by now. The doors slid open and a walkway lighting up leading to a fortified metal door set into the cavern wall, damp, stale smelling air filling the elevator.

The door opened to my code and we followed the trail of lights through the dark complex, our footsteps echoing around us, the only sounds in this place. I got the distinct sense that I was walking through a tomb, and didn't begrudge Taylor when she grabbed my hand, holding onto it for comfort. When Herb did the same thing, I looked at him, eyebrow raised.

"Dude, this place looks like it could be a horror movie, _and I'm black!_ " he defended, not letting go. "'sides, it's the _good_ who are supposed to die young!"

"Mid-thirties isn't young," I told him, extracting my hand from his grasp.

He shook his head and he reached for me again, bouncing off s bit of hardened air, "It ain't middle aged, that shits in your _forties_ , so yeah it is, and I don't wanna die!"

"Not gonna say you're too pretty to die?" I asked incredulously.

"Well, duh, but you already knew that," he dismissed, a bit of a smile creeping onto his face.

Tension broken, he stopped trying to grab my hand and I led both of them down a confusing series of corridors and doors, each requiring my code as I followed the signs to 'main control'. We eventually found ourselves in a large room full of workstations, each of which was set into the floor, so the users had to step down into them. The lights led up and to the right, to an office set up above the rest, overlooking them.

Exchanging looks with my compatriots I took the seat, inputting the code into the prompt. When asked for a base designation I looked at Herb, "It's your base, can I name it?"

"Yeah man, mi casa es su casa," he replied immediately.

"Okay, Eclipse it is then," I stated, typing it in. As soon as I hit enter the entire space lit up, the workstations flickering to life as the entire far wall of the room revealed itself to be not dark stone, but a screen. More than that, I could hear things starting up all across the base starting to move, the deep thrum of something starting far below us at the edge of perception the most concerning.

"Base Designation 'Eclipse' initiating startup", a voice stated, seeming to come from everywhere at once.

"Does this thing have an AI?" Herb asked, looking around nervously, "'cause Dragon's cool and all but she's, like, the exception that proves the rule and shit."

"What?" Taylor asked, shocked, "Dragon's an-"

"Not that high level. More like a Virtual Intelligence," I interrupted, not wanting to have this discussion right now, fingers dancing across the keyboard in patterns unfamiliar to me, but guided by something else as I tried to find out _what the hell was going on_. "It was in the manual you _never read_. Limited learning algorithms, pre-programmed response templates, no creativity so no need to worry about rampancy, and. . . hmmm."

"Hmm what?" he asked, looking at the screen, "I don't read nerd, what's goin' on?"

"Ventilation system is damaged, but still well within acceptable parameters," I commented, flipping through readouts as my gifted knowledge of mechanics and hacking working in harmony to let me understand what everything meant. "Power systems will need some maintenance to be anything close to full functionality, but even if we moved everyone topside down here, their families, and _their_ families we'd still be more than fine. Oh, there's the Security Clearance option," I commented, finding myself already raised to four and raising Herb and Taylor to three so they could come down, sending them both a file with instructions on how to access the elevator.

"Secondary entrances?" I noted, pulling up the base map and sending it to them as well. " _Nice_. Two outside of the city, one underwater into the bay itself, one near your house, Taylor, and one in an alley downtown, though that one's damaged. Damn, maintenance _really_ needs to be done," I commented as the startup process continued throughout the base, error messages popping up one after another. "This base's been mothballed for the better part of a decade."

"But if that's true, why's the tech so good?" Taylor asked, motioning towards the thirty by fifty foot monitor I'd synced with my own, displaying what I was doing so Herb would stop leaning over my shoulder.

I shrugged, "I don't know, Tinkertech?"

"But that needs someone to take care of it," she rebutted.

Herb shook his head, "Really man, you didn't notice?"

"Notice what?" I asked, pausing to follow his pointed finger to the power button on my monitor. Looking at it, instead of the almost circle with the vertical bar through the top there was a long vertical line with a gap in the center, a circle at the end of each line closest to each other, bracketing the gap. Coming off the bottom circle was a smaller line coming off it at a 45 degree angle of the missing line.

Hesitantly pressing it the monitor turned off, the computer still running. Pressing it again caused the monitor to spring back to life. "It's a power button, but how?"

"It's the switch symbol," Taylor commented, both of us turning to look at her. "We drew circuits out in class, that's the symbol for a switch. Didn't you know that?"

"My knowledge is kinda spotty," I told her, "Thanks." She smiled, and I looked more carefully over the keyboard. It had the same QWERTY setup, thank god, but the Tab and Enter keys had symbols that seemed off as well. Pulling the keyboard out a bit and flipping it over, the screws holding it in place were also odd, like if someone had taken a Philips head screw and twisted the socket into a spiral.

Putting it back I turned to Herb, still not understanding, "Okay, I'm missing something here. How did Cauldron get advanced, non-Tinkertech technology?"

"Advanced for _here_ ," he said, "but with their doorman they could nab some tech from somewhere a bit better. Not good enough to help them get what they want, but good enough to run rings around what they were usin' before."

"But using things from another dimension is illegal!" Taylor objected, blushing in embarrassment as she realized what she just said. "Nevermind, that makes sense."

"I'm gonna go poke around, you kids have fun," he said with a wink before walking out into the now lit corridor.

Bringing up a schematic of the command area, I tracked down what I was looking for. "Taylor, if you head out, take a left, right, the third left, then. . . you know what, follow me," I said, shutting down the console. "There's an IT office where we can grab two laptops and a lounge where we can look over this stuff somewhere that doesn't make me feel _quite_ so much like a supervillain."

* * *

Several hours later Taylor was fading, trying to take in as much as she could but between the time, the stress of dealing with Miss Militia, and the several hours of sparring we'd done she was falling asleep, even with coffee. As we'd not seen hide nor hair of Herb, I gave him a call.

"Hey man," he replied immediately. "I'm kinda lost. But this place is awesome! It's got skee-ball!"

I sighed, "Where are you now?"

"Dude, if I knew that I wouldn't be lost!" he replied scornfully.

I sighed, again, "What is _near you_." _Dumbass_ , I didn't add.

There was a pause, "Uhhhhhh. . . Labs?"

"The Tinker Labs?" I asked.

"We've got Tinker Labs? Baller! It's E-2," he added.

"Gimme a sec," I told him, glancing over to see Taylor had fallen asleep again. "You're on level eight, next to energy lab two. You need to come back to level five, follow the lights and type C-3 into the elevator."

"I've gone _way_ more than three floors down," he complained, but I could hear him walking.

"Levels aren't floors. This place is _big_ Herb. Like you could, I don't know, be an actually James Bond level supervillain big," I explained, still taking in what we had found.

I could hear the smile in his voice, "Or run a global hero organization, like the Watchtower?" At my assent he told me, "Then it's _just_ what we need."

I tried to rouse Taylor when he arrived, but she was out cold. Ignoring my teammate's grin I picked her up and carried her with us to the elevator.

"I was thinkin'," he started, which was _rarely_ a good sign. "We got these Vials, and we should probably use them before things get bad. Give 'em time to get used to their powers."

I nodded, seeing the logic in it, which immediately worried me. "Okay, and?"

Looking serious, he stated, "Theo gets Cable."

I tried to remember which one that was, finally asking, "And that was. . .?"

"Spidey sense, Super-procrastination, and tinker guns," he rattled off.

I paused mid step, looking at him skeptically, "Super-procrastination?"

He nodded, "Yeah, put off bad things, starts with a K, Kamino or somethin' like that."

"Right," I nodded, trying to dredge up the name as I started moving again. All I got was that it had to do with the Byzantine empire, for some reason. "You decide when something affects you or when what you did affects someone else? Komnemenos?"

He nodded, "Yeah, Super-procrastination. What'd ya think?"

I considered it, "Well, he'll never get his previous powerset if you do so."

"Yeah, but for that to happen he had to be abandoned by his family, and I don't wanna do that to the kid. Besides, with. . ." he paused, glancing at Taylor asleep in my arms. "The _challenge_ he'll get later, he needs something better," he reasoned, and I couldn't find fault with that.

"Assuming we don't kill his challenger, but yeah, point. Clear it with Kayden first, okay?" I warned.

He snorted, "Like I wasn't going to check with my future wife."

"Continuing in that vein," I said, ignoring his comment, "I was thinking about Quinn Calle."

"He doesn't seem your type," Herb commented, giving Taylor a significant glance.

"What? No! He's married and I'm _straight_ ," I replied disgustedly. "No, I meant giving him the Overwatch vial. Tech powers, along with repair and radar Tinker. It's a full non-combatant suite."

Herb shrugged, "Seems like a good idea. Never met him, but he seemed a good enough dude."

Stepping into the elevator on its platform I noted the defenses I'd missed before. The elevator shaft wasn't glass, but some kind of crystal alloy, and the elevator could be moved a _lot_ faster if need be, both to mess with intruders breaking in and as an escape route. Along with the electrical stun systems and the gas hidden in the floor made this point of entry a great deal more secure than it had first appeared.

It lifted us up, the now lit base looking even _more_ impressive, if that was possible. "This is gonna take a good bit of work to get up and running," I commented.

Herb shrugged, "I got time, and it's half mine, so I might as well put some work into it."

"Half?" I objected, "dude it's-"

"Half mine, half yours," he said, his tone brooking no argument. "Your healing is paying for half of it, and _you're_ the one who found this. You had to read the whole damn thing to find this, right?"

"Um, yes? I mean, the location of the elevator was in the back of the manual, which required the upgraded security codes in sectio-"

He waved me off, "I never would o' found it."

Frowning, I wanted to argue but the elevator, moving faster than it had descended now that it was out of low energy mode, reached its destination. "Fine, whatever," I said, not wanting to give him the win and moving to drop Taylor off on her bed, Herb heading to his own room and smirking.

A few hours of meditation later and I was feeling antsy. Dawn was still a good bit away, and I'd grabbed an earpiece from the base below. The VI, dubbed Zilla because I wasn't feeling terribly creative, was giving me a rundown of the resources Eclipse housed, as well as the _large_ number of repairs needed. For better or worse I couldn't tell the computer my powers and have it provide solutions to the repair problem that utilized them, as that was outside its programmed responses. Cracked pieces of architecture _should_ be able to be fixed by filling it with metal extruded from the pieces themselves, but a lot of the tasks the system generated sounded like the grunt work of 'replace filter in device A of room B on floor C with filter D found in room E on floor F and put the old filter into room G on floor H, making a note in log I'.

Pursuant to that I was flitting rooftop to rooftop as Boardwalk, only using Shadowform and the occasional Speed Zone. While it was _technically_ cheating by using a fourth power, if I left a little bit of Grue's Darkness in place after I was propelled by a launch pad. It covered the flash of light dismissing the Speed Zone created, which I then dismissed in turn. If Grue was around he _might_ be able to feel it, but the amount of Darkness I used was miniscule, only enough to cover a single square foot. Unless I knew it was there I wouldn't have been able to pinpoint it, and I hoped the same was true for the originator.

Moving to the location of the entrance that had been rendered non-functional I found that the alleyway it was supposed to be hidden in was no longer there, the buildings on either side partially destroyed with the wreckage only cleared out of the road itself. Standing there and watching it I quietly commanded, "Zilla, Pause." The voice in my ear abated and I stared at the pile of debris, wondering what to do.

Taking a step off the roof I slowly fell to the street shrouded in shadows, landed lightly, and strode over and _into_ the wreckage, sinking into the alley itself with a hand outstretched. It took a few minutes, but I felt the hairs on my arm rise in response to an electrical field. As deep in the rubble as I was, it was well and truly buried.

Carefully walking the edge of it I found the protected space to be a rectangle, same size as the elevator I'd used a few hours ago, extending far underground. Lifting up to ground level I strode out, slapped a Speed Zone on my arm, and de-shadowed enough to catch it on the side of the building I'd dropped down from, carrying myself back up.

Clearing the rubble would be _incredibly_ conspicuous, negating the entire point of a _secret entrance_. I gave up on doing anything with that for the foreseeable future, though the rubble would _hopefully_ keep the entrance from getting damaged by Leviathan. It was as I was heading back, crossing downtown that my enhanced hearing heard someone call, "Damnit Stalker, come back!" Pausing the VI again, I moved to a taller building, looking around for Sophia.

It took me a second, as even with my darkvision she was still wearing mottled greys at night in the city, but she'd spotted me _long_ before I saw her and was making a bee-line for my location. She leapt from rooftop to rooftop, the reduced gravity her power granted letting her move at a good click. From how she was running she was obviously used to that advantage, her movements taking full advantage of it. Using windowsills as handholds she practically flew up the side of the building I was standing on. Kid Win was riding his trademark hoverboard, looking around for Sophia and talking into his headset to try to get her to come back.

I took a seat on the rooftop, relaxed and waiting. From what she said at the Gala, she wanted to meet 'Boardwalk', but I wasn't sure _why._ She crested the ledge, barely breathing hard, and rolled up to her feet, crossbow at the ready. From behind my impenetrable costume I regarded the prime example of corrupt heroism with cool detachment.

"Boardwalk," she said challengingly, looking me up and down, expression hidden behind her mask.

"Shadow Stalker," I replied, not bothering to get up.

There was a long moment where she seemed to be waiting for something as we stared at each other, Kid Win going off in the wrong direction. "You a hero?" she finally asked.

"Are you?" I replied.

"I'm a _Ward_ ," she shot back.

I gave her a long look, settling firmly into the persona. "That's fuckin' nice, but not what I fuckin' asked."

She paused, "I asked you first." _Really? What is this, middle school?_

"You say that like it fuckin' means somethin'," I snorted. Standing up, I stretched lazily, and she tensed. "Most government _heroes_ don't have a body count 'fore they join."

Her stance faltered for a second, reforming a bit more aggressively, "I didn't kill nobody."

I just _looked_ at her. "You use a fuckin' crossbow, and before they switched ya to tranqs you used fuckin' broadheads. Only someone who knows fuck all 'bout huntin' believes _that_ bullshit."

"You can't prove it," she replied, her crossbow twitching towards me, confirming my statement.

I just laughed, "Bitch, I don't give a shit if ya killed some bangers. As long as you weren't fuckin' with innocents, I ain't got no beef with you." Internally groaning at my mangling of the English language I watched Shadow Stalker's body for her response, given that her face was hidden.

Again, the stiffening. You'd think someone whose powers was effectively _hiding_ wouldn't have such obvious tells. Then again, I could see her clearly even when she was on the edge of dropping into Shadowform, so maybe she trusted her ability to mask her reaction. "No one's innocent," the edgy teen declared with sophomoric confidence, "they're just _weak._ "

I laughed _hard_ at that. After what I'd had to deal with the past few weeks I'd _completely_ forgotten about her, but here she was thinking she was a serious threat. If I'd been useless during the last fight, she'd been _less_ than that. "And you think _you're_ strong?" I taunted her. "Heard ya got into a fight a few days ago. _How'd that go_?"

Her crossbow was up and pointing at me, her other hand slipping to her side to pull out a dagger. "I can take _you!"_ she declared, dodging the question.

Power Sight active and watching her I held my hands open, begging her to try, judging the distance between us as about ten feet. If that was a gun this would be near impossible, but the slower speed of the crossbow bolt would make it close, but doable. If it didn't work it'd bruise, but if it _did. . ._

Watching her hand, her fingers tightened on the grip a half second before she pulled the trigger, a tell the PRT had never trained out of her. Twisting my hips to get enough torque I pulled my hand to the side, Speed Zone forming in my palm. Slapping the bolt sent it flying to the side in a muted flash of light, impaling the vent fan behind me.

She froze, staring at me, likely in shock. I smiled from behind my mask. I'd messed it up, the poisoned tip having skidded across my impenetrable palm instead of the shaft, but my use of power had covered up that faux-paus. "Cute," I commented, returning to my relaxed stance, "Now that you've shot your fuckin' load what're ya gonna do next, _call me names_?"

She gave a sound of rage and charged me, crossbow tossed to the side and dagger held high in her left hand. Her other hand drew her second blade, held low and partially hidden behind her. The technique was simple but effective: most people would hyper-focus on the obvious danger and forget about her other hand; a move that would be further enhanced in usefulness as her partial Shadowform on a dark rooftop on a _moonless night_ would hide what she was doing. It would even be the kind of ploy _I_ might've pulled if I was desperate and backed into a corner. _She_ was doing so against someone who did nothing but challenge her. Then and there, Boardwalk decided he was going to have _fun_ with this.

Closing in only a few steps, her power let her move deceptively fast, but _I'd_ been using it enough to know that already. Dropping into reality she started to slash down and to her left with the dagger in her left hand, blade coming down across her body. The blow would be dangerous to an unarmored foe but, more importantly it set her up to rise from the right with her second blade, to slash me from hip to shoulder. Not moving my feet and making sure _not_ to call upon my enhanced strength, my own right hand snaked in and smacker her descending forearm, _hard_. Her deflected momentum diverted the blow which came down to the right instead, missing me, and partially turning her so she was looking off to her right, the readied dagger in her right hand rendered useless.

I had to give her credit, she adapted well, but she hadn't yet honed anything more than a brawler's base instinct. Only hesitating for a moment, she tried to move with the blow and spin to bury the second dagger she held in a reverse grip into my chest, but a moment's hesitation in these fights was a moment too long.

As she turned to bring herself around, gaining moment for her attack, she showed me her back. I was happy to use the leftover momentum from my first strike to shove my open palm between her shoulder blades. Wanting to move rather than injure I did _not_ move to put my hand through the space like I would've normally, but gently placed it there instead. The contact was soft enough she didn't notice as my arm bent before I pushed with both arm and hip in tandem, the force distributed across my open hand sending her hurtling forward, still turning and thus twisting in mid-air. She reflexively entered Shadowform as she hit the ledge and fell straight off the building.

I stood and waited, calmly wondering about her next plan of attack. That shifting to Shadowform was reflexive, but not reflexive on _her_ part as I Saw her power flare outside of her control. Tactically it would've been better to hit the wall correctly and spring back into the fight, keeping the pressure up in order to stop me from flying up and using my superior mobility against her. I wondered if she would come at me like the alpha-dog, fears-nothing predator she claimed to be, or would she strike at me from behind like a coward, which, ironically, would be more in line with _actual_ predators hunting prey.

While she had no presence in the air, negating that method of detection, she cast shadows which every insect could see. As such when she came at me from the other side of the roof she did not go unnoticed. She silently crept forward, though from what I could see it was her power covering the sound as her stalking technique was _atrocious;_ her hard boots not slowing right before they touched concrete and thus would've been easily audible to someone who knew how to listen.

Twenty feet away she levelled a crossbow at me, this one tipped with a _very_ different arrowhead. _Is your ego so fragile that you'd resort to deadly means?_ a disconnected part of me wondered. It was the part of me that saw her passion, her spirit, and wanted to help her refine that wildfire that burned all close to it into a blazing sword in the dark like Boardwalk.

The worst part was that I could see _how_ to do it to. Prove myself stronger using the same ability she wielded, beat her with it completely, and offer her _power._ Even with her limited ability she could do _so much more_. From there isolation and strict discipline would work wonders, given how social she was despite her affectations of lone wolf-dom. That would let me break down the parts of her that had become twisted and perverted, that had led her to this point in life. I could make her the hero the PRT _claimed_ she was. I could turn her from rabid wolf into sheepdog, protecting the weak from the evil. I could do _so much_ , and all I would have to do is take away her _choice_.

I was tempted. _Badly._ Take someone fallen into the darkness of their soul and redeem them? That was the kind of thing that _called_ to me on a deep and fundamental level that I didn't wish to examine that deeply, but it _needed_ to be their choice, and her age did _not_ negate that requirement. To help those who needed it was the act of a hero, to break someone and recast them in a mold more to my liking to me was _not._

While I wanted to help this deeply damaged individual, and at this age that's what she was, not yet beyond help, she made her choice. As much as Boardwalk differed from me at my core, the primacy of choice was an immutable concept, though one that was difficult to explain. However, while I would not break her, it wasn't amoral to give that type of person a wakeup call, especially in the form of. . . percussive maintenance.

I called upon the Light as I turned and she swore, the bolt going a bit wild. While she couldn't see I directed it with the air between us and 'caught' it. To the outside observer I would've glowed a number of colors, but to someone who could see through the darkness I burned with a radiance equal to Purity, only instead of a second sun in midday I was a false dawn in the blackest night.

She stumbled, hand over her eyes as she swore, blindly trying to reload. A handful of shadow-assisted steps and I was before her, plucking the crossbow from hands not prepared to hold against such force. She tried to stab me with the arrow, but a smack to the wrist caused her to reflexively let it go. A strike to the solar plexus sent her gasping, and a hand to the throat picked her up to look me in the eye.

Were I limited to only Boardwalk's powers, her wild blows might have inconvenienced me, but with Vejovis' shields still in place I barely noticed. If she wanted to act like an _actual_ predator, stalking and springing against unsuspecting foes, Boardwalk would _treat_ her as such, and shook her several times to get her attention, careful to not harm her spine, but doing so with _strength._ While not his reason for existence, this kind of situation is one where Lee would talk too much, trying to get her to _understand_ , and Vejovis would be worse, completely unequipped to handle it, but _Boardwalk_ could reach her.

Her flailing stopped, and her curses began, but a slight shift in grip left her without the breath to do so. For all her lack of wisdom, she did not attempt anything else when I relaxed the pressure, staring at me hatefully from behind her metal mask, its cold feminine features hiding what I was sure would be an animalistic snarl.

"Ya done?" I asked flatly, and she either refused to answer or had the good sense to understand that it was rhetorical. "So, little miss _predator_ couldn't fuckin' handle jumpin' someone other than a braindead banger so ya went lethal." I sighed gruffly. "And this shit's why you're so _goddamned weak_. You could o' run, or you could o' fought me head on, like someone who was _actually_ fuckin' strong. Nah, I was right when I told your boss you were a fuckin' assassin, it's all ya know how to do, but you're even shit at _that_ 'cause ya don't _think_!"

I held up the arrow and her dark eyes went wide behind her mask, looking down at the other by my feet and putting two and two together to get four, _for once._ "I meet deadly force with fuckin' deadly force, and if I wanted to I'd be able ta put this through your eye and sleep like a fuckin' baby."

"You wogugh," she tried to respond, but a gentle pressure stopping her from finish her statement. If I was the type of person she thought I was, she'd just be digging her own grave.

"You were gonna say something retarded like 'you won't', right?" I asked, still choking her. She tried to slip into shadow, but I slipped right there with her, slipping back to reality when she did. "I'm gonna take that as a yes, ya dumb bitch. Say ya did. Fuck, say you said something _really_ fuckin' dumb like 'you don't have the balls' or 'you're not strong enough to'. That stupid shit works on the cops and robbers dumbasses you normally deal with because most ain't got the stones for _true_ violence anymore, but how does that end on someone who doesn't give a fuck 'bout that?" I released the pressure and she gasped, "That shit wasn't rhetorical," I commented idly.

"Fuck you," she spat, kicking weakly at my side as a hand reached in and unsheathed her dagger. I let her, and the arrow, go as she swung. Grabbing her wrist in the hand that had been holding her throat, I caught her, as she shifted to Shadowform, with the other around the neck again, hoisting her right back up.

"So I'm right, and you're too fuckin' scared to admit it, 'cause of what it'd mean. Here's the thing: I get it." I shrugged, the motion lifting her up as if she was weightless, "The thrill of the hunt's pretty fuckin' sweet, but if that shit was sugar you'd be fat as fuck," I informed her as if nothing had happened, casually twisting her wrist with my superior _natural_ strength until the blade dropped to the ground. "Fuckin' pace yourself bitch! V-man had this entire speech about 'hedonistic treadmills' or some shit he could give ya, but that ain't my fuckin' style, so here's the thing _Sophia Hess_ ," I informed her, the teen going still in my hands.

"You're an adrenaline junky who's been hurt, _join the fuckin' club_ , but if ya do this shit, which is _your_ fuckin' version of blowin' strangers for smack, yer gonna get hurt _at best_ , or fuckin' killed." I shook my head, "I _know_ some of the shit you've done, anyone who isn't high off their own fuckin' delusions does, and I'm sure you've done _more_ , but you're not quite there yet, like that fuckin' robot Oni Lee, or that child-murdering asshat Lung."

I laughed in her face, "I'm not gonna say you should stop, 'cause we both know ya fuckin' _can't_ , but ya _can_ control it. Predator and Prey? Shit, I hate those academic types but even _they_ know ya need to do your best to fuckin' _disprove_ yer theory 'fore ya believe in it. If the world really was like that _Lung_ would o' run this city and a nice guy like _Legend_ , woulda been killed long ago."

"So, what, I do what you say or you'll fucking tell the E88 who I am?" she demanded hoarsely.

I cocked my head to the side, "Bitch, I _kill_ people like that, why the fuck would I give 'em a present? Nah, stop being such a crazy fuckin' cunt and you'll live longer. There, I told ya what ya needed to hear least fuckin' _once_ , so ya don't have a fuckin' excuse. So, right or left?"

She looked at me, somewhere between anger and fear, confusion evident in her eyes. "Right or left what?"

"Which leg am I gonna break?" I clarified. "I said yer gonna get hurt _at best._ Means that's the most favorable fuckin' outcome you're gonna get. So, right or left?"

"Fuck you!" she yelled, starting to thrash again.

A moment of pressure calmed her back down. "Sorry," I apologized condescendingly, "I guess I wasn't fuckin' clear. Right, or left, or I break _both_. After _this_ shit you ain't fit to go out for a bit, so ya _ain't_."

There was a long moment of silence, before I shrugged, "Fuck it, if you say s-"

"Left!" she called, the panic of a cornered animal thick in her voice, " _Fuckin' Left!_ "

 _Vejovis would never do this_ , I thought as I shifted my hand on her throat, her body taught with fear and anticipated pain. _Then again, with no witnesses Vejovis would treat her like the ABB and just kill her and dispose of the body after that stunt._ _What's the phrase? Cruel to be kind? Fuck, that's Boardwalk's express purpose in creation._

If there was one good thing about working with Panacea the past few weeks, I'd learned a _lot_ about bone structure, which kind of fractures were easy to heal, and which _weren't_. Careful to inflict the former in a way that would take her out for six to eight weeks instead of six to eight _months_ , and more importantly _not_ require surgery, I brought my hand down with a sharp crack. She bit back her scream, I had to giver her credit for that at least, not that it would've left the rooftop anyways. Careful to feel it, she whimpered in pain, but beneath her leather legging it felt like a minor fracture instead of a complete break. I'd _said_ I'd break her leg, but it was a general fuckin' term.

Nodding to myself I walked over to where her tranq bolt had impacted, it's chemical load not discharged. She started to struggle as I pressed it into her side, going limp as the payload did its job. Shifting my grip to carry her more gently I retrieved both broadheads and daggers, sheathing the latter in their place and the former in her leg quiver alongside the Tranq bolts, obviously different than those around them. Calling Light, I released a burst upwards to explode harmlessly like a giant firework as I dismissed the Sound Bubble.

A minute later I was considering throwing a second burst when I heard the hum of Kid Win's hoverboard approaching, the Light beneath my shadow a multicolored beacon for anyone in position to see it. "Shadow Stalker!" he called, hands going to his laser pistols immediately.

"Calm yer fuckin Tinker-Tits," I called back. "Bitch tried to kill me, so I hit her with her own fuckin' tranq!" Flying upwards on a jet of Light, I came even with him and he tensed, ready for anything, or I'm sure he believed he was. "I was waitin' for her partner to show up, since I heard you brats where _supposed_ to be fuckin' backin' each other up. Come on Kiddie Whine, fuckin' take her."

He fumbled with his pistols, nor sure what to do. "Bitch, if I _wanted_ you dead I wouldn't've lit up like a _goddamned Christmas tree_. Take the dumb cunt so I can leave without some stupid skinhead stumbling on her punk ass and slittin' her stupid fuckin' throat."

While that didn't allay his fears, he did holster his weapons and take hold of her, almost dropping her as he wasn't prepared for her weight. Like most people, he seemed to not have realized that muscle weighs more than fat, and Sophia was _not_ a twig like Taylor was before we started training. "Um, Y-you should probably come back with me, to give your statement," he stuttered.

I just _looked_ at him. "Don't have enough holes in your fuckin' base, ya want some more? Ask Misses Militias what happened the last time I did that, then realize why that's the dumbest idea since they made this brat a 'hero'."

Shaking my head, I blasted off into the dark night, leaving Kid Win to handle that ball of idiotic rage and angst, because _I_ sure as hell wasn't. Once out of sight I went low and headed towards Taylor's house, cutting the light show completely and dropping through the ground in someone's backyard when I got close, the dawn masking my descent.

From the information I'd gotten from Zilla, one of the entrances to the base should be nearby. Flying under house after house, peering through the eyes of the insects far above, I found what I was looking for. Lifting up into the backyard with the oddest feeling of Deja-vu I approached the house which appeared as if the owners were only on vacation.

Zilla unlocked a familiar door and I stepped through, past the sealed trashbag which held old Chinese takeout containers, tied tight enough to keep out any smells weeks later. Walking into the kitchen I had to laugh at the tip of the chopstick buried into the wall that I hadn't been able to extract the last time I'd been here, just less than a month ago.


	97. Leak 9-4

**Leak 9.4**

With a command to Zilla, the Virtual Intelligence of Eclipse, the secret base _underneath_ our secret base, the entertainment center in the seemingly vacant house pulled back as the shades descended. They blocked the room from casual observation as I shifted from Boardwalk to my civilian wear, a bit of tension I hadn't realized I was holding easing. A sterile white elevator lifted up, feet from where Herb had slept his first night in this dimension, eye and hand scanner ready.

A minute later I was in a well-lit, if a little dusty, corridor, a platform on a rail system ready to transport me the mile or so underground to the base. Stepping on it, the tram smoothly started moving without any more input from me, picking up to a moderate amount of speed as it did so. I could easily fly faster, but it was the first time I was using it and it was the _spirit_ of the thing.

Arriving into am empty loading dock I took my time to familiarize myself with the layout of this entrance as I ambled into the base proper. I made way to the lift up to the top level of the base, what I had thought was the _only_ level of the base until yesterday. I noted the now active lights and ventilation gave the place the feeling of an empty city instead of the tomb-like atmosphere it first had mere hours ago. What automation the base had was at work, handling _some_ of the maintenance, but even _those_ systems needed repairs after being inactive for over a decade.

My stomach growled, and I considered using the kitchens in the base, but Zilla had listed off a _lot_ of foodstuffs that had expired in storage, and I didn't want to handle that right now. I did approve the ordering of replacements, but they wouldn't be delivered to the warehouse outside the city for a week. Riding the elevator up, I checked the internal cameras before I opened the hidden door, the sounds of an argument coming from the kitchen.

"-that life!" came Kayden's voice, full of self-righteous anger.

"Kayden, he's gonna be in that life anyways. This is what keeps him _safe,_ " Herb reasoned pleadingly.

"How can you say that!?" she demanded, head snapping to me as I walked in. "Did you know about this?"

I looked between the two of them, "I just got here, you need to be more specific."

"Giving Theo powers!" she accused, taking my lack of reaction as a yes. "How could you!?"

"I'm _still_ missing something here," I replied calmly, having already reached my overly emotional female quota for the day and trying not to smile as my subconscious drew similarities between the two women Boardwalk took his power from, and their likely reaction to such a grouping. "How is having superpowers a _bad_ thing?"

Herb motioned to me in a 'see!' gesture, which didn't help the situation. "It's dangerous!" she said, as if that was the entire argument.

"Not having powers didn't help the _hundreds_ of people that Bakuda killed," I commented. "This isn't a fae situation. Unless you get a _really_ bad power, getting them, especially the way Herb wants, is nothing but good." A thought occurred to me. "Kayden, if Theo gets powers _he_ _won't be Kaiser_. Hell, the way Herb wants to do it he won't get powers even related to your ex, like he would if he Triggered naturally, which remember, _he did in the original timeline_."

"Yeah," Herb added, "And _you're_ the one that-" he stopped midsentence, realizing mid-stream that whatever he was going to say was a _bad idea._

"I'm the one who _what?_ " she asked him, but he just shook his head, putting a hand over his mouth.

I sighed. "Okay, Kayden, a _lot_ of shit that happened that ended with a psychopath giving Theo a challenge: get powers and defeat him or this parahuman nutjob was going to kill a thousand people, ending with Aster and Theo himself. While you were around he felt safe," Kayden's anger blunted at that, but turned sour as I continued, "So you were forced to abandon him. He _did_ Trigger, but by the time the challenge would've come due everything was bad enough for it not to matter."

"I wouldn't!" she objected, but without the fire she had a moment ago. She'd obviously forgotten that I'd told her this once before. _Or just hadn't wanted to remember_ , part of me pointed out..

"When you were on the run with the E88 in shambles? When not doing so meant someone you _couldn't_ defeat was going to kill Theo and _Aster?_ When those you were with argued that you had to, and it wasn't your fault? You did in _that_ timeline, but _this_ way you won't have to," I reasoned calmly, "But ultimately we should ask him, right Theo?"

The boy in question stepped out from the other hallway, his presence in the air and the soft sound of his footsteps having given away his eavesdropping to those with ears to hear. He looked between the three of us, focusing on Herb, "Who was it?"

"Jack Slash," he replied without hesitation. "He was gonna kill your mom, and you told him you wanted to be a hero. He thought that was hilarious, given who your dad was, and did it so you'd try so hard to get stronger it'd break you. It didn't."

Theo gave my partner a shrewd, calculating look that was at odds with his doughy appearance. "I'm _still_ gonna be a hero."

Herb just laughed, "Good. Keepin' me on the straight and kinda narrow was his job," he jerked a thumb in my direction, "but he's kinda busy. If I'm doin' something you think is wrong, tell me. If I got time I'll explain, and if you're right I won't. Deal?"

"Deal," he agreed, voice cracking a little, puberty undercutting his attempt at being mature.

"If you do this, you're joining the Penumbral Defenders," I warned, making sure this was said. "When you get good enough you'll be expected to fight to protect others. There are things, like Herb and I knowing a possible future, and the existence of the thing that will give you powers, which you _cannot_ tell other people. We've made some powerful enemies, and they will quite easily _kill_ you to keep the information from spreading. If you won't do something, tell me in the planning stages and if we can't come to an agreement I won't ask you to, but I expect you to have our backs in a fight, and vice versa."

He was listening, but I needed to impress upon him the _magnitude_ of what he was agreeing to. "We're not a PR group like New Wave, that got famous then rested on their laurels. We'll fight evil, and if it can't be redeemed, _destroy it._ For every two villains that's willing to let the losers flee to fight another day like Crusader or Krieg there's a murderer like Hookwolf who will kill you without remorse, and those people's actions must be met in kind to protect the innocent. Are you willing to give your word that you'll do that? That despite your age you won't decide you don't want to do this anymore and betray us?"

The teen looked to me, obviously nervous about this, and nodded. "I'll do it, I promise," he said firmly, despite his fear, and I was a little impressed with how much steel the boy had hidden in his spine. If only his father's wasn't purely external I might've been able to work with him.

"I'll get it then," I told them moving over to the hidden armory. Grabbing the 'Cable' Vial and a pistol, along with a sheet and a pillow from the linen closet. I got a few looks when I returned, but created a long platform of hardened air, draping the sheet over it and putting the pillow down. "Have a seat, drink _all_ of this, and lay down. It's gonna hurt like hell."

He started to say something but thought better of it, hesitantly sitting on the floating cot. I opened the vial and we both wrinkled our noses at the acrid smell of the concoction. My eyes itched and I _Saw_ the vial and the powers it contained. I Saw the expressions that would have been open to personal differences were locked down into the powers that Herb had chosen with no wiggle room. "No matter how bad it tastes drink _ALL_ of this. _Bad_ things happen if you don't. Okay?" I confirmed before I handed it to him.

He was sweating, incredibly apprehensive, but looked me in the eye and nodded. Accepting the thin metal vial he chugged it down in one go, gagging at the taste. At my gesture he laid down on the air bed, looking a bit confused. That changed as he moaned and twisted, hands balling up the sheets as he was wracked with pain.

Looking at him I Saw a flare of energy from his abdomen, a secondary flare of energy coming from the air itself and coalescing around his head before sinking inward, sparking a glow that spread to cover his form in a beige that reminded me of old parchment shot through with what was unmistakably gunmetal grey. Unlike Dean, Marissa, or the other Cauldron Capes I'd seen, the aura that surrounded him was not a vague thing outlining him in energy but an almost solid corona of **_power_**.

He relaxed, sitting up with a groan, looking healthier, a bit of the pudge burned away, though he still could do to lose some weight. "Theo, honey?" Kayden asked, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah mom, I'm just. . ." he trailed off, an introspective look on his face.

"Herb, throw a knife at him," I commanded, Seeing his power. I'd do it myself, but as a Blindspot that wouldn't show off Theo's new abilities. He shrugged, doing so without question as Kayden shouted "What?"

She started to Light up to blast the blade but didn't have time to do more than glimmer. Theo was already in motion, moving his mother out of the way. Turning smoothly he caught the knife by the handle, spinning it around to toss it at me before stumbling, holding his head. "What?" he asked, voice a little rusty. "You're. . . you're not here?" he asked me.

"Figured I'd need to address this. You've got _three_ powers, kid. The _first_ is precognition. A full _five minutes_ of it. It auto activates if you're going to get hurt or killed, like just now, but you can activate it at will," I smiled, taking a seat. He twitched, expression changing rapidly, while Kayden looked at him, concerned.

"You can also turn it on at will. I'm sure you noticed that two things, first of all _no time passes while you do so._ You want time to think? Start looking through futures and you'll, ironically, have all the time in the world. Second of all, there exists Blindpots to Precognition. They're rare, but they exist. Eidolon is one. So is _Scion_. So am **_I_** _._ You will never be able to see them, though you will be able to see what they do in broad strokes. Second power," I told him, picking up a fork and throwing it at him and guiding it with Aerokinesis, the tines piercing his arm. He yelped in surprise and pulled it out, leaving unblemished skin.

"I regenerate?" he asked, mostly to himself, before shaking his head. "No, it's there, just. . . Ouch!" he cried out, four small pinpricks of blood appearing.

"Komnenos, or super-procrastination as Herb calls it," I told him. "Anything that you do or that happens to someone else you can delay from happening for up to a month, choosing when and how much it happens, though it must have happened in full before a month is up. _This_ , not your Glimpse of the future, is the power that practically guarantees your survivability. It's reverse Manton limited so it only works on living things, but anything on your person counts as a living thing, because Manton was an idiot and made his classifications too damn broad. Now punch Herb, but hold it back with your power."

He looked between the two of us, Herb nodding and smiling at him. The new parahuman hesitantly walked over to him and socked my teammate in the gut, both of them frowning. "I can feel it there, like it's ready to happen, but it won't yet," the boy commented.

"Same," Herb agreed, smiling at the odd sensation.

"Okay, let _half_ of it happen," I instructed Theo. He concentrated for a second before Herb went 'oof', wincing. "And the other half." Another frown followed by Herb frowning at the blow, ready for it this time.

"But with the fork, I let it happen, but it wasn't as bad," Theo argued, looking at the minor injury which had already stopped bleeding.

"Yeah, _best_ part of the power. Bad things that happen to _you_ are halved in severity. Minor inconveniences are lost in the temporal flux completely." I shook my head, "Time powers are _bullshit,_ and you've got _two_. Now, your third power-"

"How many do I have?" he asked, shocked. "It's okay, but, it seems like a lot. I heard that people with a lot are weaker, but. . ." he trailed off, still coming to grips with his powers.

"You only have one more," I smiled, "Catch." I gently threw him the pistol I'd taken from the armory to him, underhand since his precog wouldn't help. He fumbled, but kept hold of it, looking at the weapon and frowning.

"Eh, I could do it better. The slide's not even. . . what? I'm. . . I'm a Tinker?" he asked incredulously. "But, but, but Tinkers are _just_ Tinkers, they're not. . ."

"When you get the same strength of Vial as Eidolon and Hero did, yeah, you are," I told him, Kayden softly gasping at this proclamation. "Your specialization is small arms. Any firearm, or firearm related piece of tech, up through railguns and energy weapons, you can put together fairly easily. I've bumped you up to security level two, so you can go ahead and use our workshop here until we get you a proper lab."

He nodded numbly as I picked up the laundry, folding it up and putting it in the corner, dismissing the air construct. "Now because of the way you gained your powers, you don't get the upsides and downsides your mother did. Your power won't push you into conflict, but it also won't auto-activate to help you if you're in trouble more than the precog activating, since that's hard-coded. It won't grow in power, because it's already at maximum, so there's no built-in learning curve."

"What _that_ means is that any gain in power will come from _you_ learning how to better use your abilities and coming up with innovative uses. Where we can, Herb and I will help you with that, but it's on _you_ to develop your powers. The more open ended the ability, the more uses but the more creative you have to be and you have _very_ open ended powers," I told him, taking out my phone and opening up the base manual. I locked it to that document and handed it over to him. "And here's a taste. I want you to read the first chapter of this but use your _power_ to do so. Look into the future of you reading it, close that future, then open a new one starting with you scrolling down to where the previous one left off and repeat until you're done."

He looked at me and glanced at Herb's " _Oh_ _fuck,"_ of appreciation. His eyes twitched for a few seconds before he said, "Are you sure that was the first chapter?" handing me back my phone.

I smiled, having Seen his Glimpse flare rapidly for a moment. "Yes and no, my partner pissed someone off, but it's all there. How long did that take?"

He shrugged, "Like an hour or two, I guess. It was really confusing. I didn't expect you guys to wait for me either."

"Try a few _seconds_ ," I replied. "With your power you can theoretically find out the outcome of _anything_ , as long as it doesn't involve a Blindspot, a Natural Trigger event, or takes longer than five minutes. Now here's the creative bit: while it takes longer than that to read a book, it _doesn't_ take longer to read a few pages, and that's just _one_ of your powers."

"I. . . what?" he asked, glancing over to the clock on the stove, then back at his mother, then back at me, eyes flickering as his power flared again. "I'm. . . I'm gonna go check out the workshop," he told us, shocked, before tottering off.

I turned to Herb and Purity, the former grinning like a loon while the latter had fallen into her seat, white as the sheet I held in my hand. "Well, I think that went well."

* * *

An hour later Taylor, Herb, and I were back in the base, working on getting the entire thing running. Kayden was looking after Aster, while occasional checking that Theo wasn't going to explode or something, and making sure Dina was okay. Canary was still in her room, moping or whatever she did, I didn't really care. I couldn't make heads or tails on what Theo was working on when I checked in on him, so I left him to it, and the sisters were out somewhere doing something. Taylor and I were using our shared bug control power to look things up while we worked, mostly to read repair instructions. Herb grumbled about this, but agreed if he never _saw_ a swarm, we kept them out of the living areas, and he _never saw a swarm_ , he'd allow it. The earpieces I'd found let us keep in contact, even on different floors, which was a mixed blessing.

"All I'm sayin'," Herb told me on a private channel as he worked on the power systems of level ten, "Is that ya can't _know_ that Garotte doesn't have _somethin'_ goin' on underneath those tentacles."

"Nor do I want to!" I replied on level eight, getting a lab running for Theo and wondering how we'd gotten onto this topic, scrabbling for a new one.

'you okay?' Taylor wrote in insects in Hydroponics, over two hundred feet up. Even with the earpieces she seemed to prefer communicating through the Swarm. She was far enough away that she couldn't reach the insects around me to listen in, but we could each pick up on the other's emotions as long as our control overlapped even a little bit.

'Herb's just being Herb' I reassured her as I said over Herb's channel, "Any plans for the next week or two? I don't remember when our aquatic adversary shows up exactly."

"It's the fifteenth," he replied without preamble as the insects formed a smiley and flew back to the five different computers they were manipulating. I'd tried tapping her connection to read along with her but while _I'd_ been training that power for reach, _she'd_ been pushing her already ridiculous multitasking abilities even further and improved her power's flexibility. Skimming off the top to get a sense of what she was reading was doable, but I couldn't maintain her depth and hope to do anything else.

"Are you _sure?_ " I pressed. "We miss by a day and it will go _badly._ "

I could hear the snort over the earpiece, "Yeah man, it's like remembering birthdays and anniversaries, you gotta keep track of the important days."

"Dude," I rolled my eyes, "I have trouble remembering my _own_ birthday. People? I remember. Story plots? I remember. Random, arbitrary day combinations? I've got better things to do, so I'm not exactly in the habit."

". . . didn't have a lot of people show up to your birthday party, did ya?" he asked.

I winced, dismissing unpleasant memories, "That doesn't have anything to do with _logic_. Are you sure it's the fifteenth?"

"Yeah, it is," he affirmed, dropping the topic. "Other than gettin' this place running, trainin' up Theo, and getting' closer to my future wife? I'm not doing nothing really. Wanna take a road trip this weekend?"

"Why?" I asked, resetting breakers, the testing chamber of this lab springing back to life now that the bad wiring had been replaced.

". . . to get more powers? To survive _You know who_?" he suggested, tone of voice indicating that I was silly for asking.

"There's still the E88 to worry about," I argued, "and Coil, and maybe New Wave-"

"-Can keep for a weekend," he argued right back. "Come on man, take a few days off. Your little bro's still gonna be around and if some shit's gonna go down your dad can warn you, _especially_ without you there to mess him up."

I regretted describing how the meeting with my father had gone, but he had a point. "Fine, but nowhere that I can't get back to Brockton Bay with an hour!"

His voice sounded smug, "How fast can you go?"

"As Vejovis? Maybe a hundred miles an hour. As Boardwalk? I think Mach One? But I don't know if I could keep that up for an hour," I quickly added over his laughter.

"Then we'll stay in New England," he reassured condescendingly.

" _Good_ ," I said, as if it were a victory. Not willing to ask him, I checked the date. It was Monday, May 2nd. That meant Leviathan would be hitting a week from Sunday. Hmm. Wait. . . 'Is Winslow still closed?' I wrote in the Swarm.

There was a hesitation before she wrote back 'No. I'm skipping.'

As a former teacher I wanted to argue that she should go, then I remembered _everything else._ 'Okay, just checking. Don't want your father mad.'

'He won't notice.' She wrote back, and a pang of sympathy echoed deep within me, causing me to send comforting feelings back through the connection.

Shifting my attention back to the task at hand I finished up my work, _incredibly_ glad for the CYOA given mechanical knowledge as it worked even on extra-dimensional tech. That being said, if I could go back, I'd trade it for a third Cauldron vial in a heartbeat. Even being lazy about it, I could have given someone a robotics Tinker ability and _they_ could create droids to do this for us, freeing me up to get back to _training_.

I was getting a hell of a lot of use out of Brandish's power, at least, the hard-light constructs forming grasper arms and tools I could manipulate with a thought, _vastly_ speeding up the process. That being said, I could learn these skills myself. I _couldn't_ whip up a custom Cauldron vial. Taking an elevator up to the living quarters I started prepping bedrooms when my phone rang with the tones of 'Gangsta's Paradise.' I'd originally wanted to go with 'White and Nerdy' but it would ruin Boardwalk's image if it rang in that persona.

"Hey Chuckles, how's villain life treatin' ya?" I asked.

"Vejovis, I believe we have a mutual confidence that could provide me some assistance," he replied, his voice smooth as oil.

"Lookin' suave in front of your recruits?" I laughed.

"Indeed."

I rolled my eyes, "Sure man, what'd ya need?"

"I have some members I'd like vetted for. . . _promotion_ ," he informed me. "I have at most three slots open and given the _permanent_ nature of the process I'd like to be sure."

It took me a second to translate that. "You want to give people your Cauldron Vials, but want to be sure they won't turn against you? I'm not sure how I can help you there."

"Then it is fortunate indeed that I am not asking you for help directly, but instead wish for the services of the self-described telepath, Tattletale. I will forward you their dossiers, and you will pass them along to her," he dictated.

"I will, will I?" I asked a little coldly. "And why, _exactly,_ would I be doing so?"

There was a pause followed by footsteps and a door closing. "Fuck, sorry," he apologized, accent gone. "That was too much, wasn't it?"

I felt my ire at being given orders fade. "Yeah man, if you talk like that to me in front of the minions, it makes _me_ look bad. Or makes them wonder what's really going on, when I don't take that shit from anyone else. Also, even with Time powers I can still kick your ass."

"If I don't freeze it first!" he shot back, "Sorry, sorry! Yeah I _know_ Tauri. I'll be good. Promise."

I tried to listen harder, not having heard someone else speak. "There someone else there with you?"

To this simple question he sounded honestly confused, "What? No. Yes. Kinda?"

"Well that explains everything," I snarked.

"You know what I mean," he replied, as if I did. "Right, can you have Tats look over my info?" he requested, arrogance gone from his voice. "I've narrowed it down to a bit over a dozen, but I've only got _three_ , and if what you said about them is true I'm not sure I want to owe them any favors to get more."

"Fair enough," I nodded. "Sure, I can do that. You payin' _her_ for it with money or favors?"

"Money, _definitely_ money," he told me. "Been taking over old ABB territories and putting down the gangs that are forming from the remnants. I've got some. . . petty cash," he smiled.

"Wait, you're fighting? How come I haven't seen anything on the news?" I asked, concerned.

I could almost hear the shrug, "It's gang-on-gang crime. As long as no-one's throwin' fireballs they don't seem to care. Well, as long as _both_ sides aren't," he amended. "None of them have capes, and the one that did I tied up and had Luke's team drop off at the PRT, so _they're_ likin' me right now. Dude apparently had a couple of murder charges waitin' for him."

My curiosity got the better of me. "What power did he have?"

"I told ya, _throwin' fireballs_ ," he replied. "Stupid things were homing _and_ exploded, but stopped time beats most things."

 _Probably not that useful to me then,_ I thought, _but Herb's right, I need to look for more powers I can morally collect._ "Okay, send me the info and I'll pass it on. How much you payin'?"

"Ten grand for basic info on all of them, fifteen for more complete dossiers, and _I_ decide the quality," he rattled off without missing a beat.

 _Her take from robbing Lung's Casino was a good deal less than that,_ I considered, _and this has almost no risk_. "Should be good. Send them to me and I'll kick them over to her with your offer."

"Thanks man," he said, the sound of a door opening and activity in the room he walked into coming through the speaker. "I'm glad we could come to such a fortuitous outcome."

I couldn't help yanking his chain. "I never said what _I_ wanted for doing this," I commented, waiting a moment, "But you're family, so we're good. Talk to you later Chuckles."

"I shall be in touch," he replied, hanging up.

"Drama queen," I commented, smiling.


	98. Leak 9-5

**Leak 9.5**

The hours slipped by as the three of us worked on the base, bit by bit getting it up and running. Taylor made lunch, delivering it to us while still looking up how to run the disparate systems and getting everything working in a fraction of the time I would've been able to alone. I'd somehow managed to lock the command position of the base to myself when I activated it, but Herb just told me, "Rather you than me man. Management's boring as shit."

I wanted to get Power Testing up and running, but what I could fix up was a bit of a letdown. It was all just so _basic_ , but I had to remind myself that for someone who _couldn't_ just see powers it was necessary. At least the fortified firing range was set up now, a few iron weights sent down through it via Ballistic's power, though the damn thing was more art than science if I tried to use it on anything complex.

Herb's ability to, with his Stand somewhere on his person, ignore heat, electricity, and radiation let him work on the power-systems without fear. There was still a lot of work to go, but now we could start running things without the possibility of something exploding, which I didn't realize _was_ a possibility until Taylor had caught it when she found that the VI wasn't set to run diagnostic checks.

While a great deal of the base's power was geothermal, that system required regular attention, so it had some kind of low-maintenance nuclear option which was still functional but had been leaking radiation into the rest of the floor it was located on. Herb had closed that up, but it would still be hours before it would be okay for Taylor or me to go anywhere near if we liked our hair.

For a small team like we currently had the top level would've been enough, but now that I knew about the resources we had access to my post-Leviathan plans had changed _drastically_. While we'd need to vet them, this base could be crewed by the survivors, helping to extend our capabilities while giving a number of people safety and purpose, but it wasn't _enough._

I maneuvered myself down a maintenance tunnel, held up on chains of power like a black lightning version of Doctor Octopus, replacing filters from a crate of them I held aloft with a lift field, when my phone rang with Vicky's ringtone, Harder Better Faster Stronger.

"Wuzzup Vicky?" I asked, finishing up the passageway.

There was a slight pause, "Vejy?"

"Yeah? What's up Victoria?" I reiterated.

"Ames and I are back at the base, and Dean too, and I asked Purity if you were here, but she said you didn't leave, but we can't find you. Also. . . Tinker?" she asked, somewhat unsure.

I laughed, "That's Theo. He's still getting new to the entire 'having powers' thing, so take it easy on him. We'll be there in a few minutes." Hanging up I toggled the base comms, "Taylor, Herb, the sisters are topside lookin' for us. Let's go say hi."

Taylor, in work clothes and her ladybug themed domino mask, met me in the base elevator, grinning, the Swarm set to standby in the vents. From experimentation, _and a bit of future knowledge from me_ , she'd figured out that if she gave an insect a command then left its range it would continue in that task until she grabbed it again or the task was complete. She'd been doing it subconsciously, which explained why Danny was still alive despite having a basement _packed to the gills with black widow spiders_. If she wanted them to survive she needed to either do things like have them eat manually or give them spaces to go 'resume normal functioning with X limits'.

Herb met us at the elevator to go back up to the surface base, his clothes sweat stained and oily. "Well don't you two look presentable," he quipped.

I just rolled my eyes, shooting out an energy tentacle to bonk him on the forehead, "Well _our_ powers don't require us to physically do everything, so of course we aren't as bad as you." I wrinkled my nose, "And take a shower. I figure we'll show the rest what we've got down here, and that means Kayden being near you for her long enough to notice your stink."

"You mean my manly aroma of hard work?" he asked, grinning and following us into the lift.

"Ya really think she's gonna see it that way?" I reposted, his smile becoming fixed. "Yeah, thought so. You want to take one while I distract the others as well Taylor?"

She shrugged, looking down at herself, "Not really."

"You kids, lazing around while your elders sweat," Herb mock chastised, heading out to clean up while Taylor and I headed towards the kitchen and the voices.

"What?" Vicky asked as we walked in. "Where'd you come from?"

I gave her a confused look and pointed back down the hallway, the elevator concealed once more. Taylor tried to hide her smile as Vicky flew over and looked down the corridor, then back at me. "You weren't down there," she asserted. "I checked!"

"Eh, yes and no," I told her, not bothering to hold back my own smile.

She gave me an almost comically suspicious look before shaking her head and floating back to her boyfriend. "Whatevs, I called you because D-er, Gallant," she corrected, glancing at Taylor, "Gallant had a question for you."

He started to speak but I held up a hand, addressing my teammate. "Lady Bug, would it be alright for you to reveal your first name, just to avoid confusion. Gallant won't talk, and neither will Glory Girl or Panacea, right?" I asked, looking at them.

Dean looked uncomfortable, but nodded anyways, Panacea and Glory girl agreeing. "I. . . I'd rather not," Taylor admitted. "I'm sorry, I just-"

"-It's fine Lady Bug. If you don't want to, I won't," I told her, "So, what did you want to ask Gallant?"

"I wanted to know if you would be upset if I told Miss Militia about my new powers," he requested, voice sounding as if he'd rehearsed the question.

Stomping on my first urge to go 'duh!' I went with a more professional, "No Gallant, that's most of why I did it in the first place, to make sure that the PRT would see you as more powerful, and thus more valuable. I didn't give you _new_ powers, I just showed you how to better use your own, and half of that you did yourself anyways. Just don't mention the last bit where I, _you know_." I waved at my eyes, Amy and Taylor both looking at me questioningly.

"What happened?" my fellow bug controller queried. "You never told me."

"I'm fine," I dismissed, not wanting to go over it. "But _definitely_ tell them about the last one. It's a _hell_ of a bargaining chip, even if we haven't pinned down the details yet. Thanks for asking though."

"What's the last one?" Taylor asked, obviously trying to get _some_ information on this mystery she hadn't realized existed until right now.

"It's an Anti-Master Beam, or at least that's what Vejy said!" Glory Girl beamed, hanging off Dean's arm in a way only possible for a flier.

A flicker of irritation passed over Amelia's face, but she turned to look at me. "Really?"

"Ninety-five percent sure, it's kinda hard to test morally," I shrugged. "But I'm sure the PRT's got a person or two they'd want to test it out on. Though it probably won't work on _every_ method of Mastering, and only on people so it's not a counter to Lady Bug, though that wasn't on purpose."

"That's. . ." Taylor said, obviously thinking through all the possibilities.

"The kind of thing they wouldn't risk on a questionable mission because he's a human Master, and those tend to have short shelf lives in the PRT," I commented. "Anti-Master powers will hopefully reverse that trend."

"What? That's not true!" Dean contested, loyal to a group that didn't care about him.

"Really? Name _One,_ " I challenged. "Prism doesn't count since she's only a human Master in that she makes copies of herself, same for Kudhzu. I've only done a basic search but Gallant here is the _only_ PRT hero I could find that has anything close to a mind-effecting power. Every other hero of that type is independent or part of a private team. Now, I'm not saying they'd set him up to die, but I'm not so sure they'd be in a hurry to save him if he's in trouble once he's no longer a Ward," I said, trying to quell Vicky's rising outrage.

Herb walked in after this statement and took in everyone's expressions, promptly asking me, "What'd you do?"

"Talked about how suspicious it is that despite the _large_ amount of human effecting Master powers, Dean's the only one who joined the PRT. I'm not saying they'd get him killed, but they might just not help stop that from happening," I defended.

He thought about that for a moment, "Yeah, he never should've fought. . . _him,_ " he nodded. "Not sure they did it on purpose thought."

"Fought _who?_ " Vicky demanded, looking between the two of us.

"I told you, we'll warn you the day before he shows up," I reminded her, "More than that might throw off the planning and put _everyone_ at greater risk. Herb, since you're here go get Kayden, I'll get Theo."

Vicky started to object but I'd already slipped from the room, into the workshop. Theo was at work assembling. . . something. Whatever it was seemed pistol- _ish._ I knocked on the doorway. "Hey Theo, come on. We want to show you something."

"Just a few more minutes," he mumbled, doing something that required far more wires than any gun should normally need.

"We've got a better lab for you," I sing-songed.

He glanced over, eyes wide, "Already? Um. I'll be there in a minute! I'm almost finished!"

I watched as he grabbed a piece of metal he'd shaped and threaded a few wires through it, pulling it down to the gun and connecting several other things to it. "Done!" he smiled, holding up the weapon. He flicked a switch and a clear chamber where the bullet should go glowed a blue-white color.

"What is it?" I asked, interested.

"It creates a stable plasma field which then creates a feedback loop that amplifies the charge without additional power draw and-" he started, pausing as I held a hand up.

"Sorry, my bad, that seems like it shouldn't work but _Tinkertech._ " I apologized. "That's not what I meant to ask. Better question: _What does it do?_ "

"Um. . . It shoots ball lightning. Well not _really_ since-" he started, going off again.

"Okay, first rule of Tinkertech. _You_ understand how it works. _I_ don't. As long as simplified explanations carry the meaning, that's good enough unless someone asks you the specifics," I advised. "So it shoots balls of condensed lightning?"

He nodded, smiling. " _Yes._ Not as powerful. But. . . well. . ." he hesitated.

I smiled, "It's the kind of thing that would give Kaiser a _really_ bad day?"

"Yeah," he sheepishly nodded.

" _Nice_." I gestured for him to follow me back to the kitchen, where Dean and Vicky both had their phones out, likely trying to prove me wrong. "Official introductions: Theo, who does not currently have a cape name, this is Panacea, Glory Girl, Gallant, and The Lady, Bug. Everyone else, this is Theo, who's new to this entire 'having powers' thing, so if he twitches don't take it personally."

My statement generated immediate sympathy from the women in the room, Glory Girl floating over and putting a comforting hand on his shoulder, telling him, "It's gonna be okay."

"Um. . ." he looked at me, not sure how to respond. "Thanks?"

Dean's expression turned pained for a moment, quickly clearing before she turned to look at the glowing pistol in Theo's hand. "What's this?"

"Oh!" the Tinker exclaimed, obviously glad to be on more familiar ground. "It utilizes the principle of multiple -right, sorry- it shoots balls of lightning!"

"Oh Theo!" Kayden called, swooping in from the other room to give him a hug as she heard him describe his first invention.

" _Mom!"_ The teenage boy complained, blushing bright red.

"Mom?" Dean asked, obviously recognizing Kayden. " _Oh._ " The girls turned to look at him and he held his hands up. "It's not my place to say."

Theo, extracting himself from his mother's attention, divulged without preamble, "My dad's Kaiser. He's. . . not a good person."

No one really had a reply to that, which meant it was time to _move this along_ before it got more awkward. "Which is one of _several_ reasons why Theo didn't join the Empire," I announced. "Now, Herb and I have something we'd like to show you. As usual, please don't tell _anyone_ about this. Lady Bug, if you'd lead the way?"

She hesitated before doing so, the insects hidden in her hoody manipulating her phone to open up the App required. Leading us to the concealed entrance, she stopped, waiting for us all to stand there, those not in the know looking around.

"Wow," Glory Girl shrugged, "It's a hallway, I've never seen one of those before." Taylor activated the door, revealing the elevator. "Okay that's new," she gave. My teammate stepped forward, using the scanner and stepping inside as if it was no big deal. After a moment's hesitation the rest followed, Vicky's bravado diminished. "Was this here the _entire_ time?" she asked.

"We found it yesterday," I replied, hitting the button to start the lift descending.

" _Found it?_ " Amy chimed in. "That doesn't make any sense."

"It's the kind of thing Herb's employer does," I shrugged, the elevator's odd construction throwing the heroes.

"What, put a secret elevator in a secret base?" Victoria asked, "And how deep does this go?"

I just smiled, considering Cauldron's _continent spanning main headquarters_ , "Honestly, this is tame for what they normally do. . . and you should be getting your answer right. About. _Now._ "

Whatever comment she had died on her lips as we exited the first section of the elevator, Eclipse revealing itself in all its glory. Purity and Theo stared out over the complex, the former glancing over to Herb who just smiled. The Dallon sisters looked dumbstruck, Amy frowning as she tried to take it all in. Dean assessed it with a firm eye, turning to look at me as he asked, "Who _are_ you?" At my smirk he shook his head, throwing a hand out, "That's bigger than the Rig, there's _no_ way this place could be built without anyone noticing."

"Your girlfriend can bench press a tank, her sister can heal with a touch, and you can change how someone feels with the wave of your hand," I reposted. "The limits of what's possible are a _lot_ farther off than you think."

The elevator came to a stop, the crystal door opening up. I took several steps out, turning around with a flourish and bow. "Welcome all, to _Eclipse._ "

* * *

It took longer than I thought to show everyone the basics of the base and get them the appropriate clearances. Vicky complained when I wouldn't key Dean in, but she couldn't argue with the fact that, as a part of the Wards, not giving him access meant that, in case his connection to me was revealed, he couldn't be _ordered_ to give the PRT access. Well, she _had_ arguments, but they all equated to increasingly less sure versions of 'they wouldn't do that', but even Gallant wasn't able to back her up. All he would say is that they _shouldn't_ do that.

It was almost seven and we were eating in one of the dining rooms, having cleared some of the spoiled foodstuffs, when an a low-priority alarm rang though the base, one of the monitors turning on. "Possible intruder detected," Zilla announced, showing us a small blond girl poking around the outside of the base, the name Missy Biron displayed above her head.

I had a moment of deep indecision. I'd brought Dean in to pacify Glory Girl and to keep him from a death he didn't deserve, but the main reason I _could_ do so was the hold knowing his secrets gave me. While I was trying to get him to come clean to Victoria about being a Vial Trigger, he still assumed that information was something that, if told to the PRT, would net him a world of hurt. I had no similar controls with Vista.

The paranoid part of me wanted to go and get her turned around, so she'd move on from here in her search for Dean, because of _course_ the girl noticed when her crush went missing and was likely spotted being flown somewhere by Glory Girl, who herself had ran away from home. But out of all of the Wards, Vista was the one _most_ likely to actually ally with my goals without exterior controls. She had the sense of honor and duty Miss Militia was supposed to have, but combined with a working brain and spine.

Yes, Vista was young, with all of the ups and downsides that that brought, but she was the kind of strong and tough, mentally speaking, that I was looking for while still being moral. That and her experience, more than any of the other Brockton Bay Wards, meant that, while she had a schoolyard crush on Dean, the bloom was well and truly off the rose about the realities of Parahuman life. This was the kind of person who'd, in two months' time, _volunteer_ to face the Slaughterhouse 9, not because she had a death wish over Gallant's death, but because it was a thing that _needed to be done._ That didn't mean, however, that I couldn't be annoyed that this meeting was happening _long_ before I'd prepared for it.

" _Victoria,_ " I practically growled. _"What did I say about flying directly towards the **secret base?**_ "

"Sorry!" she apologized, "I totes forgot! But I remembered this time, I _promise!_ " Her boyfriend nodded, backing her up, for what that was worth.

I stood up, "I'll go talk to her. Just be more careful Vicky." I sighed, "I'd rather not have assassins at our doorstep until I'm ready for them."

"I can handle this," Herb offered.

Trying my best not to throw in his face what happened the _last_ time he did anything involving young girls, I just shook my head. "Nah man, we'll be back in ten." Flying, it was only a few seconds before I reached the main cavern, descending down to the elevator easily, taking it up into the less secret section of our base. Switching my clothing to my Vejovis configuration I opened the door, calling, "Over here, Missy."

A squeak came from her direction around the corner, a blonde head poking around the corner. "Um, who?" she asked, my Power Sight kicking in to tell me the distance between us was suddenly a great deal more than it appeared to be.

"I'm assuming you followed Glory Girl and Gallant here?" I asked in turn, not bothering to call her bluff.

"Where is he?" she demanded.

"Would you like me to take you to him?" I asked, keeping this game of responding with questions going.

"How do I know you will?" was her response.

I smiled, "Isn't that why you came here?"

She struggled with herself before sighing, shoulders dropping in defeat. "Yeah," she mumbled. "It is."

She straightened out the space between us and walked over, peering inside the door. "Come on and follow me, Vista. Welcome to the secret base of the Penumbral Defenders," I told her, turning my back and making it obvious I expected for her to follow. "Dean's in the secret base _in_ our secret base. I will ask you don't tell everyone about this, as I'd rather not have to fight you because Piggot decided she didn't like me. That and having the Empire bomb this place would _suck_."

"I won't!" she promised, head on a swivel. "Looks homey. Wait, secret base in your secret base?"

"Yep," I said, revealing the elevator and stepping inside. I noted that the elevator didn't seem to surprise her as much as it should've. "How did you find this place anyways?"

"Um, do you know what my power is?" she asked, eyes going wide as the elevator descended, distracted by the visual effect.

"Space warping. Number and placement of people effect it. . . _seriously_?" I asked, thinking about it. "You can sense where people are?"

"Um, yes?" she shrugged. "Not enough to aim by, but there were a lot of people here yesterday, and then a few went down in, well, _this._ It was suspicious." She gasped and stared as we cleared the shaft, revealing the base. " _Oh wow,"_ she whispered, nose practically to the glass, looking around.

"You guys still eating?" I asked over the comms, "Leave some extra, I'm bringing Vista."

"I'm fine," she objected, "I-" she was cut off by the sound of her stomach growling. "Maybe a snack," she gave, blushing slightly.

Hearing from Herb that they were still eating, I told her, "Follow me," taking off and landing on the balcony several hundred feet up. The space between us warped, and she reached me in a single step, trying not to look smug as she showed off. It was _adorable_.

Introducing her as Vista, she was quickly settled in with the rest. Her cooing over Aster won her points with Kayden, and while she did shoot the occasional glance at Dean with Vicky, she kept it somewhat subtle.

The conversation was fairly benign, but eventually wandered off into power training. Gallant showed off his emotional mist technique to the others, and described the cone, resulting in Vista turning to me and asking, "So what do you think I could do?" with a bit of challenge in her voice.

"Vista," Dean warned, but Vicky stopped him from saying anything.

"Vista, you're here as a guest but while I was willing to help Dean out because he needed the help. _You_ don't," I explained.

She was obviously caught between being pleased with the praise and wanting to defend her crush. "Gallant's as good as I am!" she argued.

"Dude, it's _Vista_ ," Herb added.

By which he meant that we knew she was the kind of good person we wanted to help, and I should do so. While I no longer would do things on his word alone, he had a point. "Okay, on the power front there's two _obvious_ things that you _could_ do, but they'd never _let_ you do for PR reasons, wanting to keep the cute and innocent image they've built for you."

"I'm not cute! _Tell me,_ " she demanded, cutely.

I shrugged, reaching behind my back, unholstering my pistol with one hand and extruding one of the daggers I'd given Imp with the other. Bringing my hands around I dropped both of them on the wooden table with a _thunk_ , causing her, Gallant, Kayden, and Theo to jump a little.

"First of all," I started indicating the knife. "You know that trick you've done _on camera_ where you smack Clockblocker in the back of the head from ten feet away? The mechanics should be _exactly_ the same for a blade," I told her, sliding it over to her. She hesitantly picked it up, turning it over in her hands. "You want to avoid killing for a _number_ of reasons, not just PR, but there's dozens of non-lethal places you can stab or slice that will take someone out of a fight and still not cripple them. Ask Panacea if you want to know more.

"Second of all," I indicated the pistol, "Vista, you _fold space._ How no one's thought to give you a projectile weapon _boggles my mind._ Now, I understand the public has aversion to guns, but Shadow Stalker uses tranquilizer bolts and no-one seems to care."

Vista was nodding, saying to herself, "Yeah, and she's not gonna be using them for a bit."

Herb looked right at me. "Dude, what did you do?"

"Why do you think _I_ did something?" I asked defensively. He said nothing, and just _stared_ at me. "Well, I hear from _Boardwalk_ , that she tried to kill him by shooting him in the back with a broadhead bolt _after_ she tried to stab him and ran, so he had a. . . discussion with her and broke her leg to give her time to mull it over."

Both Amelia and Taylor did _not_ look amused, though if they knew her identity I was sure only the healer would complain. "He _what?_ " Amelia asked. "She's a Ward!"

" _He's_ not a hero," I defended, "and neither is she, right Gallant?"

He did _not_ like being put on the spot, but still tried to live up to his name. "She has some. . . rough edges and can be. . . enthusiastic."

"Uh-huh," I said. "Pull the other one. _Vista's_ enthusiastic, it's part of why I'm helping her. Stalker's a violent sadist. Did they ever tell you why she joined?"

Dean wanted to argue, but his hesitation let Missy ask, "Why?" at Dean's reproachful look she wilted a little but soldiered on. "She just, well, doesn't seem like she wants to be a hero."

"The PRT found an Empire thug she'd pinned to the wall with broadhead crossbow bolts and left to bleed to death. He identified her, and she was told it was jail or join," I disclosed.

"I knew it!" Vista crowed. "There was no way she works with us 'cause she wants to!"

"Vista," Dean groaned, shaking his head at her "Sorry!" He looked to me, "So Boardwalk broke her leg?"

I nodded, "Yeah, if she were older he probably would've just killed her after she tried to _kill him_. There're _reasons_ I didn't ask him to join the PD, not that he would anyways, but he's hoping it'll be a wake-up call. She believes that words not backed by violence are meaningless, so he spoke to her in a way she'll hopefully understand."

Shifting topics, I turned back to Vista, "But that's ways to improve your use of _powers_. What kind of hand to hand training has the PRT given you?"

"I can fight!" she asserted proudly.

I raised an eyebrow, "Not what I asked, and you're _thirteen._ If they gave you the basic defense course, that _might_ be useful in two or three years, but have they taught you how to fight as you are _now?_ If it came someone closed on you, even someone younger like Shadow Stalker, are you honestly telling me you could take her?"

". . . I wouldn't just go down," she stubbornly admitted, but the point was made.

I opened my hands, "Then find a way to practice. Spar with Gallant, Aegis, and Clockblocker. No offence, but _I'm_ not the best one to help in that regard. If you were older, then definitely, but you need to train like you're fighting a Brute to deal with adults, and that's not a skillset I possess." _And my methods are **decidedly** un-_PC, I added to myself.

"Your costume has bracers and greaves, learn how to use them. That, and have holdout weapons," I motioned towards the blade in front of her. "It's better to have the ability to escalate if you can't win then to die because you didn't think you'd _need_ it. Don't go lethal if they aren't, but if someone has a gun to your head, stabbing them in the wrist just makes _sense_."

* * *

Vista headed home with my number an open invitation to drop by if she wanted to, everyone else retiring for the night. I continued work repairing things, working in one of the testing chambers to come up with something that could more efficiently train Glory Girl's shields. It was past midnight when I got it running effectively, as there needed to be an element of chaos to the process. Setting up any kind of automated striking device created sharply diminishing returns, the regulated motions lacking any of the variables that even power-created firearms invariably had to deal with.

Creating a device that worked to strike surfaces within a range on a bed required a _lot_ of use of Kaiser's power to setup, but the outcome was worth it. Five of the more malleable shields I possessed split, though the time to split them was still increasing. The sixth I crystallized, moving to my left hand to match the one on my right. The two already crystallized grew in strength and power, but with the longer recharge times their power gain rate was _sharply_ curtailed.

It took a bit of effort to meditate while being struck two dozen times a minute, but it _was_ possible, allowing me to increase efficient use of my time. Once I was up and about I tried tapping into Trickster's power. It too came with a bit of an extra sense, everything I looked at instantly assessed for its mass. Reaching out with it and switching the places of two identical weights, there was a feeling of locking on and the transposition priming, like a grenade with its pin pulled. Letting it go there was a soft *pop* and they were switched.

Trying it on two different weights took longer, the larger weight locking on immediately and the smaller taking time as it started to include the air around it. Once the power was primed I let go and they switched with two different snaps, the difference in volume in both items creating overpressure and a vacuum respectively.

 _Stop farting around and get to the good part,_ I thought, annoyed. Switching this was nice but the _real_ use I could get from this was as a Mover power. With super-strength I could move things but this would let me _Teleport._ Throwing together a collection of weights that equaled my own mass I locked on to it, locking on to myself as well.

Bracing myself I let go of the power. . . and nothing happened. I'd _Seen_ him switch, this was _exactly_ what he did so why the fuck wasn't it working? New uses took time, I realized that, but this was exactly the kind of monkey see monkey do Uchiha shit my power _specialized_ in. I unlocked from the collection of weights and tried locking onto a desk, reversing which side had too much mass, ready to fucking switch with _that_.

Still nothing.

I could feel it already to go, balanced on the edge of readiness, waiting for my go ahead, but it _wouldn't_. I tried to feel it in more detail, unable to figure out what the difference was and no matter what I tried it just _wasn't working._ I tried to _force_ it, trying to mentally rip the stupid mental pin out but it refused to fucking budge. Still nothing, my power _refused to work_. I growled in rage, switching the desk with the weights _without a fucking problem._ The desk fell to the ground with a clatter, the manuals I'd set on top of it spilling across the floor. I could move a fucking _inanimate object_ , **_why couldn't I do this?_**

I let go of the power in disgust and a headache I didn't realize I was developing faded, leaving me blinking as the anger cleared from my mind. _What the fuck?_ Cautiously I reactivated the power, a twinge of annoyance at the mess passed through me as I started to consider the mass of everything around me. I switched the desk back into position, popping the fallen books back one by one, starting with the most massive and ending with the least.

Looking at them I wondered why the hell I did it that way, since those weren't the ones I'd been using. Letting go of the power my anger once again faded like it was never there. _"Fuck,_ " I groaned to myself as I plopped into a chair. "There's a Master component."

Trying a third time, careful of it, my thoughts shifted to reprioritize everything in terms of _mass_ above all else. It was a subtle thing, but still present and effecting my mind. Annoyed that I hadn't thought of it earlier I started to consider Krouse, and I found myself thinking of him not as a person, but an object to be used. Given his slavish devotion to Noelle, one that couldn't be said to just border on obsession, it wouldn't be that hard to get him to do what I want, and from there I could eliminate him in such a way that implicated Coil. From there I could-

I stopped, angry at myself for losing focus and released the power again. _Okay_ , I considered, _I've got a minute of use before it starts to really mess with me. Maybe._ Krouse didn't see _people_ he saw _objects_ and _goals_ and I wondered if his power made him that way, or just exacerbated an existing problem. All of that didn't explain why I couldn't teleport _myself_.

Promising myself to drop the power between uses I was able to move things around, including bugs for books, and bugs for bugs without issue in case there was a Manton limit I was tripping over, _somehow,_ but the time I needed to clear my head kept increasing even with identical use times. No matter what I did, up to trying to switch a tin version of Vejovis with _very_ similar mass _and_ volume, I _couldn't move myself._

Hitting a wall in that endeavor I was ready to move on and do something else, just to stop failing at something that actively messed with my head. Poking around topside I found a still sick Dinah trying to make herself some soup in the middle of the night. We talked, and I found out that Herb and Kayden had been taking good care of her, but she'd woken up hungry and knew that she had a 89.26 percent chance of getting food herself without a problem. Furnishing her with a phone and instructions to text Herb or I in case she needed anything I took over and made sure she was fed, helping her back to bed as she was still dealing with the aftereffects of her addiction.

Thinking about the snake bastard, I decided it was time to start working on another plan to deal with him. I'd do it in a few days, but as long as I didn't interfere in anything _now_ I could do some intel gathering. Leaving the topside base as Boardwalk I quickly dropped underground, once again following the thread of Sundancer's costume.

I found the underground complex easy enough, the night patrols quickly identified by the local bug population. Following the thread to Marissa's room, I found she wasn't there. Folded up on her bed, which was made, was her costume. Frowning I started looking around, trying to find Krouse and the rest, but the rooms they'd been in before were empty and cleaned.

With a sinking in my stomach I turned my attention to the chamber that Noelle was in last time. It was easy, as a spider had taken up residence in the one of the corners, allowing me to see that it was _empty._ Taking control of the other insects and looking through the rest of the base I found that while there were still the patrols, over half the staff that was there last time was missing.

Coil was still at his desk, hard at work even at this pre-dawn hour. Moving through the walls I positioned myself out of reach of the cameras. I wouldn't kill him, yet, but I could gather intel on what _exactly_ his power could do.

Becoming solid I activated Power Sight, ready to see what flavor of bullshit his power was. The colors sharpened like they always did, but that was it. I looked around, enhanced sight letting me pick out all of the details of the room, and I looked back at Coil. Nothing. _No_ , I thought, _I know he has powers._ That meant just one thing: this Coil, the person dressed as him in the middle of his secret base, _was a fake._


	99. Leak 9-6

**Leak 9.6**

I flew up to the surface, noting where Coil's base was if I needed to visit it again, before submerging and heading back to my _own_ secret base. Striding inside I dealt with e-mails, confirming that I'd heal this afternoon for Quinn and forwarding the dossiers Tattletale sent to me off to my brother. Waking everyone up with pancakes was appreciated, Dean, Vicky, and Amy heading off for school. Theo headed back for the lab he'd claimed, Herb went to check up on Dinah, and Kayden took care of Aster. Taylor and I sparred, improving her form, and she kept up her use of her powers, working on range and splitting attention, her power slowly growing, its flames stronger and more vibrant.

She was working on how to 'program' her swarms with orders that would have them leave her effective range, complete a task, and come back, already taking the concept from discovery to practicality in less than a day, the two of us bouncing ideas off each other. In the breaks we took between spars she told me about the difficulties in making the 'programs' functional; one of which was, insects in general not having any kind of unified internal clocks and thus requiring her to use external indicators of time, but ones that bugs could understand on their own. I was stumped on how to solve it, but as she explained it, answering my questions about the details, she figured out on her own how she could use the internal rhythms of a single species and key the rest in to follow the timer-bug's 'directions.'

Calling the spar off for lunch, along with a bit of healing for her to help with the soreness, I left Taylor to continue working on the base to deliver lunch to Theo. Knocking on the door I received no response, so I opened the door to see him working on what looked like a sniper rifle from the Armory.

He waved in my direction as I walked in, setting the tray down on the table. "What're you working on this time?" I inquired.

"Lighting cannon, a real one," he said, not looking up.

When no more explanation was forthcoming, I asked, "And you're using a sniper rifle because. . .?"

"To be able to aim it the components need to be separated out, otherwise you'd get a projector, and I wouldn't want to hit someone by accident," he commented, pausing. "It's okay that I took this, right?"

I waved a hand in negation, "Just log it with the VI and you should be fine."

"Uhhhh," he hesitated.

Zilla chimed in, "All materials used in the labs are automatically logged."

"And thus there's no problem," I reassured him. "Any metals you need?"

"Metals?" he asked, "Um, actually, yeah, I could use," he rattled off a list, quite a few of them odd. I'd never heard of things like Inconel, but he reassured me that it was indeed a metal.

I left, moving to a materials lab and looking up the various substances, creating ingots of them and loading them on a trolley. He seemed surprised when I wheeled it in an hour later, but he was too engrossed in taking them to the machinery to do whatever it was he needed them for to say anything.

Between tasks Charlie called me up, asking me to come over to his base as he needed a favor. I considered going incognito and driving there, Herb having found the base's motorpool, but then I realized I'd have to deal with city driving, and then city parking, and I had _superpowers_.

* * *

Rising up out of the ground in an alley near his base, it was a short walk to the Unitarian Universalist church which hid his lair. I was greeted at the door, a person in a white robe with a red sash asking me how he could help me today. I almost asked for Charlie, but realized that my little brother might not have used that name. Similarly asking for Æonic might not be the best idea if he'd hired people that didn't know they were working for a villain.

"One moment," I asked, stepping outside and slipping out my phone.

"Yes Vejovis?" My brother's 'I'm a supervillain, honest' voice responded.

"So, I'm outside your church, but I don't know who to ask for," I told him quietly. "Don't wanna mess up your plans."

"Tell him you wish to hear the bells," he instructed, voice smug.

I looked to the top of the church, and while there was a tower, there didn't appear to be any bells within it, "But it doesn't have any. . . Oh, right." I'd forgotten the name of his gang, _For Whom the Bell Tolls_. "Okay, that works," I told him, feeling embarrassed. I could practically hear the smirk on the other end. "Seeya soon."

Giving the priest/layperson/minion/whatever the passcode he smiled, asking me to follow him. Leading me through the church and past an active soup-kitchen, I was led to an office with no windows. If it weren't for my powers, I would've never noticed the room descending underground, the ride was so smooth.

The office door opened, an Asian girl in what appeared to be grey and dark blue army fatigues looked at my sneakers, jeans, jacket, and shades incredulously. ". . . Vejovis?"

I floated up out of the chair, "I wasn't going to come here in _costume_."

Mollified, she gave a half bow. "Please, follow me," she instructed, turning and leaving the room.

I did so, noting the pistol at her side and the fact that the camouflage of her uniform was actually a repeating clock pattern, all those we passed garbed similarly. The walls were covered with a wood paneling like the inside of the church was, but a few turns and through a guarded doorway I found myself in a steel corridor that wouldn't look out of place on a sci-fi movie set. It had a militaristic look, less Star Trek and more Mass Effect, and had a _very_ different feel from Eclipse's arcology-like design. We moved past a surprising number of people doing various things, going to and fro as we descended deeper into the complex.

Knowing I would've been thoroughly lost without my bugs to give me reference points, we ended in a room that screamed command center, staffed by over a dozen people. Æonic, in his costume, stood at the back, overlooking it all and at his own computer. On the opposite wall was a map of the city, obviously colored for the various factions which controlled it. The bottom right and left corners were red, an iron cross with two red eights on it denoting it as Nazi-held. The center of the map was white, the symbol of the PRT splashed across it. The top right was a yellowish green, a fading spay-painted M indicating Merchant territory. The top left, extending into the top center was the same blue as the uniforms everyone wore, a stylized pocket watch identifying it as the territory that my brother at least assumed he controlled, likely the old ABB stomping grounds.

Charlie stood, imperiously descending the stairs, his cane tapping as he did so. "Vejovis," he greeted, those working discreetly glancing over as he did so. "So good of you to come."

"You said you needed assistance," I replied, playing the game. "And while I consider your line of work. . . distasteful, I haven't heard your group do anything that is _truly_ reprehensible."

"Nor will you," he replied smoothly, turning to my guide. "Thank you, Ms. Wu, please send Mr. Parker to my office." The girl left, shooting me a concerned look before heading out. "If you would come with me, we can proceed with our business."

I didn't say anything, trying not to laugh, and followed him through a door in the back of the room, down a few hallways and into a well-appointed office. There were two chairs in front of an impressive looking desk behind which he took his seat.

I plopped down, asking him, "Did you really need the dog-and-pony show?"

"When you have minions, you'll understand the necessities of command," he replied pompously, holding the stance before laughing. "It's fun, and gives me a bit of, you know, mystique and shit. Thanks for going along with it."

I shrugged, "Your base your rules. I'm eventually gonna be in the same boat, turns out the base was only the top level."

"Mine's still better," he replied immediately, but I could hear the smile in his voice. "Did you read Tat's report?"

"Nah man, I was just playing messenger. Why?" I asked.

He steepled his finger, "Well, according to her, one of my own _already_ has powers, which he hasn't seen fit to inform me of. _You_ are here to check, given _your_ warning that she may be wrong."

"And the fact that it lets you show off your base and that you're on friendly terms with the leader of the new hero team to the mooks doesn't exactly hurt," I reposted.

"Well, _yeah,_ " he gave, "But it's mostly the checking." He started to say something but looked past me towards the door, sitting back and taking an expectant posture.

A man, youngish and of indeterminate race, knocked opened the door. "You asked for me, Sir?" he said, glancing over at me in confusion.

"Take a seat Mr. Parker," he indicated, waving to the empty seat.

I Saw him, as he did so and Technical Knowledge clung to him in restrained Dark Purple & Rust Red flames. He had two specializations: Stealth & Armor. "So Mr. Parker," I inquired, "how long have you been a Tinker?"

He stiffened, hand darting into his pocket and he disappeared. As soon as he did the room went dead silent, and I sat still wondering what was going to happen next. Charlie shook his head and stood up, stretching. I looked over at him in question and he jumped back, splitting into four overlapping people before reforming. I tried to say 'What?' but while I could hear myself say it in my own head, the sound stopped there.

His body language said, 'what the hell!' I in turn shrugged and motioned towards where the Tinker had disappeared. My brother shook his head, reaching into his desk and pulled out a pen paper, writing 'how are you still moving?'. He handed it to me and I wrote, 'I grabbed Paninla's power.' He took it, shook his head, and wrote 'of course you did.'

I ignored him and stood up myself, reaching out to where his minion used to be. My brother gave me a confused look and I motioned for the pad. He handed it over, unsure, and I wrote, 'his specializations are stealth and armor. He's probably still in the room.' I tried to look for him with Power Sight, but whatever he was using to cloak himself stopped my ability to See the flame of his power.

He read it, nodded, and split into several different overlapping copies, all reaching blindly in different directions. He was halfway to the door when one of them tripped over something, the others all looking over and carefully feeling the space out. Finding the runner, Charlie coalesced and carrying the Tinker back to his chair. He held up a finger to wait and walked through a disguised door in the back, returning with a length of red silk rope.

I gave him a look, but his stance said, 'what?' and he tied the invisible form of his minion to the chair, cord wrapping around unseen waist and legs, walking over and locking the door before returning to his seat. He held up a hand, lowering one finger at a time, and after the last finger he folded his hands and let time resume, the sound of my original "What?" coming from where I'd said it. The invisible Tinker struggled for a moment, the rope still being visible, before he sighed and clicked something, reappearing.

"Serious question, why did you run?" I asked. "You _already_ work for him."

"If anything, I was going to offer you a promotion," my brother added. "You possess hitherto unknown talents, and I _always_ reward talent. Now though, I must profess that I too am interested in your response to that _particular_ query."

"I," the minion, Parker, hesitated before hanging his head. "I'm sorry sir, I panicked."

"Tinkers are skittish," I shrugged, leaning back in my chair. "Do you know your specialization yet?"

"I made this," he said, twisting himself over to pull out a metallic cylinder from his pocket, a button on the top. "and this," he sat back down and leaned over to put his free hand inside his shirt, pulling out a medallion covered in circuitry. "This," he wiggled the cylinder, "Makes you invisible for five minutes. While this," he waggled the medallion, "Makes a shield if I'm shot at. I think it might be energy fields."

"Possibly," Æonic said, "Or you could have two specialties, as sometimes happens. Your invisibility generator is obviously a device which prioritizes stealth, unless it gives you some defensive benefit?"

The Tinker shook his head, "No, just invisibility." He laughed, " _Just_ invisibility. Never thought I'd say that."

"And do you have an ideas that would create an offensive energy field, say, something that increased heat in a fixed area?" my brother suggested.

Parker thought about this for a second before shaking his head, "No. I could do the opposite, make a field that regulates temperature, I could build a multi-layered projection arra-"

"We don't need the details, just that you can," I interrupted, explaining to my brother, "My team has a Tinker as well, and then tend to go on about details no one else understands."

"And could you make armor? Something for the strike teams?" Æonic asked, stopping time again to untie his minion, stowing the silk rope in a drawer of his desk.

The Tinker considered this, not noticing he was free, and nodding his head, "I suppose so. I'd need some materials but, yes, yes I could. Maybe integrate the stealth fields into a-"

"Then it appears to me Mr. Parker, that your specialty is _not_ energy fields, as the armor precludes it, but instead stealth and defense, with a certain proclivity towards energy fields," Æonic announced. "Please put together a list of possible projects and estimated associated costs. I will call for you in a few hours to discuss your new position with this organization, along with your raise. You are dismissed."

"Yes Sir!" the young man smiled, starting to get up and glancing down in surprise. He shook his head, looking back at his boss, "I'll get right on that!"

The world went silent once more as my brother walked over and unlocked the door, returning to where he was sitting and starting time once more. The Tinker jumped up, excited, and happily left the room.

"Smooth Chuckles," I smiled, turning back to my brother. "So, you've got a Tinker already. How many vials did you get?"

"Three, duh," he shrugged, looking at my expression. "Oh, this another one of those 'I've got power forever, but I might die because of it' things, isn't it?" I just stared at him. "What did you spend the points on instead?"

"Mechanical talent that crosses dimensional boundaries," I told him flatly.

His head cocked to the side, "Doesn't one of the powers let you repair anything? And wouldn't you still have a lot of points left over."

" _Dad_ only picked one Vial," I stated defensively.

He just _looked_ at me, managing to do so behind a faceless mask. "Ya say that like it helps."

"Fuck you," I said, but couldn't help but smile. "Fine, what do yours do?" He didn't say anything. "You forgot, didn't you?"

"They're all Tinkers, and they all make it hard to die. There were some other _minor_ powers I might not remember," he hedged.

I waved, "Bring 'em out, I can tell you what's in them."

"Really?" he perked up, and the room went quiet. I looked at him in confusion and sound returned. "Right, that doesn't work on you. They were just going to appear of nowhere. It was gonna be cool. Be right back."

He went back to his room and came back with a steel case, setting it down on the table. "Wow, where did that come from? It's like it just appeared out of nowhere!" I marveled fakely, laughing as he flipped me off. He opened the case and turned it around. I grabbed the first Vial, labelled 'Spin Doctor' and opened it, Seeing the mixture inside.

"Respawn: five times per day if you die you appear in a burst of fire in a safe location, naked, and fully healed. Tinker power with a Cybernetics specialization. And, _fuck,_ that one? Temporal Overwrite: can touch another person and they get the memories of the next 24 hours. Doesn't work if the person would've dies, has been affected by the power in the last 24 hours, or is a Blindspot, so it won't work on us. Also doesn't _include_ Blindspots, so the future is one where you, Dad, Eidolon, The Endbringers, Scion, and I don't exist, starting from when the power is used. It's a predictive model, not actual time travel, even though it's designed to feel like it is."

I stoppered the vial, grabbing the one labelled 'Embankment'. "Respawn again, this Tinker power has a Structure specialization, and the last ability lets you turn into an earth elemental, with all sorts of earth themed powers." I stoppered the vial, "I'll need to see the user to help define those, it's kinda vague."

Grabbing the last one, labelled 'Springfield', I opened it, Gazing inside. "And the _third_ Respawn," I commented.

"I didn't want them to die!" he defended.

I waved away his words, "My melee focused vial has the same thing. This Tinker is specialized with hmm, Small Arms. We've got one of those on our team, but our guy's better. And lastly," I whistled. " _Actual_ time travel. Temporal Leap: Jump five minutes into the future or past. After ten minutes you merge, if one of you die you both die, or in this case, respawn."

Putting it away I turned the closed the case and turned it back around. "So. . ." I said leadingly.

"So I know who to give these to," he thought out loud.

"And _thank you,_ " I prodded.

He glanced up, "What? Huh, yeah, thanks, sorry! Right, anything else I need to know?"

I rolled my eyes. "Make sure they drink _all_ the vial or else bad things happen. Powers are at maximum strength right off the bat for people who get their powers from a bottle. Natural Triggers like Parker will get twitchy if they don't get to experiment and fight, but the people who you give those to won't. According to Herb Leviathan will show up on the fifteenth. When he does, _make sure you're not in your base._ "

"Why s _houldn't_ I be in the heavily defended secret base?" he asked, motioning around him.

"Because it's not _that_ heavily defended, and it won't stay _secret_ when Leviathan stands on top of it, makes water from nothing, and forces it inside until _everyone drowns,_ " I insisted. "Out there you'll have all the heroes, and some of the villains, to help you. We're not gonna _beat_ him, we _can't_. We're going to meet him in combat and hold our own, nothing less, nothing more. The level of attention gained from defeating him is more than _either_ of us can handle right now," I advised, "And if we somehow manage to _kill_ him? **_Everything gets worse._** "

"Okay, jeez, I get it, calm down!" he warded me off, hands up. "I get it, I'll fight him out with everybody else!"

"Sorry, but this _isn't_ something you can try to get out of," I told him. "And if you somehow do, all that means is the next time an Endbringer attacks, it will go after you wherever you are, which will likely be _here. Again._ "

"Fine, I won't. _Mom,_ " he told me sarcastically. I just stared at him from behind my shades, not moving. "Okay, fine, I won't," he echoed, meaning it this time. "Anything else?"

I sighed, "Nah man, I just know how much you like loopholes, and I don't want you getting hurt because of it." I checked the time. "I should get going, I've got a schedule to keep."

"See ya later man," my brother told me, "I've gotta go give my people superpowers."

* * *

After several hours doing basic cosmetic work, I was sitting down for a cup of coffee with Quinn Calle. "So," I asked, Sound Bubble in place, "Am I back in black again?"

He nodded, taking a sip of the coffee we'd ordered from MaHotma Grindy. "Unless you decide to wage war against the E88 as well, yes, you have a positive balance with the firm."

"And between the twelfth and the seventeenth you _won't_ be in town?" I continued.

He nodded again, though without his previous assuredness, "Yes, though I wish I could warn the rest of them."

I shrugged, "It's the precog's dilemma. Do I use the foreknowledge to prepare for the event or do I use it to divert them, if I can, and have something else entirely happen _without_ warning? I don't know where they are right now, so I must go with the former."

"I understand, but that will not mean I wish it where otherwise. I'm only human," he smiled roguishly.

I replied with a half-shrug, "Fair enough, there is one other thing I wanted to ask you about. Would you like powers?"

Quinn Calle, unflappable lawyer for hundreds of villains, choked on his coffee. I watched, wondering if I'd need to give him CPR. He got himself under control, hair slightly askew, and looked at me seriously. " _What_ did you just say?"

"Would you like powers?" I repeated mildly. "You've shown yourself to be trustworthy and I won't ask you to quit your day job. In fact I'd prefer you don't." I looked him over carefully, "You okay?"

He pressed a napkin to his sleeve, trying to clean himself up. "I very much wasn't expecting the offer."

 _Ah, word games,_ I thought, _but it seems like he'd being careful, not malignant._ "But not the concept of someone _granting_ powers."

He didn't say anything as he cleaned up, considering the coffee before putting it off to the side. "Naming no names, as I will not violate attorney-client privilege, but some of previous people I have provided services for have had. . . claims. Claims that they could never substantiate, much less prove in a court of law. Those that wished to use that. . . conspiracy theory, despite my professional advice, suddenly started listening, or were rendered incapable of listening to anything. Ever again."

I sighed, "Yeah Cauldron has a definite Illuminati thing goin' on."

He looked at me, but was not seeing me. "Case 53's?"

" _Yep_ ," I agreed. "And now we're _definitely_ getting into the 'if you talk to someone who _isn't_ me about this they'll try to kill you' territory."

He shook his head ruefully, "Wouldn't be the first time. So, you work for them?"

I snorted, "No, they're dicks. Break and Enter do some contract work for them, but that's all. However, their method _is_ the way I could give you powers."

"Would I need to fight?" he enquired, a bit of a smile tugging at his lips, though his eyes were still worried. "Not agreeing to anything, but want kind of lawyer would I be if I didn't consider my options?"

"No," I reassured him, "none of the powers are combat related."

"Oh, good, -wait," he said looking at to me, "You know what the powers will be? That isn't how that's supposed to work. Theoretically," he added lamely.

I shrugged, trying not to smirk, "My version's better."

He just looked at me before sighing and pinching the bridge of his nose. "You're either insane, or your telling the truth. Either way I need to take this seriously. What are the powers you would grant me?"

"Tinker ability specializing in detection technology; a _different_ Tinker ability that will let you repair anything, including other Tinkertech; the ability to telepathically control tech within one hundred meters of you, but not Tinkertech; the ability to possess and control technology, which comes with Internet travel, and _includes Tinkertech_ , and if what you're possessing is destroyed you pop out perfectly fine, though I'm not sure _where_ ; and lastly you can summon five people a day to you, provided you've seen them in person," I listed off.

"That's five," he pointed out helplessly, not wanting to believe what he was hearing. " _No one_ has more than three powers."

I raised an eyebrow and cloaked the office in Darkness, obscuring any possible cameras. Holding up a hand I summoned a blood red, eight-pointed star of flame before dismissing it, then dismissed the darkness. "I've heard that theory. It's interesting. Though if one wanted to have. . . reasonable doubt, Tinkertech can often give one the appearance of breaking the rules around parahumans without actually doing so."

I gave him time to think about it, and he finally asked, "What would you be asking me to do?"

"Unofficially join the Penumbral Defenders and run support. The power set would mean that you would, at most, remotely operate tech to help. Possibly something like a Dragon suit," I suggested, wondering what it would take to nab one. I knew the Dragon-slayers existed, and they were paranoid jerks, but not _where_ their base was past 'Canada'. "This method means you get none of the drive for conflict that Natural Triggers have, but this method means that your power will never grow in strength, and it won't help you subconsciously."

I opened my hands in an encompassing gesture, "You'd be read in on any secret you wished to know that I could share, you'd be protected more than the average person, and you'd gain access to resources you weren't aware existed, and you might just be what helps us save the world, though that one's a long-term goal and useless for practical negotiations."

He looked at me, as if he were truly seeing me for the first time. "You really believe that. All of that."

"I don't lie to people if I can help it," I admitted, "And I never would for this sort of thing. If you join based on falsehoods, then how could I expect you to trust me on anything else?"

He looked me in the eyes, or as much as he could with my mask on. He broke eye contact and shook his head. "I need time to consider. Time to think. I need time to talk to my family," he told me.

"Of course," I replied. "I wasn't expecting an answer _today._ My only request would be _not_ to talk about Cauldron without me around. They can hear you do so and might arrive to stop the information of their existence from spreading," I warned. "The world has a deficit of good men in it, and I wouldn't wish for that disparity to grow due to my actions."

* * *

I left Quinn to his thoughts, returning home to start to research powers to obtain the coming weekend. My combat power and survivability were decent for now, but they could be better. What I _truly_ needed was more utility: a way to help the city in the wake of the Endbringer attack. To that end I needed a new identity. I needed someone who could help make people's lives _better._

If I had Panacea's Diagnostic power I could start having fun with biotech, but that path was closed to me. From the other direction, I needed a power set I could use for construction. To start with I had Kaiser's Metal Creation, which I'd taken in such different directions that I wondered if it would even cross Max's mind that they were the same power. All he ever created was blades, but I'd built something _much_ more when I'd helped upgrade Taylor's Lair, and that was just the _beginning_.

Unfortunately, there were no good powers around to combine with Metal Creation for the purposes of permanent construction. Even expanding to the local hero contingent, there was no ability that would let me make anything on the level of Kaiser's power, or that would enhance Metal Creation's use that could not be accomplished with just a touch more creativity. Expanding my search south led me to Boston, and the problems inherent with stepping on Accord's toes.

Going north would put me into the Portland area, which was _much_ quieter. There were a few candidates, and thus I expanded into the surrounding area, into the wilds of Maine where the line between Hero and Villain blurred, and so did my objections. Unfortunately, the data one could gather on those insular communities was spotty, at best, and on the off-chance Numberman was watching the base's access to Cauldron servers I refused to use those resources. We'd dodged _one_ cruise missile completely by accident, I didn't want to rely on that for the second.

Wishing Taylor, Herb, and Theo a good night, as they were the only ones still up, I took to the skies as Boardwalk, just to get my head out of the screen and let the reams of data I'd poured through percolate. A quick patrol busted up a few Merchant drug dealers, two muggings, one break-in, and one maybe-rape, maybe-prostitution thing. I honestly couldn't make heads or tails of the entire situation, and _both_ of them were yelling at each other about 'owing' the other, so I just made them leave in separate directions on pain of getting shot.

Dealing with mundane evils helped a bit, and I was tired but in a better mood when I started circling around to go home. As I moved rooftop to rooftop I glowed with a riot of colors to, like most things in nature, tell other things to fuck off because I was dangerous. "Hello Boardwalk!" A voice called from above me.

I looked around, finding no threat's when my enhanced sight picked out the unlit drone from the black sky. The dark sphere floated down to come even with my head. "Hello Boardwalk from ULTRA!"

I cocked my head, staring at the flying camera. "Who the fuck is this?"

The drone dipped for a moment, like I'd hurt it's fucking feelings. "It stands for **Ü** ber & **L** 33t: **T** itanic **R** umble **A** nnouncers! Bringing cape fights from the shadows of ignorance into the light of more viewers than you can shake an ad at!" The drone said. It sounded confident, so I assumed that was Über.

I waved to myself, "Some of us _like_ the fuckin' shadows."

"The shadows are metaphorical," a different voice explained, "It's, representative of-"

"I don't care," I growled. "Get to the point or I'm leavin'."

Über took over, "We'd like to conduct an interview with you, for our channel!"

"No." This identify worked because he wasn't social on camera. An interview would be the _opposite_ of that.

The drone dipped again. "Not even-"

I started to take off.

"Wait, at least take our number in case you change your mind!" Über requested. A panel on the side opened up and a business card popped out.

I took it, looking it over. Nice cardstock, and it didn't appear to be anything more than paper and ink. "If this is some kinda tracker, I'll track _you_ down and shove it up your ass."

"It isn't!" L33t squeaked, the drone backing up.

"And it would be unprofessional!" Über added.

I shook my head, turning my back on the drone, "I'll think about it," I called over my shoulder, taking off up into the night, dropping into an empty lot and phasing through the ground, ready to get some rest. Maybe Herb was onto something with that vacation idea.


	100. Leak 9-x (Interlude: Danny, Coil, Medhu)

**Leak 9.x (Interlude: Danny, Coil, Medhu)**

Danny Hebert was a busy man. For someone else, being spokesman and head of hiring for the Dockworker's Association would be an easy job, as there was no shortage of offers from 'applicant's' who wanted to join, and who came with 'jobs' of their own. In another city it would be easy as well: a working port and made an endless amount of work. But Danny wasn't in another city, and he wasn't someone else, so he had to constantly fight to keep his boys in _honest_ work. While he wasn't always successful, he never gave up on them.

When the ABB were still around, _before_ they went nuts, they'd helped balance out the Nazis, allowing him to not cave for risk of 'offending' the other side. However, the ABB was long gone, having lost it when their leader was captured, and what had splintered off seemed to be disappearing one group at a time. He wanted to blame Armsmaster for that. If _he_ hadn't brought in Lung, all of this wouldn't've happened. Danny knew it wasn't fair, but his feelings didn't care about the facts. At least it kept him busy.

That was one of the two blessings of his position. The first, of course, was that it let him help other people. That it made sure that, at least in his own corner of the city, people did honest work they could be proud of. The second though, was that it was a _constant_ battle. After Anette died, after he'd lost his wife, he'd been without purpose. He'd lost the one person who gave his life meaning and wasn't sure what to do. Even worse, and he hated himself for thinking it, but his daughter, whom he'd loved dearly, had friends she could go to, to help her through it all.

Thank god Alan had been there for him, just like Alan's daughter had been there for his little owl, or he wasn't sure _what_ he would've done. His friend had gotten him back in Taylor's life, even though she didn't need him, and helped smooth things over with his job. He really owed that man, more than he could ever repay.

Busy as he was, he almost missed the call from Taylor's school. He frowned picking it up, wondering at what they could want. Winslow had only been open for a few days after all. "Hello?" he asked, his practice as a negotiator helping him disguise his confusion.

"This is an automated message for. . . Daniel Herbert. . . You are being informed that your child. . . Taylor Herbert. . . has been. . . suspended. . . for reasons of. . . Truancy. If you have questions, please contact. . . Winslow High School. Thank you, have a nice day," the automated voice intoned, disconnecting.

He stared at the phone in confusion before calling the school, trying to find out what was going. He'd seen her leave for school just last. . . well, he'd been busy, what with all the work the DA had been getting with clearing up the damage from the bombings, but his little girl wouldn't skip school!

An aggravated telephone conversation later, he found that she apparently _was._ That she hadn't come back after they'd re-opened, and that they'd sent a _letter_. A letter which probably wouldn't reach him for another few days. Walking out into the office proper, he told the rest of the staff, all two of them, that he'd be out for the rest of the day, and that it was a family issue. They wished him the best, Gloria promising that she'd pray for her while Eric just gave him a nod of sympathy.

The drive home was tense. He wasn't sure what he was going to say to his daughter if she was home. He berated himself, knowing he should've said _something_ when he'd caught her coming home late, _weeks_ ago, but there was never a good time. Maybe he should've when she was injured, but he was so busy and it wouldn't be right to confront her when she was hurt.

He got home, the 2nd of May a bright and sunny day, in direct contrast to his stormy mood. "Taylor?" he called as he opened the front door, but no one answered. Moving to her doorway, he knocked, but he still got nothing. Opening her door, he poked his head inside, trying to at least _start_ on good terms, but she wasn't there. He scanned the space, but something felt. . . off.

"Taylor?" he called, just to make sure, as he walked inside. He hadn't been in her room in _months_ , trying to give her her space, though that was obviously a mistake. One of many. It struck him, as it often did, how much he _missed_ Anette. _She_ would've known what to do, what to say. Not for the first time, he wished he could trade places with her. He sat down on his daughter's bed, wondering what to do, and his train of thought crashed as a puff of dust rose around him.

The house had _always_ been a bit dusty, but it took more than a couple days to get _this_ bad. Danny sat for a second, confused. His first thought was that she'd been gone for days but he'd _seen_ that she'd been home. Dishes in the dishwasher, leftovers eaten, her favorite mug drying on the. . . he paused, thinking, before stiffly returning to the kitchen. Opening the cabinet, her favorite mug, the one that Anette had bought her with the owls, was gone.

Without realizing it he walked back in her room and sat down again, disturbing several days of dust. He looked around, trying to glean some clue as to where his daughter was. The posters on her wall, Alexandria and Armsmaster, where still up. Moving to her closet, he opened it up. He knew he shouldn't be looking through his daughter's things, and he'd apologize when he saw her, but he needed to know where his little owl was. The closet, full of her old clothes, and other things, seemed untouched.

Danny thought she might have put her backpack in closet, as it wasn't in her room and she sometimes put it in there by accident when she tried to clean. It was missing. Going through her drawers, some of her clothing seemed to be missing as well. He stopped short of opening her underwear drawer. "I'm sure she'll be home soon, I don't need to do this," he told himself, but it sounded hollow even to his own ears.

 _If she was hiding something, she wouldn't put it there,_ he reasoned. _I'd find it when I did laundry._ Except he _wouldn't_ , because he hadn't ever since he'd lost-, because she'd been doing her own laundry for over a _year_. Reaching with trepidation, he opened the drawer. It was empty, save for four, worn, full notebooks.

He carefully reached in and grabbed one, taking a seat at her desk. He reached over to turn on the lamp, only to realize it wasn't there, a circle of dust showing it'd been moved recently. He opened the blinds fully instead, using the early afternoon light to read what appeared to be a journal, though it looked like his daughter had also stapled printouts to some of the pages.

It was the setting sun that forced him to stop. He felt sick to his stomach, and he hadn't even finished the _first_ notebook. He'd _known_ his daughter was being bullied, but this. . . this _wasn't_ bullying, this was _beyond_ harassment. Hell, the time that Jake had dated that crazy stalker she didn't do a _fraction_ of what had been done to his little girl! How could he've _missed_ this? If only he'd _noticed_ , he could've _helped_ her, done what he was supposed to as her _father_ instead of the _failure_ he'd been.

He wanted to go to the school and give them a _piece of his mind_. _They'd_ made it sound as if there'd been, at most, some name calling, and maybe a spilled drink that wasn't _really_ on accident. This. . . If even a quarter, an _eight_ , a **_sixteenth_** , of what his daughter had recorded was true, then he should _never_ have taken the money they offered, damn the medical bills. Suddenly, the legal advice that his friend gave him took a _very_ different perspective.

He wanted to confront Alan. It was _obvious_ that one of the people tormenting his little girl was Emma, the people that sent his daughter those emails knew things that they couldn't know otherwise. Things that _he_ hadn't known. His little girl had cried for a week after Anette's death, and _he_ didn't find out until _today_. Then again, maybe Alan hadn't noticed. He _wanted_ to believe so, that it wasn't just him. _Danny_ hadn't after all, and _his_ daughter was the one in pain!

 _Wait_! he thought, _she made friends. Maybe she's with them!_ The girl, _Lisa_ was her name, had called him after Taylor was hurt. Had been there for his daughter when _he_ couldn't. He almost ran to his office to get to his phone, glad that he'd saved her number. Calling it, all he got was an automated message stating the number was not in service. Danny had to carefully put the phone down, so he wouldn't break it, starting to _hate_ automated messages.

He paced, searching the rest of the house for _any_ clue to what happened. Other than a basement he _really_ needed to clean, the space veritably covered in cobwebs, he found nothing. He sat at the kitchen table, worrying. His first thought was that she'd been taken, something he'd worried about for years. A fear that had only gotten worse once she started jogging. He thought, since she was smart and had her pepper spray, she'd be fine, but with how things had gotten in the city, with warfare in the streets, new gangs, and the E88 attacking the mayor in broad daylight, he wasn't so sure anymore.

 _No_ , _she left. She took her underwear, and her mug, and her lamp, and some of her clothing,_ he reasoned, the thought cold comfort. He never thought his little girl would run away from home, from her parents, but with how things had been at school, _did_ this count as home? As much as he hadn't been there for her, did he _really_ count as her father? Did he _deserve_ to think of himself that way? He considered the phone in the living room.

She might hate him for this, but he couldn't _help_ her if he couldn't _find_ her. Dialing the number, he said, "Hello, police? My name is Daniel Hebert, and I'd like to report a missing person."

* * *

Coil stepped into his limousine as night fell on the third of May, content how things had gone. In another reality, he continued to read reports, writing down only notes in that contingency timeline. As much as Thomas Calvert wanted to use his powers to gain. . . _insight_ into what secrets Accord's office held, it was too risky. If he'd still had the child, he might've, but if he still had possession of her he wouldn't be in Boston in the first place.

He frowned beneath his helmet in memory of that loss. He had no way to prove it, but he _knew_ that Boardwalk was involved, somehow. The PRT's classifications of him had the obvious powers, the dark body and the light blasts, but they'd missed his most dangerous ability: _Boardwalk could hide from Thinkers_. It was obvious, if you were smart enough, though few were on _his_ level.

It explained why Dinah hadn't seen him coming, and why his little scuffle with Oni Lee had caught the PRT so off guard. He almost wanted to thank the Brute. That level of violence, involving the _Wards_ no less, had earned Piggot no favors. He almost wished he could see her sweat, but sadly he'd 'come down with a case of Pneumonia' and had been forced to use some of the sick days he'd accrued in his years of _loyal service_ to take some long needed personal time. _It is so easy to get a doctor's note when you have one on staff,_ he mused.

The soon-to-be PRT branch director waited until he was safe in his temporary base, having gotten 'permission' from Accord to stay for a few months, in exchange for a fee, before he copied his notes and dropped his safe timeline, splitting them again. Quickly rechecking to make sure what he saw was accurate, he let out a breath of relief. He didn't know the limitations of Boardwalk's powers, _yet_ , but it was only a matter of time. It wasn't quite so easy to circumvent as Brian's little sister, but by cycling _his_ power he could break the effect that cape generated.

The problem with the Think Tank was that most of _their_ powers were _constant,_ and thus once they were affected, they were permanently compromised, like his little tattletale. Blinded as she was, she still had her uses, and her work getting close to the Penumbral Defenders seemed to be going well, though it would probably be her last 'independent' assignment. The Undersiders program was looking less and less likely to work in its current format, but he had _plans_ for her.

It was obvious his remaining Thinker had learned of his _true_ power. Unlike the other times he'd had a _session_ with her, she _didn't_ throw her realization of his power in his face, trying to keep the knowledge a secret. It had been amusing trying to get her to crack, so sure in the knowledge that all it would take was revealing the secret to end it, but with her refusing to. She had potential, but she was _far_ too young and too impetuous to hope to match him, and too arrogant to understand her position in the order of things. _Well, with the child gone I have an extra cell,_ he thought, balancing his assets with the same honed skill with which he balanced his time.

Brian was another asset with limited shelf life. For all the boy's supposed 'experience', he was _sorely_ lacking in wisdom. The leash by which Coil held him, his requirement to at least have an _air_ of legitimacy in order to legally adopt his little sister, was gone but the cape still served his master regardless. With the girl's power as it was there was no _possible_ way that she'd have the 'normal' life her brother wished for her, but the boy still carried out his orders anyways. Not that she was ever going to get it, even if she _hadn't_ developed powers of her own, but now that she had? The 'leader' of the Undersiders was a tainted asset, but one he could easily replace. There were always more Grues, ready to sell themselves for a few promises that would never come true, just like the Travelers.

Speaking of which, he checked on them in his new safety timeline, en route to his secondary safehouse in the other, the one that Accord _didn't_ know about, but was included in the area he'd been 'allowed to' set up in. The Travelers were safe and sound in his secondary base back in Brockton bay, their pet monster moved without incident. More than them, _she_ was his trump card. If all else failed, a rogue Case 53 storming the PRT and killing the director would open things up nicely, but only as a last resort. She would be _far_ more useful to take down himself, saving the city from a danger that was lurking underneath the previous directors' nose, the rest of the Travelers dying in the process.

And they _would_ die, at least _Sundancer_ would. Why the fool girl had accepted that hero's gift baffled him, and in retrospect it was _obvious_ how his base had been found out. She'd cost him his main location, and for that she'd pay. Sadly, the girl had an ability to summon those stars of her even when restrained, as he'd found when he'd tried to collect his _first_ installment.

Considering the last two Undersiders, he had to admit that _they_ , at least, were still salvageable. If Brian was a desperate idiot, Rachel was an attack dog, and _dogs_ could be trained to serve new masters. And Alec? That boy was his creature, through and through, and he would continue to be as long as Coil kept the boy paid and safe from his _loving_ family. Along with Circus and his other new hires, he could rebuild the Undersiders, rebranded of course, to still serve their purpose. They'd have to leave behind their gear, but it was a price he was willing to pay. Those outfits, like Sundancer's, no doubt contained trackers, which had necessitated having his. . . _chats_ taking place at deniable, burnable locations.

Thinking about the 'gifts' Vejovis had given them, Coil couldn't help but snarl behind his mask. Whatever the substance Vejovis had furnished their costumes out of had been impenetrable to his repertoire, but it hadn't been worth the risk to do more with. According to his men's reports Sundancer's still sat in her room, the traps still primed and ready to go. It made a certain amount of sense: if it contained a tracker, why take it with you when you hadn't finished the job? It was only a matter of time until his double was killed, but the destruction of a compromised base was a small price to eliminate _that_ particular unforeseen complication.

That didn't solve the problem of the hero's Tinkers though, this 'Arachne Assemblages'. He couldn't find _anything_ on them, which meant they were either very _new_ , or very _good_. Given the quality of their work, and the speed at which they made gear, it was very much likely the _second_. Creating costumes for the Undersiders was one thing, the hero obviously had planned to suborn his pet project for some time and could have had his Tinkers build the costumes at their leisure. The iron monstrosity they'd put together, for _Mush_ of all people, could also be explained away. From what Coil had seen of the video his men had taken when the hero laid it out, it was nothing more than machined metal. But to do so for Newter and Sundancer, within a _day_? That spoke of a level of production which made them a threat. With any luck, eliminating the Penumbral Defenders would cause them to run and hide, just like most Tinkers did when the unexpected reared its head.

Arriving at his second location, he sent off a few choice messages and started to make preparation to sleep. It was _quite_ the welcome discovery when he realized that he could sleep in his safe timeline, and plot, plan, and observe in the other, only to close the other out when his safe self woke and continue where he picked off, well rested.

 _While some may say that evil never sleeps,_ he mused, _I doubt they meant it this way._

* * *

Medhu looked over the information he'd compiled for the night, wishing he could share the evening with the family he never had in this world. Every year Jack had made sure to watch at least _part_ of the original trilogy with his sons, but events had transpired to make that, if not impossible, then non-optimal. The television glitched out in ways that were becoming increasingly common. Not the signal mind you, Medu'd gotten used to that growing up, the entire television set was flickering in and out of existence, as were several of his windows. What information he could glean from the interrupted broadcast matched what he could read on his notepad, the letters shifting around like they did whenever Jack had to go to the optometrist and read tiny symbols in dark rooms.

While the broadcast was spotty, it was merely serving to confirm what he'd discovered himself. Purity and Glory Girl were dead, as well as the _entirety_ of the E88. Not the capes, _all of them._ From what he could tell, there was some kind of meeting that went wrong around noon. The Nazis had a super-powered sniper, along with someone that could ground flying capes, as New Wave had discovered, leading to the death of Brandish and Laserdream when they got involved.

Making note of the changes in commodities markets _before_ everything went to hell, he turned and looked out his window. Whatever his power was, a power that had peaked _years_ ago, it was starting to develop again. Where even days ago any interference by his sons would've rendered the timeline inoperable for anything they touched, now he could still, somewhat, see around them, understanding what would happen without their presence. Looking out over the Bay he saw a flash of light and another explosion, the fighting still ongoing, a dark shape blasted out and crashing into a building, toppling the structure as it launched itself back into the fighting so fast it seemed to disappear, a concussive blast going off back in the thick of it. Medhu would've thought, with Alexandria and Eidolon dead, the Protectorate would back off, but, if anything, their efforts had just intensified.

Turning his back on the fighting, Jack had to admit there was a certain beauty to the bay with the Rig gone, something that Medhu had always considered an eyesore worthy of the Garama. The deep orange flames still burning on the water added a certain something as well, like a sunrise contrasting with the sunset, very Tatooine. He could appreciate it, considering he wouldn't have to worry about the economic fallout it would surely cause. Feeling the breeze he normally could never get in his high rise apartment, the world burned in a black and silver inferno.

Back in the morning of that day, he jotted down the relevant information, pausing before he performed his last dive, before he reached the point where his power started to hurt him. While their services were supposedly expensive, he could do with a bit of muscle in his corner, and he had the funds to burn. "Cauldron, I'd like to make a bargain," he announced to the empty air. "Cauldron, I'd like to buy a vial. More, depending on the price."

Nothing happened.

Feeling a little silly he announced, "Cauldron? Can you here me? Should I ask around?"

Still nothing.

He rolled his eyes, muttering, "Omniscient my ass," before looking at his options.

The path where he contacted his _other_ son was glitched to uselessness, as usual. He knew who 'Æonic' was and could even select a future where he did meet him, but just like Lee, Charlie was a Blindspot. Medhu would be defenseless there, and while Jack trusted his son not to hurt him, he had far too much to do to waste a day because of that.

Writing up an e-mail warning 'Vejovis' of the attack with what intel he'd gathered from the precog he 'liaisoned' with, he sat back and tried one last dive.

Looking around, his office wasn't glitching. The television was still talking about an attack, though the only dead seemed to be some of the E88's capes. _Good start,_ Medhu thought, moving down the list.

Minor disruption to things on anything more than a local level, commodities markets operating normally, and none of his shops were destroyed. _Even better!_

Glancing out his window, while he did catch the tinge of a glitch in part of the city, deep in E88 territory, a third of the city was no longer shifting under his vision. Then again, the Rig was still there. _Mostly good, a little bad_ , he mused.

The last item on his list gave him pause, and also explained the bloodstain on his sleeve.

Apparently, Kaiser had realized that Jack's son was still in contact with 'Weaver' when his ambush hadn't worked and had sent some people to 'take care of the problem'. On a related note, Medhu's security company was compromised. _Pity that._

Part of Medhu felt a twinge of regret at having warned the Penumbral Defenders of the coming ambush, but Jack quickly crushed it. If a little attention meant that the _city_ wasn't wrecked, then it was a small price to pay. _I'm not a 'Hero',_ he affirmed to himself, _but I'm not **immoral.**_

Dissolving the world in black and silver flames once more returned him to the morning of the fourth of May, and he felt the mild ache beneath his eyes that served as a warning that he'd hit his limit, but the pain was a little less than it'd been yesterday. Picking a future that was close to the one he'd just seen, but with foreknowledge of his own impending ambush, he let his power take over.

His body moved of its own accord, in a way that Jack was still getting used to. Accessing a hidden safe, he started pulling out knives, along with their holsters, and secreted them across his person. Unlocking the back of the hidden safe with his fingerprints, he extracted the specialty pistol Medhu had commissioned from the Toybox, along with three clips of ammo. All he'd need to end the threat.

 _I don't like lying to my children,_ he mused, _but sometimes it's necessary._ When he'd told his son that he had no combat powers, that wasn't _exactly_ true, nor was the extent that Blindspots effected his power in close quarters as crippling as he'd let on. He would do more good at the edges and in the shadows than he would in the thick of it with his sons, and that's what _really_ mattered.

For someone as smart as his son could be, there were a number of things he missed. Jack had been annoyed when Lee told him he couldn't take that Path to Victory power, but his son hadn't noticed how the 2nd trigger version of Destiny Weaver was the twelve-hour version of that, only _better._ Medhu didn't just know the steps to victory, he was moving to a future where he'd already _done_ them.


	101. Leak 9-7

Leak 9.7

Returning to Eclipse I meditated, worked on my shields for a couple of hours, and quickly found myself with nothing to do. Well, that wasn't true, I had dozens of things I could be doing, from training powers, to continuing to set-up the base, to scouring databases for possible powers to grab. The problem there was in using them. My limitation on observable powers meant that the best kind of powers, the kind I could use in multiple identities, were few and far between.

I could go to New York, with its 100+ Parahumans, but short of creating even more identities, I needed powers that I could pass off as extensions of others, like Grue's and Sophia's. In the interim it would be easier to just say 'screw it' and let loose, but from everything I knew about Worm, while escalation was inevitable, it was something I wanted to slow down as much as possible.

On top of that, Cape fights were surprisingly rare elsewhere compared to Brockton Bay. Hell, the rampant, sustained conflict was one of the reasons they got their very own PRT designation and Boston was just department 24. I might have some ideas about how to stir the metaphorical pot in another location using a disposable identity. For instance, using Taylor's ability to control all arthropods, I could brand myself as "Crab Man!" besieging Boston with my crustacean companies, wearing a chrome carapace that I could, in the final confrontation, puppet with Air Control and crush a I "died" in the fighting. Heck, I could give them all tiny, near invisible Speed Zones on some of their feet to make my shelled soldiers zoom about far faster than they should be able to normally.

I shook my head, getting rid of the ridiculous image. Maybe later, after we'd dealt with the Slaughterhouse Nine and needed a break from all the grimdark BS. In the meantime, I moved check my e-mail. I considered inviting Chuckles and Dad over for our normal May 4th celebration. Double checking, I found that while the OT had been made, the prequels never were. On one hand, I was sure my little brother would be disappointed, as he preferred them, on the other hand, no midichlorians. My brother probably wouldn't be awake an aware until noon, but the sun was up, so my father probably was as well.

As soon as I checked, I found he'd actually sent me a message, entitled, 'Possible Prognostications'. Reading it, my plans for the day shifted drastically. I didn't want to believe it, assuming that not even Kaiser would be that stupid, but I was reminded that this was the same Kaiser that sent Hookwolf and his company to fight in the streets when the E88 was outed. I could see him sending Night & Fog to go cover an out-of-control Kayden, but having his main strike team getting into an all out brawl the day after the Gala debacle was not the move of someone who could control their men or their emotions.

I bit back a laugh. He was in some ways like Kayden, if better than hiding it and a much worse person at his core. Okay, so he had some kind of super-sniper. Ignoring how badly that broke the unwritten rules, that was something I had to figure a way around. My preferred method of stopping gunfire, Stormtiger's power, wouldn't be available with the source right there in question to notice me doing so. The fact they had some sort of Anti-Flying cape made things that much more complicated, and meant that I needed to keep Purity out of the fight. Assuming even a best case scenario, she'd be a liability.

Medhu's prediction of her death could probably be laid at the second mystery cape. Denied her ability to fly and given that I'd be seriously surprised if she had received any hand to hand training, it just made sense. I'd been training Glory Girl in a style that took full advantage of her enhanced mobility, so denied that, especially with a sniper on top of the rest of the Nazis, her death made a certain amount of sense as well. Brandish's theoretically death I couldn't be bothered to worry about.

I started pacing, trying to figure this out. "Your behavior indicates high-anxiety," Zilla stated. "Do you require assistance?"

Freezing, I had a moment of worry about the intelligence of the base's V.I, but reading an e-mail, muttering to oneself, and angrily pacing was the dictionary definition of stressed. "Send a message to Glory Girl, Herb, Kayden, Lady Bug, & Panacea. Emergency meeting at 7 a.m. I'll make breakfast."

"Message sent," she replied, and I started to make my way to the kitchen that Taylor and I had gotten running yesterday, using the Swarm to clean it out before manually disinfecting it. With over an hour, I got to work making a good breakfast, since I wasn't sure when we'd need to move. With the door locked, I was able to use Brandish's power to help as I started to prepare the country fried steak, the eggs that went along with it off to the side as they would take a fraction of the time. After setting it up, the motions were automatic, but the prep time gave me a chance to think.

I'd flipped Rune, but while I wanted to hope for the best, preparing for the worst worked out better, so I had to assume I'd be facing off with the entire E88 ensemble. That meant, as much as they might help, I'd have to bench most of those on my side. Taylor could help, but only at a distance. Her ability to hide herself while still being capable of fighting, combined with their lack of any medium range detection ability, were the only things that made me comfortable with her being anywhere near the fight to come.

The fact that the fight was going to happen was never in question. Somehow it started at about one in the afternoon and was still going on hours later, and Herb had managed to turn the Triumvirate into the Uniumvariate, which, assuming he had enough time to ramp up, was entirely possible. From the timing, and the fact that it happened 'somewhere to the southwest in Nazi territory' meant that the fight wasn't an ambush on the girls when they went to school. Given that I hadn't planned on leaving the base today, nor had anyone else in the PD as far as I was concerned, then there would be something that would draw us into a position to be ambushed. That gave us a chance to ambush their ambush and take some of them down, if not make a clean sweep of it entirely.

Unfortunately, we'd still have to use kid gloves, given that Levi hadn't come by and completely wrecked the Status Quo yet. Either way though, it would be a win for us: we'd either neutralize some of the E88, or we'd get yet another thing to use against the PRT in the public's eye, or both. So, I'd sneak Taylor nearby as Boardwalk and have her scout the area out, but what about the rest?

I pondered this as Taylor walked in, having homed in on me with our shared Bug Sense. "What's going on?" she asked, looking at me cooking. I tamped down on the emotions that I was bleeding into the connection, not having realized I was doing so.

"Empire's making a move today. Got a heads up from a Precog I know, so we're gonna plan," I told her. Her expression shifted quickly, from surprise, to worry, to determination, and I cut her off as she started to reply, "I'll sneak you in with Boardwalk when we find the location."

Mollified she nodded, looking at what I was cooking. "Breaded burgers for breakfast?"

"Country fried steak, good quick and medium burn food, along with eggs, toast, and gravy." I glanced at the time, still having a good half an hour left. I waggled one of the black energy constructs coming from my back, "I'll fry the stakes, you make the eggs?"

She nodded, stepping around me and started to heat up the skillet. "What about the others?"

"They've got a Sniper cape and an Anti-Air cape, not sure about the specifics," I told her without pre-amble. "That means Purity's a no go. She isn't up to snuff in close range combat."

"Her power's kinda long range," she pointed out dryly. "How do you use that up close? I don't think she's protected from her own blasts."

I raised an eyebrow. "Shaped charges." She frowned at me, not understanding. "Well, not true shaped charges, since we're missing the copper cones, but we don't need the armor piercing capabilities for. . ." I trailed off, thinking of Kaiser & Hookwolf. "Okay, maybe we could use that. Regardless, by making the explosion shaped like something other than a ball you can shape the blast wave, meaning that you could detonate blasts at close to point blank range. Besides, her power is more than just blasts."

I extruded a bit of metal from the wall and focused Light into my finger, producing the thin blasting beam I'd signed Boardwalk's name with on his first outing, cutting 'Exhibit A' roughly into the steel plate. I extruded it down to a thin wire which broke under its weight, caught by a grasper arm and dropped on the counter. "Kayden's level of finesse is about the same as if you got your powers, figured out how to cover someone with an attacking swarm, and stopped there. Just like De-Gallant & Panacea, you're naturally inquisitive," I told her, continuing on as if I hadn't almost accidentally unmasked Vicky's boyfriend. "Kayden isn't. She's an asset to the team, but she isn't a self-starter and doesn't seek to improve herself like you do."

Taylor blushed at the praise, not commenting on my gaffe, and allowing me to think about my current problem. Realizing that I didn't necessarily have to try to figure it out on my own, I posed the problem of how to deal with the sniper on my own to her. "What powers do you have?" she asked, frowning. I rattled them off, having to take a second to close my eyes and 'see' the collection of inner flames I had collected from others.

"Could you use Trickster's to switch the bullet with something else?" she asked, leaning against the counter, looking at me intently.

I shook my head, "Need line of sight on the object, and time to tag it and an item of similar mass. That and the power has an unpleasant mental component."

"Wait, it messes with your head?" she exclaimed, concerned. "Are you okay?"

I shook my head, "Don't worry about it, the effect fades once I drop it. It shifts my thinking to view things by their mass, and anything that alters my thinking tends to work oddly on me. Like how Gallant's beams don't work well on some people."

She let out a sigh, crossing her arms as she considered the problem, tapping her lips with her left hand. The sizzling of the steak in the oil behind be dragged my attention away from her. "Vista!" she cried from behind me, almost making me jump.

"I don't think I can get her to help, nor is she ready to," I replied hesitantly.

"What? No, I mean Vista's power!", she clarified. "You were talking about how her power could help her shoot better, why couldn't it also make people miss?"

I considered her suggestion. I really didn't have a ton of experience with it, and the fact that it was affected by the nearby population also made it iffy. Then again, I didn't need large effects, I needed fast effects, and that was completely possible. I moved the cycled the steaks, creating a target of air and sprinkling a bit of flour on it, making another wall behind it.

Miss Militia's power formed a riot shotgun loaded with bean bag rounds, just to make sure I didn't put holes in anything if this didn't work. Reaching out with Vista's powers, I could barely feel the presence of Taylor behind me, along with the others far above me in their rooms, though that might've just been in my head. I wanted the rounds to miss, but not by much. U-turning them might be amusing, but would obviously be powers at work. "Will you know where it's coming from?" Taylor asked, when I presented this problem.

I thought about it. While I couldn't use Aerokinesis in front of Stormtiger, having the power active and getting info from it should be fine. "Yeah, in general. Not for the first shot, but I have shields for that."

"Then make a cone," she said simply. When I looked at her, she motioned for me to do so. It took a second to picture the non-Euclidean configuration, but when I had I nodded to her and she pulled out one of the flies she had in her jacket. Sending it on a collision course with the target it veered off to the side. "It needs to be in the direction you're being shot at, or else. . ." she explained, looping the fly around and coming at the target from above, moving perpendicular to the course it had been diverted down. Hitting the warped space, it was moved a little along the 'outside' of the cone before passing through it to the 'inside' where it flew in tight circles unhindered. Flying outside, its sideways movement was pushed down the plane of the cone before exiting and returning to its place in her coat.

Hefting my gun, I fired once, paying attention with air control as the on-target shot was diverted around, hitting the wall behind, the bright red bag of fake lead shot dropping to the ground, disappearing a few seconds later. Aiming dead center at the tip of the cone, the shot was ripped to pieces, splattering shot in every direction alongside the edge of the cone. Grabbing a steak I carefully pressed it to the sharp tip of the cone, the meat coming apart where it touched the point.

"Well, shit," I commented, thinking about how deadly Vista could be.

"What? Taylor asked, walking over. As she did so the sharp image I'd made softened slightly, the invisible tip of the cone losing a bit of cohesion. I tried to press another part of the steak to the tip of the cone, but with someone standing right there the special distortion was softer. It was still enough to impale the steak, but it required a lot more force.

"Taylor, grab my meat and press it against the tip, I want to see if it pierces through or gets softer," I instructed. There was a moment of dead silence and I realized what I'd just said might have some innuendo to it.

"W-What?" she finally sputtered, turning bright red.

I sighed, grabbing her hand, causing her to squeak, and put the steak in it. "Please take this steak, put it here," I said, pointing at the invisible spatial construct, "and see if the tip of the cone you had me make with Vista's special warping is further destabilized by the close proximity of someone living. I can't test this myself as the power's user is exempt from that limitation of the power. You standing next to it has weakened the construct a bit and I want to see if you putting your hand next to it will mean that the focal point softens further meaning it can no longer pierce the steak and making it non-viable as a possible offensive use of the power."

"Oh! Um. Okay!" she said, relief mixing with something else, probably embarrassment.

She held up the piece of meet and pressed it against the spatial construct. Sure enough, it softened enough that the point, which had originally been needle-sharp, had rounded down to a curve similar to a ball-peen hammer. She looked at the meat, which bulged towards her, with interest, moving it back and forth, almost falling over when she moved the steak off the tip and her forward momentum was diverted down the side of the cone.

I caught her, helping her back to her feet, and taking the mutilated piece of cow from her, washing it off before covering it with breading and throwing it into the oil. "So, not something I could use offensively, but as an anti-ballistic protection I think I can call that a success. Thanks Taylor," I grinned.

"Y-you're welcome!" she replied, still a bit embarrassed, her returning smile wide and sunny.

* * *

We served breakfast as the rest of the crew blearily made their way to the dining room we'd cleaned and set up, only Kayden looking awake as she dragged in a bleary Theo. At my raised eyebrow she said, in a way only mothers can, "He wanted to keep going but I made him go to bed. He's still a growing boy and needs his rest." I tried to square this Kayden with the 'I'm a cool mom, promise,' version of her I remembered from Canon. If I had to guess, now that she was well and truly set against Kaiser, she was trying to be the mom she hadn't been when she constantly had to share custody with the iron ingrate.

I just shrugged, glad we'd made extra, and made sure everyone had something to eat and drink. Liquid candy with coffee flavoring for Vicky, two creams for Amy, tea with one sugar for Taylor, and Herb could get his own drink while he made Kayden's and Theo's. "So what's blowin' your wig back?" Vicky asked, after draining her first coffee and getting up to get another.

"One, you're getting another? Is your sister the only reason you don't have diabetes?" I asked teasingly.

"Pfshaw, like you're gonna throw shade with that tea you drink," she shot back.

I shrugged, "Fair enough. Second," I paused to wait for Kayden to finish taking a drink, "my precog contact tells me that the Empire's gonna make a move today, and we need to get a battle plan together."

"The poor girl's still recovering!" Kayden scolded.

I just looked at her, confused as Herb said, "No K, he's talking about Weaver."

She looked confused as I figured out what she was upset about. "Dinah's power is pretty useless where I'm involved," I told her, shaking my head. "I got this from a Precog I have a deal with, the one who gave me the location of the ABB bases. You really think I would do that? Use her like that?" I asked, scornfully.

The woman wilted under my glare, Herb coming to her defense. "She didn't know man. You're kinda tight-lipped about your contacts."

"Fair enough," I frowned, "but no. She's good for long-term prognostication, well, would be for any theater Eidolon, Scion, or I aren't working in, but my contact has a more focused scope to her sight. Sometime today the Empire's gonna do something stupid, and we're gonna be ready for it. They've got a super-sniper and some kind of anti-flight cape."

"From Gargleshaft," Herb nodded sagely.

"Gesellschaft?" Kayden asked, uncertainly.

"Yeah," he nodded, "Gargleshaft, because they're sucking Hitler's-"

"Herbert!" she exclaimed, scandalized, but the edge of a smile tugging at her lips. "That's no way to speak around children!"

He looked like he wanted to point out that teens weren't children, and had almost assuredly heard worse, but just shrugged, "You get what I'm saying. He realized he couldn't handle the awesomeness that was us, prolly because he couldn't use you to do what he couldn't, so he went cryin' to the Nazis. Just makes sense."

I nodded, "I'd wondered how he managed to get such a hard counter to us. Or at least, what he'd think was a hard counter, considering everyone but Lady Bug and Panacea fly. That also explains why they've got someone who breaks the rules on 'no guns' so hard."

"So how we gonna fight 'em?" Vicky asked. "Cause flyin's kinda my thing, along with hitting things."

"Oh," I smiled, "That's easy. You're not gonna fight."

"What!?" she demanded as her sister tried to hide her relief. "What do ya mean I'm not gonna fight. I've been training and everything! Compared to what I used to do, when it comes to fightin' I'm dime!"

Dime? I thought. Weed reference? Oh, like a ten on a scale of one to ten. Slang decoded, I shook my head. "And if you could fly I might've said yes to bringing you along, provided I could trust you to follow my direction. Tell me Victoria, when we spar, how much of that is ground based for you?"

She started to reply, but she processed the last bit of what I said and frowned. She started to reply again, but cut herself off, repeating the process twice before she growled and sat with a humph in her chair. "Okay, maybe I don't have experience fighting on the ground, but I normally don't need to!"

"Yeah," I agreed, "And anti-flight trumps are both rare, and wouldn't have been here without my intervention, so we hadn't started the 'what if' part of your training that covers odd situations like insta-kill scenarios, reality warping opponents, and power negation problems. Heck," I added mindful of the mother sitting at the table, "If there wasn't a distinct possibility we weren't going to face the entirety of the E88 I might have you come with anyways. Our training has been one v. one because in most cape fights we'd be at about parity, not facing ten villains at once, several groups that have trained in fighting together, making them even more of a threat than they would be alone."

"But that means you'll be even more outnumbered," she argued. "You need me there!"

I sighed. "I don't think you understand the power disparity here Glory Girl. If we went as hard as we could, Herb or I could kill them all ourselves. With the added elements of the Sniper and the limitations of flight, both literal and metaphorical, we don't have enough of an advantage that we could fight them, hide our strength, and make sure you're not hurt."

"You say that like I'm a liability!" she complained. I gave her a long look. "I'm not!" she yelled.

I sighed, looking to Herb for help.

He just sat back and let me handle this. Asshole. "If we were dealing with the Merchants, or even the Empire before the ABB lost their minds, you'd be right. Vicky, if New Wave fought the Empire right now, one of them would probably die. The situation in this city has gotten bad. Why do you think they haven't done anything, or the PRT? They may not consciously realize it, but things have gotten dangerous. In the original timeline they fought alongside the Wards for some reason when, after the government stole Purity's kids, she went a bit nuts and started blowing up buildings until she got them back."

"I woul-" the woman in question started to say, cut off by my flat look. "If I believed that my children had been kidnapped, I might've done something. . . drastic." She finally admitted.

"As I was saying, they fought alongside the Wards while the Protectorate did who knows what, and that was only once they had numbers on their side, and if it wasn't for Panacea they still would've been badly injured. Going into the lion's den like we're going to do? To a group of their skill? That would be suicide," I told her without censure, "and while they don't seem in a hurry to get better, they at least understand that much."

"Fine," she groused, folding her arms. "But we're gonna train until I'm better!"

"It's good to know your limits, dear," Kayden reassured the teen.

I smiled, "Good, so you know why you aren't coming either, Purity."

"What!?" the mother said, calm demeanor gone. "But, but you need me! I don't want to fight them, but I have to!"

"Oh," I said in foe surprise, "So Boardwalk tracked you down for the training he said he was going to give you!"

Her face screwed up in disgust, "What could that boy teach me?"

"Well," I said slowly, "Considering his powers work in a similar manner to yours, quite a bit."

"I doubt it," she sniffed. "He's what, seventeen at the oldest? I've had my power for years."

Herb bit his lip as Panacea took a sip to hide her smile and Taylor looked down. Glory Girl looked around, a question in her eyes, distracted from her own anger. I nodded, "He thought you'd say that and dropped something off. LB, could you grab the plaque he left for Purity?"

She moved to do so, amusement bubbling up through her link, and returned, dropping the steel plate on the wooden table with a clatter. Panacea couldn't help but laugh when she read what was written across it, while Kayden just looked offended. "When he dropped it off he said, and mind you, this is a direct quote, 'That prissy bitch ain't learned how to do shit with her power, just throwin' it 'round like some kinda toddler. I'm not gonna waste my fuckin' time until she can control herself like a 'civilized' person and do something like this. Only way I'll do it is if she can fuckin' show me that she hasn't bleached her brain along with her hair.'"

At Purity's gobsmacked expression Taylor and Victoria lost it, the latter only not falling off her chair because she was floating. Even Theo gave a chuckle, though he stopped as soon as Kayden glared at him. "Well I never-" she started, but I cut her high horse from out of her.

"-have taken on an unfettered Oni Lee, saved police officers, two Wards, and then broken out of PRT holding all in one night? No you haven't Kayden, and right now you couldn't. You have the potential to, easily, but in order to get better with powers you have to think critically," I stressed, making connections even as I talked. "Though, given how much Kaiser seems like he wants to manipulate those around him, combined with his general laziness, I can see how he'd retard your growth and keep you pliant and controllable. After all, if you started questioning what your powers could do, pushing the envelope of what you thought possible, you might start questioning him, and pushing the envelope there as well. No, he moved to keep you pliant, and easily controlled. Just a cog in his machine, trained for a single use, mobile artillery, and nothing more."

I shook my head, the sudden shift to seriousness giving most of the table emotional whiplash. "No Purity, Boardwalk would put you down, easily, but he could also make you stronger than anyone in the E88 ever was." Not that that's a high bar, I thought, but did not add. "But he's not me," I continued, getting a raised eyebrow from Panacea. "He won't be helpful, starting from the very beginning and working from the ground up. He needs you to prove that you can learn from him without getting your hackles up, like you just did, because he has not the time, nor the patience, to deal with that."

She was at a loss for words, looking distressed, so I reassured her, "At range, and in the air, is what you trained for, and, let's be honest, the only thing you've trained for. Be truthful, if you couldn't fly, what would you do to a foe that was as close to you as I am now?" I asked, interested in her response.

"I," she started strong but faltered. "I. . . I, I'd get away! I'd blast behind them, catch them in the blast!"

As plans went it wasn't the worst thing I'd ever heard. "Don't do it here, we've got a power testing room specifically for that purpose, but do you want to know how Boardwalk did that?" I waved to the plate. She hesitated before nodding. "When you throw a blast, you reach for the Light, grasp it, and throw, correct?" I asked. At her surprised look, I assumed she hadn't talked to anyone about the mechanics of her powers. Kaiser was an idiot, I mused, sure now that it was his first wife that had worked with him to develop his power as much as he had.

"I'm going off of Boardwalk's information," I told her. "Now, and again not right here, but instead of grabbing a handful, gather some to the tip of your finger. Keep it there, and then let it bleed off pointing outward. It'll take some experimentation, but that should give you the blasting beam he used to make that," I explained.

Her expression went distant as she started to glow, Light congregating around her hand, cut off abruptly as I hit her in the face with a piece of half eaten toast. "Not. Here." I growled. Kayden reddened, embarrassed.

"Now, I said," looking at the sisters. "I'm not sure if they're gonna go after Arcadia to get you two as well, so I'm gonna need you to take the day off of school."

Glory Girl nodded sagely. "That's asking a lot, but I got you fam."


	102. Leak 9-8

Leak 9.8

Leaving the rest of them to their own devices, I gave them a warning that they needed to be ready to go within five minutes. Waiting myself for whatever would eventually drag me into conflict with the Empire, I retired to the firing range, ready to continue working on the deflector cone concept. While it wouldn't be perfect with other people in range, for such a basic and simplistic working it should still be functional. There was a great deal of difference between turning two feet into a hundred and making a space just a little Non-Euclidean for a few inches. Given how Vista's power didn't seem to need that much upkeep, like my Speed Zones, I toyed with the idea of utilizing that power to greater effect as a permanent fixture, but trying to plan it out made my head hurt.

Having the idea to link my powers, somehow, I attempted set them up to make the shield over the target after I fired, trying to make it reflexive when I felt the projectile with my air sense. It wasn't going well. Even with no one around, the delay from observing the bullet in flight to the creation of the shield was just too slow. If I knew the shot was coming I could do so, but that fraction of a second delay was far too long. If only I could copy Glimpse, I thought. Even my brother's five second version would be just what I needed, but the things I could do with Theo's!

It would be an instant win for everything short of an Endbringer fight, especially when coupled with my other powers. Probably why I'm limited in my copying, I groused internally. As incredibly broken as my setup was from a balance perspective, that would've taken it to a new level.

As if summoned by my thoughts, the door to the range door opened, Theo walking in. Dismissing my phantom pistol I turned to him expectantly. He glanced up after it vanished, brow furrowing in thought, before he shook his head and hesitantly made his way over to me. Taking a steadying breath, he pronounced, "I want to fight."

My first instinct was to say no, but a flat rejection likely wouldn't help. "Why?" I asked instead.

"He's my dad, I need to," was his answer, full of complex emotion but lacking in any explanation.

Gesturing over to a table in the back of the range, I had him pull up a chair as I did so as well. "Theo, you aren't up to combat readiness yet, and this is going to be nasty. You've had your powers for what, a week? You aren't trained to handle yourself. Hearing about it from your parents is very different from being in the thick of it, and even with your powers you might still be seriously injured if they have limitations we haven't found yet."

He looked at me, confused. "Um, I got them yesterday," he corrected, taking the bait.

"Objectively, yes, but are you telling me you haven't been using your power for days of subjective time?" I asked leadingly. At his hesitant head shake no I paused, surprised, but quickly continued, "In which case you're even less prepared than I thought. You've built your first piece of TinkerTech, but have you finished the lightning cannon?" Another shake no, this less hesitant and more unhappy. "So you've got powers that require large amounts of lateral thinking to use effectively, that you've barely trained with; little, if any, hand to hand experience; no armor, which you need; no group combat training, which if you paid attention to the squads your father put together you know matters; no mobility training; no real firearms training, which is a lot more than just how to shoot since I think your Tinker specialty gave you that; and no grounding in true combat philosophy, which really matters," I listed off without judgement.

"Now, with your precog you could train anything that doesn't rely on muscle memory in an almost groundhogian manner, so instead of months of training to go from combat adjacent civilian to highly capable fighter we're talking weeks, but it's still going to be weeks. On top of that, you know your father. Are you telling me he wouldn't say anything to try to mess with you and, if he couldn't get you on his side, then he wouldn't try to upset you, distracting you while he tried to kill you?" I asked rhetorically. "Theo, if I don't want your mom, who's proficient with her powers and has been fighting for years, in this fight, then I sure as hell don't want someone who's been a parahuman for less than a week."

He frowned as he considered this, searching for any holes in my argument. "You can take him?" he finally asked.

I nodded, "Theo, if Oni-Lee hadn't interrupted the second raid on the ABB I did with your father, you'd already be an orphan. Kaiser wanted me to turn over an eight-year-old black kid who'd just Triggered, and I refused to, so he threatened my life in the middle of our Truce. I have the feeling that he isn't exactly used to being told no."

The teen laughed at that bitterly, "Yeah, I guess. What, no, nevermind," he said, shaking his head.

Repressing a sigh, I told him, "It doesn't hurt to ask, Theo, and I'll never be mad at you just for asking a question. Outside of an emergency situation," I amended, "but that's a 'don't distract me while focus is needed' scenario."

"Um, you said my I could use my precognition for grounded training? What's that?" he queried.

It took me a second to figure out what he was asking. "Groundhogian," I corrected. "Which isn't really a word, but it's a weird enough concept a term for it doesn't exist. You ever see the movie Groundhog Day? With Bill Murray?"

He shook his head, and I lamented about the lack of culture of today's youth. "Okay, basic premise: Main character is a jerk news guy on Groundhog Day, where if the groundhog sees its shadow we'll have more weeks of winter, or maybe we'll less winter, I don't remember, doesn't matter. The day ends and he wakes up in the hotel only to find it's Groundhog Day again, and no one but him has any memory that the previous day existed. And the next day is also Groundhog Day. And then he ends up dying, only to wake up, once again, on Groundhog Day. He's locked in a time loop essentially, but a full day instead of the five second hell Grey Boy put people in."

From the boy's expression, he still didn't understand what I was saying. "That means you have all the time in the world to get better at anything you want. Now, they didn't really explore it as much as they could, mostly because it was a romantic comedy, but you can do so, whenever you want, in five-minute increments. Five minutes free of responsibility, free to experiment, free to do anything you want, because it's not real, just a prediction."

Theo's eyes had gone wide at the possibility, not having realized the extent of even one of his powers. "But you must always know when you're seeing the future, and when you're in the real world," I cautioned, "and, to determine the full extent, I have an assignment for you."

"Yes?" he asked hesitantly.

"Determine if you gain muscle memory," I said simply. "Find out if you can train your reflexes through your Glimpses. For instance," I motioned to the firing range, "I'm not sure if your Tinker-set gives you proficiency with standard weapons, or just your creations. However, if it doesn't then practice firing in your Glimpses, a thousand rounds worth on single fire mode at least. If after that use of your power the weapon still feels awkward in your hands, then that's okay. You can use your power to read, listen, think, and learn intellectually. If, having never shot a single bullet, the weapon feels comfortable and your movements with it are smooth," I laughed, "The sky's the limit. Go give it a try."

He looked at me and I pointed to the racks of weapons along the back wall. Taking one, he quickly loaded it, switching the safety off and taking aim at the target I'd been practicing my Vector Shield on. He stood there, blinking rapidly, before pulling the trigger. The first shot went wild as I forgot to disengage the warped space, quickly undoing it as he pause before firing again. The others struck home, forming a tight grouping in the center. Even with thee small bit of practice I'd had him do, that was far too good for a first attempt. "Okay, looks like guns aren't a good test for it," I smiled, the expression becoming fixed as he turned around, sweeping the barrel across the rest of the room, and myself.

"Theo, take a second to use your power to look up a video on gun safety," I instructed, standing up and walking over, deftly twisting the weapon from his hands, his finger still on the trigger. He blinked and looked mortified, opening his mouth to talk but I cut him off, "It appears that you have the skill, but not a single one of the safety practices, so before you use the range you need to do some research," I instructed firmly. "Always treat a gun like it's loaded unless the damn thing is in pieces."

"S-Sorry!" he stammered, voice full of fear.

I paused, wondering why he was so damn scared, before I remembered his home life. "I'm not mad Theo. I'm bulletproof, but others aren't. Good habits will make sure you don't accidentally shoot Panacea just because you never learned how to handle guns safely. Your power gave you the knowledge on how to use them so you wouldn't get hurt, but that's it. Now, what to do with you. . ." I trailed off thinking.

My teammate wasn't doing anything particularly important, I was sure, and Theo was supposed to be working with him, so he might as well start now. "Go find Herb and get him to give you some hand-to-hand training, but once he has you practicing, spam your precog to get five minutes of practice over and over again. If you get a bit better, you don't have muscle memory. If you get a lot better, you do. Either way have him show you the ropes, using your precog to get more training until it stops helping. It might not happen, but if you start getting a headache or tired for no reason, stop, tell him what's going on, and get some rest. Ok?" I asked, unsure of the limits of his powers, and not wanting him to hurt himself because he assumed I knew everything about his new abilities.

"Okay!" he confirmed, "Um, where is he?" A trail of light appeared in the doorway, leading out into the hall, likely created by Zilla. "Oh, Okay. Thanks!" With that he was walking off to go bother Herb, and get at least a base understanding in hand to hand from someone he could use his power on.

* * *

It was almost noon when something finally happened. I'd gotten the Vector Shields down to a half of a second construct time from nothing to full shield, which was still too damn slow for a reactive defense to sniper fire. As such, when I got a call from an unknown number, I was a little testy. "What do you want," I stated as I answered it.

"Um, I want to join!" the man's voice on the other side replied, unsure but otherwise calm.

I tried to figure out who it was, but other than male, adult, and maybe white, I got nothing. "Well, it would help if you told me who you were," I informed the suspiciously timed applicant.

"It's me," he replied unhelpfully. "Crusader."

"The ghost dude that worked with Break?" I clarified unnecessarily. If he was actually flipping sides, with as chill as he was being about it, I'd be deeply surprised.

"Yeah, him," the voice replied, not nearly as offended as he should be at the belittling of his power. Now that I was checking, it was obvious that this wasn't actually Crusader, but knowing me I probably would've taken him at his word, knowing that I could handle what the Empire threw at me, unaware of their new firepower. If they'd had new Triggers, I could've handled them easily, but with a pair of ringers from Gesellschaft I could've been caught flat-footed, especially as the Empire hadn't had them in the first timeline. This was why rushing in was stupid, and if i weren't for my father things might've gotten bad.

"Okay!" I said, faking unexpected happiness. "Glad to hear you've seen the light and are leaving the stupid skinheads and their steel simpleton! I'll meet you at the Mahatma Grindy downtown. I'll be wearing a red shirt and white tyrolean hat with a red feather!"

"A What? No! I, I can't leave where I am, they've got the others keeping an eye on me. You'll have to come here and fly me out," he blurted out. "And bring Purity!"

"Okay. . . why?" I asked. "To second, the first makes sense."

"For cover, and to prove she's still with you. I don't want to join if she's not there," he replied, his voice sounding practiced as his panic ebbed. I really wanted to ask if he was reading off a script, and if he could put Max on the line, but if they'd try to metaphorically catfish me into an ambush, it would be better to turn it back on themselves. That said, at least some of the Empire weren't going to live to see tomorrow.

"Don't worry, she is," I replied, smiling at the thought of reducing the city's Nazi problem, "and she'll be there. Do they suspect anything?"

"Y-yeah," he replied, likely not expecting me to agree so easily. "I'm not sure how long I have."

I glanced at the clock, which read twelve-ten. "I need to get her from her safehouse downtown, it's why I wanted to meet you there. We can't come in hot, they'll see her coming a mile away. Be ready to run at one. She'll grab you and take off while I screen you from behind."

There was a pause, likely him asking for confirmation. "Okay, but not any later. I'm not sure how long I have," he cautioned, giving me his address.

"Be safe, and know that you're on the side of the angels," I reassured him, hanging up the phone. "Or going to meet one in an hour, though I doubt Saint Peter's going to be that kind to you," I continued to myself. "Zilla, Call the team to the operations center."

* * *

I entered the room Taylor and I had set up, bundles under my arm. The thirty foot wide space was a protected room, even more than the rest of the base. Terminals lined the walls, above which panels of black screens sat. A black circular table eight across sat in the center, surrounded by chairs. When I got there, Taylor, Amy, Glory Girl, and Theo were waiting, my fellow bug controller sitting several seats away from the other three. I wondered what the story was there, but now wasn't the time, and if I was really curious I could look over the security footage. "Zilla, pull up the map of the address the caller gave me," I told the air, the seemingly black table in the center of the room springing to life, giving us a bird's eye view of the location, getting appreciative noises from those gathered. "Theo, you'd know," I said, putting him on the spot as I put what I was carrying down on a nearby table. "Have the PRT moved against Medhall yet, or are they letting Kaiser keep his seat of power while they freeze his assets?"

"Uh, I haven't heard anything?" he shrugged. I looked at the others and got similarly blank stares.

"Zilla, any local news involving Medhall? Put it on that screen," I instructed pointing at one of the banks of monitors. They turned on, displaying a number of articles. Skimming over them, however, yielded unsatisfying results. "Seriously?" I asked the computer, which didn't respond, likely assuming the question was rhetorical. It was, but I could have done with the confirmation. "They're 'under investigation' but still operating? Oh, the PRT can grab someone's kids when they're not home in a matter of minutes but to interfere with the corporation which bankrolls the Nazis? That's going to take some time!" I mocked, annoyed that the PRT were failing to meet my ever-lowering expectations. "Well, found the sniper! If only I could just blow the damn thing up and be done with it," I muttered under my breath.

"What?" Taylor asked, shocked, the only one who'd heard the last part clearly.

"Oh, was that out loud?" I asked in return. "I'm not going to do so, it was just a thought. Let's wait for the others," I continued as I maneuvered the map around, getting a feel for the area. It was in South Imperial, a bit less than a mile from Medhall proper. It was deep in E88 territory, and with no apparent safe areas nearby. It was nearly a mile to Downtown a well, but I could work with that. Poking around city hall, there was a nice open-air café that both would suit my purpose and was out of line of sight from Kaiser's HQ, and his territory in general. Tapping it to mark the location, I moved the focus back to the ambush point.

Looking over the soon to be conflict zone, it was chosen well, I had to give Kaiser that. Twisting the camera to something akin to Google's street view, though computer generated, I could see a number of prime positions that were all well out of my or Taylor's official bug control range but well within the range of even a halfway talented sniper, the Medhall building easily the best as it towered above those around it.

I snapped the image back to the overhead view as the door opened, Herb and Kayden walking inside. I motioned for them to grab chairs, moving to stand at the head of the table. "Right, so I got a call from 'Crusader'. He said he wants to join, but that Purity needed to be there as well. But he sounded. . . off."

"Too many slurs for ya?" Herb grinned.

"Actually," I replied thinking about it, "I don't think he used any."

"Definitely not him then," he nodded, grinning wider.

I rolled my eyes. "Anyways, here's the plan. Purity, you and Theo will hold down the fort. These assholes not only know you, they know how you fight and you haven't progressed enough to get the upper hand on them, and Theo is lacking in combat experience."

"Actually," my friend interrupted, "Little dude's got some serious natural skill."

I raised an eyebrow, looking at the teen in question. "Glimpses give muscle memory?"

He nodded and I replied with a "Nice,", Herb putting together what I said and laughing. "Either way, having you there is not a risk we need to take, and in case Nazi intelligence is higher than I thought I want you both here to work with Zilla and defend the base." I scrolled over, indicating the café. "Glory Girl, Panacea, you'll be playing emergency medivac as usual in case any of them are still around at the end of this, or if things go really bad. As such, I've had Arachne Assemblages whip up some temporary armor for both of you. It's not the best, but it'll last until we get you something functional.

Walking over I grabbed the two bundles I'd carried in, handing them to the skeptical girls. "Um, Vejy," Victoria said slowly, "I've already got a costume."

"And for day to day wear, that's fine for now," I told her. "But you might up fighting Hookwolf, shot at by snipers, or god knows what else, all of which would result in injury, maiming that only wouldn't be permanent because of your sister, or death. Amy, your cloak is baggy enough that you should be able to wear it over your armor. There's a bathroom through that door. Both of you change, we'll wait."

I had to dismiss Newter's and Sundancer's costumes to have enough 'material' to make theirs, but this was needed. Besides, I'd warned the villains that their getups likely wouldn't last a month, and they weren't even using them. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough material to make another, or I would've outfitted Herb as well. Taylor would be nowhere near the fighting, and already had a reinforced costume, as opposed to the sisters' cotton cloth protections, Glory Girl's standard getup even left her hands bare, along with her thighs to her upper calves. Seriously, what was she thinking, leaving her femoral artery exposed like that? It was just asking to be cut by the guy who was made of hooks!

They returned a few minutes later, Victoria clinking slightly. The older sister had a gold long sleeve shirt that appeared to be metallic cloth, black pants giving to thigh high boots, which themselves had armored knees and greaves, the white metal rimmed with golden tracings, the boots themselves seemed like leather, but had been interiorly reinforced as well with more hardened material. On either side of her waist were long white armor pieces that covered the outside of her thighs, similarly outline in gold tracing. . From the waist down, over the pants but under the hanging side armor, was a skirt-like piece of golden cloth, the edge embroidered in white, that obscured her legs, open in the front and back to allow for free movement. She wore a breastplate whose coloration kept with the white and gold theme, which connected to low pauldrons, allowing her freedom of movement. Lastly her elbows were armored, which connected to metal vambraces ending in metal topped gauntlets. Under her arm was her fully enclosed helmet, though once she put it on she'd be able to breathe and see without a problem.

While I'd looked for something fantasy-ish for Glory Girl, I'd gone Sci-fi for her sister. Mostly covered by her cloak, her bust stood out more prominently as she was now wearing a breastplate underneath it, slender pauldrons further bulking her profile up. She wore gloves, the back of which where armored, but which had a thin, wide mesh on the palm and fingertips that would allow her power to work on what she touched. Her boots, like her sisters, seemed leather but were reinforced on the inside, and while it wasn't obvious, she too had armored knees, though without the accompanying greaves. She carried her helmet in a mirror image of her sister, Amy's a modern one, more motorcycle helmet than medieval helm. Its face was completely closed as well, though was similarly see through and breathable from the inside.

I nodded to them, happy that the drawings I'd shamelessly ripped off transferred to real world armor. Not having to worry about all the fiddly bits like connectors, weight distribution, and all that because the armor molded to them after they put it on helped a great deal as well.

"Do we really need all this Vej?" Glory Girl asked skeptically, and my eye twitched a little as she couldn't help but complain.

"This is going to be a little loud," I informed the others as I unholstered my pistol from the pouch in the small of my back, turning and shooting the whining teenager four times in the chest, each shot from the speed zone enhanced gun physically knocking her back a step. Even with the sound dampened, it still rang out, but below the level that would cause hearing loss.

I casually popped out the magazine and cleared the chamber, refilling the partially spent mag with the small pouch of loose bullets I started bringing with me, ignoring her "Jesus fucking Christ Vej!"

"Without the armor, that would've killed you," I commented casually, double checking that my annoyance was mine, and it was. "With it, you'd be ready to fly in and take my head off. The leather and cloth won't break, but won't distribute the kinetic force as easily as the plates will. I'm not sure if it's you I said this to, but given the choice I'd be wearing something akin to modern full plate. However, to keep things PR friendly and stick with the majority I'm stuck with skintight costumes which, if it were any tighter, would tell you my religion."

"Me!" Taylor squeaked, turning red at the attention. "You told me," she explained as we all looked at her.

"Fair enough," I nodded, "I sometimes forget who I told what to. It's a failing. Regardless, this isn't PR friendly armor, this is 'I'm way over my head and want to live to see tomorrow' armor, or at least a compromise between the two. Full panic mode wouldn't be half-plate like that, it would be full plate. Real 'give the finger to Behemoth' kind of stuff. You can go back to your skirt when we're done, but I want you to survive fighting the Empire, if, and only if, you have to engage them in the first place."

I stared at her, waiting for a challenge that never came. They both sat down, not saying a word, Their expressions similarly mollified. "So, you two will be here," I said, tossing them an earpiece and a twenty each. "Listen in, but don't engage unless we call for you. I tested them out earlier, and they should work anywhere in the city that isn't specifically warded against it. Lady Bug, Boardwalk will drop you off in the basement here," I tapped a nearby building to the meeting site. "You'll scout out the area and control the Swarm when we get going. With any luck they won't even realize that you're there, since we have similar powers. Then-"

"If Boardwalk is going to be part of this, he should be here," Kayden interrupted.

I blinked. "What?"

"Well, we're all here, even though I'm not to leave the house, so why isn't he?" she demanded.

"Because he already- you know what? Fuck it," I sighed, quickly losing what patience with her I'd regained. I mimed calling him. "Boardwalk, come to the command room. Yeah I know, we went over this, but Purity wants you here."

The woman in question looked smug, while Herb shot me a questioning glance. Amy and Taylor were just confused. I waited for a minute, mentally going over the power combination I was going to utilize, treating this as a dry run of the concept. Pulling on Grue's power I formed a version of my alter ego made from Darkness, toggling the door with Aerokinesis to get it to open. Taylor went "Wuh?" as the dark figure strode in, looked around, and snorted, my own voice carried to him, Acoustokinesis making the ventriloquism easy.

"Okay, V-man, I'm here what the fuck do ya want?" he/I growled at me/Vejovis.

"I can't believe you said those things about me!" Kayden yelled at him, and I realized why she really wanted him here.

I puppeted the Darkness to take a seat next to Taylor, using air control to move the chair, having him lean back and put his feet up on the table with a thunk, leaking Darkness onto the display. "You're gonna have to be more specific. I've said a lot of fuckin' things about you. Most of 'em were even true."

Herb was looking between me and 'Boardwalk', before his eyes flashed with prismatic color for a fraction of a second and his mouth made an O as he Saw my power and what I was doing. I stood by, letting the confrontation play out, mostly because I was so busy trying to keep the Darkness stable and move all the bits of hardened air about that it didn't leave me much left to be my normal active self with. It was actually really interesting, how the two powers interacted.

"You said I was uncivilized!" the ex-Nazi yelled.

Boardwalk looked at her, tilting his head in confusion. "Yeah?" he said, sounding as if he didn't understand her complaint, but not willing to explain if she wouldn't.

"I'm not uncivilized, it's your people that are!" she somewhat clarified.

"What, is it 'cause I'm male?" he asked. "Wait, wasn't there that one villain. Lusty or somethin'? The one that was a fuckin' feminaz-oooh," he said in mock realization. "So ya didn't so much quit as-hey, do you mind?" he asked Taylor, who had gone to poke him in the leg, the bug controller's finger touching hardened air. He smacked her hand away, "No touchin' the fuckin' merchandise. Right, the fuck was I sayin'? Right, so ya went from Neo-Nazi to femi-nazi. Prolly have her poster and everythin'." He turned to look at me, "You sure she's the type you want workin' with you V-man?"

"I think it's because you're black," I observed dryly to 'Boardwalk', "not male."

He looked at me, then at Purity, who was literally glowing with anger, then Herb, then back at me. "But doesn't he like her?" my alter-ego asked, motioning to Herb who was trying not to smile. I nodded. "And people fuckin' say I've got no fuckin' sense," he snorted. "So why the fuck am I here?"

"You're gonna take Lady Bug here," I indicated the building on the display, which was partially covered in Darkness. "Come on man, take your feet off the table."

Boardwalk shrugged, "I can fuckin' see. Okay. You want me to fight?"

I shook my head, "No, as much as I'd like the support this needs to be a Penumbral Defenders operation." 'Boardwalk' pointed at the sisters in armor, pointing out the fallaciousness of my statement. "They're medivac, and only if things go bad."

"Fine, keep all the fun to yourself," he grumbled without heat. "That all you needed me for?"

"I'm not done with you!" Purity yelled.

"Ya figure out how to use your fingers yet, or are ya still eatin' with your fuckin' hands like a toddler?" he shot back.

"Wh-what?" she sputtered.

Herb spoke up, "He means have you figured out the beam yet."

"I-I've almost got it!" she exclaimed.

'Boardwalk' shrugged. "Then I'm done with ya. Once you've figured out fuckin' fingerpaintin', I'll help yer kindergarten ass out with shapes." As she started to gather Light he shook his head. "Like a fuckin' child, throwin' fuckin' tantrums," he observed, 'phasing' through the floor. In reality I just pushed the darkness down and dismissed it as it hit the ground.

I sighed, sliding Theo and Purity their earpieces, "Well, as productive as that was, that's all we needed to talk about. Lady Bug, suit up. Boardwalk will meet you in transport bay four. Glory Girl, take your sword with you, if things get bad enough, you'll need it. Herb, you're with me, you'll catch a ride as something small so it looks like I show up alone. Alright people, Let's go do this thing.


	103. Leak 9-9

Leak 9.9

As Boardwalk I met Taylor, sliding into the loading bay in Shadowform, Herb carried alongside me with a hand on his shoulder. She turned to look at me as I dropped into reality and I could feel her scrutinizing me from behind her helmet. "Lee?" she asked hesitantly.

I mentally pulled the material of my mask and smiled, "Yeah. Who were you expecting?"

"But you-He- Are there two of you?" she finally guessed.

I laughed, "I wish, that would make things so much easier. Nah, that's his power," I jerked a thumb over to Herb, all suited up as Break.

"Then how. . .?" she trailed off helplessly.

"Come on LB, ya know his powers. How did you think he did it?" my friend asked.

"Follow me," I instructed as she slowed down, doing her best to figure it out, leading them to the tram. Motioning for them to take a seat on the benches that lined the edge, the middle area open for loading cargo, Zilla started it moving. "So," I said after a long moment. "What's your theory?"

She shrugged, tossing out, "You made another costume and were moving it with air control?"

I shook my head, "I'm already at my limit. I had to dismiss Newter's and Sundancer's costumes to make the sisters' armor." I tapped Grue's power, flooding the middle of the moving tram with Darkness. Most of it blew away, but enough stayed for a second as I solidified it into the humanoid figure of Boardwalk. While it was affected by the wind created by the open-top train, it didn't immediately fly off as I thought it might. Thinking about it, given how the earth's rotation was a thing, along with the earth's transit around the sun, and so on, it made sense that the powers used me as a reference for what 'stopped' was, as there was no way I could 'move' the darkness as fast as we were going. That also explained how I could've made the solid forcefield in the limo that one time without it immediately flying backwards and spearing the back of the car. The parameter must be subconscious, and something I'd have to look into later.

Regardless, 'Boardwalk' gave a wave and walked over, a bit of air control diverting the breeze around it to keep it stable. "Sup LB," 'he' said, taking a seat next to her. She frowned putting it together, quickly lashing out with the back of her armored hand. Her blow passed through him without problem, the hardened back of her glove striking the seat. My control over his form slipped a little and destabilizing where she'd 'touched', but reformed quickly. "Good," 'Boardwalk' said with my voice, "Now do it again." She looked over at me, waiting for my nod, before repeating the motion, hand bouncing off the hardened air. I dismissed the Darkness, saying, "And again."

She repeated the process, once again bouncing off the hardened air. "Oh!" she exclaimed. "You combined the powers!"

"Yep," I smiled. "Takes more concentration than I'd like to use in a fight, but to mess with Kayden it was more than enough."

Herb winced, "She's trying to be good."

I raised an eyebrow. "Really? 'cause it looks like she thought she was just switching teams, and that she'd get the same respected position for little effort she had under Kaiser." He didn't say anything, just made a pained expression. "Besides, having 'Boardwalk' be the one that beats some humility into her giant glowing ego means that I don't have to. Or, since you're the one who wanted her to join, you could be the one that gets her up to our capabilities."

"Dude," he complained, moving his hand between us, "she's never gonna be at our capabilities. That's not fair."

"You know what I mean," I replied flatly. "Until she can hold her own against an Endbringer, she isn't up to par."

"Um," Taylor chimed in, "I can't take an Endbringer. Not that she wasn't rude!" she added as I turned to look at her. "It's just, are you expecting me to?"

I nodded. "Honestly? Yeah, but not right now. Once you're equipped and trained? Not against the current set, but those that will come later? Definitely. Theo can make guns, imagine what you could do with insect mounted Tinker artillery." Her body language slackened to complete calmness, like it did whenever she was considering something new. "I'm not saying you need to win, just that you, like Alexandria, Legend, or Hero, could bring them to a standstill for enough time for help to come. However, you're not the one who's dragging her heels when it comes to training."

I felt the tram start to slow. "But, that's a problem you won't have to worry about for a while, and we need to focus on the here and now," I stated, reforming my mask as we came to a halt. Before it fully stopped I'd grabbed my two teammates and lifted off, taking the tunnel out into an old warehouse on the outskirts of Brockton Bay, quickly moving past the defended perimeter before diving into the ground and approaching our target location from the opposite direction they expected.

* * *

Arriving ten minutes early, there was more than enough time to do a slow circuit around the site of our impending battle, subtly sending insects towards the battleground for Taylor to control. It wasn't until I'd been doing so for a minute that I realized the difficulty I'd had using Bug Control in Shadowform, while not completely gone, was greatly decreased.

Am I getting better or are my powers adapting? I wondered, not having any way to find the answer to that question. Regardless, by the time we'd moved to Taylor's destination, we had a larger than normal insect population to work with, and more were slowly en-route, programmed to wait before flying towards the zone of her control.

The basement of her assigned building was full of boxes, storage for the Verizon store above. Dropping her off, a quick tapping into the bugs above showed the store closed, which was very suspicious. "Do a quick scout," I told my fellow bug controller, feeling her take a stronger grip on the insect population all around us. She was quiet for a long moment before saying, "Found them," remembering to nod a second later. Following her down to the location, I was a little disappointed.

'Crusader's' hideout was as the map in Eclipse had shown, another store with apartments above it, sitting at the corner of an intersection. Having noticed that something was going down, most of the current residents were hiding, and there didn't seem to be any E88 gunmen lying in wait. In his apartment was a man in similar style to Crusader, but was pacing back and forth, occasionally checking the window.

Focusing on the location across the street, at the top of the building where the disguised man was looking, Taylor had found the others. Stiffly waiting with his Valkyries was Kaiser, ready to walk out onto the roof that would overlook where I was supposed to land. On the ground floor waited the rest of the E88: Hookwolf and his two cronies, along with Night, Fog, Alabaster, and Victor. The only people missing were Crusader, who I expected had quit; Krieg, who might've been recalled to Germany after his gaffe; Othala, who they likely had waiting nearby; and Rune, who was currently in hiding with Booja-

I groaned, explaining at their looks, "We should've called Boojack. He would've loved this shit."

Herb blinked, "You mean you didn't? I thought he said no, 'cause he's a dick."

I could feel my eye twitching behind my black mask, but I couldn't get mad at him not telling me things when I actively cut him out of the planning process so he wouldn't 'manage' me. "I forget he existed."

My teammate shrugged, "Fair enough."

Turning to Taylor I asked, "Have you found any more? The Sniper's probably out of your range, but can you find the anti-air cape?"

She scoured the area, tendrils of attention working her way around and through the buildings, but with a minute to go until I was supposed to arrive she still hadn't found anyone that looked like a parahuman. "Sorry," she apologized, body language drooping like she'd run over my dog.

"Don't worry," Herb dismissed, and I nodded in agreement. "That would be too damn easy."

I passed her an earpiece, "Put this on under your helmet. We're gonna do our run up to the ambush point. Don't bring the Swarm until we start fighting. I want to see what they're going to try." Shifting to Vejovis guise, I told Herb, "Okay, turn into a fly and hide in my hair." He looked at me for a second before shrugging, shrinking down to a tiny size, buzzing over to me. I got the oddest feeling as I could sense his presence through my Bug Control, but without even trying I knew that I wouldn't be able to control him, which was probably a good thing.

Giving Taylor a two fingered salute I slid through the floor in Shadowform, flying down and across several streets, coming up a few blocks north of 'Crusader's' apartment. After a second to double check my costume covered everything I took to the air, going a good sixty miles an hour. It was what I normally used for flying, but Glory Girl was capable of half again as much, and I could do double that without pulling on my other powers.

"Vejovis on final approach," I said over the comms. "Break is silent. Everyone check in and give me readiness."

"Lady Bug, ready!" Taylor replied immediately.

"Glory Girl, ready to sit back and drink coffee," Victoria said, sounding annoyed.

"Panacea, same," was the laconic reply of her sister, much happier.

There was a moment of silence. "Purity?" I asked.

"Ready," was all she said.

"Oh, um, me too," Theo added. "Sorry, I was busy."

I pinched the bridge of my nose. "Don't Tinker while you should be ready to fight. Purity, please work with Zilla to keep an eye out. Landing now."

Overflying the building, there was no hint of the dozen hostile capes lying in wait. Dropping like a rock, I pulled up at the last moment, lightly touching down. "Crusader!" I called to the building. "Do not fear, I am here! Come out so we can get you to safety!"

"Really?" snarked Glory Girl.

"Shush you," I whispered, catching myself before I used sound control to keep what I said quiet. With the original holder of the power a few dozen feet behind me, that might've been. . . Bad. Through a nearby insect I could hear Kaiser talking to someone, but Taylor wasn't up to pulling a full conversation from a single source yet. After a moment I sighed theatrically, starting to lift up. "I must be too late. I feared that might be the case."

"Wait!" said the man pretending to be Crusader as he rushed out the front door, though looking different than before. His armor, while having the same helmet and general appearance, had a completely different engraving on the chest. Instead of the Maltese cross, which had v shaped cuts in the arms giving it an eight pointed look, there was the iron cross, which was the one that Hitler had commandeered for the Nazis. Fitting. From his movements he wasn't used to moving in the armor, and Power Sight told me he wasn't a parahuman. Then the Anti-Flying cape isn't a striker, I mused. If he was, dressing him up as the person we were supposed to save would've been a decent plan. "Where's Purity?" he demanded nervously, looking around.

My first instinct was just to shoot him in the head and talk to Kaiser, but that was Boardwalk, not Vejovis. "She's nearby, Crusader," I called to him in what I hoped was a friendly nature as I touched down again. I chuckled, "But as you know stealth isn't her strong suit. Just fly up and you'll see her waiting for you!"

The armor-clad imposter hesitated, panicking as I asked him to do the impossible,"What?"

I looked at him and sighed loudly, "I thought this was too easy. It's a pity he didn't see the light of Justice. Kaiser, I am disappointed in you. You didn't even plan that far ahead? He's not even wearing the right cross." I listened in amusement as Anders swore, taking a second to compose himself before striding out the door to the rooftop, six stories up.

"For all that you think yourself intelligent," he called loudly from his perch, well aware that he'd been made but needing to seem like he was in control, "You've still come alone into my territory."

I gave him and the twins a long look. "Far be it for me to point it out when my enemy is making a mistake, but I believe we were in this same position less than a fortnight ago. My stance has not changed since then Kaiser, I can still take you three on."

The front door of the building the iron idiot was standing on exploded outwards. However, instead of rushing me when I was 'surprised', they stalked out, forming a wide semi-circle around me. Drama queens. Forming a Vector Shield in the direction of the Medhall building to deal with the Sniper, I merely raised an eyebrow. It would be so easy to take the time they were giving me to lock down the area sonically and drop a Hypersonic Disintegration and kill them all.

However, I needed to do this as Vejovis, which meant I had to react as Vejovis and not just take out the trash. "Ah, but I too, have brought backup of my own!" I announced, Herb flying off of me and returning to his natural form. Taking their moment of surprise to my advantage, I Saw Alabaster, the Stark White & Grey flames of Restoration moving in a repeating pattern.

"Hello Max," my teammate smiled maliciously. "I'd say it's good ta see you, but it isn't. Been taking good care of Purity for you. Also, all that phallic imagery," he motioned to his own shoulders, referencing the blades jutting from the metal creator's pauldrons. "I understand man. And I'm sorry ya weren't. . ." he trailed off, motioning to his waist. "Ya know. Rockin' that 'white power'."

Kaiser's power flared, and the ground underneath Herb rippled. A pencil thin metal spike speared up to impale my teammate, but he had already side-stepped it. Herb gripped the metal tip and twisted, snapping the hollow shaft, tut-tutting. "See man, I understand, but ya gotta think about girth too if you're gonna get the job done."

"Kill. Them," the leader of the Empire gritted out and the E88 sprang into action.

"I got puppy!" Herb cheered, charging Hookwolf who was already shifting forms. I copied both of the Metal Projector's powers and started to move towards Alabaster and Viktor when the Sniper took her shot.

My Vector Shield did nothing, as instead of coming from the Medhall building I was shot from behind, pitching forward as the crystalline shield covering my head, the one that could hold up to a fifty caliber rifle and then some, shattered. Falling to the ground next to me was a completely unharmed NATO bullet, not crumpled like it should've been from the impact.

The Swarm took flight, moving towards us, and I lifted up to draw a bead on the shooter when I felt a deep thrum fill the air, though it made no sound detectable through Acoustokinesis. I was able to fly about thirty feet up, still halfway to being even to Kaiser, when I felt my direction shift like I was caught in a Speed Zone. My momentum, both forwards and upwards, were both redirected downwards, and my attempt to fight it just pushed me down faster. I wasn't even able to direct my fall, slamming straight down into the ground, draining the malleable shield on my right forearm as I absorbed the force.

Our insectile reinforcements were running into similar problems.

We'd grabbed mostly fliers, assuming the AA affect would be some kind of targeted effect instead of the complete interdiction field it appeared to be, and it was biting us now. Slamming a Vector Shield between me and the Sniper as Viktor & Alabaster closed, I was just in time as another round, blew past my face, slamming into the concrete and continuing to punch through the asphalt unhindered.

The spatial construct became a tenuous thing as the others closed, but was still strong enough to serve my purposes as a third bullet was deflected, the fourth not coming. I turned and saw Fog already spreading out between us and the entrance to Kaiser's building, the metal moron continuing his attempts to spear Herb while Fenja and Menja watched, relaxed but ready.

Speaking of my ally, he'd moved forward, playing Toro with Hookwolf as he simultaneously moved in to clock Stormtiger, ducking and moving out of the way of an Air Claw. The sniper took a shot at him, but he was moving too fast and too erratically for the shooter to draw a bead on. I was worried that he might be in over his head, but when he laughed and smacked Cricket on the ass, dodging faster than should be possible as he borrowed her powers to not only no-sell her disorienting drone, but replicate the enhanced reflexes hearing something before it reached your ears gave you, I knew he was going to be fine.

Turning back to my foes, Alabaster was closing and had his guns out and fired at me, but I felt their trajectory through the air before he pulled the trigger, taking the shots that would've hit my unshielded head on my left forearm, the first dropping it while the others impacted with bruising force. The problem with the crystalline shields were that they were so damn slow to move, short of using them to cover a held item, so while I was pushing a more malleable shield up my neck to try to re-shield it in the minutes it would take to reform, it was still slow going.

Viktor was behind him, a pair of long knives out, for all the good they'd do the skill thief. He darted forward, stabbing with them and as I moved to block I found my movements ungainly, unpracticed. "Victor," I warned him conversationally, ignoring his attack as my empty hands darted towards his head. "I told you not to do that."

He smirked for a moment before both blades bounced off my seemingly unprotected neck, his unenhanced strength causing the blows to not even drain the malleable shield there, let alone pierce my costume. I wondered if his lack of any eye coverings was required because of his power's eye-contact component, and if he'd ever bothered trying out clear protections. Maybe he would next time, if there was a next time, I mused as I thrust my pointer fingers into his orbs. I pulled back my costume from my fingertips as I popped his eyes like grapes beneath my super strength while using the skin contact and my copy of his power to reclaim the defensive skill he'd taken from me back, with interest. He fell to the ground, screaming, as I recovered my fingers, with my costume, cleaning them. As I thought, his wife had granted him regeneration to survive the confrontation, his wounds not bleeding nearly as much as they should.

Judging from the progress of Taylor's bugs, we'd have a good five minutes before the Swarm arrived, an eternity in a serious fight. They were originally positioned far enough away as to not be suspicious, which was working against us now. I could feel her panic and frustration over the connection at not being able to help, what insects she'd gathered forming together nearby.

Alabaster tried to shoot me again and I used my right forearm to deflect the shots, draining that shield as well and producing more bruises. Tapping my flight I rocketed towards him, closing the fifteen feet without being stopped as I thrust out with my left hand, not draining the crystalline shield there as my enhanced strength sent him flying off into Fog. Killing him would've been useless but moving him was ideal. I could still feel the thrum of the Anti-flight power, but was somehow still flying.

Is there a flight ceiling? I thought. Taylor, having similar ideas, was trying to get the Swarm to me faster, experimenting with making the insects fly, but they kept on being forced down, even when they were only a foot off the ground. Moving to the side without landing, another sniper bullet was deflected by the Vector Shield between me and the shooter. Suddenly, I found my momentum directed straight down, forcing me to land, but only as fast as I'd been flying. However, the second I touched ground I was allowed back up.

Glancing over to see how Herb was faring, the ground was littered with metal spears, two of which he now held and was using to hold off Hookwolf and co., the other two supporting their boss but having little luck as my partner got ever faster. Given the Nazi's Metal Projection I wondered why he didn't just lash out at my partner with a metallic tendril, but I remembered he didn't learn that trick until after the S9 had recruited him.

Kaiser, giving it up as a bad job, shifted targets and tried to spear me from below. When the bugs scattered around the area saw the ground ripple beneath me, Taylor shouted "Lee!" over the comms. Instead of dodging, I put my foot over it, using it as an experiment.

"Don't worry LB, I know," I reassured her as the metal shot up, meeting the impenetrable material of the bottom of my boot, pushing me upwards. If the mystery cape's power messed with flight, how would it deal with something thrown? I wondered. Kaiser's smirk of victory changed to a frown of confusion as I rode the spike up and I pushed off it, using my enhanced strength to jump upwards towards him with nothing 'flight' related going on. There was a flicker of fear as I got higher than before, before it was covered with his usual smirk, my momentum suddenly shifting from forward and up, to straight down once again, plunging me into the middle of Fog.

Before I hit I mimed putting on the same gas mask I'd used at the Gala, growing it from my costume to prevent the malignant mist from eating my lungs. The vapor surged up and engulfed me, pressing in on me from every direction but finding no purchase on the impenetrable material, though my power found purchase in his, copying it for myself. A dark shape darted in and I moved to block it, Victor's stolen skill assisting slightly.

A black tentacle lined with black, razor-edged chitin, like a nightmare squid, slammed into my arm, the impact shaking my bones with pain as that shield hadn't recharged yet. A second slammed into my right thigh, draining the shield there too, before the large shape darted off faster than something that size should move, growling at the apparent lack of damage. I took stock of my protections as it circled around for another pass, Fog having eaten the bugs Taylor'd tried to send into his zone of control to help.

Both arm shields were gone, and wouldn't be back for another thirty second minimum, the shields having, even in their malleable state, taken longer to recharge as they'd grown stronger. Feet were good, as was my left leg, and both front and back of my chest were still protected. The malleable shields covering the front and back of my neck were still migrating upwards, covering my jaw but nothing else. The crystalline protections coverings on my hand were holding as well, so I had two giant 'Fuck You' blows if I needed them, though one of them was reserved for Kaiser. I had my pistol, and the handle for the sword I couldn't make without alerting Stormtiger, and that was pretty much it offensively. Vejovis really wasn't the best mask for this fight tactically, but he was the one who needed to appear.

A dark shape darted in and Night struck, the Purple & Black flames of her ##tal## form giving me the fraction of a second I needed to move to block her blow. Claws like steak knives met my open palm with a thundercrack of force, not enough to drain my shield but enough to blow away her husband in a sphere around us. We both froze staring at each other.

Night's form was Ugly. It was hard to find words to describe just how bad it was, and I lacked the necessary biological training to accurate identify just what the fuck I was looking at. If I had to describe it, I'd say the spawn of a squid and a spider had a kid with the offspring of a praying mantis and something that H.R. Geiger drew, and then that abomination mated with the child of a cutlery drawer and a barrel of ink, and that was the thing before me.

"Vejy, you okay?" came Vicky's voice over the comms, breaking us both out of whatever stopped us, and it swung one if it's dozen blade-tentacles at me. I caught it, Night making no move to divert her attack, and I absorbed that blow as well. I held tight, its bone cracking under my grip as she tried to retract it, the oil that covered it requiring a great deal of force to hold on to. Turning on my heel as she tried to strike me again, I swung and threw, sending the abomination out of Fog's coverage and in the opposite direction of Kaiser.

She hurtled through the air, form reverting instantly as soon as she left her husband, who surged forward, as if to catch her. Interestingly, she flew farther than I had been able to before her trajectory dropped two hundred degrees to send her hurtling straight down. Actually, if I started counting from where she'd shifted shape she flew exactly as far as I had. Either way, the transformation was the trigger my Unlimited Shard Works needed, and copied Night's power as well.

"LB, it's distance based," I said as, instead of a bone crunching thud, Night hit with a barely audible wet squelch, likely back in her alien form. "Vicky, stay on standby, I, holyshit!" I swore, dodging as Alabaster jumped me. Right, I thought, if the Anti-Flight power's distance based and works on throws, he wouldn't've gone anywhere.

I could hear Night growling behind me, hiding in Fog as he started to billow back. Grabbing Alabaster, who took the opportunity to shoot me in the chest, draining that shield, I tossed the albino asshole into Fog as I hissed in pain. While my armor was bulletproof, it felt like he'd slammed a ball peen hammer several times into my heart, as the immortal nazi was accurate as all hell. Night, maybe thinking it was me, shredded him, a little piece of the Nazi flying out of Fog before pulling back as he re-formed.

I turned to dart into the building to go after Kaiser when two rows of swords shot from the entrance like teeth closing, barring my way. I jumped up to enter one of the lower windows when that, too slammed shut. Leaping backwards, I landed before I hit the ~25 foot limit and was forced down at speed, the thrum which had been subtly building in my chest, now that I new what to look for, decreasing back to its baseline as soon as I touched down.

Fog engulfed me and Night moved to strike, but had to twist her blow to avoid my grasping hands, sliding a razor sharp claw down my side without any real impact. The cut, which would've filleted me had I been wearing spandex like I appeared, did nothing, and she darted back into the heavy mist of her husband. I wasn't sure why, but I got the oddest feeling that she was confused. I'd take what I could get though. Another set of blows was exchanged, draining my newly reformed arm shields and my other leg as well. I darted out of Fog only for Alabaster, who was waiting for me, to open fire.

While I was definitely bruised from the impacts, I wasn't that badly hurt, and neither was Herb when I darted out again. Well, he was half-covered in blood, but he didn't seem that hurt, and neither Stormtiger nor Cricket were looking that good either, both quite battered. Hookwolf was still a wolf made out of hooks, so I wasn't sure his status, and the bugs were a minute out, now that Taylor had figured out how to move them faster by touching down every two dozen feet. We both could easily hold until that time, and while the Swarm wouldn't help my little back and forth with Nacht und Nebel, they'd disable Alabaster and let me move forward with plan, let alone what they'd do to Kaiser.

"Vejovis!" Amy interrupted my thoughts as I parried another blow from Night, along with the follow up and the limb that, when blocked, twisted in a way that it looked like it shouldn't be able to and swung around to rake ineffectual at my face. A third tentacle stabbed at my chest, draining the shield but doing nothing else.

"Stay there," I barked out. "We've got this, and LB's forces are a minute out, which'll turn the tide."

"No!" she practically yelled, "Vicky's on her way!"

I missed my dodge, Night's limb finally catching me across the back, draining the shield there as well. It wrapped around me, but I felt my patience thinning. Grasping the tentacle, and ignoring the other that lashed at my face, draining the malleable shield that had grown to cover the front of my head, I used it to pull myself closer to the creature.

She tried to push me away, but the stakes had just been raised and I wouldn't let her disengage. "Vicky, what the fuck are you doing?" I growled as I got close to the alien Nazi, draining the shield on my left foot to strike her as hard as I could while holding onto two of her tentacles, ripping them off as she went flying off through the mist. Her husband rushed past me to catch her as she exited his zone, shifting back to human. He wasn't fast enough as she hit the wall, then the ground with a pair of spine-cracking thunks and went still. The bits of Night in my hands crumbled to nothingness, the safety feature to prevent identification kicking in, though they should've done so sooner, but I had more important things to worry about.

Alabaster shot at me and I took the shot to the heart as I returned the favor with my own pistol, the Speed Zone enhance bullet killing him instantly as I grabbed his power, buying me a few seconds of time as I strode towards him. I could hear the sound of Night moving as her husband covered her from the eyes of others, transforming her and restoring her before she died. Pity.

"I'm following Purity!" Glory Girl responded.

Herb turned, smacking Hookwolf hard enough to send the truck sized metal monster flying as he yelled, "What?"

"You're losing, and you need my help!" the woman in question answered, finally deigning to talk to us now that her surprise had been ruined. "I'll come from above, they won't see me."

Looking upwards, I realized that, because she hadn't needed to be told, she didn't know about the flight interdiction effect. "NO!" I commanded. "Abort! Unknown powers!"

"I'll stay out of their ran-aaaah!" she started to dismiss, crying out in panic, Vicky's voice joining her. Looking up I could see Purity dropping like a falling star, coming straight down, set to land down a few hundred feet away. As I focused I could see Victoria below her and a few dozen feet over, the thread of her costume pointing directly from my chest to hers.

"Herb," I snapped across the battlefield, ignoring the screams of terror in my ears. "Get Kayden."

He nodded, shifting forms for the first time that fight, suddenly a brontosaurus. Whipping his tail out to catch all three of his foes at once, he sent them flying as he shifted into a velociraptor and took off running to catch her, the sounds of explosions going off somewhere else in the city as he did so.

Alabaster reformed and I shot him again before he had time to do more than turn. I took off as well, using my flight to give me unnaturally long, ground eating strides as I rushed to catch the armored heroine. I was mad, furious, but not at her. Hopefully her shield would absorb the impact, but I wasn't sure.

The Sniper, who I'd forgotten about, shot me in the back of the head, draining that malleable shield, but I didn't break stride as I reformed a Vector Shield, having dropped it when I fought Night & Fog. The follow up shots glanced off it, missing me completely.

It was close, but I got to Vicky right before she hit the ground, jumping up and catching her, landing hard but not breaking a shield in the process, boots skidding across the asphault. Looking her over, Seeing her, she was missing shields on her arms, chest, and head, all having been drained before she hit the ground.

"Anti-flight cape forces anyone that moves more than twenty feet without touching the ground straight down," I informed her without putting her down. I started moving back to the fight, mentally commanding her costume to seal up the cracks in case she had to deal with Fog. "Range was unknown, how high up were you?"

"I. . ." she trailed off, shaking slightly, seemingly in shock.

"Victoria, report," I commanded, my voice a whip crack of authority.

"Fuck, I don't know, like a thousand feet up maybe?" the teen swore, eyes wide behind her helmet as she pulled herself together. "Way high up, 'cause she was too. Oh god, what about Purity?"

"Herb, report," I commanded, moving back towards the battlefield. With her armor and the fact that she didn't have Power Sight, which seemed to react weirdly to Night, she'd arguably be the better choice to fight the two capes I had been going back and forth with.

"She's fine. What's your call?" he replied immediately.

I weighed the pros and cons, but with Kayden's flimsy protections, there was no way I wanted her in that fight, "Kayden: Leave. Herb: Join GG & I back at the battlefield. LB's less than a minute out. We're done playing around."

"I'm not just going to leave!" the light-brained idiot protested from the next street over.

"Honey, I love you, but this is stupid," my partner pleaded as he tried to convince her, but from Taylor's connection to the Swarm I saw her ignore him to take off flying towards the battlefield, forcibly grounded and blasting off before she could fully impact the street, only to be grounded again. She took off immediately a third time, putting a hand down to slide across the road as she flew faster than Herb was currently able to run.

I let out a long breathe through gritted teeth as I flew to catch up, similarly dragging a foot. The Sniper took a shot at Vicky, only for their unstoppable bullet to meet the impenetrable object of her helmet and bounce off as it rang. "Wha?" the teen sputtered as I carried her forward, her armored head and feet outside the range of my Vector Shield.

"That's the Sniper I told you about," I instructed as we entered the intersection. "And the reason you're in armor right now."

"Max!" Kayden yelled in the middle of the intersection, the Empire capes arrayed twenty feet around her but letting her talk. "What do you think you're doing?"

Kaiser, who seemed surprised that his ex-wife was here, looked past her to me, "You'd hide behind oth-"

"Don't you ignore me!" Purity interrupted.

I put Glory Girl down and stared at the argument, perfectly willing to let them run the time out on the fight. The shield on my right leg came back online and Taylor, bless her, was still urging the Swarm on from every direction around us, rising and falling like buzzing waves as they flew and landed in repeating patterns. Viktor was back on his feet, but still had his hands over his eyes.

Herb, who came to stop behind me, just shook his head. "Oh. Ex stuff. Yeah. No," and started to walk forward.

Part of me wanted to stop him, and let this play out longer, but I wanted him next to her if something happened. Kaiser addressed his divorced wife, "I'm not ignoring you, I'm-"

There was a distant crack and Purity's lower torso exploded, shining white viscera spewing out as the sniper, not willing to go along with this little melodrama, took their shot. The assembled Empire capes froze as she toppled, Herb bolting over to catch her before she hit the ground completely. Damn, I thought, as her legs twisted unnaturally, her hips only held on to her torso by the muscles in her sides as her lower abdomen was just gone. Her Light sputtered out, and even I was shocked out of my persona at the suddenness of it.

Throwing up a Vector Shield over them was difficult, but stopped the follow up shot for her heart.

She needed Panacea, now, but with the Sniper and the anti-flight there was no way to get her there before she died. Time seemed to slow as my emotions muted, my mind breaking down the problem, going through variables.

Task? Get Purity to Panacea, almost a mile away. I could stabilize, but the second I stopped the timer would start again.

Time? One minute, tops, before her body gave up and died. Possibly longer, but not by much. All parahumans were a bit more resistant to shock, likely their Shard's doing, which bought her more time than a normal person.

Restrictions? Flight Interdiction and the Sniper. Also, having to hide our powers. Purity wasn't worth outing ourselves over.

Assets? Glory Girl & Lady Bug: No, both useless here. Vejovis Config: I could keep her stable, but not hold off the E88 as well, nor move fast enough. Herb: I had a dozen ideas for his powers, when I finally could train with him without being reminded of Dinah. I mentally paged through them, finding one of the sillier ones I'd considered. Silly, because of its sheer inefficiency, but perfect for the current problem.

"Break," I called getting his attention. "Purity to Panacea. Jump is Flash Step." He blinked and nodded once sharply, gathering the injured ex-Nazi in his arms, and blurred as he blasted past us, slowing down unnaturally as he touched the ground, resetting his jump power as he 'landed', and using it again, picking up more and more momentum but never moving far enough at any given time to set off the anti-flight power. To someone not used to that kind of speed, he would've disappeared, and been seen only when he slowed down between 'steps'.

"Glory Girl, use the sword," I sighed, taking out my own handle and creating the blade, wrapping it in a crystalline shield, igniting the weapon with ghostly Purple and Red flames. The others, still in shock at what happened seconds ago, just watched as I strode forward, though Stormtiger did look at my construct in confusion. I wanted to be 'Vejovis!', but what I ended up calling forth wasn't the jovial golden age hero, all slogans and bravado. He couldn't be, when he just saw what happened to Kayden. All I got was the sad weariness someone like him would feel when presented with this situation, dealing with fools who'd gone too far and thinking that Vejovis didn't use those tactics because he couldn't, not because he chose not to. I'd still stick to his powerset for this though. I wouldn't need more.

"You dumb motherfuckers," I called out, half laughing in disbelief, another sniper bullet diverted by my Vector Shield to my side, and another by the VS screening Glory Girl. The shooter took the hint, and let me monologue, giving Herb time to get Purity to Panacea without the others following. "Even with you trying to kill us, we still wanted to take you in, and you thought you were a fucking threat? I was playing tag with your brute," I practically bellowed, motioning towards Night, who was standing beside her husband, both having shifted to human form when Purity was shot. "And Break? If you have even the barest hint of planning you've seen the video. Did you think he was taking this seriously at all?"

Kaiser tried to say something, but I just shouted over him, the attention of the Empire on me and not the low buzzing that was slowly gaining in intensity, though Cricket was looking around nervously. "No. You don't get it. Even with you bunch of murderous bigots, I was still trying to play by Hero rules. To have honor even to those who had none. You brought a sniper, cut off our ability to fly, and weren't even having the pretense of normal cape combat. You ambushed us, yet never noticed that we weren't surprised. Even breaking all of the rules, with tactics that you obviously thought should've assured victory, did we seem worried?"

There was a roar in the distance, getting closer, and I smiled, though it was a thing full of teeth and lacking in any mercy. If she'd died, I knew Herb. He wouldn't have told these idiots he was coming like that, he would've announced himself by killing Kaiser. Purity was going to survive, though she might not like that as much as she expected when I was done with her.

The Swarm was visible now, a rippling black tide that seemed to cover the streets in every direction, fueled by Taylor's grim determination. The thumping was ever stronger, ever louder, the vibrations starting to be felt by the others, Cricket looking very uncomfortable.

"You hear that?" I asked. "Congratulations. You've managed to piss us off enough to take you somewhat seriously. I hope it's everything you wanted. GG, take Tigger and Cricket. We've got the rest."

With a roar, Herb, as a Tyrannosaurus Rex, barreled down the road at well over a hundred miles per hour, his legs moving faster than they were ever designed to, held aloft and propelled by his Stand's Double Jump power. Without stopping he plowed into Hookwolf, grabbing the Nazi in his teeth and continuing down the street, dragging him across buildings, gouging out masonry. The metal canine tried to dig into Herb's flesh with his hooks, but in doing so found that Herb had used the Nazi's own power to lace metal beneath his saurian skin, giving the white supremacist no purchase.

A wave of blades sprung up at me from Kaiser, but he wasn't my first target. Moving to the fully healed Vickor, who desperately tried to steal my knowledge of flight, I opened the eyes of my mask to show him my prismatic irises as I ripped the knowledge of how to use his power from his skull, not bothering with subtlety. It wouldn't matter, as I decapitated the thief, the flesh of his neck writhing as it tried to regenerate his severe head, his mouth open in a soundless scream. Two more strikes quartered his skull, knocking the pieces in different directions, killing him as his power winked out of existence.

Reforming my opaque lenses, I turned to meet my next foe, Alabaster, using Air Control to divert his shot and bisect him, slamming his top half with my free hand in Glory Girl's direction. She was holding her own against her two foes. Cricket's kamas were absolutely useless. The Acoustokinetic tried to slam one in the 'eye holes' of Vicky's helmet, only for the blade to bounce off the clear material that filled it, barely dodging Vicky's returning sword strike.

Stormtiger threw his hand forward, an Air Claw blasting towards Glory Girl, who pulled her sword up and parried the construct to the side with her blade, to his shock. The claw exploded behind her and she charged the shirtless Nazi.

Noting Night & Fog where nowhere to be seen, I turned my eye to the prize. Kaiser. Dashing forward, my flight carrying me far faster than normal steps, I dodged around the spears which shot up romo the ground and hit the edge of the building, turning ninety degrees to run straight up the structure as if the forces of gravity were mine to control. Anders, panicking, grew out a ridge of blades that spanned the entire wall, something I couldn't dodge around, so I didn't.

Jumping over the growing mass of metal, I moved 'above' it, twisting around the spears which shot out, before forcing myself touching down on the wall, travelling less than twenty feet in the air, and continued my sprint for Kaiser. Menja jumped from the building, growing rapidly as she fell, shield ready to block me, force me down by her sheer mass, spear at the ready.

I met her head on, shoving my left palm forward and striking her shield with the full force of my crystalline force field. Just as in the railyard, there was a moment where we both seemed to pause, and everything seemed quiet, before it released with a thunderclap and a burst of light, sending her shooting upwards, her shield shattered. The thrum of the Anti-Air effect shuddered for a moment as she hit the range limit, her enlarged form seeming to stutter in the air. The power reasserted its hold over the area, with one notable exception.

The giantess flew upwards as if shot from a cannon, not seeming to slow, shrinking as she arced up over the city, moving inland. Momentum spent, I flew upwards once again as I 'ran' up the wall, cresting it to see a dome of blades protecting Kaiser, Fenja nowhere in sight. Taking my own sword, flaming red and purple, I focused the edge and cut into the steel, ignoring the blades that shot out of the dome, grasping them and using them as leverage to hack in deeper.

"Vej!" Victoria called, and I looked back at her fending off the three villains on the ground. Insects covered the square, harassing the Nazis to limited effect as the Swarm started its climb up the building below me. Alabaster, in the moment he was alive before Vicky cut him in half, didn't seem to care but Cricket and Stormtiger kept having to disengage to blast the insects on and around them with sound and air respectively. I Saw both their tricks, adding them to my repertoire.

However, fighting all three at once was evidently more than Victoria could handle right now. While Alabaster couldn't seriously hurt her, Stormtiger could do so through sheer blunt force trauma and I wasn't sure what Cricket was capable of. I was forced to choose between killing Kaiser and keeping Vicky safe. It was no contest.

Jumping from the rooftop, I got a good bit of distance before the anti-flight power carried me straight down, just helping me close with the combatants. As I started to move the Sniper took another shot, the first one they'd done in a while.

I stumbled as my left arm seemed to explode with white hot pain, the untouched bullet lodged in my forearm. Instead of coming from where the shots had all come before, this one was from Medhall building. Are there two shooters? I thought as I started change the direction of my Vector Shield, still moving to help Victoria as I was shot again in the chest. The too familiar feeling of broken ribs blasted into me, worse than I'd ever felt before, but I didn't falter in my run towards Glory Girl, finally moving the Vector Shield to protect me.

I tried to move my hand as I ran, and the pain made me a bit dizzy, which was made worse when I reflexively felt it with the hand holding my sword. Bones shattered there too. Fuck, I thought, recognizing the feeling from healing with Panacea. The shield protecting that limb sprang up seconds later, unhelpfully. I firmed the forearm of my costume in an ersatz cast, too busy to deal with it right now. Another shot from the sniper was deflected, and a fourth struck Vicky, sparking off her breastplate.

Stormtiger, having had enough of being held off by a teenage girl, backed off a good thirty feet snarled, seeming to levitate as the air around him churned. His power poured out of him, spreading out in every direction, the base use the same as his claws, but interlocking and interweaving in intricate patterns. It took me a second to realize what he was doing. He'd made an Aerokinetic, feline version of Hookwolf's body and it appeared to be just as dangerous. Possibly more since, to most, it would be invisible.

While Vicky's costume was impenetrable, the kind of sheer kinetic energy that thing should do would be staggering, every blow like being hit by several explosive Air Claws at once. I copied the use as I dashed forward, putting myself between the Nazi and my student. Stormtiger roared in challenge and charged, paws tearing up the street as his construct bound forward with him encased in the center, flying bits of bugs and stone caught in its currents the only visual indication of the dangerousness of his power.

I stood, undaunted, dismissing and sheathing my blade one handed. Calmly taking out my pistol, I layered Speed Zone after Speed Zone down the barrel as he closed, the muzzle of my weapon glowing a dark purple. I could read the confidence in the glare he gave me behind his mask, mixed with his bloodlust. From his perspective, I could even understand it. Stormtiger couldn't be shot normally, his power automatically deflecting the rounds. In the midst of this construct? A bullet would be even less effective. And he was right, the interlocking, tearing waves of air pressure made him effectively bulletproof, but he was unaware of one important fact. I was stronger with his power than he ever was.

Taking hold of my own Aerokinesis and drawing down on him, I ripped a path of calm air straight through his construct, from the end of my gun to his forehead. His eyes opened in fear and realization as he understood exactly what my sword was, what it meant, but it was too late for him to do anything about it. The gun bucked in my hand, hard enough to break my fingers if they weren't shielded, the hypersonic projectile decapitating him, or at the very least destroying his skull in its entirety. The bullet was ripped into pieces by the back of the construct, fragments thudding into the asphalt like buckshot from a railgun.

The headless body fell into his construct, which my power took over and kept running long enough to mulch the villain. The Storm Tiger turned blood red, its creator's body giving it momentary life before it destabilized, sending the sanguine mist in every direction. I turned back to the fight, only Cricket & Alabaster remaining.

While Cricket blasted away the Swarm, the respawning villain stabbed at Glory Girl with a stiletto, the teen catching it on the flat of her katana. The strike, not enough to scratch the metal, was enough to drop the shield around the weapon. When she turned and cut him back, the villain didn't bother to deflect the blade that hadn't done more than inconvenience him so far. However, this time she struck not with the restrained power of her shield, but with the full force of her Orichalcum blade multiplying her own super strength.

Instead of being bisected, as he likely expected to be, there was another sharp crack as the villain's entire body was rendered to a fine, pure white mist, which was then sprayed across half the intersection in the kinetic blast from the weapon's discharge, hard enough to damage the walls. Vicky paused for a second, and looked to me in response, not horrified, merely unsure. We both waited and shared a shrug when he didn't. Come. Back.

Cricket looked between the two of us in wide eyed terror. "This is your only chance Cricket," I told her calmly. "Death or arrest. Your choice." She glanced in the direction that Herb dragged Hookwolf off to. "He's dead," I informed her motioning to the bloody intersection. "Half of the E88 are. Decide."

The villainess hesitated, likely the first time she had in the entire fight, but when her expression twisted into a hateful snarl, just like Stormtiger's had moments ago, I knew her choice. She shrieked, her voice a tortured thing, broken and louder by the second. The vibrations started to hammer into us as I realized what was she's doing, having figured out the same use myself. I reached into my belt pouch and pulled out my Tinkertech jar, to try to make the point that she needed to give up. However, she continued, either not caring, or because Kaisers hadn't done basic intel gathering on me. I clicked it as I slammed a sound bubble around her, and only her.

She either didn't notice, didn't understand, or thought she could overpower my 'tech', and just tried harder. I watched, expression blank, as her power struggled against my own, to little effect, every trick copied and reversed in an instant. The sound she was generating got more and more intense, definitely to the point that it would permanently deafen anyone not protected from it, but it was nothing to my own power. Glory Girl looked at me in concern, the air starting to visibly waver around the villainess.

I just shook my head. "It's a suicide move," I explained dispassionately, saddened by the stupidity on display, "but I've got something that cancels it out. I wasn't even subtle about having it, but Kaiser didn't warn her. If it's what I think it should go off right about. . . now." I pointed at the Acoustokinetic, and overpowered the personal sound dampening she likely didn't realize her shard was providing to protect her. She staggered, her control slipping on the vibrating air around her as I took the opportunity to ramp up the decibels, keeping the effect sealed in the ten-foot Sound Bubble around her. The concrete powdered and she just. . . ceased to be, vibrating to nothing in an instant, a wet spot in the small cloud of asphalt dust.

I turned off the jar and shook my head, looking back to Kaiser's dome. Taylor'd covered it with insects, sending them squirming in through the cracks, only to find it completely empty. The back of the structure was slightly different, as if there were an opening he sealed after he escaped, a bridge of blades extending to the next building over.

As Taylor started to move the Swarm, the back of the building exploded outwards and Fenja, carrying a metal sphere, bolted, running away at an impressive rate, one I couldn't match on the ground without outing myself as Boardwalk. I sighed, shaking my head. "Don't bother LB. The Empire's done, and he's not worth the effort."

Victoria and I stood side by side as we stared over the destroyed, blood covered battlefield, her in shock and me in resignation at how hard I'd been forced to go. A full spatial warp was around us in case we were shot at, but the Sniper seemed long gone.

This was going to bring us so much attention, and the kind we really couldn't afford before Leviathan showed up and everyone turned away from Brockton Bay, just like they always seemed to do to Endbringer attack sites. Herb, still in Tyrannosaurus form, ambled up to before turning back, a malicious, satisfied smile on his face as he looked at the devastation as well.

A little annoyed that he took so long to get back, I raised an eyebrow, asking, "How was Hookwolf?"

My partner belched, then grinned wider, "Gamey."


	104. Leak 9-10

Leak 9.10

"I'm sorry!" Taylor cried as I lifted up through the floor of the phone store's basement to bring her back to base. Shortly after Herb had returned, the anti-flight power had cut out, whatever cape that had been creating it having hit their time limit, left the area, or just turned it off. I'd tasked the other two to meet up with Purity & Panacea before returning to Eclipse, telling everyone that there was going to be an after-action meeting to go over the fight. Glory Girl had started to complain, but stopped when Break gave a single, serious nod, saying nothing. Pulling away from them, I'd found a secluded alley and sank into the ground, ensconced in Shadowform, where I moved to where I was now.

I looked at my apologetic teammate in confusion, "Um. . . why?"

"I couldn't get to you in time!" she replied immediately, voice full of self-recrimination.

I sighed, smiling ruefully, "Taylor, you did what I told you to. You have nothing to apologize for. I made a mistake on how the enemy worked, and it wasn't anything we couldn't handle. If it hadn't been for," I paused, trying to be at least a little professional and hide my spike of anger. "If it wasn't for others not following orders, you would've been able to overcome them and gave us the advantage we needed to wrap up the fight with a minimum of bloodshed. Because our hands were forced, things got a bit. . . harsher than I would've liked. Either way, you heard me over the comms. Let's get back, get lunch, wash off, and do something approximating an after-action review."

She hesitated, and I rolled my eyes, "Spoilers, you were perfectly fine and don't have anything in particular to work on. Everyone in that fight was non-equipment reliant and Brute-esque so your normal high-skill techniques weren't that useful. It happens. Only thing I could think of would be, I don't know, sneak some bugs into Kaiser's Armor."

I could practically hear her brows furrowing from behind her mask, "But, I did that."

"Really?" I asked. "Okay. That's the kind of thing that would come up in the review. What happened?"

She shrugged, "He kinda sealed up everything but his face and smushed them. Made it harder for him to move and stopped him from making spears for a bit. Um, this was when you were in the mist."

"Fair enough," I offered, starting to offer my right hand when she moved over and grabbed my left. "Good job. Let's go h-gaah!" I cried in pain as she jumped back, looking horrified. "Arm. Broken. Take. Right!" I hissed, reflexively moving to wave away her panicked "SORRY!" with my injured hand, which just made it hurt more.

"You're hurt!" she declared unnecessarily.

"Yeah," I nodded. "Sniper broke bones. Just take the damn hand."

"Sorry!" she repeated, grabbing my right as I turned us both to Shadow, the pain fading as I shifted to incorporeality.

"Thought you saw," I replied as my breath evened out, the white-hot knives in my bones dulling to a too-warm ache. "It's not a big deal, I'll see Amy when we get back. Rather you than me." I could feel her discontentment with that statement over our shared connection, but she didn't say anything more.

* * *

Returning to base, Taylor was still silent on the ride down, though I could practically taste her desire to ask me a question. "Okay Lady Bug," I said as I spotted Panacea waiting for me at the elevator's exit through the lift's clear walls, arms folded and tapping her foot impatiently. "Go get changed into something more comfortable, meeting in the same room as. . . damn, as an hour and a half ago, so at two-thirty." Taylor hesitated for a moment, expression unreadable behind her mask, before turning on her heel and striding off to her room.

"Herb said you were hurt," Panacea stated without preamble, staring at me intently. "Also, Vicky can't take off her armor. The seams fused."

"Yeah, the protection against Fog," I replied, mentally stripping off the glove of my right hand as I reset Glory Girl's armor to its previous state. "Should be good now."

She looked at me, mouth in whatever the frown version of a smirk would be called, and grasped my hand. As she read my physical state her expression shifted into a full scowl. "Your ulna's shattered, completely, and the shards have torn up the muscles around it. Your sternum's broken as well, and if your bones hadn't gotten denser, somehow, in the last week, they would've shredded your lungs and your heart." I could feel my flesh shift, and the pain lessened. She glared at me before spitting out, "Do you like almost dying, you hypocrite?"

I blinked, not expecting the venom. "Um, No? And what do you mean hypocrite? I'm pretty damn sure I'm not a hypocrite!"

"You're all about 'being safe'," she snapped, gesturing to herself. "But this is the third time I've had to put you back together in, like, two weeks! You can obviously make impenetrable armor. Why the hell aren't you wearing any!?"

"I. . ." I trailed off, "Um. . . because heroes don't wear armor?" I offered, lamely.

"Armsmaster does!" she countered immediately, poking me in the chest.

I raised an eyebrow, "Yeah, not a hero. I meant none of the Triumvirate wear armor," I clarified.

She just stared at me in disbelief before throwing her hands up practically yelling, "Hero! Hero wore armor!"

There was a long moment of awkward silence. "Right. Him. Um, I kinda forgot he existed," I admitted, resisting the urge to look away. "Yeeaaah."

I could see murder in her eyes as she glared at me, her gaze full of frustration, "You. You. What?"

Embarrassed, all I could do was shrug, "Well, Triumvirate. Tri. Means three. I forgot about their Lennon. So yeah, armor." I concentrated, picturing one of the concepts I'd come across when looking up the images for the sisters' armor. The skintight spandex rippled and shifted into close to a hundred interlocking plates, the sleek material forming a set of tight, futuristic, full-body banded mail. I changed the material of the utility belt to match the hardened plates below and looked back at her. "Better?"

"You could've done that this entire time?" she demanded.

I shrugged again, the feeling a bit different in my new costume. "Yes?"

"Then why didn't you!?"

"We've been over this Amy, because I didn't think heroes wore armor. You pointed out they do, so now I will," I explained slowly. "It isn't that complicated. Are," I hesitated, "are you upset that I listened to you?"

"Yes! No! Shut up!" she yelled. "You're impossible!" she declared, storming off.

"See you at the team meeting," I called at her retreating back, only for her to flick me off. "Wonder why she's so upset," I commented to no one, before going to take a very needed shower.

* * *

Striding into the meeting room, I was the last to arrive. Herb and Theo had made sandwiches, and there was a carafe of coffee and sweet tea already set up. Getting myself a cup of the latter, along with a ham and cheese, I took a seat at the 'head' of the round table, opposite of the door. The others stopped what they were doing to look at me, but I shook my head and bit into my sandwich, holding up two fingers and tapping my wrist to indicate two minutes. That got confused looks from the teens, so I swallowed and commented, "Gimme a sec to eat, then we'll start."

When I was done I sighed, sitting up in my chair. "Okay, that. . . that wasn't the complete shit-show the Gala was, but it could've been better. Now- yes Herb?" I asked as he raised his hand.

"Somthin' new about you?" he said, pointing at my costume.

I glanced down, having already gotten used to it. "Right, so Panacea pointed out that, despite my previous suppositions, heroes wear armor. Specifically, Hero wore armor, so styling myself after Legend is no longer a risk I need to take."

He looked at me, confused, "but isn't your costume, like," he made scissor motions, referencing it's cut-proof nature.

"Yeah, but it does nothing for blunt force trauma, so a super powered sniper shot to the heart still broke ribs and, if it weren't for my Peak Condition, might've pushed the fragments into other things," I shrugged. "So, yeah."

He stared at me blankly, "Wait, you mean you didn't make it tougher?"

"Um, it was spandex. Not a lot of room to work with," I replied. His stare continued, his eye twitching a little. "Either way, not a problem," I dismissed, moving on. "So, I'm not sure exactly how to do these, so I figure we'll go around and go over everyone's actions, praise the good stuff, critique the bad, and work on ideas for improvement. Glory Girl, Purity, did either of your groups do this?"

The fact that both of them shook their heads just made me sigh. I knew the Undersiders never did anything like this, but they were teenagers, and delinquents at that. "Okay," I clapped, looking to my right at Taylor. The fact that this meant Purity would go last was intentional. "Lady Bug, I ordered you to keep your bugs far enough away so as not to arouse suspicion. We didn't know that the anti-flight cape worked in a field at least a quarter of a mile across, which meant that the fliers we'd gathered for quick insertion were actually slower. Please tell the others what you did after that."

"Um," she started to say, unsure as everyone's attention was firmly on her. "Well. Um." She glanced over to me and I nodded encouragingly. "Well, I found out that they guy that stopped things flying didn't kick in immediately, so I could get the Swarm flying a little bit before landing, speeding them up. When you told me it was distance based, I kinda already knew that, but thanks!" she added, seeing my frown. "I tried to sneak spiders into Kaiser's suit, but he sealed it after they started biting, and I didn't have that many to work with. I tried to send some in to help when you were fighting Night, but Fog killed them. Then-"

"You fought Night," Purity interjected, looking at me incredulously.

I shrugged, "Yes? It was somewhat fun. Definitely a novel experience, though her alternate form is quite unpleasant to look at."

"Dude, you saw Night?" Herb questioned before his beau could.

"Yes?" I shrugged again. "I think it might've been an interaction with," I paused, not wanting to reveal my Power Sight, so I tapped my domino mask instead. Herb and Taylor got it immediately, the former nodding in understanding while the latter frowned to herself. I assumed the others would put it down to a feature of my odd costume. "Either way, please wait 'till everyone's given their report before giving your take on things. Go on LB."

"Well, I kept looking for whoever was making the can't-fly thing, but everyone around was hiding. No one looked, well, cape-y," Taylor offered apologetically. "I kept the Swarm coming, but they didn't help a lot."

"Uh, yeah they did," rebutted Victoria. "Not gonna lie, those three all at once, more than I could handle, and that sniper was super extra. If I didn't have those threads, it would've been bad. Like, can I keep this?" she asked, motioning to the bundled armor on the table in front of her. "Havin' in not come off was kinda sketchy, but Ames said you controlled that. Why did ya do that anyways?"

I wanted to rebuke her for interrupting, but she was next anyways. "Yes, you can keep it. I locked it down so it was sealed like Hazmat gear to keep Fog from dissolving your lungs if you had to fight him. Did you see what happened to him and his wife, by the way?" Taylor and the sisters looked at me blankly. "Um, Night & Fog are married," I explained. "Sorta. Kinda. It's complicated."

"The went down into the sewers," Taylor piped up. "When you killed Victor and Break grabbed Hookwolf, Fog turned to, well, fog, and I think Night ripped off the cover, and they both left that way." I nodded to her in thanks, making a 'go on' gesture. "So, I tried to get the Swarm there as fast as I could, but by the time they got there it was just the last three, but the white guy didn't notice."

"That's all of them," Panacea pointed out, voice dry.

"Nah, one was really white. Like, even his blood," Vicky disagreed.

"Alabaster," Purity nodded. "He doesn't feel pain."

"Didn't," Taylor corrected. "He didn't feel pain," she explained at the ex-nazi's look.

Kayden turned to me, eyes wide, "You killed Alabaster? How?"

"Uh, that was me," offered Vicky with a half wave. "I hit him really hard and he just kinda. . . pfff," she explained, making spreading gestures.

Now it was Panacea's turn to be upset, "Vics! You killed someone!?"

"Ah, come on Ames! He was a Nazi! That totes doesn't count! 'sides, Lee killed him like three times and I killed him like a dozen and he got better! How was I supposed to know it'd stick!" the teenage heroine whined.

I cleared my throat, "With the exceptions of Fenja & Menja, everyone we've fought today had killed innocent people. It's one of the things I checked when we first started. All of the ABB had, but only Skidmark has directly in the Merchants, though evidence is kinda scarce for him. Though that's probably because no one cares about drug addicts. Was there anything else Lady Bug?"

Taylor shook her head and I turned to Victoria, "Glory Girl, what happened on your end?"

"Well, I was drinking a double mocha chai latte with cinnamon, not doing anything but waiting when I saw Purity flyin' towards the fight, even though you told her not to," she said, shooting the woman in question a sour look. The woman started to say something, but bit back her comment. "So I told Ames to contact ya while I went after her, but she's faster than I am. By a lot. I heard you tell her to turn back, but she wasn't, so I kept going until, well, that happened."

Theo and Panacea had no idea what she was referring to, so I explained the anti-air power, before motioning for Glory Girl to continue. "Well, I figured out that trying to fly away just made me go faster, so I just fell, 'cause my shields could take it, but then that Sniper kept shooting me and kept stripping shields, which was not okay. I still had one left when you caught me, but it was getting' close. Um, then we fought, and you said you'd handle Alabaster, then threw him at me!" she accused.

I shrugged, "Honestly, with as armored as you were, he was no threat to you. I figured you'd be able to handle him pretty easy. It was Stormtiger & Cricket that were the threat. Was I wrong?"

"Noooo," she admitted. "We fought, and the new costume helped. A lot. Then I hit Alabaster and, well, yeah. He dropped the shield on my sword, I think, and I kinda didn't notice. So, that happened."

"Panacea?" I asked, moving on.

She just shrugged, still looking disapprovingly at her sister. "I waited. I healed her as much as I could. She needs to eat more, and I'll need to work on her again. Maybe two more times."

"Theo?"

"Um," he said, "I waited here and nothing happened?"

"Good," I replied. "And thank you for following the plan."

He glanced over at his mother, who looked upset, but said nothing. "Um, your welcome?" he offered.

"Break?"

"Stuff and things and things and stuff and then. . . dinner."

I stared at him, waiting for him to elaborate. He didn't. "Can ya be a bit more specific?" I prodded.

"Uhh, somebody hurt my woman?" he shrugged. "I hurt them? A lot?" Purity looked over at my teammate, a complicated expression shifting across her visage. Theo shot Herb a glance as well, but like his adopted mother didn't say anything.

Again, I waited for more information, and got none. I let out a long sigh, "Why didn't you change forms when you were fighting Hookwolf and his minions?"

He shrugged, again, "Cause it was kinda fun."

"And they weren't doing any real damage?" I suggested, feeling like I was having to drag the information out of him.

"Not really," he said, dismissing them, however rightly, as a threat. "I. . . how do I put this?" He was quiet for a moment, before continuing, "They were enjoyable love taps."

"Which you healed right after?" I stated, trying to translate laconic-herbese into something normal people could understand. He nodded. "Did the sniper ever get you?"

"Sniper didn't hit me except maybe once when I was T-Rex form. Maybe I moved too fast. I dunno. I was a little focused," he offered semi-apologetically.

Resisting the urge to pinch the bridge of my nose, trying not to get upset at him, I asked helplessly, "You aren't going to give me any more hard details, are you?"

"Hooks in mouth," was all he replied with.

"Yeah, that's a no," I said, more to myself than the others. Trying to get hard intel from Herb was like chasing a rabbit at the best of times, getting blood from a stone at the worst, and there was something here he didn't want to say. I could guess the basics easily enough, it was something that he didn't want to share with the rest of the team, likely Kayden, who still was looking at him as if she wasn't sure if she should be worried, offended, or flattered. I got what I needed. His fight was nothing special, and he was pulling that anime "I'll go easy on you to make the fight last longer and be more fun," bullshit that every single villain seemed to do.

If he'd gone hard from the beginning, not even deadly just more than playing around, we might've had everything tied up before his crush showed up and showered the ground with her entrails because she thought. . . well, she didn't think much of anything, which was the core of the problem, wasn't it?

"And that just leaves. . . Purity." I sighed, turning to really look at her for the first time since she'd been carried off by Herb. She was pale, gaunt, and obviously tired, but I couldn't bring myself to care. Her expression, somewhere between unsure recruit finally realizing what she'd signed up for and recalcitrant harridan who was sure that she knew what was best, just served to annoy me. You'd think the combination of uncertainty and unquestionable moral authority would cancel each other out, but for better or worse she balanced them. The fact that either expression, given who she was supposed to be and what she knew, because I told her, shouldn't be present didn't help my mood. On further consideration, it was definitely for the worse.

"Tell me. Please. I want to know. What in god's green earth gave you the idea that the best thing to do in the middle of a planned combat operation where lethal force was a given and you knew your powers would be countered, because I told you so explicitly was to charge in like a rank amateur?" I snarled. She stared at me, shocked expression on her face, likely not used to having anyone talk to her in that manner. Herb looked at me, ready to object, but saw something in my expression and closed his mouth.

I took a deep breath and let out a long exhalation. When I continued, my voice had lost its heat and was plain, even conversational. "I'd assumed, given your years of experience that you would've learned by now how to work according to plan. This one wasn't even terribly complex, given the number of unknowns I had to account for. Going into this I expected that, at most, Kaiser and Viktor would die. The former because he wouldn't allow himself to be captured, and the latter because he would abuse his power."

"Instead, half of the Empire is dead," I stated slowly. "Do you know the level of heat that's going to generate? The level of attention? I was planning on the two of us wearing them down, grabbing a few while the others ran with their tails between their legs. On my own, with just Glory Girl for support, I had to go harder then I wanted to, because they successfully escalated the situation and thus I was forced to do so in kind. I won't lie, some part of me did somewhat enjoy doing so, but the head of the local PRT believes that Status Quo is God and has tried to keep things stable as this city rots away. We've been working against that but have been at least somewhat subtle about it. Now? Even if they can't pin it on us, they'll be on high alert. The only way this could be worse is if it was broadcast like Break's fight, but unless they had some seriously long range cameras, we should be fine."

I sighed again, "I wonder, how much of your worth in the E88 was the raw strength of your power, something you had no hand in choosing; how much was your personal skill, the amount of which is becoming painfully clear; and how much was the fact that you were sharing a bed with Kaiser." She looked outraged at the not even subtle insinuation, but I shook my head, continuing inexorably, "Oh don't act offended Kayden. Even when you 'quit' you had privileges in his organization, something that everyone knew which is why no-one believed you'd turned over a new leaf. Even today, after you . . . I'll say 'confront', but only because I'm trying to be somewhat professional about this. After you confronted Kaiser, the others moved to encircle you, and you didn't even seem to notice."

"Kaiser seemed surprised, and maybe a little worried," I mused, absently adding, "It wasn't because he feared you though, so don't try to comfort yourself with that delusion. I wonder if he'd ordered the Sniper to take you out, but hadn't expected it to happen in such a. . . public way. Maybe he just didn't expect you to be foolish enough to fight the Empire directly, given they know all your tricks already. This wasn't a case of 'It's brilliant because they didn't expect it', by the way. It's a 'no one expects suicidal stupidity from their foes' kind of thing."

She looked like she disagreed, but managed to hold her tongue, and I just raised an eyebrow. Oh. Look. She can learn. "You were in an area where your powers were handicapped, against foes who knew your tricks, who you'd be emotionally compromised while fighting. More than that Kayden, your costume is cloth. Not Tinkertech cloth. Not metallic cloth. Cotton. Your Breaker state protects you against damage from G forces, and might even help with falls, but does practically nothing against blows, and, as you discovered, does actually nothing against penetrative strikes. I must wonder, have you even bothered to thank Herb for saving your life the first time, when he kept you from smashing, full speed, into concrete?"

"There's no need!" he objected quickly, further lowering my opinion of her. I didn't ask about the second time he saved her life, getting her to Panacea, because she'd either have shown basic human decency which was so expected it wasn't praiseworthy, or my evaluation of her character would fall to the point that I'd just be depressed.

"I gave Glory Girl and Panacea armor on the off chance they'd see combat, which I said in front of you only a few hours ago, and you haven't even seen Parian to get a better costume." I laughed humorlessly. "I mean, you're still running around in your Nazi getup. Ignoring the message that that sends. You could only get away with that because you blasted people from a hundred yards away, minimum, and changed direction fast enough to avoid gunfire, and not only does literally everyone else on the team have close quarters combat training, this was a scenario where that was the only fighting that was going to happen."

"They had a sniper!" she finally responded. "I thought If he could shoot, I could too! How was I supposed to know that would happen!"

I stared at her a long moment, going completely still. "Purity," I finally stated, tone cold as ice. "Don't lie to me." She started to say something, but Herb put a hand on her arm, cutting her off. "You didn't think that, or you would've said so in the moment. You've rationalized, after the fact, an excuse for your actions. I've had copious experience with people making excuses after the fact, which, if I'll be honest, is why my memory is as good as it is." While I couldn't exactly use Worm as an example here, if my recall wasn't freakishly good, there's no way I would've been able to remember so many details from a work I'd skimmed that was three times longer than the Lord of the Rings. I'd forgotten about Dinah because, other than being a McGuffin to motivate Taylor and to foreshadow Golden Morning, she'd barely been in the plot and hadn't been screwed over, like the Dallon sisters, enough for me to remember her.

"Funny thing about excuses, Kayden. They work as long as you don't remember the details. I'd ask for you explanation of how 'You're losing, you need me' is 'I knew the intricacies of the Anti-Flight power and that I'd be safe at range just because they have a sniper', but I've found that asking for someone to justify their obviously fallacious excuses just leads to more lies. It's clear as day you don't seem to understand what I've been saying all along, assuming you've been listening in the first place. Let me take a guess, and please, tell me if I'm anywhere close. You assumed, either from the length of the battle, the comm chatter, or maybe because of your own presuppositions, that we were losing the fight, right? That without your help, we would have died?"

I waited, not moving, just watching her. The others sat, not saying anything, worry spilling from Taylor. I formed in the Swarm below us, 'I'm not mad at you. You listen.' She glanced at me, looking a little confused, but kept quiet. Eventually, Kayden finally mumbled, "Yes." I didn't reply, just staring at her. "Yes!" she reiterated, anger, embarrassment, and resentment on her features. "They're the Empire! How was I supposed to know you'd. . . you'd. . ."

"Slaughter them?" I prompted mildly, provoking a wince from everyone but Herb for some reason. "That someone from New Wave would kill your unkillable asset? That, barring your own actions the most damage done to us was because I was being an idiot about my costume choice?" I nodded to Panacea, causing the others to glance her way.

"Purity," I sighed. "What part of we will kill Endbringers do you not understand? I'm likely a few weeks from being able to take on the Simurgh and Break could, well, break Behemoth today. Leviathan would pose the most problem to us, since he's less of a one-trick pony than the other two, but give us a couple months and we'll have him licked as well. Hell, if I'm right, Vicky could do it, though it'd be a level of danger I wouldn't want to put her in."

I pinched the bridge of my nose. "We haven't taken out all the enemy capes in the city, not because we can't, but because the level of attention it would force upon us. I thought I'd made this clear, but let me say it again, just to be clear. I will never ask someone to do something they don't want to do unless we have no choice. That being said, I'm not a mindrea-Thinker." I corrected. "I try to never lie, though there are things I'm not telling you, for a host of reasons, most of which I also can't tell you. What that means is that, when I make a plan, there are likely more reasons than the obvious for why I'm doing things. What that means is that, if you want to modify the plan, you need to communicate this before you go off on your own. I don't mean minor actions, like dropping a spider in Kaiser's suit once battle has started, I mean like doing the very thing you've agreed you wouldn't do. If Glory Girl hadn't spotted you, if Panacea hadn't warned us, If Herb wasn't as fast as he is, you would've died Kayden, and Theo and Aster would've lost their mother. I'd assumed you didn't want to have your daughter grow up never knowing her mother, but your actions seem to give lie to that."

Leaning back in my chair, I looked at Kayden, who, by her expression, had been trying to not think about how close she came to death and didn't appreciate my refusal to let her repress it, her expression set but her eyes bright with tears. I didn't care. "When I say you're not ready, you're not ready. That's true of everyone on this team, and if Break said I wasn't ready for something, I'd stop, ask why, and not do whatever it was until I could disprove his points."

I pointed at her, "Next week Boardwalk will start working with you, and I want you to go contact Parian to get a new, sturdier costume made. With your Breaker state it won't matter if you're wearing something a bit more bulky. Lady Bug can give you her address, and we'll handle the cost. Finally, you need a new name. There's a host of 'light' themed names which practically radiate heroism, but naming yourself racial Purity, because, let's be honest, that's what everyone hears, is, well, the kind of thing a neo-nazi would do. I mean, it's what you did, when you were one."

"And babe," Herb said, trying to be comfortingly, "You're seriously not one of those. . . unflavorful individuals anymore." He glanced away from her subconsciously licking his lips.

Is this a cannibal situation? I wondered tiredly. If he's not human when he eats someone, is it technically cannibalism. Ugh, I'll give a shit when he eats someone who isn't mass murdering trash, I resolved. "Herb, don't play with your food anymore." I paused, considering my phrasing. "You know what I mean. It looks bad. Also, if you're fighting someone that knows you can transform, there's no point in holding back. They're already planning on how to deal with it, and wouldn't it be interesting to see what their 'counter' would be?"

He snorted, "That bastard deserved everything he got."

"Not. The. Point," I enunciated calmly, not getting dragged into a discussion about this, right now, in front of everyone else. "While you were playing with Hookwolf, the rest of us had to hold down the fort without you."

He nodded. "Sorry," he said, unrepentant, but seeming to understand my problem and would not do so again in the future. Hopefully.

"Theo, as a Tinker your possible names are pretty open," I continued. "If you're having trouble and want something mythological or corporate sounding, talk to me, if not, talk to Herb. Also, keep training with him and I'll test you when he thinks your ready." The teen, not expecting me to go back to him, nodded dumbly.

"Panacea, if you want combat training I'll help, and we'll talk next week about what we're doing moving forward. Glory Girl, I'll see if I can get you some help working with your sword and sparring with multiple foes. Lady Bug. . . Um, we'll keep training like we have before? Like Theo and Panacea, there's no problems I can see that were uncovered by today's events," I finished, shrugging.

"Other than that, everyone take today off. I need to go work on some things on my own, and the chance of Kaiser mounting an attack are slim to none. Hell, I'm not sure Menja even survived, so he might've lost over half his fighting force today," I sighed. "She should, but I'm not sure, and won't lose sleep over it if I'm wrong. One thing's for certain: with how much we've upset the balance of power today, I sure as hell wouldn't want to be in the PRT right now."


	105. Leak 9-y (Interlude: Kaiser)

**Leak 9.y (Interlude: Kaiser)**

Maxwell Anders sat at the desk in his safehouse and considered his actions. It should have worked: Crusader had already ran back down south like the coward he was, so he wouldn't interfere; Vejovis was _obviously_ young and inexperienced, so he shouldn't have seen the trap coming; and he'd had support that Gesellschaft had _assured_ him would be enough to put down the annoyance before he was able to cause serious trouble.

With Kayden working for him, it was only a matter of time until the upstart learned the details of Max's organizations. All it would take was some kind words, a firm hand, and an empty promise and she'd give Vejovis _everything_. When she was working for Max, that'd been a benefit, but he'd never expected someone to snatch her right out from under his nose. Who would've, and risk provoking the Empire? If she hadn't been so sudden with her refusal and her exit, she never would've made it out of his office, turning him down like that as she stared at another man.

Max was nothing if not fair, letting her pretend to be free for so long had been his mistake. With the Animal and the Addict leading the other gangs, he knew she'd never go to _them_ , and the Protectorate would never make the first move. New Wave wouldn't lift a finger to help anyone that wasn't in their family, and their tendency to only deal with problems near their home, which was much closer to the Asian's territory than his, was always something Max had counted on when convincing new recruits on the power of the Empire. He'd heard of Coil, but she wouldn't have, and that snake knew better than to touch what belonged to the Empire.

It hadn't turned out as he planned though. Crusader didn't interfere, at least that went right, but Vejovis had known about the trap before he ever showed up. Listening to the recording he'd had the Crusader stand in make, it was obvious. Nearly an hour to get ready? No. The upstart had been planning, but how did he _know_?

Max was reminded of the 'truce', where, in a single day, that amateur had provided the locations of the Asian congregations Max had had his people looking for for _months_. _His_ sources, and they were many, had turned up information that had confirmed what he'd already thought: that The Neutral Party, the rogue negotiator, had access to a precognitive cape. With how well that man had avoided meeting Max, it was obvious. The fool had the audacity to _laugh_ at Kaiser when they'd finally talked, over the phone, about how the cape in a question, a 'Weaver', had an exclusive contract with Vejovis.

Given how much such services cost, Max had been sure that Vejovis hadn't still had her help, but that had been not the case. That meant, of course, that the deal Kaiser had been offered _wasn't_ the deal the Defenders had gotten. Pressing a button on his desk, his assistant, an attractive woman of appropriate ethnicity, opened the door. "Yes sir?" she asked huskily. "Do you want me to help you relax?"

"Move forward with our plans for The Neutral Party," he commanded, not having the time or mood for what she rightly offered. "He hasn't been as impartial as he should be, and has crossed the Empire." She pouted but nodded, quietly closing the door. Max had been willing to move her to a new position, had Kayden taken his gracious offer, but that was no longer necessary.

Left alone, he turned back to his thoughts. Even _with_ the warning, which the hero would not have _next_ time, things had gone wrong in too many ways. While Kayden hadn't shown up at first, she had eventually, and the German parahumans had done their job. After Panzerbusche had spilled the traitorous bitch's entrails all over the sidewalk, he now had one less headache to worry about, and it would make it that much harder for the upstart to attract more to his cause. She'd revealed the Empire's identity, so it was all she deserved. The moron with the snake theme might be telling all who'd pay him mind how their identities had been spread by the know-it-all from the kid's table, but Kaiser knew better. With how badly her mixed lover had reacted, it was obvious she was dead. It had to be done.

However, when he tried to contact the German agents to regroup, they refused to answer, and one of his men working at the Airport told him they'd taken their plane and left, along with another woman, who appeared to be unconscious. His men's continued inability to contact Othala, who had yet to respond to her phone, didn't bode well. The men guarding her had been frozen solid, and he hadn't yet acquired the footage from the cameras nearby.

Not only was Othala missing, but Night & Fog were gone as well, but that wasn't as concerning. This wasn't the first time this had happened, and they always showed back up again. They'd gone to ground, as their training from Gessellschaft had gone into effect. He wasn't as worried about them. They'd been around for a while, since before he'd joined. They didn't age, couldn't be permanently injured, and were _always_ useful. It would be a week or two, maybe three, and then they'd be back as if nothing had happened. Small price to pay for followers who knew their place.

His phone rang and he glanced at it, picking it up when he read the name. "Fenja, report," he stated curtly. If her sister had died, she wouldn't be useful anytime soon, and wouldn't be nearly as effective in the future. They'd trained together and were better at fighting in tandem then even Hookwolf and his two followers.

"I found her, Max. She's hurt. Can you have Othala come out and heal her?" his cousin asked, relief mixed with worry in her tone.

"No," he replied, weighing the pros and cons of who to blame this on. "We have reason to believe The Bells took her. We'll have an ambulance to her as soon as we can. How bad is it?" His curiosity had been peaked, as she'd never been hurt from a fall before, though she'd never fallen so far.

"I, I'm not sure," Fenja said hesitantly. "Her leg's broken, and her arm. Her shield, it's just. . . gone."

"We'll have someone there soon," he reassured her. "She'll be fine." After Fenja thanked him, as she should, he ordered the necessary actions and was left, once again, with his thoughts. Calling his contact in Germany had resulted in a run-around, so he was surprised to receive an e-mail from them. What was written inside had him snarling in rage, a blade growing from the floor unbidden.

They'd, with Purity's death, considered the favor 'fulfilled' and had taken Othala as payment, given that his accounts they had access to had been frozen. 'Taking into consideration the agreement, which we struck with your father, we must state that, short of further progress, our partnership is regretfully put on hold.' The missive had ended.

Controlling his breathing, he finished growing the blade, removing it and tossing it in the bottom drawer of his desk along with the others. He needed an accounting of his forces. Viktor was dead, obviously, which had been. . . unexpected. For all their barking, heroes never truly bit, though the upstart had not gotten the memo. Alabaster, at least, was a reliable asset. Vejovis had killed him, repeatedly, but the albino's power was well known, so Kaiser hadn't paid it any thought. Just like every other time, it hadn't lasted. Against the forces arranged against him, he was certainly in custody, but it would be easy enough to get him released, one way or another.

Hookwolf had been dragged off by the Break, though even if Brad hadn't been able to kill the shapeshifter, he was experienced enough to get away, as the other two would've been able to. Convincing them to spring a proper ambush on any of the Defenders wouldn't be simple, but it was a task he was easily capable of. Not Vejovis or Break. From the reports he'd gotten Enter would be even worse. Not the woman in armor, since they had _no_ information on her, and that was always a danger. The bug girl they'd found, however, would do nicely. They killed one of his, so he'd kill one of theirs.

Kaiser thought of the woman in armor. From its impenetrability, it was likely some sort of Tinkertech, and her appearance had been fully disguised. Her strength, however, had been great, and barring yet _another_ new-comer, there were a limited number of capes in the city with her powers. One of whom, if the rumors were true, the Defenders were currently sheltering. With all of that, the feelings of awe he'd originally felt meant that he wasn't as impressed with her fighting as he'd first thought, which meant it must have been Glory Girl.

It was a foolish mistake on Vejovis' part. He could dress her up as much as she wanted, powers were powers, pure and simple. That she'd been holding out against Stormtiger, Cricket, and Alabaster, even with her enhanced armor, had been somewhat impressive. Removed from the situation, he still had to admit that. It was a pity she'd thrown in with a bad crowd, she would've made a wonderful recruiting tool if properly motivated. She'd gone against him, and she would die, though not at his hands.

Vejovis, for all his bravado, was a simple sort. If she were to be shot by, say, a drugged-out Hispanic who ran back to Archer's bridge, he'd likely no longer have to worry about the Merchants, but her brute rating meant that it would have to be something more inventive. He didn't worry about it. He had time.

Leaning back in his chair, he pondered his situation. They'd been betrayed, but they would come through this stronger than ever. The theft of Othala was an unexpected and deep loss, and he'd have to find another healer. Panacea was a possibility. His sources said she still went to school and worked at hospitals, _and_ her sister had gone against the Empire. However, that would bring the PD back to them, the one he _didn't_ own, he added internally.

His phone rang, again. Not recognizing the number, he picked it up anyways. "Kaiser," he stated regally.

"Um, Sir, I have information you'd like to hear," the voice said. Male, white, and very nervous. His assistant brought up the caller's information on Max's screen.

"Then go ahead Joseph," Kaiser instructed, smiling, "I'm always happy to hear from a member of BBPD's finest." Now all he had to know was exactly where his immortal was being held, and he could start down the road to the Defender's ruin.

"Um, It's about Alabaster. He's dead sir," the Empire aligned police officer told him regretfully.

Kaiser felt his smile freeze. "Come again."

"He's dead sir," the cop echoed unhelpfully.

"You must be mistaken, Alabaster doesn't _die_. It's one of the few things he's terrible at," Kaiser tried to laugh, but it felt hollow.

"That's what I heard, sir. The PRT's got the scene, but it was kinda obvious. I mean, he bleeds white, right?" the voice questioned.

Max nodded, trying to process this. "For a few seconds, but then it returns. He doesn't actually bleed."

There was a pause. "Well, it's kinda spread out all over the road. They're finding bits of bone here and there, and its white too. I'm, I'm sorry sir," he added when Kaiser didn't say anything.

"No," Max bit out, "No, you did well. Good work soldier. It was just unexpected. Is there anything else you can tell me?"

"Um," the voice hesitated.

"Tell me," Kaiser commanded, internally wincing at his tone. "Tell me what else you saw," he continued more gently. "It's best to confirm what others have told me."

"Oh," the other man sighed, happy not to be breaking the news to his leader. "Then you know about the powdering and the grinder."

That. . . didn't sound good. "I need more information than _that_ if I'm confirming something," he commented dryly.

"Right, sorry sir," the voice apologized. Again. "It looks like someone dropped a person through a meatgrinder, and part of the asphalt is just gone. Turned to powder. They were pulling metal bits from the ground up stuff, and they were taking some kind of samples from the other, but they had to reach deep into it."

Kaiser nodded to himself, face composed as he said, "You've done good work. For the Empire." The other side replied in kind as Max hung up. He looked down at his desk. "Meat grinder?" he asked the room, not understanding.

When Fenja and him had left, it was Night, Fog, Alabaster, Cricket, and Stormtiger. The concept of anyone killing the first two, given their abilities, was ludicrous. Not as ludicrous as Alabaster dying, and that had happened, he reminded himself. Pressing the button to call his assistant, he asked before she could open her mouth, "Have you heard back from those still missing?"

She shook her head.

"Use the trackers," he commanded, motioning her to leave. While he hadn't informed his soldiers of the devices in their phones, they'd been very useful over the years to just 'happen' to be where he needed to be.

His assistant returned, frowning. "F&N were near Immaculata, but it's not working right now."

Kaiser nodded, that was normal. With their shapes changed, the signal disappeared. That did tell him that they had gone to ground, just as he knew. "And the others?" he prompted.

His assistant hesitated, hedging, "O left town from the airport."

"I'm aware. _The others_?" he insisted.

"Gone. During the uh," she trailed off.

"Altercation," Max provided.

"During the altercation," she said. "H came back for a moment, a few hundred feet north of the. . . altercation, but he's gone again. S disappeared the same time, then C. Both at the intersection. Maybe their phones broke?" she suggested, trying to smile.

He didn't return the expression, understanding the information he had been supplied. "Unlikely. If you hear back from any of them, tell them to meet me."

"Will do sir," she said, quietly closing the door.

This. . . changed things. "How?" he asked. "How did he do it?"

If Vejovis were _smart_ , then he would've used. . . whatever it was, on Kaiser. The fact that he didn't meant that he _couldn't_. They'd fought, for the better part of a minute, before Vejovis had started yelling to someone. He'd said that. . . Kaiser tried to remember. That someone's forces were a minute out. Max hadn't seen what that was, other than a swarm that Fenja had easily plowed through. It must've been that.

Kaiser almost had to give the hero credit. He'd registered himself, the half-breed brute, his brother, and then the girl. It was known that the New Wave sisters had spent time with them, but Vejovis had given the impression that they, along with Kayden, where the only capes he had access to. If they had others, capes Kaiser didn't know about, that would 'turn the tide' or whatever the hero had claimed. But how had he gotten his hands on _that_ many parahumans?

Actually, they might not be as hard as Max first thought. Opening his computer, he brought up Rune's file. She'd disappeared, and was known for using large objects, but had tried working with blades before Brad had. . . shown an interest in her. Krieg had stepped in but, if she could work with blades like she started to.

 _That bitch,_ he thought. They'd never tested Stormtiger's ability to stop projectiles against what Rune controlled, on the off chance the girl won he would've gotten _difficult._ But, if she _had_ been stronger, and Eric hadn't bothered to stop them, trusting in his power to deflect them. . .

Meat Grinder.

 _That traitorous bitch!_ He'd accepted her into their own, rewarded her family, and _this_ was how she repaid him? He barely resisted slamming the button for his assistant, pressing it firmly instead.

She hesitated, "Yes si-"

"-Rune killed Stormtiger. I want the word to go out. She's betrayed the Empire and, Like Purity, will be paid back in kind," he spat.

She didn't say anything, just nodded and left quickly.

That meant that Vejovis had _one_ unknown cape. _Unless_ he was giving the hero too much credit. Calming himself, he called the informant back.

"Officer Krupke," the cop replied gruffly.

"Hello soldier, one question," Kaiser ordered. "The powdering of the asphalt. Was it circular?"

"Um," the cop, stuttered, obviously not expecting a call back. "Yes sir, it was. Part of a sphere, they said. Ten feet across."

"That's what I thought," he practically purred. "Have they suggested that it was one of the slant's bomb's?"

"No. . ." the cop trailed off. "But. . . that's brilliant sir!"

"Dismissed soldier," Kaiser smiled, hanging up again, smile dropping. It was no secret that Vejovis was in contact with Tinkers. With a few of Bakuda's bombs, they might be able to rig them with their own detonators. Tinkers were the _one_ thing that Kaiser had never had with the Empire, so of _course_ they'd be used against him.

 _That's why he was trying to get so close,_ Kaiser realized. Whatever it was had a short range, and Kaiser could've easily blocked it if it was thrown, assuming that the other Gessellschaft agent, Fluga-something hadn't stopped it mid-flight. Vejovis would need to get close, like he could get close to Cricket.

Cricket does, did, her best work at close range, so she'd not stop him. Kaiser could see it now, Glory Girl would pull back as Vejovis closed and threw something at Cricket. Cricket would deflect it with her weapon, only for it to go off, killing her, instantly.

If Vejovis still had Tinker bombs, the PRT would do Kaiser's job for him. He'd be subtle about it, like he always was, but he'd get word to them. The director was death on open fighting, so a bit of spin from the right people would paint the hero as a mad dog. Drunk on killing Asians, and not stopping as he turned his sights on the greatest force in the city.

After they were done with him, if they had not yet driven him from Max's city, then it would be the Empire's turn for revenge. They might have taken losses, but it was only a matter of time until they were better than before. Vejovis had yet to learn what Piggot knew so well. You did not escalate against the Empire. You played by the rules, or you got _crushed._

Being well known, it was an advantage, but it was also with a weakness. Just as Vejovis had taken the cowardly route and surprised them, using items that he shouldn't if he wanted to keep things as they were, Kaiser would beat him at his own game. He'd recruit others, keep their abilities under wraps, and unveil them the same time he killed the upstart, the half-breed, and the rest of their little band of idiots.

New members were always trickling in, understanding the power that was the Empire, even if they didn't always have the wherewithal it took to serve. It would be a month or two, but he'd strike hard, he'd strike fast, and he'd strike _last_. In the meantime, he needed something to bring others to the cause. Something _large._ For all their deception, he'd learned long ago from his father how the Germans worked. They lost faith easily, but couldn't help but be awed by large displays.

With them back, it would be trivial to gain access to someone with powers he _could_ use. Their 'brute killer' was disappointing, but something more. . . esoteric would do the trick. A large display would rally others to his cause that much faster, giving Kaiser that many more cards to play. Removing the blade that had, once again, grown from his desk and tossing it in the drawer, he opened up the hidden notebook in another.

He'd been working with his ability to make blades, and the same use that let him create his armor could likely make him create something. . . _larger._ He put it down, pressing the intercom once more. When his assistant poked her head inside, she saw Max's malicious smile, and stepped fully into the room. "My dear," he announced, "I do think I'll take you up on your offer of _relaxation_." After all, nothing like a bit of exercise to get the _creative_ juices flowing.


	106. Reconnoiter 10-1

**Reconnoiter 10.1**

Leaving the meeting, I was happy to finally have today's debacle done with. It was Wednesday, Leviathan would attack a week from Sunday, and while I'd made incredible progress in the past month I wasn't sure if it was going to be enough to survive. One thing that today brought to the fore was the fact that I needed to _up my game_. I'd been working with all sorts of powers that I couldn't use as Vejovis, but he was my _main_ persona and the one that would, ultimately, throw down with an Endbringer. I wasn't lying to the others, Levi was the _worst_ matchup against us of the first three.

Behemoth's lightning and radiation would be a problem against Charlie and I, but, unless the big guy stopped sandbagging, Herb would beat him like a red-headed stepchild once he got going. The Simurgh would have the opposite problem. She could mess with my teammate, but my brother and I would be functionally invisible to her, because her _only_ senses were pre and post cognition. While Chuckles might be limited in what he could do to her _directly_ , that only lasted until he got his Gun-Tinker to whip something up for him. _Defeating_ her was several magnitudes of difficulty beyond that and currently out of our grasp but _repelling_ her was doable and had been for weeks.

Leviathan, however, had no hard counter on our team. His attacks were kinetic, not energy, so Herb and my Immunity powers meant jack-all. His senses were, if I recalled correctly, not only water based but involved omni-directional sight of some kind since energy attacks had no water in them and he could see _those_ coming, so surprising him was right out as well. Not only that, he was _fast_ , in addition to being Lung-level strong, and while that would be less of a problem for us than most, it was an added issue.

I had strength, but it was an ephemeral thing, unsuited to protracted combat, as had been shown mere hours ago. I only had two real strikes that could hurt him before I needed a few minutes to recharge. Three if I wanted to leave my head more exposed, which was _not_ an option. I had toughness, easily brute three or above _without_ GG's power, but even with the armor I was now wearing I could still be crushed. I needed _more_ , but with my new powers I might've made some serious progress towards that goal.

The first and most obvious one that would guarantee my survival was _Alabaster's_. Whatever his power was hadn't been able to restore him once he was thoroughly splattered across the street, but with a head-to-toe costume that wouldn't be an issue for me. Standing in the power testing chamber, cameras on in case I missed something, I closed my eyes, seeing the collection from my Unlimited Shard Works spread out before me.

There wasn't any rhyme or reason to their placement, and I couldn't shuffle them around, but oddly enough Biokinesis, despite me picking it up after many others, was front and center along with Aero- & Acoustokinesis. Restoration was way in the back, the Stark White & Grey flames dancing in repeating patterns, along with Metal Projection, Alternate Form (Crystal Sphere), ##tal## Form, and Physical Dispersal (Particulate), which I didn't remember copying. Mentally reaching out to Restoration, I moved to activate it, but the power slipped through my metaphorical fingers. It was there, I _knew_ I copied it, I could _see_ the damn thing, but every attempt to 'use' it resulted in it dancing through my grasp, like trying to hold onto water with tongs.

 _Why?_ I wondered, trying time after time to get it to activate. The closest thing I'd experienced to this was when I tried to activate Trickster's power on myself and it wouldn't click, only this time it wasn't activating _period._ _Is this a limitation?_ I thought, _Like, I've got a cap of powers I can use which will grow with time? Or is it something else, some power interaction or quirk not listed on the CYOA, like how my USW **needs** my Power Sight to function?_ I tried to concentrate on my other powers when I activated Restoration, to see if there would be an activation, a flicker, _anything_ that would explain my problem, but as soon as I took my attention off of Alabaster's power it reset itself back to its resting position in the back of my mind.

"God-damnit," I growled to myself in frustration. I _hated_ problems that had no cause, that gave me nothing to work with. I moved onto the next power. Fog, while _highly_ distinctive, would make a good trump card if I needed to survive Leviathan. He wasn't _actually_ fog, so I didn't need to worry about Levi taking control of his body, my body, _the power_ , and ripping me to pieces _._ Reaching out to the Grey & White flames, flames seeming to be made of mist, I couldn't connect. _Like trying to grab fog,_ part of my brain pointed out, which _wasn't helping._

 _Night then!_ The form was, again, _distinctive_ , so using it in the open was a no-go, but toggling it should instantly heal me. Nope. The Midnight Blue & Slate flame slithered out of my grasp like an oiled eel. "Oh come on!" I yelled at no one in particular. "Was all that for _nothing?_ "

Pulling on Hookwolf's power, I almost laughed in relief as I felt it connect, metal manifesting under my skin painlessly. I moved to make it into a claw, only for my costume to bulge grotesquely, the metal straining against the inside of the fabric. Mentally opening up slits in the material, the steel slid out along my arm, interlocking in hundreds of rotating bits of pointed metal, forming a huge wolf's paw over my hand.

Smiling to myself, I pushed the power, opening up more of suit I moved to copy the use completely. My other hand started streaming steel, weaving itself into another claw, but as it coalesced, I felt something twist inside me, painfully, and I _lost control_.

My muscles strained uselessly against the metal threading through my limbs like a puppet's strings as I automatically fought against the power that no longer answered my direction. The material slowed down but continued to slowly extrude from not only my arms, but my legs, back, and chest as well. I tried to close up my costume, but it couldn't slice through the material already threaded through it and seemed to waver slightly before opening up _further_. The power paused, as if it wasn't sure what it wanted to do, before it started to pick up speed, emerging from my hands, my head, _everything_.

The steel continued to stream out, outside of any direction of me, and started reforming into something entirely different. _No. No! Nonononono!_ I mentally shouted, hooks emerging from every part of me, preventing me from speaking as my mouth was painlessly split and filled with metal, stopping me from calling out for help as the base's V.I. watched silently.

With a force of will I wrenched control back of the power, unable to turn it off, but freezing it in place. It wouldn't retract, but it would at least shift, my own flesh parting around the metal in a way that was _not okay._ After a minute, or maybe twenty, I couldn't tell, I'd cleared it from my head, what should be the solid bone of my skull sliding apart and coming back together like play-doh. I could feel the power ready to resume, like a recalcitrant dog straining at the leash, and I didn't have the strength to reign it in. It had a task in mind, and it wouldn't come back, but it could, even if only slightly, be directed.

It was difficult, like constantly trying to put away Miss Militia's power, but I let it extend outwards and finish. . . _whatever_ it was doing, not that I had much choice in the matter. It lifted me up on a column of interweaving metal, forming an exoskeleton around me and twisting together, flowing up and above me slightly as well, forming a cage _around_ my head, but whose constantly shifting nature let me see just fine.

I could feel through the metal and I felt. . . human? The power came with a sort of proprioception, even without looking I could feel 'myself' in the space of the room. Taking a shaky step, the metal squealed a second before, as soon as I winced at the sound, it stopped. With a slight thud I took a step forward, then to the side, then back.

The best way I could describe the feeling was that I was drunk, having to concentrate on every movement to keep myself stable, but still able to move. I brought my 'hand' in front of my 'face', and a three-foot-wide arm twisted around, complete with fake wrist, elbow, and fingers, all made of interlocking hooks.

As I moved it got a _little_ easier to do so, but the scale of everything was. . . off. Even when I grew with Fenja & Menja's power I didn't feel this _big_ the rest of the world seemed to _shrink._ This was. . . ungainly, ungraceful, and utterly _unfamiliar._

The door slid open and I froze. The only people with access to open these areas where Herb & Taylor, and I wasn't really sure who I'd rather see right now. Herb might be able to borrow my own powers to see _what the fuck was going on_ but getting it out of him would be like pulling teeth _and_ he'd give me five different kinds of shit for struggling with this. As much as I'd hate it, it might be worth it just to _get some answers_. Taylor. . . actually I had no idea what she'd do.

What she did was walk inside, look up, freeze, and cock her head to the side. After a moment she nodded, moving over to take a seat, obviously waiting for me, thinking about something. Feeling a bit sheepish, and trying to appear like I knew what I was doing, I tried to retract the metal, This time, with no hint of the lack of control I'd experienced before, it smoothly receded, flowing back into myself. It took several seconds, but it deposited me back on the ground, the power automatically shutting itself off after the last of the metal pulled back under my skin and went back wherever it came from.

Glancing backwards, the floor had been gouged slightly behind me where the construct first formed, but only there. Taking a step, I stumbled slightly as I got used to walking on my own two feet again. Taylor glanced up, helmet still on, and moved to get up. I waved her off as I flew over to her, grabbing a tablet from a table at the edge of the room. I sat on a cushion of air opposite her and grimaced, mentally reconfiguring to the feeling of moving a body of flesh and blood instead of metal hooks.

"Are you okay?" she asked, staring at me.

I started to respond, before shaking my head. "Take off the helmet Taylor, it makes it easier to talk to you."

"Oh, sorry!" she quickly apologized, uncovering her face, brown eyes wide with concern, and part of me wished she'd hadn't. "Are you?"

I looked away and pulled up the footage of the last ten minutes up and set it to play. "I think so. Something. . . odd happened." A couple of beetles jumped from her costume to my shoulder to watch the video, and I rolled my eyes, moving myself to sit down right next to her, angling the screen so we could both see it properly.

"Alabaster's power won't work," I told her as we watched myself stand in the room, getting more annoyed. "Neither would Night or Fog. Not sure why."

From the corner of my eye I saw her glance over at me, expression unreadable, quickly looking back at the screen when I started to turn to look at her. We watched my first attempt, and she paled before my costume opened up and steel flowed out like water, letting out a cute "oh" of realization. The Hookwolf paw formed and the second finished forming when the entire thing came apart as metal exploded out of me.

The interweaving hooks lost cohesion, waving about like a car-sized, aluminum anemone. The metallic tendrils started braiding themselves together, forming questing tentacles, when they slowed and stopped, the top slowly parting to reveal my head, metal slowly flowing down my neck. It was. . . disconcerting, and I found myself rubbing the back of my head as I watched. I kept expecting to see blood spurting from the cuts those scalpel blades should've left in their wake, but the flesh reformed flawlessly, which, honestly, was more disturbing.

I shivered, and Taylor looked at me in concern. "I'm fine," I said, motioning back to the video. "Just breaking in a new power. Weirdness is to be expected," I explained away, trying not to grimace. She gave me a long look and raised the hand closest to me, pausing, unsure, before putting it back down on her leg and turning back to the video.

The metal tentacles, given the go-ahead, started to form with purpose, pulling themselves together into four directions. You couldn't really tell that it was forming a person until the last moment, when the shifting metals firmed up into arms and legs, a metal 'head' forming over my own, lacking in any neck. My first step looked at bad as it felt, the bottoms of my feet firmed into 'soles', the hooks flattening out as the entire construct seemed to cringe.

It continued to move, taking a few more steps, looking at its own hand like a giant metal stoner, before looking at something offscreen and slowly pulling itself back into me, who promptly stumbled like a drunk and flew out of the frame. "Right. So. _That_ ," I finally stated.

"That looked bad _,_ " she replied, unsure, continuing her thought as I tried to respond, "You looked. . . _scared._ "

I couldn't hide my grimace this time. "I kinda was. That. . . that wasn't on purpose. Stay here," I instructed, leaving the tablet in her lap as I walked back into the middle of the chamber. I didn't want to do this again, but I _needed_ to know the trigger for. . . whatever had happened. Hesitantly grabbing hold of Metal Projection again, it smoothly flowed out and formed a wolf paw. Pulling it back I formed another on my other arm. Trying two at once cause them to destabilize, only instead of bursting forth like last time they quickly reformed into two large, gauntleted hands made of hooks.

I could manipulate them fairly easily, turning the metallic arms this way and that. Keeping in mind what Hookwolf could later do with the Slaughterhouse 9, I formed my right 'arm' into a long tentacle, manipulating it to and fro. However, when I tried to do the same to the left, the right one snapped back into a gauntlet, and when I tried to manipulate the right arm, the left arm snapped back into its 'gauntlet' formation.

Pulling the metal inwards, I was able to extend the same tentacles-from-the-wrists formation I used with Brandish's power to move around, but adding tentacles caused them to snap together into two arms once more. "Too much and it goes, um, colossus? No, too small. Hook giant? Source to obvious. It goes golem, if I try too much," I called to her, glad to be figuring out the limits of the power. She started to get up, but I waved a tree-sized arm for her to stay seated.

Clearing out Metal Projection from my system, I tapped Aerokinesis. Bringing to the forefront of my mind Stormtiger's short-lived Magnum Opus, I let the power work on autopilot as it formed interweaving Air Claws, lifting me up in the center of the swirling typhoon of ragged blades. Tapping Grue's power, I dropped small amounts of Darkness into the construct, like ink drops in water, which were quickly picked up by the shaped maelstrom, dying its shape a deep black as it was revealed.

Taylor looked on, obviously impressed, while I waited for the power to once again twist out of my control, to twist and deform into a humanoid shape, but it didn't. The feline form held, and I dismissed Grue's power, letting the Storm Panther fade.

"Fenja, Menja, Kaiser, Victor, Stormtiger, and Cricket's powers I can use easily. Night, Fog, and Alabaster's I can't, despite having copied them. Hookwolf's. . . is weird. Any thoughts?" I called over to her.

She shrugged helplessly, "No? Sorry."

I let out a long breath. While not optimal, if I could learn to keep Metal Projection active internally, it would add another layer of protection for my vitals and further enhance my own physical capabilities by puppeting the metal inside my limbs. _Like it had done without my contro,l_ part of my mind pointed out, but that was once I hit a threshold of material that I'd be _avoiding._ "Fair enough. So, what brings you to this neck of the woods?"

"I, um," she replied, having some kind of internal debate. "Nevermind."

"Taylor," I said as I started walking back over to her, not quite steady, but better. "Whatever it is, just say it."

"You didn't finish!" she blurted out. At my look of confusion, she added, "You never talked about what _you_ did. You went over me, and everyone else, but not _you._ "

I paused, mid-step. "I. . . Um. . . _huh_."

"You didn't notice?" she asked in disbelief.

I continued walking over, taking a 'seat' across from her. "Okay, so I _didn't_ , but. . . _why didn't I?_ " I asked myself in turn. I went over the meeting in my head, and why we did it in the first place. Nodding to myself I told her as soon as I understood it myself, "I was doing it to figure out what I needed to do to help everyone else get better, _be_ better, so that next time they wouldn't be in as much danger. I already _know_ what _I_ did wrong."

"Which is?" she asked after a moment.

"Well," I motioned to my chest, "The armor was kind of a 'duh' thing in retrospect. I went Superman, or Legend, but fully armored heroes are a thing here." I was always more of a sci-fi/fantasy reader, but other than Iron Man, I couldn't think of _any_ comic book heroes who wore heavy armor. Most of their costumes either looked painted on, like Spider-man, were integrated into their bodies, like Cyborg, or were tight with a few flourishes, like Batman's gauntlets. Was it because the presence of armor would instantly increase the force needed to have fights into lethal territory, thus make it harder to have recurring villains and more stretch the reader's suspension of disbelief to the breaking point with how you always had a fairly static rogue's gallery? Given that-

". . . _and?_ " she prodded when it was clear I'd stopped talking, and I was dragged back into the moment.

"And that's kind of it. I mean, you saw the fight, other than that I was good," I replied, feeling a little defensive.

She frowned and opened her mouth to try to prove me wrong, but paused. Finding nothing she stopped and took her thinking pose, where she relaxed and looked down, mulling it over. "Why did you kill them?" she finally asked.

 _Is this when we have the Batman argument?_ I wondered, stating, "Because they escalated the situation _well_ beyond that point, and with Herb off on his own and with only Vicky as backup I no longer had the strength needed to be merciful without revealing my true strength."

"What?" she asked, "Strong enough to be. . ." She shook her head, "No, I mean, I thought, you didn't do it because they tried to kill Purity?"

I snorted. "No. Kayden is. . . she's a lot of things. Someone I care that much about is not one of them. No, I'll do my best to save her, because she's part of our team, but her death wouldn't push me to do something I wouldn't rationally do. There were lines, they crossed them, and I don't see the need to play fair if the other side isn't even bothering to _try_ to have any sort of honor! No, with Herb out of the fight and my needing to keep Victoria safe, I was done trying to be nice with them."

"Would. . . ." she trailed off, before shaking her head again. "Did they not cross them before? I mean, what happened during the Truce, that wasn't enough? And you knew they were going to try to ambush and kill you, which is also something they're not supposed to do, right? If that's why, why didn't you start off with killing Viktor instead of what you did?"

"Well, if they were going to play by the rules, so would I," I explained, again. "If they weren't going to go lethal, neither was I. Mostly because of how the PRT would react," I added as an afterthought, to be clear.

She frowned, opened her mouth, closed it, and opened it again as she didn't look at me, considering whatever problem she was thinking about. "And it's the _killing_ that would get their attention?"

I shrugged, "Well, _yeah._ As long as it's not obvious, the PRT don't care if villains kill normal people, but when parahumans start killing each _other_ they freak out. However, if it's a choice between them and y-"

"No," she interrupted me, waving away what I was saying.

" _Yes_ ," I insisted. "I'm not going to-"

" _No_ ," she reiterated, waving harder. "I mean. Yes. But that's. . . Why didn't you run?"

". . . What?" I asked in turn. "Um, there was the sniper, and they would've chased us, and I _couldn't fly._ "

She bit her lip. "Is that what you thought, though, or is that just what you're saying now?"

It smarted a bit that she was accusing me of coming up with rationalizations, like _Kayden_. "Those were all reasons why I wouldn't have unless things had gotten _really_ bad, but I didn't need to, because Kaiser wasn't a true threat," I shot back.

"Purity getting shot wasn't really bad?" she inquired skeptically.

"Not really. No." at her shocked look I explained. "Taylor, I wouldn't have the same reaction if you, the sisters, or even _Theo_ got shot. Kayden's an _adult_ , with _years_ of experience, and was blatantly ignoring _everything_ I said. She's part of the team, or so she says, so I did my best to get her the help she needed, which she got, but if _this_ was how she died? It'd be bad, in a general sense, and I would make sure Theo and Aster were taken care of, but what could I've done? She was explicitly told to stay out of it, and the only warning I got was from _Panacea._ "

She listened, nodding slightly to what I was saying, but obviously not happy about it. "Okay, I guess. But. . . you don't want attention, right?"

" _Yes!_ " I replied emphatically. "We aren't up to the point that a bit of bad luck won't lead to someone getting _killed_. If I hadn't trained Glory Girl, she would've easily died from fighting Stormtiger, Alabaster, and Cricket, even without the Sniper. Mind you, if it weren't for me she wouldn't've been there in the first place, but no-one's ready yet, not even me."

She looked up at me, gaze piercing. "Then why did you fight?"

"Because they were trying to _kill us_?" I said slowly, not getting her point.

"Here?" she motioned around the room incredulously. "In our _secret base_ , and wow, that's weird to say out loud," she stated, quickly getting back on track. "But the only thing people think is going on here-ish is that some new capes tested out some powers because they thought the ship graveyard was too cliché. And you just said it wasn't bad, even when they were _waiting_ for you!"

"The only reason _anything_ bad happened was my poor choice of costume against a cape who I think was _chosen_ to try to kill me, and Kayden not listening to _anything_ her team leader said," I defended, not sure why she was getting upset by this.

"But why fight them at all?" she pressed.

"Because they're villains!" I pressed back. "And not 'people in a bad situation' villains, they're _literal Nazis_ Taylor. Brockton Bay has been partially controlled by _literal Nazis_ for over a _decade_ and _no-one's_ bothered to fight them. And worst, they're _idiots_ about it. I mean, yeah, Nazis aren't known for their wisdom, but they've been the undisputed rulers of most of Brockton Bay when they're weak!"

"And you're strong?" she asked, with all the indications that she was baiting some kind of linguistic trap.

" _We're_ strong," I said, willing to see where this went. "Taylor, if you went _hard_ on them you could've wiped out a third of them, on your own, with them completely unable to fight back! Kaiser threw down the gauntlet, and we made him _eat_ it! While the attention is more than I'd like, yes, the Empire was, if not broken, then dropped down a peg or _twelve_ today _!_ "

"And that's why you had to do this?" she asked leadingly.

I shrugged. "Well, not _had_ to, but it was an opportunity that was too good to pass up. And if we didn't, who knows what they would've tried next?"

"Okay," she nodded, seeing my point. "I understand, but why did you talk to him?"

"I. . . What do you mean?" I asked at the non sequitur.

"You wanted to stop them. To take them in, and stop them from trying to attack you, right? That's why you ambushed their ambush?" she asked, and I nodded. "Then why did you talk to Kaiser? Why did you go where he wanted you to? Why didn't you and Break just land on his building after I found them, grab him, fight the others off, and leave? Drop him off at the PRT, wrapped up in spider silk?"

That. . . was a good point. "Well. . . _fuck."_ I swore, feeling the wind being taken out of my metaphorical sails. _Why **did** I do that? _"I don't know. I guess. . . I wanted to show him that he wasn't as strong as he thought?" I asked hesitantly. "Arrogance like that, it just annoys me. He's been given _everything_ and has done _nothing_ with it!"

" _I'm_ holding back because if even a _fraction_ of what I could do was shown I'd have Eidolon on my doorstep tomorrow, and not in a good way. I show more powers than I should be able to? People are going to get suspicious, and likely notice exactly _what_ powers I have, finding out I'm a copier. I upset the applecart by going after the villains better than the government heroes? Throughout history, it's been shown again and again what happens when someone starts doing a governmental function better than the government. It rarely goes well for that person, Taylor. Heck," I shifted to my Boardwalk costume, "Even creating too many identities is dangerous, especially with my limited pool of powers, as someone's going to start noticing that all the new capes are just remixes of three of the best powers from Brockton Bay."

I shifted my costume to a deep purple, swirling fabric that covered me from head to toe and seemed to dance on nonexistent wind while leaking darkness as I grew another foot. "It's why I didn't try this," I stated, making my voice higher, faint, and raspy. "With Stormtiger's blades, hidden in Grue's darkness, I'd be able to create an _actual_ villain persona, or at least something bloodthirsty enough to single-handedly take out an entire stronghold. It would've been _glorious._ "

Shifting back to Vejovis, I shook my head, "But that would've been too obvious. _I'm_ limited for a whole host of reasons, but Kaiser? I can't think of a single good reason for him to limit himself, which means he probably isn't _limiting_ himself, he's just limit _ed._ And to have _that_ much confidence, _that_ much arrogance, **_that_** much 'superiority' when he's _that_ dumb? It's just. . . _wrong._ I mean," I held out a hand and the floor rippled below me, a titanium spear rising up, inlaid with golden flame designs, the edge of the head formed into a near monomolecular saw pattern.

"This took me, I don't know, a few hours to figure out," I said, removing it from the floor and turning it over in my hands. "It's functional, better than pretty much anything on the market, and practically an art piece. Imagine what Fenja could do with something like this, her giant size showing off the beauty of the work. You could work in intricate Aryan designs into it that could _only_ be appreciated when she grew, showing off how you could work _with_ others to achieve your ends, not just have them work _for_ you!"

"Not even touching the _ridiculousness_ that is orichalcum, the way he uses his power is _insultingly_ stupid," I scowled. "Like if you decided to _only_ control bees, then declared yourself better because of your, I don't know, nice hair, and you mom, who could make wasps from thin air and sick them on people, was the leader of a gang of brunette-supremacists or something equally stupid, and so you lead the group that _she_ built, but you thought _you_ were a complete badass for doing so. At least the ABB, monsters they were, worked for it and used their abilities _well._ "

I sighed, "But that isn't an answer. I guess I wanted to see him realize how badly he'd misjudged me. Well, not _me,_ but Vejovis. You understand that, right? Or, I guess you don't, given how you didn't put those three in their place."

"I do!" she disagreed vehemently. "It's. . . I don't care what they think." I looked at her incredulously. "I don't!" she insisted defensively, looking down at her lap. "Not really. If I don't want them to like me, and they _already_ hate me, why should I care?" She gave a half shrug, "What's the point?"

She looked so downtrodden that I wanted to give her a hug, tell her she was worth a hundred of them, make her _feel better_ , but that wouldn't be appropriate. I settled for not calling her out on her blatant lie about 'not caring'. "I wanted to win," I said, moving the focus off of her and coincidentally off my desire to comfort her. "But, that's not why I'm doing this, doing _any_ of this. _Fuck._ You're right. No one was watching that fight. I didn't even need to show up as Vejovis."

Laughing bitterly, I shifted to Boardwalk's costume, pausing for a second to add armor to that as well, the pitch-black plates on pitch-black leather nearly invisible. I turned to Shadow, holding up a hand full of Light. "I could've sneaked right up to them and dropped a bomb in their midst. That might even've been better, given how I've been trying to portray him as something like a more moral, more competent Shadow Stalker. Given how none've 'em got lightning, it would've been _stupid_ easy to take them to pieces, and the Sniper'd have a real fuckin' problem shootin' my ass _indoors._ "

Shifting back to Vejovis, I dismissed Boardwalk's powers, looking down as I still sat facing Taylor. "But I wanted to fight them, fairly, like an _idiot._ "

"Not an idiot," she rebutted, leaning over and putting a hand on my knee to get my attention. "Just, not as good as it could've been."

I shook my head, standing up, "I was being a stereotypical hero, so _yes_ , an idiot. I'm just happy no one on our side had died, and no one I cared about was hurt."

Taylor stood up as well, frowning at me. " _You_ were hurt!"

"My mistake, my pain. Besides, that's not a big deal," I dismissed. "I'm used to it."

She glared at me. " _No_. You don't want to see me hurt, I don't want to see you hurt either!"

"I, um, what?" I sputtered, feeling a bit awkward and more than a little confused. "That's not the same!"

" _Yes,_ it is! It's _exactly_ the same! I don't want to see you're hurt!" she insisted.

Spreading my hands helplessly, I pointed out, "We're parahumans. We're going to get hurt eventually. It's more of a _when_ , not an _if_."

"You know what I mean!" she snapped, stepping forward and punching my arm, not even draining the shield, leaving her hand there. "You're all on _us_ about being careful, and about not doing what everyone else does just because that's what everyone else does." She looked me in the eye and told me firmly, "You need to listen to your own advice."

We both stood there, and I wanted to disagree, but couldn't without being dishonest. " _Fine,_ " I gave, "but that means I'll need you to help. I'm. . . not the best at considering myself in my plans." I scratched the back of my head, not really liking having to admit this, waving my other hand as I explained, "I normally just fill in what's needed to help my friends. It's never really been a problem before."

She frowned at me, and I wondered what I'd said wrong, before she stepped forward and hugged me. "Well it is now!" she declared.

It was. . . nice, but odd. I wasn't really sure what to do with my hands. "Um, thanks?" I offered, awkwardly patting her on the back. "Um, didn't we talk about not doing anything until you were older?"

She looked up at me from my chest, _very_ close, and stated with authority. "We're friends. I can hug my friends." Nevertheless, she still blushed and let go, stepping back. "We _are_ friends, right?"

On firmer ground, I smiled, " _Yes_ Taylor, we're friends. At least, I hope we are."

"We are!" she affirmed, the silence between us stretching out. We both jumped as a loud pounding came from the door, the faint sounds of someone female yelling from the other side.

 _Ohthankgod_ , I thought, grabbing the spear in case it was needed as I called, "Zilla, open the door."

On the other side was Vicky, looking _very_ unhappy. "This is your fault!" she declared, flying over towards me.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, but you might be right," I smiled, leaning against the spear. "Though it would help if you told me what 'this' is."

"Dean's being held and can't hang out with me!" she yelled.

"Held by the Empire?" I asked, straightening. I wouldn't think that that the Empire would do something that fast, but if they were desperate they _might_ resort to kidnapping. Dean's parents were rich, so I supposed it was a possibility. If she had a location, Kaiser wouldn't live through the day.

"No!" Vicky said, looking confused. "By the PRT! _Duh._ "

I shared a confused glance with Taylor. "Okay, _why?_ "

She flew close, poking me in my armored chest, "Because they think _you've_ done something to him, so he's in Master/Stranger containment!"


	107. Reconnoiter 10-2

**Reconnoiter 10.2**

Upon hearing that Dean was being held by the PRT my first instinct was to fly over there and give them a piece of my mind, and also to ask what the hell was their problem. My second was to just call them, maybe seeing if I could use the resources Eclipse had to spoof my location as their basement. My _third_ was to call my lawyer.

"You know, when I said you were in the black with my firm unless you declared war on the Empire, that wasn't a _suggestion._ " Quinn wryly commented when I video-called him, using the secure application he'd asked me to use.

"I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about," I replied blandly, Taylor and Vicky peering over my shoulder. "Though, theoretically, if I'd received information that Crusader wanted to defect, knew it was a trap, set _off_ the trap, and as the E88 tried their damndest to kill my team they happened to expire in a way that had nothing to do with any of our actions, then that's definitely not what I'm calling you about."

I could practically feel both teens staring at me and checking through a fly Taylor'd hidden in the corner of the room confirmed it. " _Right,_ " my lawyer commented dryly, not missing a beat, "Are you calling to not talk about that theoretical incident or about something entirely different which may or may not have happened?"

I held my hand up to indicate the Brute behind me. "They've kidnapped Gallant!" she declared.

I actually turned around to look at Victoria in disbelief before sitting back down. "What the teen who's bad at communicating-"

"I'm not!" she objected.

"Meant to say is that the PRT is holding Gallant in Master/Stranger containment after he told them about the new uses of his power he developed after spending an afternoon working with me," I explained. "Nothing he showed them was anything really _new_ , just different applications of his registered powers."

Quinn took a moment to parse that, including what I _wasn't_ saying, finally responding with, "Pardon me, but how is that our concern?"

I jerked a thumb in Glory Girl's direction. "She's dating him." Observing her look of outrage from the insects nearby I glanced over to her and said, "What? You are. That is _literally_ the reason you're upset."

Quinn typed something and added, "Publicly, Victoria Dallon is currently dating Dean Stansfield."

I just shrugged, "Yeah. And?"

He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "And I don't suppose she is two-timing him?"

"I wouldn't!" the girl in question exclaimed, quickly paling.

"I'm _ninety_ percent sure this is covered by attorney-client privilege," I added.

Quinn forced down a smile, remaining professional. "It is," he confirmed. "However, I don't see what you expect me to do about it." I waved towards the screen in a 'see?' gesture.

"But can't you, I don't know, call them or something?" she pleaded. " _Please?_ " A bit of her Aura leaked out, but was pulled back before I could comment on it.

"They _have_ been asking to talk to you, Vejovis," my lawyer replied, the traitor. "I suppose we could ask, as an interested party." He shot me a questioning look, and the force of Vicky's puppy dog eyes on my back was nearly palpable.

Turning to Taylor instead I asked, "I'd rather not get involved, since they won't do anything to him, but it'd be foolish not to listen to my council. Lady Bug?"

I could feel her surprise through the bugs, not expecting to be put on the spot as Vicky shifted her attention and Quinn raised an eyebrow, still repressing a smile. "Um, sure? I don't see why not. Just don't say anything about, well, you know." A second later she formed the scribe Swarm we'd snagged and put in the vents into the words 'Today's Fight'.

I reformed it into, 'I won't', telling Quinn, "Fine, but I'm spoofing my location to be the PRT's basement."

"As your lawyer I'd have to advise against that," he retorted flatly.

I shrugged, "Fine, I'll have it look like I'm in Switzerland or something."

His brow furrowed, "Given that the entire country still has problems with Simurgh victims, that is probably not a good idea if we're to talk about someone affected by Master/Stranger protocols."

"Your office?" I threw out.

"Please don't."

"Medhall?"

"Are you doing this on purpose?" he inquired.

"Kinda," I shrugged, setting up the connection. "Fine, I'll do a coffeeshop on the Boardwalk."

Quinn shook his head, telling us he'd make some calls and that he'd warn us before connecting. Muting my own mic I spun around, addressing the two girls. "Before I forget, Break and I'll be gone this weekend. We're doing some recon and possibly some recruitment. Lady Bug, if you can arrange it with your family I'd like you to mind the base while we're gone."

"Why her?" Vicky asked, crossing her arms.

I raised an eyebrow, "Well, the PD currently consists of myself, Break, Kayden, and the Lady, Bug. Break and I will be out, and as has been shown I can't trust Kayden. I _can_ trust her," I stated with confidence, waving towards Taylor. "I would be seeing if she could come with me if I wasn't worried that things might get bad, but I'd rather have her here to make sure nothing goes wrong and to be able to contact me if something does. We won't be more than a day away, possibly an hour if we need to _really_ move, but we couldn't monitor things like she could here"

Taylor's body language looked torn between embarrassment at the praise and wanting to object, but before she could decide on a response Quinn came back. "That took less time than I thought," I commented.

"How long ago did you find out Gallant was being held, and how did you find out?" he asked Glory Girl intently, ignoring me.

"Um, like, half an hour ago?" she replied. "And he called me to tell me. It was _totes_ sketchy. That's why I got Vej!"

My lawyer nodded. "I thought so. I should've been told a time they would be available, but they were waiting to hear from you. Admit to nothing. You are not under oath, and as far as anyone is concerned, you were home today. Any question about your activities, location, or plans are not to be answered. Girls, please let Vejovis or I do all the talking unless is a question is directed to you and I nod to tell you to answer. Vejovis, please let me do the talking if possible."

We nodded, and he typed, his image shrinking to the corner of the screen, the rest black until it connected, showing a meeting room with Piggot, Miss Militia, and someone who I didn't recognize. It was my first time seeing Piggot and I was unimpressed. To put it simply, she looked like a joyless asshole. She was short, fat, and _white_ , which surprised me. I'd always gotten an Amanda Waller vibe off the character and had just assumed she was Black or Hispanic. Looking at her semi-hidden contemptuous scowl, she reminded me of some women I'd worked with before, the type who'd do the bare minimum and expect you to be happy about it, the type who'd take everything you said the wrong way while being nasty themselves while claiming they weren't, the type of person who'd come down hard on anyone not doing what she _thought_ you should be doing instead of what you should _actually_ be doing.

From what I remembered from her interlude she had some kind of weird oppression complex revolving capes, her normal status, and how she, despite being so 'weak', could control them or something. It hadn't really struck me until now how it resonated with practically every part of her appearance. The one thing that really encompassed it all was her bob haircut that was too short to be by accident. Rather than distracting from her weight, it seemed to enhance it, her hair curving in to point to her second chin. It was so obvious that she had to know how it looked, yet still did so anyways. Given her name, you'd think that she'd do anything to avoid a porcine resemblance, but she seemed to _embrace_ it, This was a woman who turned down parahuman healing because of her bigotry and, if I had to guess, used her injury as a shield against criticism, like she used it as a weapon against the Undersiders. However, as bad as she was, Tagg was worse, which was why I'd been merely avoiding her rather than removing her.

Introductions were made by Quinn, with the t in Piggot's name apparently being silent and the new guy being a "Dr. Bradly Whitworth" who specialized in parahuman studies and power testing. Despite the trope he didn't look excited at new circumstances but calm and mildly disinterested. "Good to _finally_ speak to you, Vejovis," Piggot stated flatly. "Would you like to tell me why I have one of my Wards under guard?"

I held my tongue and Quinn replied, "We were informed he was in Master/Stranger Confinement after displaying a new expression of his powers. Was this in error?"

"This is the second time you've met with one of my heroes and they've displayed new powers," she retorted.

 _There's something in the water,_ I thought, _there's got to be. This 'I'll ignore what you just said' thing is **endemic.**_ As my lawyer looked at me, surprised but hiding it, I realized that I hadn't mentioned it. He waited for me to respond, and I did so, though not to what the PRT director had just asked. "I'm sorry, there must be a connection problem. Can you hear Mr. Calle?"

"That's not the issue we're discussing," she shot back, opening her mouth to likely repeat her veiled accusation, but I cut her off.

"Well, if we can't all hear each other, this meeting won't go well," I stated, doing my best to sound concerned. " _Can_ you hear Mr. Calle? It would be silly to include him if only I can communicate with him."

"I can, n-" she ground out, only to be interrupted by me again.

"Oh, okay, in that case can you please answer _his_ question first?" I insisted politely. I knew I was likely upsetting her, but I wasn't going to bother with a conversation with someone who ignored me and gave me the 3rd degree, _right off the bat_. "We have been informed by Glory Girl that Gallant was in Master/Stranger confinement, for some reason. Was that in error?"

"When one of our own starts displaying unknown powers after meeting with an unaligned parahuman, Master or Stranger powers are considered," she stated flatly.

"So. . . is that a yes?" I prodded after a moment. "Because I'm just looking for an answer that includes a yes or a no, so we know we have all the facts."

"No, you are not in error," the doctor added.

Piggot's expression, barely flickered as she glanced at him sourly for an instant. I let the moment drag on before she finally said, "Well? What do you have to say for yourself?"

Quinn slid back into the conversation, "Are you accusing my client of something? I believe his powers are a matter of public record, none of which should cause what you're suggesting."

She ignored him and stared at me, so after an awkward moment I returned the favor and ignored her. "Dr. Whitworth," I said, turning slightly to address him, "How do you test new parahuman's powers? It's something I've always wondered."

As he opened his mouth to respond, Piggot cut him off, "That's classified."

I pivoted to look at Miss Militia, whose expression was unreadable behind her bandana. "What experimentation did you do after you got your powers? I know they tend to want to express themselves in a way at first, but what testing, if any, have you done to see what the extents of it were?"

"Don't answer that," Piggot snapped, her expression even more unpleasant, if that were possible. "Explain what you did to my people!"

I stared at her for a long moment, glancing to my lawyer. His expression shifted off center, likely looking at me, if I took up the same portion of the screen as he did for me. I gave a slight shrug, not having anything to work with and letting him take the lead.

My lawyer asked the leader of the local PRT, "What evidence do you have that my client has, in fact, done anything to the members of the Protectorate stationed here?"

"Don't bullshit me. You're a Trump," she accused with authority, as if this was a secret that I was stupid to think I could hide. I mean, she wasn't _wrong,_ but unlike when Miss Militia said it, I was ready.

I raised an eyebrow, unable to hold my tongue at such a blatant ruse, "Really? _That's_ you're answer? Something new happens so it must be powers? I know when all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail, Piggot," I laughed, pronouncing the t, "but has it ever occurred to you that it's just human ingenuity?"

"We've gotten pretty damn far using the scientific method, counterintuitive and humbling as it is, why is it so surprising that someone with powers would use the thing they _teach everyone in high school?_ " I asked her rhetorically, not stopping for what I was sure would be a disingenuous non-answer. "I mean, most Triggers are teens and twenty-somethings. Is it _so_ much of a shock that I just used my brain and approached it like someone who thinks, but isn't a _Thinker?_ Make hypotheses, try to disprove them, rinse, repeat, _it isn't that hard people!_ " I knew I was ranting a bit but _come on!_ My _actual_ Trump powers, if I went public with them, should get this kind of response, not giving some heroes some pointers, _one of which Gallant had already figured out on his own!_

Piggot glared at me, but before she could wait long enough to 'slap me down' or something the Doctor spoke up, scorn thick in his tone as if he was speaking to a particularly dumb student, " _That's_ what you say you used? _Science?_ What you claim to have done with 'Science' flies in the face of the actual _established_ science!"

 _Ah, not the true scientist who's exited by new developments but the stuffy academic who treats accepted truth as dogma,_ I thought, adapting my approach, understanding that all _three_ people I was talking to were dishonest. I'd hated the type of person the Doctor apparently was all through college, and this time my grade wasn't on the line, "And the established science is. . .?"

"Martin, Blum, and Dijkstra established that once a parahuman demonstrates a power, they display the powers in full. While they _may_ increase in intensity, effectiveness, or scope, they never expand beyond that," he stated authoritatively.

"Wait," I frowned, thinking of Grue's second trigger, which had created a Trump ability ex nihilo, "unless you make the parameters _extraordinarily_ vague, that doesn't make sense. Are you stating that people's classifications are perfect every time?"

"Wirth and Patterson established that all parahumans gain instinctive use of their powers after triggering," he dismissed.

I pinched the bridge of my nose, "Well, I suppose if it's been _proven_ then it can never be _disproven_. That is, after all, how _science_ works. It's not like there's an example of you being wrong sitting, _directly across from you._ "

"There are powers that can modify the powers of other," he stated scornfully. "Ingenue is the most obvious example. They are commonly called _Trumps_ ," he finished patronizingly.

I looked at him in disbelief, biting my tongue as I looked at him, then back to Piggot. "Your baseless antagonism aside, you have my condolences. He's an idiot. Mr. Calle, since their leader can't lead, their director can't direct, and their scientist can't _science_ , do _you_ have any suggestions on how to solve this problem other than being accused of having more than three powers, despite the fact that _no one_ has more than three powers?"

"That's a common misconception," the stuffed shirt sniffed, "There is no evidence that there is such a limit."

I could feel my eye twitching. "Name _one._ "

"Myrddin, despite his claims of 'magic', has eight," he smugly sneered.

"Ya know what, _fine,_ " I spat, annoyed, glancing away from them as I grabbed a tablet and looking him up. "You want an example of _actual science_ , let's take a look at the _magic guy._ " It was the work of a moment to bring up his PHO page. "Assuming that PHO has his full list of powers, and if you say he has more but they're classified I'm hanging up, let's go through these."

"First power, summons heroes that he can transport in a pocket dimension. So he has a pocket dimension. Power _one._ He can 'banish' people, no rule other than a single person at a time. That's likely _also_ a pocket dimension, likely one with different rules. He probably has access to more than one. Still one power: access to pocket dimensions. He can fly. Might be another power, or it _might_ be a different use of his pocket dimension power. Maybe he opens one under his feet to stand on and moves that, maybe he open one that attaches to his back and just moves that around, which would make it still _one power._ Absorbs stuff into a sphere which hyper-compacts things, which he can then launch. Pocket dimension with some kind of vacuum but a tiny opening, switches it to a different pocket dimension with a higher pressure which then launches the object. Draws a symbol, which then explodes. So, he primes the pocket dimension to breach in a certain pattern, and then it opens for a moment, exploding outwards? _Still one power."_

The Doctor tried to interrupt me, but I kept going, "He can suck things up, not to be seen again. You mean he sucks them up into his _pocket dimension?_ He can gain a 'glimpse' of insight into how parahuman powers work?" _Well, that's obviously briefly looking into the dimension that the individual power rests in, but I can't exactly **say** that._ "Okay, you got me, that's likely a secondary power. So, short of testing to _disprove_ my theory, he's got two, _maybe_ three powers. So, like I said, _no one has more than three._ "

"All of that is mere conjecture," he angrily shot back.

 _And your **entire** field isn't? _"Oh," I commented with over-the-top understanding, "you're an academic zealot who won't give the time of day to someone who hasn't already been approved of by your cabal. Right, wow, my bad." I looked back to Piggot, who had remained suspiciously silent. "He's not just an idiot, he holds up academia with the same unquestioning religiosity that cult members possess. I've answered your question, and _then_ some. Is there anything else you want to talk about?"

"How long have you been studying this?" she asked, not angry, just intent.

"I haven't officially, most of the accepted theories don't hold up and you've just _seen_ what happens when you question _those_ , but I've been thinking about superpowers for over a decade," I shrugged.

"And you could do this with anyone?" she continued. I honestly expected her to be more upset, but maybe she hated that asshole as much as I did. Still wouldn't trust her as far as. . . as far as _Taylor_ could throw her, but at least she was being more cordial than she was at the start of the call. Maybe she'd realized that I _hadn't messed with Miss Militia's powers._

I shrugged again, "I don't guarantee results, and I won't help people that aren't heroes by _my_ definition, but yeah."

"And you'd need to meet them?" she questioned, likely either trying to prove this to be a power or get an excuse to get me into holding.

I shook my head, "No. Meeting them would be easier, since I might pick up details they missed if I see the power in action for myself, but I could just talk to them, though it wouldn't be as effective. I'm serious, this isn't a power thing. It's _just science_."

"Stay on the line," she commanded, nodding to someone and the screen cut out.

Muting my connection to the PRT, I called up Quinn on the phone in case they could access the call anyways, who did the same and answered his phone. "Well, that went well."

"You did manage to avoid creating more work for me. While that decreases my billable hours, I do appreciate that," he replied. "But I do believe I asked you to let me do the talking."

"Shit, you're right," I apologized, not really feeling that sorry but recognizing that he was right, "It's just. . . I wasn't lying, it's just science. You know, observation, hypotheses, and the mindset to try to prove yourself wrong. You could do it. They could do it," I motioned to the girls behind me. "Hell, even _Kayden_ could do it, though _would_ she is the better question."

My lawyer sighed, "At least you didn't say anything legally actionable, and for reference please do not mention that you are in touch with a person of interest while on call with a governmental organization, even if you are muted. Can you actually do what you say?"

I didn't have to fake my offended look, " _Yes._ I wouldn't offer if I couldn't."

"Seriously Vej, what the hell?" Glory Girl yelled, unable to sit on the sidelines while we waited. "We're trying to get Dean out, you piss them off, and you're telling them how you aren't going to help!"

I glared at her coldly, "One, please don't possible out the identity of Wards where the _PRT_ could possibly hear you. They might not care about Kayden, but they _would_ care about me knowing that. Two, were you following the conversation? Do you know how you handle a hostage situation? They are _literally_ trying to hold their _own person_ hostage to get me to do things for them, _which I won't_. Three, _I am helping._ We've gone from 'Admit you're secretly a person whose been illegally using your powers on government heroes!' to 'Prove that you can do _basic science._ ' If I can find _one_ new use for people I'm not going to fight, I can get them off my ass and put this stupid Trump shit to _bed._ "

Taylor put a comforting hand on my shoulder, and I pushed it off, forming 'PRT is Watching, possibly listening' in the scribe Swarm. After her slightly upset reaction flashed across her face, I shifted it to write, 'Also, thanks. I appreciate it but I'm fine.' Her expression smoothed out as Vicky glowered at me.

"This better work," the Brute grumbled.

"Miss Militia," Quinn prodded. "Is there anything you'd like to publicly state about that?"

"She was waiting for me when I exited your office, in the lobby of your building. We talked. I got unofficial confirmation of some things I'd heard from another source. In return I offered my suggestion, which worked, and she brought out the Trump card, if you'll pardon the pun. I didn't appreciate the accusation and left. Lady Bug was there as well, if you need confirmation." I rattled off, and she nodded in agreement.

My lawyer frowned, "There's a few ways you could use that. Would you like to take any legal action?"

"As of this time, no. We'll see how this plays out," I stated, hoping this would go well, but wanting that as an option anyways.

We waited several more minutes before the feed from Piggot came back, and I hung up my call with Quinn as I unmuted myself. "Have you ever met Exalt, Rime, or Satyrical?" she questioned, a laptop in front of her.

"No, but from everything I've heard, Satyrical _isn't_ a hero so I won't be helping him," I replied without missing a beat.

She frowned, but nodded as another voice theatrically professed, "I'm hurt! I am nothing if not heroic!" It sounded a little distorted, likely coming from a phone.

"Thank you for informing us they were on the line," Quinn stated calmly.

Piggot typed, and asked, "Do you know Exalt's power?" I shook my head. "He's an aero & telekinetic, growing in power with more time to prepare."

 _Really, that's all you're giving me?_ I thought incredulously. _Fine._ I considered the power. Aerokinesis _was_ telekinesis aboveground, so finding out if it was just one ability would be needed. The 'growing in power' seemed important, as Stormtiger's was pretty much instant. "How long does it take to charge, how much does he need to move to drop down to zero, _does_ he drop back to zero immediately or is there a drop off in power, and does the charge level effect the travel distance before it drops? Actually, just the last one. If he's at ten percent charge is the distance smaller than ninety percent charge? That'd answer a bunch of questions."

An older man's voice spoke up with a mild Texan accent, obviously amused. "It matters. If'n I'm set up? There's nowhere in Houston you could hide."

I considered his phrasing, discarding the frankly _stupid_ threat. If I wanted him dead, he wouldn't _know_ I was there. Did he mean I couldn't outrun his power in the city limits or was there a sensory component? Not being able to _See_ his power made it more difficult, but not impossible. I resolved to look into whether he was deserving of his power, as it would probably synergize well with Stormtiger's Aerokinesis. "I'd have them stick you in a sealed room and see if you are giving off anything, like a chemical, energy, or something else. Also see if you fully 'charge' in a minute or two. Make sure it's not just airtight, but energy-proof, so a faraday cage, and maybe if there's a third thing I'm missing. If I'm right you charge or convert the air around you, and then control _that_. Convert might not be the right word, saturate? Doesn't matter. Also, see if your telekinesis works underwater, or really in any non-carbonated liquid, to see if it isn't just air control. Can you sense the air around you? If so, is it constant or does the range increase as you 'charge'?"

"Huh," he said after a moment. "Ain't you as Bright as a New Penny."

"Um, thanks?" I replied. "But can you tell me which it is?"

"What'd all those options mean?"

"Well, if there's no sense at all, then I'd go with my original idea that your power spreads out to suffuse the air around you, letting you control it. Ditto if you can sense it, and the sense expands with your charge. If it was constant then your power sets up the limits of your control, so it quickly suffuses the area at a very low level, and with time your control goes from sensing things to actively controlling it. There might be a 'charging' phase that's a bit tenuous, requiring you to stay in the same general area, but the stronger the effect, the farther from the center you can be. In terms of use, well, it's Aerokinesis. See what other Aerokinetics do and see if you replicate it. We've got one here who can deflect bullets, and you could see if you can do so as well. Or if you could make a 'claw' of air like he does, though maybe something less lethal, since you're not a _Nazi_."

The hero laughed, "I like this boy. He's either hacked us something fierce, or he's clean as cotton." There was a click as the aggressively Texan hero hung up.

 _Was that an endorsement?_ I wondered. _I **think** that was positive._

Piggot paused before stating, "Do you know Rime's power?"

"No, is it some kind of linguistic power?" I enquired.

"Not that kind of Rime," a different woman's voice stated. "I can make and throw Ice Fractals which I shape, and can explode."

"She also flies," Quinn added.

"First of all, what's an 'Ice Fractal'? I inquired.

"Ice that grows in fractal patterns," the woman, presumably Rime, explained.

 _Then why didn't you just say ice you can grow? That's not what 'Fractal' means!_ "Can you detonate them at any time?"

"No, just on impact," she replied.

"Have you tried?" I suggested.

I could hear the smile in her voice, "Yes, I have."

"Does the ice grow in _true_ fractals, or is it shapeable?"

"I can make armor," she explained, not directly answering my statement but giving me the information I needed anyways.

I considered this. _Don't take anything they say for granted. Literally throwing chunks of Ice, short a Brute rating, wouldn't be that effective. **Especially** when air combat's involved. _"When you throw it, do you _actually_ throw it, like it's limited by your arm strength, or can you control its flight?"

There was a moment of hesitation, "The second."

"Could you make something, and then make it fly around? As in, not just straight acceleration but mid-air turning?" I proposed.

"Yes," was the entirety of her response.

"O- _kay_ ," I enunciated, getting a little annoyed. "So your power _isn't_ 'making and throw Ice Fractals' it's 'I can make and control Ice, including making it fly, shape it into whatever I want, and also make it explode when it hits something. Wait, you can't make it explode at will, but if you make something large, then throw a smaller piece at it, can you use the smaller explosion to make the _larger_ thing explode?"

There was a pause. "He isn't a Trump," she stated coldly, hanging up.

I frowned, considering what just happened. _If she knows I'm not a Trump, then that means she knew the answer to that question already, which meant_. . . "Where is she located?" I asked the room at large.

"Los Angeles," Quinn kindly informed me.

"Good," I stated. "Because that power sounds _terrifying_ to fight, which I hopefully won't have to considering that I'm a _hero_ , but. . . _damn._ If you don't know she can chain explosions, then you fight her as she layers constructs everywhere, walls and 'missed attacks and _god_ knows what else, then she just tosses out a single piece of ice, then. . . yeah." I shivered. "So, I've indulged you. Is there _anything_ else you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Where were you at one this afternoon?" Piggot demanded, not missing a beat.

"And we're done here," Quinn stated just as quickly. "We've cooperated _well_ past the point that is required, _or expected_. Have a nice day Director." And with that the connection was cut, leaving just the two of us, four of us if you counted the girls. My lawyer turned his attention to me, "And with this recording we now have reason to not talk to them in the future, as the evidence of their borderline harassment can be easily shown to those who would need to see it. We _didn't_ need your debate with their chief tester, but it speaks to your character."

"Wait, that's their _chief_ tester?" I asked incredulously. "Are you _serious_?"

"Absolutely," he informed me dryly. "You did not make a friend in him today."

"I find it hard to make friends with complete _morons,_ " I shot back.

"I've noticed," was his response.

"Um, what about _Dean!?"_ Vicky butted in.

I shrugged, "What _about_ him? I've proven I'm not a Trump, and that I don't care about him, so they're going to let him go soon. Mission accomplished."

"You're likely correct," confirmed Quinn before she could start getting mad at me for no good reason. Again. "Is that all?"

"For now," I told him. "Oh, just a heads up. The E88 may have theoretically tried to jump us, so we might have theoretically killed Alabaster, Hookwolf, Stormtiger, Cricket, Victor, and maybe Fenja in self-defense while under super powered sniper fire and while all of them, along with Menja, Kaiser, Night, & Fog tried their damndest to kill us."

There was a long pause where my lawyer just stared at me, unblinking. "And your hypothetical future plans?"

"Stay at home, work on some personal projects, maybe leave the city for a day or two," I shrugged.

". . . that's probably for the best," he sighed. "Have a nice day. I need to get on top of this if I'm wish to go on vacation on time." And with that he hung up.

Vicky gave me a gimlet eye, "Dean better be out soon."

I lazily looked back at her. "Or _what?_ " She didn't have an answer and quickly flew out. Turning to Taylor, I just felt tired. "I'm _exhausted,_ and it's only four in the afternoon. Please tell Herb that I'm taking a nap and ask him to make dinner. We'll do. . . _something_ after dinner. Okay?"

"Um, okay?" she replied, unsure.

I thanked her, patting her on the shoulder as I headed off for some well-deserved _rest._


	108. Reconnoiter 10-3

**Reconnoiter 10.3**

As I slept, I dreamt of times gone by. Not in a poetic or metaphorical sense, I relived the last raid on the ABB that happened only, what? A week ago? I considered Herb's comment about my being stupid about grabbing the Noctis power. While I _needed_ the extra time it gave me, I finally realized what he'd meant.

It was highly unlikely I'd ever have truly restful sleep again.

Physically, I was no longer tired, and I no longer felt the fog of fatigue clouding my mind, but re-watching the fight had forced me to remember something I'd forgotten about. _Coil had snipers._ I'd assumed the Sniper had been Kaiser's, as had whoever had been stopping me from flying, but maybe that hadn't been the case.

Coil had been getting more capes under his belt. With the fire guy and the poison gas girl, who's to say that he hadn't gotten the anti-flight cape, and used Tinkertech rounds? My father's intel was only what would be available in twelve hours, and there was a not-insignificant possibility that the info he gathered was _wrong_. If Coil had merely _loaned_ Kaiser the capes. . . _no._ I reprimanded myself, putting the brakes to that train of thought. _I'm being stupid_.

If that was true, Kaiser wouldn't have trusted his life to someone in Coil's employ, and while Kaiser was _arrogant,_ assuming that what he'd seen on the raids were the limit of my abilities, he wasn't _completely_ retarded. That meant they were new Triggers who'd joined the Empire, like Rune had, and I'd have to worry about them later. . . _Shit._ As I tried to plan around this, something small poked me in the cheek. I frowned, opening my eyes, and looked over as my usual power set kicked in.

There was a black widow spider, an inch away from my nose, staring right back at me. I froze, before I realized that I not only could _literally_ stop it from biting me, and my Immunity power meant I was immune to poisons anyways. Bringing my power to bear, I could feel Taylor controlling it directly. It waived its forelimbs in greeting, pointing to a web it'd spun between the lamp and clock on my nightstand. My enhanced eyesight easily picked up the words 'Dinner's ready' woven into the silk. "That's fucking adorable," I commented, my mouth working without any direction from my mouth. The spider froze, and I could feel Taylor mirroring the arachnid's action two floors down.

"I'll be down in five, thanks Charlotte," I told her, taking control of the spider, as well as the flies in the corner and bathroom, flying them out of my living quarters. She likely put them everywhere, like living security cameras, but actually _in_ people's rooms were a bit much. Not that anyone who wasn't a bug controller would notice, but _still_.

I turned on the shower as I considered what I'd reviewed. _Was it random? Was there a point?_ I hadn't gotten any true direction on _this_ power, and any experimentation would waste several hours per test, assuming that I was able to control it at all and pareidolia wasn't just making me add meaning to random outcomes. _Was it still pareidolia when it wasn't a sense input?_ Regardless, Coil had snipers and the wherewithal to use them.

Kaiser did as well, _powered_ ones at that given their bullets didn't deform on impact like they should've, and I'd have to make sure everyone was safe, which meant we'd have to go to ground for a bit to keep them from tagging us. After Leviathan swept through I'd have the free hand needed to just grab Kaiser, extract the information I needed, and eliminate him as a threat, which would include his pet sniper.

 _What else happened?_ I wondered, turning over what I'd reviewed in my head. We'd killed a _lot_ of people that day, but no one seemed to care. Likely because of what Bakuda was doing, combined with the fact that none of them, save Oni Lee, had powers.

 _Was it Oni Lee? Did my power grab a copy of his anyways?_ I closed my eyes, looking them over. _Damn_ there were a lot. Other than Aero-, Acousto-, and Biokinesis, it was hard to make them all out, but I didn't _think_ I saw anything like that mute assassin's. _Was it reminding me about Golem?_ _No, I'd already planned on possibly recruiting him after Leviathan._

I shook my head, cleaning myself off as I started to make my way to the dining room Taylor was in, along with others. Canary, er, _Robin_ was there, which reminded me of yet another task I needed to complete, though Vicky was absent, and Herb was bringing out lasagna. The conversation was light, and I didn't really add to it. As we were finishing up, I finally spoke up, "Herb, you know that trip you wanted to take this weekend?"

He paused, glancing around at the table, before nodding, "Yeah. You want to cancel?"

I shook my head, "No, it was a good idea. Would you be okay with us leaving tomorrow morning instead?"

"Uh, sure!" he replied, obviously unsure. "You sure? I thought that you wouldn't, after today."

"No, you were right," I disagreed. "Besides, with what's been going we need to see if we can _recruit_ a few more. That might take more than a day or two."

"Ya got some?" he asked, smiling.

"A case 53 who might right be up our alley," I agreed, thinking of my next Persona, "and it'd be nice to meet some adult heroes who aren't PRT _and_ are still helping people. Sorry Amy."

She shrugged, still not looking at me, "Why? You're not wrong."

 _Is she **still** mad about the armor thing? _I wondered, shaking my head. _At least she agrees with me about New Wave._ "Lady Bug, are you able to monitor things while we're gone?"

She nodded, and Amelia frowned, addressing the other teen, "Don't you have to go to school?"

"No," was the entirety of the Bug Controller's reply.

The healer looked at me, and I nodded, before Amy shook her head and left to put her dishes in the kitchen sink. I looked over to Purity, who'd remained quiet throughout dinner as well. "Kayden," I said, ignoring Herb's warning look. "Please have figured out how to use the blasting beams Boardwalk has asked. Even if you aren't combat-ready, I'd still like you to work on new uses of your power."

"Why?" she inquired without much enthusiasm, still looking down at her plate. "I can't stop bullets."

"Um. . . yes you can?" I countered, confused. "And even if you couldn't, that's what _armor_ is for."

She glanced up, still looking like death warmed over, confusion in her tired eyes, "How?"

I lifted my hand automatically, stopped myself before I could demonstrate, quickly explaining, "Boardwalk would be the one to show you, but if you knew you were going to be shot, a thin layer of Light could work like reactive armor, though it'd probably be a wave to stop incoming bullets instead of any actual armor. Not sure about the Reservoir cost, or even the mechanics, but that's why you'll be working with him, not me."

Realizing I hadn't quite woken up entirely, I made sure to not pull on any powers as I moved my focus to her adopted son, and Herb gave me a nod of thanks for some reason. I'd ask him about it later. "Theo, have you finished your latest project?"

"The P.S.A.T.?" At my blank look, he unpacked the acronym, "The Protonic Static Aggregator & Targeter?"

"I think?" I hedged, wanting to move forward with my plans, or at least make sure if the pseudo-plans I had would be feasible. "Let's go to your workshop, I've got some questions about it. Also," I paused to address everyone else, I'll take care of the dishes, just drop them in the sink. Today sucked a bit, but it could have gone a _lot_ worse. Please, everyone, don't go out in costume until Herb and I are back; we need to figure out what we're going to do about the fact that the Empire has decided publicly using super-snipers is a _great_ idea and I don't want anyone else to get hurt."

* * *

Following Theo back to the lab I'd assigned to him, he was silent the entire way there. He paused at the door, turning to me, face serious. "Thanks," was all he said, a weight to his words I didn't expect.

"Um, you're welcome?" I replied, raising an eyebrow. "What are you thanking me for?"

He gave me a long look before shaking his head, though I couldn't see why. "Thanks for saving Kay- Thanks for saving my mom."

"Um? You're welcome?" I echoed, feeling a little guilty about what I'd said to Taylor, even though I'd stand by it. "She's on my team. Even if she's not following orders, I'll still try to make sure she survives, and between Panacea and I survival usually means a complete physical recovery. I wish she _hadn't_ put herself in harms way, at least without sufficient protections, but hopefully that'll be solved the next time she's part of a fight." I shrugged, "Not really praiseworthy, just basic stuff."

His look said that he was treating my words as if they held far more meaning then they deserved. He nodded to himself before turning back around and opening the door to his lab. Following him in, I saw several different open crates, electronics everywhere, and resting on a table something that only resembled a sniper rifle if you squinted.

Unlike the prototype lightning pistol he'd made, which seemed to be sixty percent exposed wiring by volume, this looked sleek, a series of overlapping inscribed blue plates of metal down the barrel, each sitting on the one behind it with a dull, actinic blue light glowing from the cracks between the plates. The trigger mechanism was still there, though with an additional lever that was locked in place above it. The scope had been replaced as well, the simple looking cylinder replaced with something electronic, covered in a thin layer of a yellow metal that looked a little like gold, though I'd wondered where he'd gotten it.

 _Was that on the list of metals I made for him?_ I wondered. I'd made the basic metals easily, to the point that I'd barely paid attention to them. It was the alloys that'd taken my concentration. The barrel, buried under thin metallic plates, seemed untouched, though the entire loading mechanism was covered with metal, leading me to wonder how you reloaded it. The entire thing looked sleek, futuristic, and _heavy_. Theo had moved behind it and was waiting expectantly.

"Well, it _looks_ impressive," I stated, making sure not to pull a James Bond and play with the unknown, high-tech device. "What's it _do?_ "

"Shoots lightning!" he announced happily.

I slowly nodded, "Good explanation if we were in combat, but can you go into a bit more detail? Does it shoot electricity, or does it-"

"No, it _actually_ shoots lighting!" he interrupted. "Shoots is kind of wrong, it uses the property of Protonic Resonance to agitate the surrounding air, creating a high microfriction environment, similar to that found in storms, but linked to the resonator itself. As the device charges, it continues to build the PR until it reaches maximum saturation, upon which the indicator activates!" he explained, indicating a small dark dot of what I'd assumed was metal but might be glass. "At that point the gun is 'loaded', and the safety can be released," he indicated the lever. "I added that to prevent accidental discharges. That would be. . . _bad_."

"On a scale of paper cut to Behemoth, what's bad?" I asked.

He frowned. "Depends on the activation site. Here it'd be. . . a few dozen tasers. Outside it'd be pretty much lightning, so, deadly. More if you're firing from on top of a building. So, _bad._ "

It was my turn to frown, "Wait, people _survive_ lightning strikes all the time. And from on top of buildings? What's the range?"

"Lightning isn't _really_ the right word," he winced. "This is. . . slower. About three times slower. That's still only one ten-thousandths of a second, but to what it'd do to a person, that's, well, just don't stand next to your target. Range isn't really an issue, since the effect scales up the more space you have."

"And if you were flying, say several hundred feet up in the air?" I proposed.

His eyes went distant as he considered it. "On a scale of one to Behemoth?" he confirmed, and I nodded. "Half a Behemoth. Just for a second, but if shooting from a skyscraper is like two lightning bolts, then without any grounding influence to interfere it'd be like _five_. Maybe more." He hesitated, looking unsure, speaking as if he was trying to figure out the right wording for his next statement, "Um, I. . . Nevermind."

"Go ahead, Theo," I prompted.

He winced, looking away as he asked. "Who?"

"Who who?" I asked in return, feeling owlish.

"Who are you going to want me to use this on?" he clarified, dragging his eyes up to meet my own, hidden behind my sunglasses, his stance firming as if in preparation of a blow.

I blinked in surprise, having not considered that question, "Is there some reason it _has_ to be you? I know Tinkertech breaks down over time, but is there any reason _I_ can't use it?"

He looked down at his project and shook his head, relief evident, though only momentary. "No. I'll add a setting to the primed light if it won't be safe to fire, but no. Um. I. . . I still want to know. Even if I don't pull the trigger, I still made this."

"Depends on how this works," I hedged. "Finish the explanation please. Don't worry, this isn't the kind of thing I'd use on anything short of an _actual_ monster. Hookwolf, not Crusader."

Neither of us commented that I hadn't mentioned which side of the divide his father fell on, but he continued regardless. "The barrel, it doesn't shoot down it, it just directs the laser. Not a laser. Proton beam, term's weird."

"How do you make a proton beam?" I asked instead. As far as I knew you could do weird things with light because it had no mass, but that wasn't the case with protons.

"I. . . I'm not sure," he admitted, "but I did." There was an awkward silence. "Um, yeah, so the, proton beam creates a path for the static created by the resonance effect to ground itself through, which means that it doesn't fire _through_ the gun, which is good because it might kill you, but is pulled down and through the beam, like a river, with magnets, only neither."

"Can you repair it after a test fire so it's back to one-hundred percent?" I prompted, and he nodded. "Okay, then grab it and meet me in the firing range, I want to give this a shot. . . pun intended." He paused as he was reaching over to unhook the gun from its stand to look at me in disbelief before shaking his head once more and removing it from its stand.

It wasn't until we were nearly there when I finally asked what had been bugging me, having dealt with a possibly similar thing just earlier that day with Exalt, "You mentioned a charge time. Do you have to stay in one place when it charges, since it's spreading out around you?"

"Um, sorta?" was his answer. "You'd need to stay in the room if inside. Outside, a couple dozen meters."

"And in the air?" I prompted. He just shrugged.

We entered the firing range, and I set up a target while he primed the weapon. The air immediately around him took on an odd feeling with my Aerokinesis. It seemed. . . oily? As an experiment I found I could move the air that was being affected in an ever-growing cloud around him but trying to form it into a construct was difficult, like building a wall out of oil-covered tiles. Doable, but hard to maneuver, and not that stable. Once the cloud had filled the entire area around him the light on the side turned on, glowing a flickering yellow. The cloud, however, continued to grow, moving down to fully encompassing the range. Moving back to the other side of the counter, I motioned to the rubber torso and head ready to be shot a hundred and fifty feet away.

"Stay behind me," he instructed unnecessarily, the hair all along the back of my neck standing on end. I took an exaggerated step back, and he nodded seriously, hefting the rifle with a grunt. It was heavy, but, given that I'd expected it to weigh close to fifty pounds, I only just realized that he didn't have enhanced strength to help him maneuver it. Either I'd _severely_ underestimated its weight, or I'd underestimated his strength. He flicked the lock off the lever, the faint blue glow from before now shining brightly. _So, not a stealth weapon._ Turning the lever with his thumb, the gun started to hum and he took a deep breath, looking down the scope. Letting it out smoothly, there was a moment of stillness before he pulled the trigger and the world seemed to freeze entirely.

The air, heavy with _something_ , simultaneously stilled and pulled in a vortex towards the gun, swirling in fractal patterns. No, I realized, the air _itself_ didn't move, but the oily feeling was being pulled inwards in a converging pulse that seemed it would collapse on Theo and destroy him. I wanted to move, to help him, but my body wouldn't respond, feeling as if it were made of lead and as if I was as weak as a child. Instead of slamming into the Tinker, the invisible energy swirled around the weapon, each of the blue plates lighting up in sequence as the vortex tightened, the condensed energy sparking to life, almost, but not quite, touching the barrel as it tightened to a single point an inch in front of the end of the end of the gun.

From there, the accumulated energy seemed to lose its compacting pattern and appeared to become true lightning, to someone who didn't know how lightning worked. In slow motion, lightning is an absolute mess: several, if not dozens, of branching patterns reach out at once and only the one that makes contact flares to life as _true_ lightning. The Lichtenburg Figures that lightning strikes leave behind are the same scattered patterns in micro, burned into a physical medium. It's why anyone who thought you could make a lightning 'gun' instead of an electric flame-thrower like weapon without an outside medium was an idiot.

No, the lightning that flowed down stream of where the P.S.A.T. was pointed seemed fully formed, a single main tongue questing back and forth, and divergent forks folding back into the bolt as it shot down the passage the invisible beam of protons had laid down. Wandering down but never leaving its path, moving back and forth, the lightning bolt impacted the target where the energy it was carrying lost cohesion, passing through the target and arcing in every direction. One tongue lashed back towards us only to be pulled back into the path of the guided bolt as it continued to impact the rubber torso. The energy flowed down the lightning bolt until the last vestiges sparking harmlessly around Theo as the fulminating river crashed into its target, slowly pushing the blackening torso away from us as electricity poured out from it in every direction.

A roar filled me ears as I suddenly jerked forward, body feeling light, as the target was blasted backwards. The lightning that had filled the room so beautifully was gone, and I had to pull myself back mid-flight to keep from impacting Theo as he looked down at the target in confusion.

"That was a bit more. . ." he trailed off nodding to himself. "Right, bigger room. Longer charge time but reflected intensity near the device false-primed it."

"I, um, what?" I added to the conversation he was having with himself as I touched down next to him.

He glanced over, as if he'd forgotten that I was here. "Huh? Oh, um, the more continuous airspace, the harder the blast. That," he waved at the dummy, partially melted and on fire, the thick smoke being sucked up by the base's ventilation, "is about half an outside blast. Maybe a third."

"Jesus Christ," I couldn't help but comment, a pinch of aerokinesis smothering the flames by thinning the air around them. "Heartbreaker."

"What?" he asked, not following.

"I'm going to use this to kill Heartbreaker."

* * *

Theo had returned to his lab to make sure the P.S.A.T. was in pristine condition, though he warned that it was likely only good for two mid-air shots, that I'd need to move a mile between shots or wait half an hour, and if I could get video if the firing, he'd likely be able to improve it. I in turn had looked a few things up using the resources available. From Cauldron, I found Heartbreaker's current location, a mountain compound about two dozen miles North-North-West of Montreal. I wasn't going there yet, so if Cauldron decided to nuke the compound in another misguided attempt to assassinate me. . . okay.

Looking up my _other_ target on a computer that was just accessing the regular internet, I hesitated before attempting to hack into a protected government system. Just to make sure, I performed a basic web search instead. It took me three minutes. _How is this not secure information?_ I wondered as I shook my head, heading out.

Pushing my flight while in Shadowform, I hit a good hundred miles per hour deep underground, coming up every ten minutes to check my position. At one point I think I flew through a mine shaft, but it was a fairly uneventful hour to head into north-eastern Massachusetts, and my destination.

Wreathed in darkness I slowly lifted up from the ground, taking in the challenge before me. My costume was a pure black motorcycle armor with matching helmet, but all I needed was for it to be hard to see and nondescript. This _wouldn't_ be something I was going to take credit for.

The house, like the others around it, looked nice, a bit on the large side, but nothing too ostentatious. There was a good bit of space between each house in this community, definitely the kind that would require a landscaping company to keep as nice as it looked. Looking around, there were a couple of cameras here and there, hidden so as not to be obvious, but if there was any _active_ security, I didn't see them. Bringing my head out of Shadow and surveying the area with Power Sight showed no-one hiding nearby with powers. I hadn't expected there to be, but it was always better to check.

Descending back down and using the local insect population as both reference and scouts, it was easy enough to pick my way through the submerged electrical lines and emerge in a basement undetected. Dropping back to reality, I took control of a couple of a couple small house spiders, lacking any flies in the immediate area, and sent them ahead to scout. I had time.

The basement was empty, as was the first floor, and while a car drove by that practically screamed 'professional security', that was all that happened. Second floor, there was a man and women, both sleeping in different rooms, which made things easier for me. Flying, but appearing to walk in case I missed any security cameras, I climbed both sets of stairs without a sound and approached the man's room. I didn't _see_ any, but that was no guarantee.

Trying the door gently, it opened silently, and I entered, closing it behind me. The curtains were pulled shut, which worked for me just fine as I layered a thin film of hardened air over the door and windows, encasing the room in a sound bubble that didn't include anything _in_ the room other than him. I considered layering the room with darkness, finally doing so, making it stick to the walls but leaving the central space clear, as well as the bedside lamp.

Moving over to the man sleeping alone on the king-sized bed, I took out my phone to double check that this was my target. It was. Carefully encasing him in a full body prison of air, like I'd done to Glory Girl when her power had pushed me to the edge of uncontrolled violence, I examined it to make sure it wouldn't suffocate him before reaching over and turning on the light.

The old man tried to stir, eyes slowly opening as he looked around in confusion. "Wha?" he mumbled, trying to move and finding himself unable to even shift his head.

I moved into his line of sight, tweaking my voice slightly to sound a bit deeper than normal. "Peter Regen?" I asked, making _damn_ sure this was who I was here for.

"Who are you?" he asked in return, fear and a bit of anger slowly replacing tiredness.

"Are you Peter Regen?" I asked again, sounding bored, not having to fake it. I'd expected guards, some complex security system, _anything_. Even if Alexandria herself blasted in through the window I'd kill my target and drop down, mission complete, before making a clean getaway.

"What do you think you're doing? he demanded, getting good and righteously angry. "Do you know who I am?"

"Are you Peter Regen?" I asked the third time, wondering if he was waiting for me to say so. He was.

"Damn right I am! You-" was as far as he got before I silenced him, placing a sound bubble around his throat. He continued for another few seconds before he realized he wasn't making any noise.

I nodded as he glared at me awkwardly, unable to do so effectively from his frozen, prone position. I'd been listening to his sentencing on my way here on a loop, so I had the appropriate statements ready. "Peter Regen, I am here to pass judgement, as you have done so to others. Despite professing the benefit of Rogues, you have done, in the past month, more to damage the concept, and thus more damage to the fabric of society in that respect, than any other government official in the past five _years_ , and you have done so in violation of the spirit of the law, if not the letter."

"'Our nation uses incarceration for several reasons. We aim to remove dangerous individuals from the population and we do it punitively, both for justice against transgressors and to give other criminals pause,'" I quoted back to him, his eyes going wide as he made the connection.

"'Each of these applies in your case. It is not only the heinous nature of the crime that must be addressed by the sentencing, but that fact that it was performed with _governmental_ power,'" I continued, tweaking the phrasing to fit. "'Laws are still new in the face of parahuman criminality' after all Mr. Regan, and with these cases 'most if not all warrant careful and individual attention in respect to the law'. While 'in many of these cases, there is little to no precedent to fall back on', that was _not_ the case with the trial of Ms. Mcabee. As she, who had no power but her voice, was overly restrained, so are you."

I paused, recalling the next part of his little speech, and how I'd planned on paraphrasing it. His use of 'I' instead of the royal 'we' or just 'the court' here, once you noticed it, was both particularly telling and particularly _damning._ "We 'must protect the public, not only from you, but from others in power that might consider doing as you did. Placing you in standard detention proves problematic and exorbitantly expensive' I believe were your words, despite her _only_ consideration a need to be gagged, and to not be allowed to speak. I do believe she was fitted with a collar which did just that while being transported, which begs the question as to why she did not just have one for her time in prison, though just as she was not allowed to speak in her defense, neither are you." I wanted to feel validated, to feel vindicated at the sheer karmic _justice_ of what I was doing, but looking at this self-righteous, scared old man who'd been appointed to a position where he happily ruined at least one innocent person's life, all I felt was cold.

 _So many people_ had to not _do their jobs_ to let what happened to Canary come to pass, and there was no way I could punish them _all_. Ultimately, however, _he_ was the one who chose the judgement, and whom would be judged in turn. "'It would be _inhumane_ and _harmful_ to your body to keep you under restraint for the duration of your incarceration.' Don't worry though, we won't imprison you for the rest of your natural life instead, where you will be beaten, raped, and god knows what else. _My_ organization has standards. 'You pose a significant flight risk', or as much as she did since she was a Master with an easily countered power, belonged to no organization, and was not a Mover, Shaker, Breaker, or _anything_ else. 'Finally, the possibility of a repeat offense' is almost guaranteed, given your statements about the case and your lack of any true remorse. I'm sure that anything done to you would only _strengthen_ your resolve to pervert the laws you swore to uphold. 'It is with this in mind that we have decided that there is sufficient cause to sentence you outside the scope of the _Law_. Guilty on the counts that matter, the defendant, Peter Regen, is sentenced to death,' though it might take a little bit first."

He was now straining against his restraints, hyperventilating, eyes wide and panicked at his own sentencing. _Sentenced to a horrible fate you don't think you deserved?_ I mused. While I took no joy in what I was doing, the irony of the reversal was noted. Leaning over him, I opened up the air around his cheek and touched it with a bare fingertip, activating two powers. The first was Panacea's, to ensure he didn't have a heart attack or stroke until I was done. The second was _Victor's_. While I wouldn't use it against a person, the dead man before me didn't count.

I pulled on his skill at law, something that I was _sorely_ lacking in and needing all the help I could get with. It started as a trickle and picked up, flowing into me. It was an odd feeling, as if I was copying someone else's notes, burning his as I did so. The more I stole, the more I understood on exactly _how many levels_ what he did was _wrong_ , and the more I had to resist the urge to kill him immediately _._ While I didn't receive memories, I received terms, in a similar manner to how I'd learn anatomy by draining a doctor and wasn't _there_ a thought. While I wouldn't seek them out, if I crossed paths with someone with training that needed to die, it'd probably be best to extract from them a contribution to the cause.

Citations from case law counted as terminology, apparently, and after only two minutes I could've made an objection that should've derailed the entire trial against Canary. After five, I could've argued successfully to have her voluntarily receive a sentence of less than a year in a minimum-security prison. After eight, I could've had her released with terms of working with the PRT to register her powers, and to receive regular meetings with them to prevent future incidents.

I hadn't been entirely sure, but there _was_ precedence in Canary's case. Off the top of his head, mine now, were two other cases where a parahuman's powers had unexpectedly manifested new, uncontrollable powers after a high stress situation that had caused accidental, non-permanent harm to someone accosting them. One had been a Hero, who had received counseling and barely a slap on the wrist, the other was a villain, who the PRT had gotten to join with the aforementioned supervision. No, despite his claims to the otherwise, her being a Rogue had _everything_ to do with her sentence, as there was precedence for everyone _but_ a rogue having accidentally done what Canary had. Being a bird-themed Human Master, ripe for parallels to the Simurgh, had just made sure more people had sat by and not _do their jobs_ , I was sure.

Leaning over to put my helmet right in front of his face as he watched, helpless and horrified as he felt his legal knowledge being drained from him, I opened the eyes of my helmet, my prismatic irises stared into green ones. The stream became a torrent, which only intensified into a flood as I asked him, "You know what I'm doing. You know that _I_ know that you _broke_ the law it was your duty to uphold. She had no strikes, so even if you used _both_ her convictions as two strikes, which is _expressly_ forbidden under the TSPA since they were against a single person, you had _no_ right to hand down a sentence of Birdcaging, which can only be given as a sentence _under_ the TSPA because of the _extremity_ _of_ such a punishment."

With my stolen skills, I could even see the legal trap that had tied Dragon's hands: as the Birdcage was considered a prison, prisoners sentenced there were to be moved to it before appeals could be heard. Technically appeals _could_ be made, but they were never approved no matter the evidence, since extraction was impossible. You could only _legally_ fight a Birdcage sentence when you were in the Birdcage, at which point a discretionary part of the system guaranteed you never left since the law stated appeals had to be _heard_ not that they ever _had_ to be approved. For an A.I. who was explicitly programmed to follow the law (and likely had programming she didn't know about to keep from going _instantly_ insane trying to do so in reality), it was a _technically_ legal way to imprison anyone forever, since even a blatantly unjust sentence still had a procedure to follow that was never designed with an inescapable prison in mind, as such a thing likely would've made the founding fathers declare a new revolution.

"Know that had you followed the law and given a sentence that was just, had you not likely convinced _dozens_ of rogues to turn to villainy, since you have shown innocence is no defense, we would have never met." He tried to say something, but I didn't hear it, nor did I care. Actually. . . I undid the silence effect. While his ability to practice law would be reduced by my drain, what he'd done hadn't used that skillset in the slightest. "I'll give what you _denied_ others. Speak."

"You don't understand!" he implored hoarsely, his voice raw.

"You have _one_ chance to convince me," I told him, wondering his excuse.

"The threat someone like her posed to society! If she controlled some-" is as far as he got before I re-silenced him. It was an interesting sort of litmus test. My drain of his legal skills had _decreased_ as he spoke, since he was no longer actively using it, while I simultaneously gained a bit of persuasive speaking, which told me what I needed to know. It wasn't a legal argument, it was a 'moral' one, made using emotions from a place of fear.

"That was your chance," I informed him, still looking him in the eye. "An underlying concept of _any_ fair legal system is that you are judged for what you've done, not what you _could_ do. By your logic, I would be justified for killing you because you _could_ get a gun and shoot up your courthouse. Or at least imprisoning you for the rest of your natural life, this _is_ Massachusetts after all." The flow started to taper off, and I tried to pull more, only to get a sensation like trying to suck up the last bit of soda with a straw.

 _That was it?_ I thought. I mean, I knew what he did wrong, and realized that what Piggot did to Dean was, if not tasteful, completely legal. She was still a bitch. Also, for what I'd done in the last week _alone_ , I could be Birdcaged, though most of that was just the fact that the TSPA was _so damn vague._ I suppressed a sigh. _Just more evidence that Cauldron has screwed America over_. _Who am I kidding, without them it would've likely been **worse**._

I tried drawing the next most developed skill my target had and started to learn how to. . . golf? I closed my helmet and leaned back, letting go of him. Before he could do more than look at me in confusion and fear, I darted forward and shoved my re-covered palm through an opening in the air shell above his forehead, killing him instantly, glad the glove blunted my sensation of touch as I did so. Part of me wanted to give a one-liner, but I had what I wanted and putting this off would just be tormenting him. You don't torture mad dogs, you just put them down.

Looking at the pile of gore that had been his skull, held in place by the construct that still imprisoned his body, and placed my hand over his head. I covered it with darkness which spread over his skull while I extruded metal to blend it into a paste, letting my costume clean itself. I wondered exactly what it said about me that I'd gotten desensitized to this, though a good piece of that was working with Amelia. Seeing people injured to the ridiculous degrees that Panacea and I had, working during the Bakuda Bombings, this barely rated. The violence I'd meted out during the Raids had covered the other end of things, though that hadn't felt like this.

Extruding a brush from my costume, 'pulling' it out of a pocket, I used the gore to paint on the wall before I released the body from its prison, took down the darkness, unblocked the exits, and removed the Sound Bubble. Walking back to the basement, the other woman still slept, and I returned to my entry point. Shifting to Shadow, I dropped through the basement, and was home an hour later, leaving only a corpse and a message behind that read:

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

Mathew 7:1-5


	109. Reconnoiter 10-4

**Reconnoiter 10.4**

I'd returned home and still wasn't sure how I felt about what I'd just done. Did it need to happen? _Yes._ To quote Franklin, "The tree of liberty must be watered from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. it is it's natural manure." Or, maybe not Franklin, that sounded a bit too straightforward and blunt for the guy who managed to sweet talk the French into helping us at our start. Either way, the point stood. The laws had been broken, the underlying principles of the nation betrayed, and if the justice system wouldn't see to justice, it fell upon the shoulders of others. It was the 'thin blue line' crap all over again, only with rot that went even deeper.

That said, what I'd done _was_ an assassination. Full stop. One that would send a message, and the latin and biblical reference would, in addition to stating _why_ I'd done so, would hopefully point the PRT in a direction _other_ than the PD, but it was still murder. I shook my head, heading for the kitchen we'd set back up and the dishes that were waiting for me. The person I'd killed _wasn't_ an innocent, like Canary was. Her lack of spine might annoy the hell out of me, but what happened to her was _not_ a worthy punishment of a lack of intestinal fortitude. While there where some who thought _all_ violence were bad, _all_ killing was evil, those people were idiots who always ignored context until it applied to _them._ _Others_ lied because they were evil, but if _they_ did it they had a good reason you see! It wasn't _their_ fault that _they_ manipulated, it was X's fault, where X was _anyone other than them._

Entering the dining room, I found Taylor waiting for me with a tablet on the table, glaring at me, though her angry expression lessened as she looked at me. _Right, I said I was going to train her after dinner,_ I thought, rebuking myself, though I already felt bad enough it didn't really make me feel any worse. It was a little after midnight, so she'd likely been here for three or four hours. "Sorry," I said, moving towards the kitchen, "there was something I needed to take care of."

"Why didn't you say anything?" she asked, still upset, but something was off. I glanced at her and she looked. . . worried?

"It's nothing that will effect Brockton Bay, or at least no more than anywhere else," I reassured her, checking my phone, which other than an email from Quinn stating that Gallant had been released from containment, had no other notifications. "Also, why didn't you send me a text? I would've told you when I expected to be back."

"I, what?" she asked, stopping in the doorway to the kitchen.

Looking at the dishes, I tapped Metal Projection, needing to open up holes in my clothing, which made me notice I hadn't changed from my generic black outfit. Shifting to a t-shirt and jeans, I used the metal to carefully pick up the first dish to start cleaning while working on control of my new power. Holding it by the thin strands was difficult, but doable. It was only then that I realized that whatever she'd just told me hadn't registered in the slightest.

I replayed the feeling of the sounds I'd just felt it in my ear with Acoustokinesis, much quieter, as she looked at me expectantly. "Why should I need to do that?" was what she'd asked.

"So, it's not that you _need_ to do that," I answered her, "but doing so would've meant that it would've been a minor mistake, not one that got you angry for hours." As she started to respond I added, "It was still a mistake on my part, don't get me wrong, but you have a cell phone. Use it. Or you could've asked Zilla." I flinched as I lost control of the dish I was scraping clean, grabbing it with air to keep it from hitting the ground and shattering.

Putting it down and pausing my efforts I sighed, "I _am_ sorry Taylor. Give me a few minutes and I'll finish this up quickly. What do you want to do? I'm not really in the mood for training right now, but that's pretty much _all_ we do."

"I, uh, no we don't!" she replied.

I went back to cleaning the dishes, manually so as to get them done quickly. "It's at least ninety percent."

She frowned, and muttered something to herself, but the sound was lost over the sink and I didn't really want to use my powers to hear it. "Then let's watch a movie or something," she proposed.

Raising an eyebrow, I pointed out, "I'm pretty sure all the movie theatres are closed by now."

She waved a dismissive hand, "I meant the one we have here."

I paused for a second before shaking my head and continuing to clean, smiling despite myself. "Of _course_ we do. Go get it set up and I'll be down in a few. I promise."

"You better," she shot back, smiling a little as well, turning on her heel and walking out.

Following Zilla's direction I found that we did, indeed, have a movie theatre. Several in fact, each with about two dozen very nice seats. Taylor was waiting for me in the third, with a tub of popcorn and a remote, on one of the couch-like seats these theatres had. "I made enough for both of us," she told me when I stepped inside.

She seemed a bit happier than I expected, and a touch nervous. "Don't worry," I reassured her, sitting down next to her. "I'm sure I'll like whatever you chose." She scooted over next to me to share the popcorn as she started the movie, smiling.

An hour and a half later, I was faced with a dilemma. Did I lie, or possibly hurt her feelings?

"So," I started as the credits on a romantic comedy called _Going Rogue_ started to roll. It'd followed a standard Rom-com formula where a girl had started dating a guy, who she liked, but also a Rogue, who she also liked, and had to decide between them both, not knowing that they were the same person. In the end she'd found out his secret identity, had broken up with him, but after saving her from a villain and a public declaration of love they'd gotten back together. "That was. . . interesting."

"You didn't like it?" she asked, frowning. I paused, which was answer enough. "You said you'd like it," she said accusingly.

I held up a finger to figure out my response. "I liked watching it _with_ you," I finally stated, truthfully. "I have a general dislike of romcoms for a _host_ of reasons, but, well, let me put it this way. When we were watching that, you were putting yourself in her position, correct?"

"I, well, yes," she admitted blushing a little.

"So you'd date two different people at the same time, leading them on, possibly sleeping with both of them at the same time, all while planning to dump one of them as soon as you figured out which one you'd like more?" I asked, my tone steady, looking her in the eye.

She paled, "What? No! I wouldn't! She. . . oh god, she _did_!"

I nodded, "Yeah, though it was never put in such a blunt way, likely on purpose. However, because of the fact that he didn't immediately reveal his secret identity to a girl he was just dating, not his fiancée, not his wife, just someone he was dating, _he_ was the one who had to apologize. I try not to be sexist, so I mentally flip the genders of everyone in a situation to check for bias. Now imagine _you're_ the rogue in this movie, say you were dating a man who did everything she did in this situation. Not so amusing, is it?"

"But that's different!" she objected.

"Because she's a woman, and he's a man, and equality only means receiving the benefits, not the drawbacks," I supplied.

"No!" she dismissed. "It's. . ."

I waited a moment for her to have a reason, she didn't have one. "It's exactly that. It's what society has taught us. 'The hand that rocks the cradle, shapes the word' and all that, so of course that's the message we've been raised with. I don't blame people for thinking that way, I just don't anymore, and have a hard time enjoying things that extol it, even _with_ good company. Consider this: If I though that way, I'd not have trained you in hand-to-hand combat Taylor."

"Wait, what?" she frowned at my seeming non-sequitur.

I couldn't help but grin, "Well, if women are to be kept safe and to be protected, like the Rogue went out of his way to protect the woman he liked, then _obviously_ I'd want you as far from combat as possible. Besides, training you to fight effectively means I need to," I gave an over-the-top offended gasp, " _strike_ you! Everyone knows that men are never to hit women, no matter the cause. She slapped him, but could you _imagine_ him returning the favor? Perish the thought! So I'd need to make sure not to, which means no sparring, which means only the most basic of training! Besides, women are more vulnerable, so it's not like you could _handle_ hand-to-hand training. I have to with Vicky, but only because her power protects her and gives her strength that no woman would _naturally_ possess. No, better that you remain at home, where its safe, and let the _men_ go fight and get hurt, because you are _far_ to valuable to risk!"

At her offended look, I shrugged, grinning, "Either you're different, and should be treated _as such_ , though the degree to which can be flexible, or you _aren't_ in which case you get all of the rights and _responsibilities_ of the coarser sex. Nothing else would be _fair._ Now, I like to treat people as _humans_ , and only make the differentiation when it comes to who I'd like to date. I might not always hit the mark, but it's what I shoot for." I paused, "Do you know what a minstrel show is?"

"I, that's not the same!" she denied. "They're racist!"

I wiggled a hand, "Eh, kinda. If you actually watch one, they're more lame than offensive, though the general premise _is_ disparaging of blacks. If you view _this_ objectively and don't go along with what the film wants to brush under the rug, it does _not_ paint the woman in a good light, as most rom coms don't, but your own social views make it funny, not offensive. It's why action movies do well everywhere, as men fighting, killing each other, and exploding things tend to be universal, but comedies rarely do. What's acceptable becomes offensive, what's funny becomes horrifying, and the subtle message of the film becomes blatant propaganda."

She glanced at the credits, still rolling, "What message? You mean the Rouge fighting at the end?"

"Men shouldn't hide anything from women, but the reverse isn't true. Same for dating multiple people at once. Seriously, her dating two different men at the same time, including having them 'staying the night', which was obviously sex, is overlooked here but would _ruin_ a woman's reputation irreparably elsewhere. Now it might be funny _because_ she's _not_ supposed to do that and is trying to hide it, but that wasn't played for laughs, having the friend come in while she has a cape in her bedroom was," I pointed out.

"Also, yes, there's the message that being a Rogue isn't a good thing, or sustainable, given how she was worried about what him _not_ stopping villains said about him, not worried about him getting hurt _while_ stopping villains, like a military wife would. Also, he finally fought and was immediately rewarded with the affections of the woman he loves." I frowned, thinking about it, "But she kissed him in costume, so now _she's_ got a target on her back a mile wide. Probably for the best the movie ended there."

She stared at me for a long moment. "So you hated it? That's it? You hated this entire thing?" she finally asked, sounding on the edge of tears.

I blinked, wondering how the hell she'd gotten _that_ upset. _She's not just hearing what you're saying, dumbass,_ my inner Herb pointed out. _She's adding a whole 'nother level to it._ I pondered that for a moment, coming up with, _She chose it, likely has seen it before, and liked it, and you've just torn it down, and because she liked it she feels like you've torn her down as well._

I sighed, dismissing my shades and putting down the empty tub, turning to face her directly and putting my hands on her shoulders as I looked her in the eye. " _No._ I didn't enjoy it as a movie in the slightest, but what it said about the creators _was_ interesting. Did you notice _any_ of that when you saw it before?"

She didn't say anything, just shaking her head. "Then it _isn't your fault_ for liking it. Heck, you can still like it _despite_ that. The messages in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure are _dogshit_ , but it's still a funny movie. Did I _tell_ you I hate almost all rom-coms?" she shook her head again. "Then why would you have done anything wrong for picking one? I don't expect you to _read my mind,_ Taylor. I could've said something when it became _painfully_ obvious that it was one five minutes in, but I wanted to see how it all turned out. If I was on my own, I likely wouldn't've, but the company was nice, so why not?" I gave her a grin, which she returned slightly. "So, never going to watch _that_ movie again if I can help it," I quipped, getting a teary laugh from her, "But I'm not sorry I watched it with _you._ How about we watch something else. Now, what's your take on horror movies?"

She shrugged, "They're okay?"

"Do you generally hate them? Even a meh movie can be better with friends," I pointed out, still smiling.

She shook her head, fully smiling back, and I grabbed the empty popcorn tub. "I'm gonna make some tea and be back in a few minutes, then we're going to watch _Alien_ , a great horror movie and a good example of a pretty egalitarian future if you notice it. _Especially_ for the early eighties."

When I returned from the kitchens, ten minutes later, having used the actual kettle instead of cheating with suns so it'd take longer, Taylor was sitting where I'd left her as if she hadn't moved. The fact that she'd obviously gone to the bathroom to clear up her visage and banish any vestiges of partially shed tears went unremarked.

"So, what's the premise?" she asked as I sat down, accepting her mug of tea.

"There's an alien," I replied, smirking.

She rolled her eyes, "Obviously, but what else?"

"It takes place in _space_ ," I whispered conspiratorially.

"Ass," she commented, punching my shoulder with her free hand.

"We good?" I questioned, lifting my free arm up.

She hesitated, before scooting back next to me where she ended up before, my arm resting along the back of the couch. "We're good," she agreed, grabbing the remote and pressing play, Zilla having set up the movie at my request. As the opening scene played, displaying the title slowly and showing the Nostromo she looked up at me, "In space?"

"Shocking, I know!" I smiled and she lightly head-but my shoulder, both of us focusing on the movie.

Nearly two hours later the credits rolled, and Taylor, tired but riveted, let out a sigh of relief. "So, horror movies are meh?" I teased.

" _That_ one wasn't, she commented. "That was. . . hmm," she hummed, thinking about it. "Do you think we could control one?" At my confused look she explained, "Well, it's got an exoskeleton, and was kinda insect-y."

"And also _fictional,_ " I pointed out, mentally ignoring the irony of saying that in _this_ universe to begin with.

"Panacea-," Taylor started, cut off as I booped her on the nose.

"No asking the bio-kinetic to create horror movie monsters," I chided gently. "In all honesty, I'm having a hard time getting her to consider doing _basic_ improvements, because she thinks she'll go 'oops', and become Nilbog. Asking her for _xenomorphs_? The opposite of helping. And it may have more to do with the complexity or setup of the brain, since we can also control worms. Besides, chest-bursters? Kinda _super_ unethical," I mused, smiling.

"I didn't mean _that_ ," she defended, but smiling in return. "Just make them from, I don't know, rats or something."

"Yeah, one on its own is bad, a whole _bunch_ , that's some top-tier badness," I agreed.

She looked at me suspiciously, "They made a sequel?"

"Alien ** _s_** ," I agreed.

"Let's watch tha-" she started to say, yawning. "Let's watch that."

I smiled wryly, "It's like three in the morning, Taylor. _You_ need to sleep."

"It's not a school-night," she reposted.

"It's _Wednesday._ "

She smiled back, "And? I'm not going to school."

I gave her a dry look, "You know what I mean." She looked at me pleadingly. " _Fine,_ " I sighed, grinning. "I'll cue it up."

* * *

The shot of Newt in cryosleep played, the screen went dark and the credits started to roll. Looking down, Taylor had fallen asleep as well. Picking her up, I carried her to bed and tucked her in, only removing her shoes. It was five in the morning, and I had time to kill. An hour later I'd un-mothballed a van and had it packed with toiletries, four changes of clothes, snacks, and everything else I thought we might need.

With everyone still asleep, I hit the gym. Specifically, I tried to figure out how to use Hookwolf's Metal projection to enhance my own strength, as it should obviously be able to do so. The power easily wove itself underneath my skin, likely having been copied from the now dead parahuman. However, when I tried to move it seemed passive, flexing a little inside my arm but merely being present, not assisting.

Grabbing a thirty-pound dumbbell, my normal standard, I found it to be fairly light. Double checking that I wasn't using super strength (I wasn't), I frowned before laughing to myself. While I wasn't weak before I dropped into Brockton Bay, having joked that I had rock hard abs under jelly hard flab, I wasn't nearly as well built as I was now. I wasn't Schwarzenegger, yes I use steroids isn't it obvious, bulging, but I was very much action movie star, I spend four hours a day picking things up and putting them down, ripped. It only made sense that I'd be stronger as a result.

I grabbed a fifty pounder, and barely noticed the difference. Looking down the line, I noticed that there seemed to be more than I remember at my local gym and moved down the set with increasing incredulity. Seventy? A little harder. One hundred? Better, but not there yet. One-twenty? Okay, _that_ felt like a thirty used to, maybe a bit more. I lifted it a few times, looking down at myself. While I _looked_ stronger, I did not suddenly gain _five times the muscle mass_ I had before. That _would've_ had me looking like some massive roid-beast. _Perfect Body?_ I wondered. _It increased my healing speed by a **lot** , maybe it's increased my strength as well?_

Returning to the task at hand, so to speak, I started to focus on the metal. Trying to move it in time with my movements to try to enhance them just resulted in them breaching the skin of my forearm, waving ineffectually above my bicep. _They need an anchor point_ , I thought. Returning them under my skin, and trying not to look as they did so, I tried to have them spread out, forking out tendrils to secure themselves to my flesh. Starting to move them made me drop the weight as I gasped in pain, my flesh feeling like it was tearing.

Retracting the metal, I took a moment for the pain to fade, resolving _not_ to do that again. Pulling up my sleeve my flesh had patterned itself into vein-like bruises running straight down my arm, quickly yellowing and fading. I consider what I knew about biology, and how this could work. _If you found a doctor, one who'd killed people and got off on a technicality, you could get **more** knowledge_, part of me pointed out. I considered this, and how that while that wasn't wrong, it was _wrong._ Draining a man I was going to kill of the skill he'd used to commit the crime was one thing, finding people _to_ drain was something entirely different.

 _But the doctor would've been using their skills to commit the crime_ , the same part pointed out. But that would reverse the rationale, and while malpractice was _bad_ , it wasn't _condemn an innocent woman to be tortured, raped, and beaten for the rest of her natural life_ bad. There were degrees to this, and they _mattered._ Besides, I didn't know if there were any _downsides_ to this power. There usually were in Worm, likely unintentional, and using the power sparingly was the best way to avoid them short of serious, scientific study.

Focusing back on my task, I weaved the metal around my bones like tightly bound pseudo-muscles. Grabbing the dumbbell, I tried to move it through the metal alone. It was an odd feeling, kind of puppetesque, but definitely workable. Focusing on it, I lifted it once with my metal, once with my muscles. It took a bit, getting the two to work in concert, but the results spoke for themselves. What had been heavy was lifted with barely an effort. Putting it back down took a bit of effort, having to manually control the metal muscles to make it work. Threading thinner strands up through my digits took a bit of effort, but added finger strength as well.

Grabbing the water bottle, it exploded, the force of my grip cracking the plastic instantly. "Okay, control issues. Got it," I mused to myself. Unthreading my fingers, I worked on trying to get my use of my major muscle groups under enhanced control. It was slow going, but progress _was_ constant. The hours passed, and while I still wasn't at full fluidity by the time nine o'clock rolled around, my effective strength had nearly _doubled,_ and I had a feeling with more practice I could do more than just 'powered endoskeleton'. Furthermore, I could 'walk' without using my muscles, though it was a bit unsteady, and punch as well. The machine that rated punch strength, which I'd thought of as metaphorical dick-measuring machine, was actually quite useful in this regard.

Comfortingly, I found that if I kept up the defensive weave just below the skin, then the metal that reinforced my skeleton was enough to still enhance my strength without being able to _overcome_ it. Even if someone somehow managed to control the metal, they wouldn't be able to control me, like Magneto could Wolverine.

While I could shift it trade defense for power, that took time to do, which would hopefully be enough time to _kill_ whatever was trying to make me its slave. The fact that, short of someone controlling both my body _and_ powers, like Regent with hours of time to work with, I could theoretically do the opposite and use my power to puppet my own body if I lost control of my muscles, was also a plus.

While it wasn't a Gallant level Master protection, it still _helped._


	110. Reconnoiter 10-5

**Reconnoiter 10.5**

My experimentation with Metal Projections ended as Zilla informed me that Herb was up. It was already almost nine in the morning, but as far as I knew he never was an early riser. By the time he ambled into the kitchen, I'd already thrown together breakfast and was eating, motioning to his plate as he stopped to look at me questioningly.

"Good. . . morning?" he greeted me hesitantly.

"I'm packed and ready to go, get your stuff together after breakfast and we'll be off," I explained.

"Packed?" he asked, still not understanding.

"Yeah, for our vacation," I prompted. "I've got a change of clothes, toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, snacks, drinks. . . what?" I asked as he gave me the 'you're being silly' look.

"Aren't we rich?" he asked in turn.

I waved a hand in a 'kinda' gesture, "I mean, we aren't _technically_ rich in the having financial reserves sense, but I can very easily make large amounts of money, and that's _before_ you get into the fact that I can literally make gold ex nihilo, so it's-"

"Yeah, we're rich," he interrupted me, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his credit card. "I'm packed."

I couldn't help but frown. "But what about clothes?"

He looked at looked at what I was wearing, and when I didn't respond, not understanding what he meant, he took an exaggerated sip of coffee. "Have you worn anything that isn't your super-suit since we got here?"

". . . no," I admitted, feeling a little foolish. "But _you_ need clothes."

"They sell clothes there," he shrugged.

"But what if you need something?" I pressed.

He gave me a look that said he knew I was losing the argument. "Are there stores?"

"Yes," I was forced to concede.

My partner slipped the card back into his pocket. "Then I'm packed. Let's have fun."

Mentally reworking the plan, I checked, "So you'll be ready after breakfast?"

"No," he shook his head, "but I wouldn't be ready before breakfast either. Fuck it, I'm awake, I'll eat, then I'll be ready to roll."

Ten minutes later we were on our way, the black sedan I'd prepped driving along an underground tunnel to the warehouse northwest of Brockton Bay that Eclipse would use to receive new supplies, the first shipment scheduled for Monday afternoon. As we were getting in Herb had just shaken his head, commenting, "The windowless van not ready yet?" I'd given him an unimpressed look, tugged the cloth covering the vehicle in the next garage over, and revealed a black windowless van. "I wasn't bein' serious!" he laughed as he'd gotten in.

Driving it into what seemed like a dead end to the tunnel, the wall descended to reveal a huge freight elevator, which brought us into the warehouse proper. Pulling out into the fairly empty road, I followed the GPS on our way out of the last fringes of Brockton Bay.

"That's one way to do it," Herb commented. I shot him a questioning look. "Getting out of traffic."

"Fair enough," I agreed, "and a lot less conspicuous then driving out of the railyard."

We settled into a companionable silence, which lasted half an hour. It was oddly meditative to drive a car again. While it would've been faster to fly, this was nice as well. Eventually he asked, "So, where are we going?"

"Didn't I tell you?" I questioned in return.

He just shook his head, "Nah, just that we're out to get you some powers that aren't from the Bay."

"Oh," I replied. "We're going to Portland."

Now it was his turn to look puzzled. "I thought you wanted to stay close?"

"I do."

He squinted at me, "Then why are we going to _Portland?_ "

"That _is_ close," I insisted.

"No it _ain't,_ " he insisted right back.

"Dude, Brockton Bay is closer to Portland than it is Boston. Not by much, but it is!" I snapped.

He was quiet for a long moment. ". . . You don't mean Oregon?"

"What? No! _Maine!_ " I exclaimed, motioning to the right as we drove down the I-95. "We left with the coast to our right and have been going in the same direction ever since. That means we've been going _north_." I let out a long breath and tried to let go of the spike of frustration I'd felt. _If he'd just asked if I meant Oregon, I could have answered his question,_ I thought, and reminded myself: _this is a vacation._ "I scouted it out, they've got some okay capes, but there's one deeper in Maine I want to visit for my third persona. I've got dossiers." I flipped up the center console, grabbing the folder I'd packed in it, and handed the paperwork to my teammate.

He took it with a bemused smile, "Oh hush. You know you've got the silver tongue of a dragon inside your mouth."

"So, devilish, forked, and cold?" I clarified, trying to smile. "I get silver, but what does having a dragon's tongue have anything to do with what I just said. Also, I have many talents. Diplomacy? _Not_ one of them."

"And it's mine?" he asked with a laugh.

I shot him a disbelieving glance. "Kinda? When you're not being an idiot, or trying to diffuse the situation, or _both_ , then yeah, At least a different kind of diplomacy than me."

"Like I said," he nodded sagely, "silver tongue."

"I. . . nevermind," I gave as he dodged the question, not wanting to put in the effort to deal with his bullshit nonsensical answers right now, waving to the dossiers in his hands instead. "So, those are the capes in Portland." He gave the paperwork a contemptuous smirk before tossing it in the back seat. "Dude, you're not even going to read them?" I complained. It'd taken me. . . well, it'd taken me twenty minutes, but it was still _rude._

"They're capes from Maine," was his sole defense.

"Dude, what does that even _mean?_ " I demanded. This time all I was given was a 'isn't it obvious' look. "You know what, _fine."_ I growled. This was a vacation, I wasn't gonna be stressed out by his _bullshit_. "I'll just tell you, since you can't be bothered to _read_. As far as I, or more specifically PHO, know, Portland has three heroes and four villains, two of the latter work as a team. None of the heroes are PRT aligned, so they got that going for them."

He smiled indulgently, "There ya go."

I didn't look at him, taking a deep breath. In through the nose, out through the mouth. When I spoke again, it was with faked joviality, "So, who you wanna hear about first? Heroes or villains?"

"Eh, why not go with the rotten eggs first?" he shrugged.

"I just told you, there's no PRT heroes in Portland," I snarked back. He gave me a look. "I know what you meant," I observed. "Villains. First is a girl who calls herself Reefer, nothing to do with weed."

He shook his head chastisingly, "Now that's just depressing."

"She's a Shaker, specializes with the creation and manipulation of what appears to be coral," I continued as if he hadn't said anything. "Unknown limitations, but limitations seem to exist as the power's kinda spotty. She makes them fast enough to entrap people and to make defenses."

"So she can save the seas," he dismissed.

 _Why the hell would. . . oh, the shrinking coral reefs_. "Uh, yeah? I guess? Tends to work with another villain named Shellfish.

"Who is also gonna save the seas. Oh My God," he drawled, clearly bored.

"Fucking _how_? Nevermind, I don't care," I stated flatly. "He has a hardened, crab-like shell. People think he's a case 53, but he's harder to track down than he should be given his size and appearance. He can spit high-pressure water jets."

Herb nodded along, "So he's Blastoise, but crabby"

"One, not crabby, just has a shell. Two, he doesn't have _actual cannons_. He spits the water, or at least appears to. Three, _he can talk_ , so _not a Pokémon._ Next guy, Comeback Kid, maybe in his late twenties, early thirties. Trump who can no-sell powers after he's been exposed to them, but it takes a while, and he also looses the immunity after a bit, though he has it for at least a day. Also has some kind of Brute power that lets him take the punishment in the first place and heal from the damage he takes to get better in a few days, but not fast enough to make a full recovery mid-fight."

The Brute next to me nodded, "So, he's got a Rocky problem."

 _Rocky? There's no geologic-Oh, the movies_. "It's not a problem, it's his _power_. He's _literally_ the comeback kid. The name is not that imaginative, but non-gang villains kinda seem to end up that way more often than not. Tattletale was _not_ an inspired name. Last guy, name's Terro, Striker, creates sticky touch fields that last for hours. He touches you, the part that he touches touches something else, you're going to be stuck to it for a _while_."

"Sounds like a whole lotta fun," he remarked dryly.

"When did you become a power snob? Not everyone's gonna be flying and energy blasts." I considered stopping there, since he _obviously_ didn't care about these people, but it was better than having him trip face-first into something that could actually hurt him. "So, heroes. You've got Palette, she's a Master/Striker. Brings her paintings to life."

"Oh, she's like whatshername from Naruto!" he exclaimed excitedly.

I debated turning around, dropping him off, and taking Taylor instead. I'd give it two days, then he could _walk_ back if he was just going to make fun of everyone. "Yeah, she's a bit like Sai, but she's not a dude, and minus the assassin training."

"Oh, I can guarantee it," he stated. "She _is_ in Maine."

I looked at my phone, working as the GPS. _Half an hour until we're there._ "What does being in Maine have to do with assassin training?"

"Alright, let's just think about it. How many assassins come from Maine?" he queried knowingly.

"I don't know, they tend not to answer questionnaires," I replied flatly.

"And because they don't," he affirmed. _Live in Maine_ , I assumed was the rest of his sentence, which he decided not to say for some reason. Before all of this had gone down, his habit of speaking in incomplete sentences had been interesting, forcing me to understand what was implied instead of directly stated. It was a skill that I sorely lacked, and I'd assumed he'd been doing so to help me. Now, as he continued to do so in _life or death_ situations, I wondered if he was _capable_ of speaking in **_complete goddamn sentences_** _._

"Right," I said, fully giving up on this conversation but finishing it up just to be complete. "So you're saying she doesn't have assassin training?"

He nodded, "She had _no_ assassin training."

I wondered at the tense-mismatch, but it wasn't worth the brain-cycles. "Then we're in agreement. Next person, Breakthrough, Momentum amplifier. And before you say it, yeah, he seems to be the Juggernaut-lite, since you seem to want to relate them _all_ to fictional characters."

"Huh. Ya see, that didn't even come to my mind," he denied.

I just stared ahead, thinking _two days._ He laughed, obviously finding my frustration and distress amusing. "Except for the truly odd abilities, modern fiction has handled _most_ superpowers already. I think there were even a few with Taylor's power, though they're usually villainous. Hell, Alexandria is just shittier superman."

"Yes, it has," he said, replying to my first sentence, but not my second. I wondered, for the first time seriously, what his major malfunction was. Did he think of his answer to the first thing I said and just stop listening? _No,_ I thought, because a pattern like that I would've noticed. He just randomly picks things to answer to, and leaves the entire burden of understanding firmly on my shoulders. Thing is, he _wasn't_ like this with _anyone_ else. He'd be smooth, he'd understanding, he'd been _many_ things with other people, but he was never so willfully _obtuse_ as he was with me, and it'd been getting _worse._ I sighed internally, _Well, we're going to be together for a bit. I'm going to sit him down and **get some goddamned answers,**_ I resolved, though after we'd spent a day in Portland, if only to gather _ammunition_.

"And lastly, someone with Clockblocker's taste in naming is a woman, first name Kara, last name Beau. Her name is Kara Beau. She's in Maine, and she creates forest animals under her control."

His eyes lit up, "Oh my god, she's Snow White.

I processed that statement. " _Where are you getting these comparisons?"_ I finally asked, and he continued to laugh "Yes, I guess. Sure."

"Dude, I created a Snow White D&D character once!"

"Yes? Okay? _How_ is that relevant?" I asked helplessly. I could _kind_ of see how all of his other bullshit statements made sense if I squinted and did _all_ of the mental legwork myself. This, however, was a complete non sequitur. "I mean, I remember that campaign. It was messed up. Right, okay, so that's all the capes that PHO knows about in Portland. I figure we'll get there, get a hotel room, poke around a bit. Unfortunately, none of them really have locations they frequent-"

"Because it's _Maine,_ " he insisted.

"Um, _no_ ," I shot back, "because they all have secret identities and don't have 'territory' to defend."

He snorted as he stated authoritatively, "You can't find a natural person in Maine."

"What do you mean 'natural person'?" I queried, idly wondering where this new, likely meaningless tangent was going to lead.

"Well you can find a lot of 'natural' ones," he nodded, maybe in admission of a point scored. It was becoming increasingly obvious that whatever I was saying, he, like Taylor, was adding layers of meaning that I did _not_ intend. The difference here was that she was a _fifteen-year-old girl_ who'd known me for less than a _month_ , and he was a _thirty-something-year-old man_ , who'd known me for over a _year_. "I mean with the hair, and the body odor, and the-"

"What do you have against New England?" I interrupted.

"It's not New England, it's Maine and New Hampshire," he replied defensively, though I wasn't sure if he was _actually_ being defensive, or attempting to do so for comic effect. There was a reason one of the maxims of comedy was 'know your audience'. He, apparently, _didn't_ , which hurt more than I expected.

"Is Vermont okay?" I queried, glancing at the map. _Twenty-seven more minutes until we get there._

"Well, I mean they _do_ have the covered bridges so. . ." he trailed off. His timing, and his body language, _suggested_ he was joking, but his tone and face were completely serious.

I shrugged noncommittally, "I'm honestly not sure if you see that as a positive or a negative."

He shrugged back, grinning, "Well, it's weird to have a bridge covered-"

"It _snows,_ " I observed.

"Yeah, but doesn't it snow on either side of the bridge?" he pointed out.

"Yeah, but then it doesn't pile up _on_ the bridge. Well, technically _on_ the bridge," I corrected before he could point it out, "but not on the _road_ on the bridge. Ya know what? Nevermind.

He shrugged, "Hillbilly New England is hillbilly New England."

"It's not _hillbilly_. . . fine. Massachusetts," I tried, this entire conversation giving me the oddest feeling that I was speaking to a _complete bigot_. "Do you consider Massachusetts part of 'hillbilly New England' because that's _literally all that's left_."

"The western side." I give him a long look and sigh. "Believe me, I like Maine a whole lot better than I like New Hampshire."

"I'm sure it will be thankful," I snarked. "Anyway,-"

"Well it oughtta," he interrupted, giving a firm nod.

 _I think I get it,_ I thought, some of the pieces falling into place, making an unpleasant puzzle. My emotions deadened as my expression went blank and I considered _exactly_ what I was looking at. _I tried to do a serious threat assessment before we went and relaxed and had our vacation and he's just joking around immedietly. **My** problem is not understanding what people mean, not **his**. **His** is that the man **Does. Not. Think. Things. Through.**_ This _entire_ conversation _reeked_ of some serious 'I'm going to manage you for your own good' **_Bullshit._** I could see it, in the same way I could understand people like Regent, Lisa, or _Coil_. It didn't lessen the negative feelings, be they pity, disgust, or straight enmity, if anything it deepened them, but I could still _understand_ them. This was supposed to be a vacation, so he was going to not take this seriously and _force_ me to follow suit by being as ridiculous as possible, making it _im_ possible to get anything useful done in a timely manner. He was treating me like a god-damned _child_ who had to be led by the hand instead of an adult who he could just _talk_ to.

If he's prefaced this entire thing with _one goddamned sentence,_ I could've been relaxing instead of getting increasingly _pissed the fuck off. 'Dude, we can handle whatever they throw at us!'_ or _'This is a vacation man, we're supposed to be relaxing!'_ would've been sufficient. I would've insisted talked about it, I would've stressed that I needed to do a rundown of the powers, which would only take ten minutes, tops, and then I could relax, and then it would be over in _half the time_ and an _eight the aggravation_ that it was taking. No, he had to get obtuse, trying to stress me out until I stopped taking this seriously. If he thought I'd actually _do_ what someone was trying to manipulate me into doing, I had to wonder if the man I once considered my best friend knew me _at all._

"I was thinking if I could grab Reefers, that might work as something else," I stated conversationally, like I would with a co-worker I only knew through our shared profession. "Terro _might_ be useful, depends on the mechanics. Comeback would be best, but I'm not sure if I _can_ grab it."

He nodded, seemingly serious. Either he'd noticed just how. . . _annoyed_ I was, or this was just the lull between jokes. "It would be pretty good."

"Shellfish. . . I don't know if I need the shell to spit the water, and if I do that's _really_ distinctive."

"And not only that, _really?_ " he added derogatorily.

"It's not going to help against Leviathan, yeah," I agreed with my first assumption of what he was saying, not looking into it for any deeper meaning. If he wanted to play games, he could play with himself. . . _Okay, that could be phrased better_. "Palette, in addition to being a hero, requires artistic abilities, which I lack," I assessed clinically.

"Yeah," he snorted, "that'd be _fantastic_ to watch your paintings come out."

I nodded in agreement, not giving his words, nor the implied insult, any weight. If this was when we'd first arrived, I'd have known he wouldn't mean that to be as nasty as it sounded, given his own artistic abilities and my complete dearth of the same. Now? _Who knew_? Instead I just smiled at the image, "Stick figures. Stick figures _everywhere_."

"And scribbly lines," he agreed. "I wonder if you get the general sense of painting if you get that power?"

"Well, I need to see that she's not worthy of being a hero first, so kind of a moot point until then," I pointed out.

"You and your rules," he said, laughing at the one of the _few things_ that kept me _sane_. "I mean, imagine painting, like, a hot chick."

"Imagine _saving the world,_ " I rebutted.

"Yeah, but imagine painting a hot chick, and having the really hot chick, _you know_." _No, I actually don't_ , I thought as he explained, "Like, Anime, but _real_."

"Okay there Pygmalion," I commented. Honestly out of all the figures from Greek myth, that one wasn't that bad, though I dimly wondered if he even got the reference. " _Back to the point._ Cara Beau's distinctive, and I'd need to see if Breakthrough's a hero as well. None of them are _top tier_ , like Taylor or Kayden, but they could still possibly be recruited."

"We're not getting' Reefer," he disagreed.

"What?" I asked, expecting some stupid leap of logic, but he just overgeneralized my statement. _That_ I could work with. "Oh, no, I wasn't going to recruit any of the villains."

"You don't know, they might be villains like me," he argued, sounding hurt.

"Yeah, so, Terro's a _rapist_ , so. . . _No._ " I reposted, shooting him down, _hard_. "Comeback's got a body count. Reefer and Shellfish are new, so I don't know."

"I have a body count," he pointed out, something like a bit of a whine in his voice.

I shook my head, "You don't have a _civilian_ body count in the double digits."

"Oh, yeah, that's different, I get ya," he nodded, sounding a bit sheepish. I didn't respond and we lapsed into silence. Unlike before, this one was tense, and more than a little awkward. "And literally, what is _Reefer_ gonna do?" He finally asked.

"Apparently the coral she makes is far stronger than coral should be," I explained, perfectly willing to respond to an actual question. "It's a permeant creation power. That's what I'm looking for. I've got another one lined up deeper in, and I was looking for a third to round out the powerset."

"Honestly, that person should be out saving the oceans," he stated sadly, circling back to what was either a bad joke or a complete non-issue.

". . . is that even a problem here?" I asked seriously. "With Leviathan, and maybe parahuman pirates, that's gotta impact shipping."

He paused, actually thinking about that, "You know what? I don't know."

"We're almost there," I observed, noting the sign for our exit. _And only another ten minutes in here with you._ "Do any of those look good? Or should we just see a fight in Portland and move one?"

"Ehh, let's just see a fight in Portland and move on," he decided. "Honestly. . . it's a fifty-fifty shot on these guys."

Putting the smallest effort into decoding him possible, I got either 'it's a coinflip on whether their powers would be useful to use' or 'it's a one in two chance that the heroes would want to join'. If he were clear, I wouldn't have to guess, but if he were clear, Dinah would've never been nabbed by Coil. Picking the first one I said, "Yeah, probably. Don't know the viability of powers. Not sure."

"Yeah," he agreed, and we lapsed into silence once more as we entered the city.

 _I should've gone with Taylor._


	111. Reconnoiter 10-6

**Reconnoiter 10.6**

Portland was. . . rather nice. The streets were wide and clean, the people were more upbeat, and the entire place was just more relaxed. Houses segued into downtown, most of the buildings no more than four stories tall. It gave the city a much more laid-back feeling, lacking the sense of looming spires of steel, stone, and glass you got from being ground level in Brockton Bay.

Herb's head was on a swivel, looking around, taking in the sights, while I was keeping a lookout for the telltale glow or flames of Power, but otherwise just focused on the rather reasonable traffic. It was easy enough to find the Hyatt I'd looked up, park and find the check-in desk. I hadn't made a reservation, so asked what they had any rooms available for a night or two.

The attendant, a woman in her early twenties, looked at me, and at Herb standing a few feet away, and suggested, "We have a single king with a hot tub."

I frowned, taking a moment to puzzle out why she'd suggest that. "Ah. _No._ Preferably two single bed rooms, or one two bed room if that's not that available."

I felt my teammate grab my arm has he whined, "Baby, whyyy? I don't like sleeping alone and that hot tub sounds niiiice." _Yep. Messing with me,_ I confirmed internally. Herb was many things, but gay wasn't one of them.

"Then you shoulda brought Kayden, but we're trying not to bring trash on this trip," I replied, still annoyed from earlier.

A look of annoyance stole across his features. _Good._ It was replaced with a saucy smile half a second later. "Oh I know I'm trash," he scoffed, adopting a slightly ghetto accent.

I turned back to the attendant, Herb still hanging off my arm. "We're not gay," I informed her. "Two single rooms please."

"Beat me, spank me, love me," he added.

" _I'm_ not gay," I corrected, deadpan. "Also, do you know of any good cafés neaby?"

Herb leaned towards the person behind the desk conspiratorially, "And he says he's not gay."

"I just want some fucking coffee," I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose over my shades with my free hand.

The attendant giggled but rang up our rooms, handing me both keys and giving me directions to a place down the street. "Have a pleasant stay!" she called as we walked away.

"I will!" my teammate called back, _still hanging off my arm._ As soon as we were out of sight he let go and busted up laughing. I rolled my eyes, handing him his key, and didn't comment on what just happened. "You're the best fuckin' straight man," he commented, shaking his head.

"Happy to oblige," I replied, the edges of my mouth twitching slightly against my wishes.

I dropped my backpack off in the room and knocking on the door connecting our rooms. He opened it up, taking a flying leap over to his bed like a child while I snagged the rolling chair. "I still can't believe you didn't take a bag," I sighed.

He rolled upright, waving his credit card, "I've got the biggest bag in the world, baby."

"Right. _That_. Super easy to fill with _debt._ Lucky I make enough to support you," I commented, freezing as I saw the gleam of mischief in his eyes. "Wait. No. _No._ "

He winked exaggeratedly, ghetto accent back, "Thank you babe."

"Ugg. At least you didn't call me your sugar daddy," I groaned.

He laughed again, speaking normally, "Yeah, that's never gonna happen."

"Thank god for small favors."

* * *

It was easy enough to track down the café. Not really caring what I got, as long as it was caffeinated, I waved vaguely towards the specials menu when I ordered. As the Barista, appearing to be of similar age to the girl from the hotel, was making my drink, I asked, "So, any places I should stay away from, cape-wise?

This got me an odd look and a question of "Brockton?"

I smiled sheepishly in return, "That obvious?"

"We don't really have them, not like _there_ ," she smiled back. "What brings you to Portland?"

"Taking a mini-vacation. Needed to get away for a few days," I divulged. "Really, like, not at _all?_ "

"Maybe once every few weeks?" she shrugged, writing something on the cup. "There was something a few days ago, but nothing big. It's quiet, but better quiet then. . ."

" _Agreed,_ " I nodded, internally swearing as she handed me my drink. _So much for just sitting back and nabbing a new power._

I took a seat outside, to better keep an eye out on the people walking by, Herb joining me a few minutes later with a beer. Dropping a tight sound bubble around us, I pointed out, "You do know that with immunity, you're just drinking that for the taste, right?"

He frowned, laughed, and took a seat, sipping his drink. "Nah man, I get mine from Enter. I've only got _that_ when I want it."

I rolled my eyes, sipping my own drink. I tasted coffee, obviously, milk, so it was probably a latte, and. . . pine? "My coffee tastes like tree," I reported, taking another drink. "It's not bad." He looked at me askance and I offered the drink, but he waved it off.

"Fuckin' Maine," was his contribution.

"So, good news, we're likely not going to get jumped. Bad news, _we're likely not to get jumped._ Apparently they get a fight every few _weeks_. We're gonna have to stir things up," I sighed, and Herb grinned.

"I'm probably gonna need to go Crab-Lord," I mused, "though I was hoping to save that for later." He gave me a very serious nod. I tried to think of when the hell I'd discussed that identity. I hadn't. "You have no idea what I'm talking about, do you?" He gave me an equally serious head-shake.

"Do you want to fuck with the heroes or the villains?" I asked instead.

He looked around, "Can't we do both?"

"In one night?" I queried. Too many fights would be _highly_ suspicious, given how quiet it was around here.

"I mean, I get one, you get one," he clarified.

 _Oh. That made sense._ "Which side do you want?"

"I'll take a hero. I _am_ a villain after all," he stated pompously.

I just rolled my eyes, plan forming. "Yeah sure. Fine, so I'll grab a villain, but they don't have territory so I can't just mess with their people until they show up. Heroes are gonna be easy to pull, villains are going to need more work. Let's split up and walk around, see the sights and shit. I'll be _Looking_ out for them, whereas if you get a ping from your copying, that'll let you track them down. If either of us spots a villain, let's track them down to their base so I can go harass them. Sound like a plan?"

He shook his head sadly, "That kinda sounds like what we're doing now."

"Yeah, 'this is our life now' and all that crap," I snorted, having zero sympathy for him. Even odds where he was just playing it up.

He grinned immediately, "Yep, let's go James Bond this bitch."

"Wait," I held up a hand, needing to get the plan _actually_ outlined, if only to use it as evidence later when he ignored it, " _how?_ "

"No, you're right, this is more like cloak & dagger," he agreed, not answering my question.

I paused, unsure as to what he was referring. "Do you mean general subterfuge, or the heroes Cloak & Dagger, because I think I could do the latter if I needed to."

"Nah, like movies," he stated.

As far as I knew, they never turned those two heroes' story into a film. "The former, right. So, you ready to go out and see the sights of _Maine?_ "

"What? No," he replied disgustedly. "I'm a villain, I'm gonna go start shit."

 _Glad I asked._ "Okay, _point_ , but maybe not right now? Also, don't be Break & Enter," I added as a formality. Given our power sets we could each be _dozens_ of different parahumans if we needed to be. Given his more creative bent, I was looking forward to what he's come up with.

He sighed, "I was _literally_ just going to let Enter _go off._ "

My good cheer died in an instant at his words, and I realized the bullet I'd dodged, that I didn't even realize existed. Hell, this wasn't a bullet, it was tank round packed to the brim with high explosives. and I looked him dead in the eye, saying slowly, deadly serious, "You mean the _registered member_ of the Penumbral Defenders, who as far as anyone else knows is laying low in Brockton Bay? I'm sorry, hello there _Boojack_ , I didn't realize I brought you along. I've only just realized because you'd have to be _high_ to suggest that!"

He stared back for a moment, expressionless, before he nodded slowly back, giving me a chagrined look. "Yeah, you know what? That was a bad idea."

"I'm glad I fuckin' asked," I told him. "Seriously, give me the _basics_ of _your_ plans to help me avoid this shit. You don't _tell_ me things you just go _do_ them, and I know I do that too, but not when I'm working _with_ someone else." He was silent. "So, please tell me what you're planning on doing, _when we plan like this._ " More silence. " ** _Okay?_** "

"Okay," he shrugged, as if this wasn't a big deal. I wanted to say something, but a couple people were glancing at us, so I took a deep breath and relaxed, moving onto the next point but making sure to _remember_ this. "Can you do partial transformations?"

"Dude, I can do anything I want, really," he said dismissively.

I just looked at him, reminded of my conversation with Piggot. _It's power testing all over again. He says things, but he has no basis for doing so. **Everything** he says is suspect, and must be verified, slowing down every single possible interaction to a crawl if I don't want him to pull that devil 'you never asked' or 'I thought you knew' bullshit. However, the heroes with heir powers, **his** shard isn't messing with his head_. "Have you _tried_?"

"Not on purpose," he shrugged.

I stared at him and took a sip of my pine-flavored coffee. I leaned back in my seat, stating conversationally, "Okay, let's try this again without having to draw this out of you like a child who's done something wrong and doesn't want to outright _lie_ , so just misinterprets _everything_ and gives _weasel worded_ answers. Please answer my questions _directly_. If you want to give me extra information, please do so in a clear fashion. From your answer, am I to assume that you've done partial transformations by accident at some point _?_ "

He shrugged, not seeming to care about what I said in the slightest. "Yeah." I waited for more of an answer. He didn't give me one. _If this keeps going, we're gonna have a talk, and that talk is gonna happen away from witnesses._

"Good. Because your answer could _also_ have meant that you tried by accident and it didn't work, or that you haven't tried at all. You _know_ I don't like having to guess but we've got more important things to do right now. Let's go back to the room and work on your throwaway identity."

* * *

We'd returned back without incident, which _should_ be a given but given Herb's apparent lack of planning ability needed to be stated. Doing so gave us a space away from prying eyes to give this a shot. It would _hopefully_ not be destructive, and I had no idea where to go in the city for privacy, like the boat graveyard or the abandoned railyard in Brockton Bay.

"So, what monstrous form do you want to go for?" I asked him, ready to get started. He gave me a blank stare, and I was reminded of students I'd had that, despite knowing they were going to be asked a question, hadn't bothered to actually think of an answer until this very moment. It was a very 'deer-in-the-headlights' look. I considered suggesting just that, but the _staggering_ number of 'horny', 'stag', and 'buck' jokes weren't worth it. Might as well go in the opposite direction. "Like a werewolf-"

"I do love werewolves, and this _is_ Maine," he asserted, as if this was his answer all along.

I just looked at him, wondering just _how_ many random decisions he was going to justify by stating locations. I wanted to believe that he was just messing with me, and evidence so far pointed to that, but if so, he was playing it _very_ straight. ". . . what?" was the entirety of my response.

He looked at me as if _I_ were the one being obtuse. "There are werewolves in Maine," he said, like one would point out that there was sand in the desert.

". . . sure there are," I finally agreed, not willing to argue with him.

"If you were a werewolf, where else would you want to be?" he challenged.

"Wyoming," I replied immediately, not giving it more than a moment of thought.

That took him aback, but he started nodding as he started to _seriously consider my Bullshit answer. Oh god,_ I thought, _is this what it's like to be him. Oh god, is it **contagious**?_ "I can see that," he admitted, wide open spaces, not a lot of people. Maine's good hunting thought."

"But it's more densely packed," I pointed out, wondering why I was defending the answer I'd pulled out of my ass. "Which is a moot point, since there's _no werewolves in Maine!"_ He just looked at me sadly, shaking his head. "Right, so before you try to transform in front of someone else for the first time and look silly, let's give it a shot here. Half man, half wolf. Go."

His form twisted and I was looking at creature with a wolf's head and limbs with a human torso, which unbalanced and feel over, popping back to Herb in an instant. I took a sip of my star-warmed coffee, the taste making me drink it slower, really appreciating how the flavors all worked together. _There's a thought._ "Try doing it slower," I suggested, "and start with an arm." He shrugged, taking a seat on the bed and holding his right arm out. A half-second later, it was a wolf's forelimb, extending awkwardly from his shoulder. "Okay, turn it back, but as slow as possible.

He frowned, focusing, and his arm started to shift back. The paw started to retract, widening as fingers started to extend as the longer, lower part of his arm started to retract. "Stop," I commanded, a third of the way through. "Can you just do the hand, make a proper wrist?"

As I Saw his power, the capabilities where there, but the damn thing was so incredibly open ended that I couldn't see any easy ways to do what we wanted. The Purple and Gold flames, twisting in ever-shifting patterns, flowing into and through his right ear for some reason. _The Stand,_ I realized. _He's keeping it there._ Small enough, and he wouldn't even have to worry about it throwing off his balance or hearing. _Good on him_ , I thought, _pity that every single other idea he's had has been utter garbage._

"This good?" he asked, wincing as he tried to turn his arm over.

Pulling up canine skeletons on my phone, I realized the problem. "Make the shoulder more human," I suggested, his flesh shifting slightly. "Canine shoulders are more limited. Good for quadrupeds, bad for tool users."

We worked on his other limbs, starting from full wolf and shifting slowly to human, shifting smaller parts more to regain full functionality. The result was quite impressive, looking very much like the creatures from legend, with one _small_ problem.

He was barely five feet tall.

Now, a large part of that was the fact that he had to hunch a bit to keep his balance, what with his seeming tri-part legs. Physically it was more like walking on the balls of _really_ big feet, but he had to hunch to keep from tipping over. He was making slight changes here and there, getting a better sense of what worked and what didn't.

"Warrg u looking at?" he asked after a while.

"Hmm?" I asked, mentally replaying what I just heard. "Oh, trying to figure out this code. The third section, with four numbers is probably flavoring, and I _think_ the middle section is to say it's a latte, though _why_ you'd need three digits for that is beyond me. Maybe the first number's the size?"

"Wat?" he asked, holding up a clawed finger as he tried to say something, finally resolving into "How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood." His voice was a bit more high-pitched than normal at first, but that slowly dropped into a low, lupine growl. He nodded to himself, turning back to me and paused. "Um?"

I held up my now-empty coffee cup, "I'm trying to figure out this code." It was three sets of numbers, the first two each a set of three, the last section comprised of four numbers instead.

He slowly made his way over to me, his body shifting slightly as his gait smoothed, still retaining a bit of clumsiness. When he read the code he started laughing like a hyena, falling over. I waited for him to finish. It took three minutes.

"Was it _really_ that funny?" I asked him. He just nodded enthusiastically. "Would you like to share with the class?"

"This 'code'," he said, air-quotes and all, "don't look at all familiar?"

I studied it, trying to break it apart alphanumerically, but that just gave me nonsense. "Not really, no."

He just shook his head sadly. "It's a phone number," he growled, sounding deadpan despite the muzzle.

I looked at him, then at the cup, which _did_ have the same format as a phone number, then him again. "Um. Okay? Why would she write that?"

He waved a lupine hand at my muscles. "I don't know Mr. Muscles. Why do ya think?"

"But, she just met me. Hell, we talked for, like, three minutes tops," I argued.

He smiled, wolfishly. "The cutie that was working the counter?" I nodded. "I don't think she wanted ta _talk_."

"But why should she give me her phone number if she didn't want to. . . _oh,_ " I muttered dumbly. "I. Um. Yeah. No. I'm good."

"Ya sure?" he smirked, "We did get separate rooms."

"No, I wouldn't want to bring anyone in on this," I caught myself before he could respond, "Which is _not_ what you're talking about. Right. Yeah. _No._ One night stands are not my preferred furniture. So, back to using alien superpowers in new and interesting ways, _like normal._ "

He laughed and waved to himself. His torso was a good bit more human-ish than the rest of him, likely to give him the musculature to stay semi-upright more easily.

"Hmm. Can you throw something else in there?" I suggested, "To get to proper 'werewolf' height?"

His form bulked out a bit but seemed to widen more than grow taller. "Bear?" he asked.

"Maybe, pull back to a third of the bear you're using now," I proposed. "What wolf are you basing this off of?"

He just shrugged, "Wolf?"

"Okay," I replied, wondering if he needed a specific type, or if his power just grabbed whatever subspecies of animal he was thinking of. "Dire wolves are a thing."

He nodded, looking off into the middle distance, "In my head they are."

That took a moment to unpack. 'In my head' was an _odd_ phrase, though he probably meant in his _imagination_. "No, I mean they were a real thing _in history_. Try to go for them, same configuration but with that as a base, if you can."

His body twisted and grew to nearly eight feet in height, features pulling back to look more feral, a line of bone spikes emerging from his back, his elbows, and his knees. When he growled the sound reverberated throughout the room, a primitive part of my brain screaming at me to **_run._** I squashed that, trying to figure out _what the hell_ just happened. I'd seen recreations of Dire wolves in museums. They were a little less than half again as big as normal wolves, and looked a bit more feral, but didn't have the borderline demonic appearance of the creature before me. And _bone spikes._ Why **_bone spikes?_**

They were so odd, so _distinctive_ , that I couldn't help but focus on them. They reminded me of something, and it was a long moment before I realized what they came from. He hadn't turned into a dire wolf from pre-history, he'd turned into a dire wolf from _Dungeons & Dragons._ _What. The. Hell._

"Do me a quick favor," I suggested, "Try to go Blink Dog instead."

He looked at me quizzically, Canine eyes widening as he shrank to six feet, his fur lightening to an orangish brown, glowing slightly. We looked at each other, shocked. He focused on another part of the room and narrowed his eyes. Nothing happened. He closed his eyes in concentration. Still nothing. He let out a canine whine of disappointment, shifting back to his dire werewolf form.

"Can't teleport?" I inquired, and he shook his massive head. "Okay, so physical changes are good, but you don't get magical abilities, since magic isn't real here. Fair enough. That's something to consider later. So, this thing looks badass," I offered.

Herb padded over to the room's mirror, his previously soft footsteps thumping lightly. Looking over himself, twisting to take in the line of vicious looking spines down his back, he growled in approval, grinning.

"How strong are you?" I asked, wondering how the fictional physiology mixed with real world realities. He reached over and easily picked up the bed, dropping it back with a loud _thunk_. Giving out a chuffing laugh, he did so several more times.

"Okay, that works, and you'll only get stronger as the fight progresses," I nodded. "Good. Let's both go scouting since _I_ need to track down the villain, not just start shit."

"I'm gonna go out," he called over his shoulder, voice raising the hairs on the back of my neck as he headed for the door that he'd likely barely fit through. "Do some damage, not a lot-"

"What?" I asked, flying in front of him and manifesting a newspaper made of purple lightning. I smacked him lightly across the snout with it as I commanded, " _No._ " He looked at me, confused and a little amused.

"We have a plan. _Stick to the plan,"_ I insisted _._ "Besides, you want a night fight to better sneak away and to avoid the possibility of civilians getting hurt. Also, I'd suggest going human until you're ready, _then_ find an out of the way location to change, you'll limit how easily what you do can be traced back to your _secret identity._ "

He paused, shrinking down to human form, once again clothed in his shirt and sweatpants, "Yeah, true."

 _How did you not think of that?_ I wondered, not angry, just a bit disappointed. "So, one last time, we both go out, we both try and find capes. If either of us find a villain we follow them, _discreetly_ , back to their base. We meet back up _here_ at 6. At nine, I'll hit my target while you start shit. If possible we'll bring both our fights to that park, where I'll be able to work with the heroes you pull, you get away, but they still get an arrest. That's the plan, okay?"

"Okay," he shrugged nonchalantly. At my stare he got a bit more serious, adding, "I understand. Night fights will help me keep a low profile, and besides, what kind of werewolf goes out durin' the day?"


	112. Reconnoiter 10-7

**Reconnoiter 10.7**

Wandering around on foot, not using any kind of power, was incredibly limiting. With my Power Sight open wide, the world seemed a bit more vivid, but no powers could be seen. Two hours later, and a call to Herb to see if he'd had any luck (he hadn't), and I was still just ambling about. A time or two I thought I saw the barest glimmer of _something_ , but as soon as I tried to focus on it, it vanished.

 _Stranger?_ I wondered, stopping to lean against the wall as I stared at where the newest distortion had twisted in and out of existence. Cycling through every power that had a Sensory component, Vista's, Grue's, Stormtiger's and more, gave me nothing. Gazing at the space, I saw nothing out of the ordinary. Tempted to peer over my 'shades', I moved on after a long moment, double checking that my costume invisibly extended up and covered my head in a thin, transparent layer to protect me. Whatever it was I was seeing, if it left me alone, I'd leave it alone, for now.

Not for the first time I was annoyed that I couldn't see my _own_ power, as that would help me understand what the _hell_ was going on with them.

Returning back to the room at six, there was no sign of my teammate. Sending him a text, he replied that he'd be there in a few. Arriving half an hour later, he strolled in without a care. "Did you find anyone?"

"Everyone but Krusty & the Krab," he replied.

"Wait, _how?"_ I demanded. "I couldn't find anyone!"

He just shrugged, "Turned into a pigeon and flew around. Copyin' still works if I'm a bird."

"That. . . makes sense," I admitted. "I've got longer range but need to see them, you've just got thirty feet of cape-dar."

"Who ya wanna hear about first?" he asked, smiling.

We spent half an hour going over the locations of Terro, Comeback, Palette, Breakthrough, & Kara Beau. Apparently Kara worked as a waitress, where he'd eaten lunch, and her name was Carolyn Beaumont.

" _Seriously?_ " I had to ask. He just nodded in sad agreement, repressing laughter.

"Okay, so while nice to know, that doesn't really help recruiting them. Showing up at their workplace or house _probably_ wouldn't be the best move if we want to sound them out for joining us of their own free will," I remarked, getting me another nod. "Let's get dinner and I'll go take down Terro & Comeback, while you stir up some trouble. Any preferences?"

"As long as I fight, I don't care what I do," he said.

"I meant for dinner," I clarified.

He grinned, "I know."

I sighed, "Dude, Cannabalism is _bad._ "

His smile dropped immediately, "What? No man! I don't want to eat people! I was just messing with you! You really think I'd _eat_ someone?"

"Bakuda, Hookwolf, some ABB during the raid," I counted off on my fingers. "It's getting to be a problem."

"Dude, that's different!" he defended.

"Because you weren't human at the time so it didn't count?" I proposed dryly.

He started to reply, stopped himself, and amended his answers. "I didn't kill them to eat them, I ate them to kill them!"

 _Isn't that the same thing?_ I wondered. _No, it's motivation._ "Eating them was incidental to stopping them?" I checked.

"Yeah! I was just messin' with you. We're in Maine, Lobster works," he threw out.

Glad to have clarified _that_ issue, I joked, "You do know they're just a vehicle for butter, right?"

""Butter is like ketchup on a burger. It's good with or without," he argued.

"Whatever you need to tell yourself."

Splitting up, I headed to my first target, the Comeback Kid. He lived in a small apartment, just outside of downtown. On one hand, what I was doing was a gross violation of the 'unwritten rules'. On the other hand, he'd killed enough civilians to have already broken them himself. _Hiding behind rules that you don't follow only works as long as your opponent lets you_. It was like the Geneva conventions, even if you didn't sign them, as long as you abided by them, the other side was supposed to as well. However, if you broke them, then the only thing keeping your opponents from doing the same was their own personal preferences.

It was the base concept of the 'outlaw': those who refused to be bound by the law were not shielded by it. The _actual_ laws had gotten so incredibly arcane that it was an in-demand profession to dedicate one's life to learn them in order to determine if a violation had occurred, which was a bad thing for _so_ many reasons, but the unwritten rules were short enough that they could be reasonably expected to be followed.

Ironically, the last one, where all parahumans were supposed to work together to help enforce them, was the one almost _no-one_ enforced. Shifting to Shadow and tapping into the insects in the area, I found the villain who had killed over a dozen civilians lounging in his underwear. The front door of the apartment building had a camera, but the back door didn't. Emerging from a hidden alley, costume already changed to a throwaway identity, I padded silently towards the unwatched portal.

With a bit of Metal Projection through my fingers to lift the tumblers, the door opened with barely a sound. A spider in the hall spotted someone coming down the back stairs and I retreated into the shadows, tapping Grue's powers to further darken my position. An older woman, maybe late 40's, re-locked the back door, tried to open it, then unlocked and opened it, muttering to herself. Locking it once more she walked down the side street, and once she left and the street was once again clear I moved back and unlocked it once more, slipping inside.

Taking the steps two at a time, I was outside Comeback's door in seconds. Another use of metal from my fingertips unlocked his deadbolt. Inside, he froze, his head snapping towards the door. Knowing I'd been spotted, I didn't bother being quiet about the lock, flicking it open with a loud _click._

He bolted for his bedroom and I swung the door open, not seeing him long enough to get a full read on his power, but enough to see that he _had_ one. Closing and locking the door behind him, the fly I'd snuck into his room saw him hastily throw his costume on. Locking the door behind me I walked inside, turned off his television, and leaned against the wall, waiting. If he ran, I'd catch him. If he attacked, I'd take him down. If he'd _talk_ , well, that would be interesting.

"Who are you?" he called through the door.

"Come out and I'll tell you," I practically purred, trying to have a similar intonation to Curtis, minus the foul language.

He opened the door, and paused, taking in my appearance. I'd shifted my costume into a leonine appearance, covered with a thin layer of fur over hidden armored plates. My helmet was a lion's head, complete with mane, mouth open and darkness where my face was, a thin layer of hardened material serving as a hidden defense. My hands were claws, metal tipped thanks to Metal Projection. Everything, except for my claws, were a dark, dark blue bordering on black.

I looked at him as he shone with a tightly knit webwork of Pink & Royal Blue flames, Power Resistance thrumming across his form. "Who the fuck are you?" he finally asked, not moving from the door.

"Call me. . . _Prowl,"_ I proposed, pushing off the door, gazing into his power. _Ah, there it is._ He had a secondary power, a healing factor that gained in strength the more injured he was. If I wanted to kill him, it'd need to be an overwhelming Alpha strike, as even a shot to the head that missed his shard would still give him time to heal.

He snorted, stepping into the room. "Okay cat-man, what the fuck do you want and how the fuck did you find me?"

"People talk," I observed, only for him to cut me off as he swore.

"That bitch!" he yelled. "I'll fucking kill her!"

"Yeah, that's gonna be hard," I observed, pushing off the wall. "Given you'll be in jail."

He looked at me and snorted, "And you're gonna do it? Give me a break, pussy cat."

I didn't break stride as I closed, claws lengthening into small blades, and he took a wild swing for my stomach. Leaning back I raked my claws down his arm. He swore as he took a step back and tried to kick me. I stepped back as well, watching his powers go to work. The bleeding reduced down to superficial levels in an instant, still looking bad but with no real damage. What was _more_ interesting was his main power shifting and twisting around his arm, traces of the Steel & Bright Red of Hookwolf's power pulling up from the wound and starting to spread out across the rest of the matrix.

He stepped back and grabbed the baseball bat that he'd left next to the door in his room, charging me with a yell. His power extended over the weapon as well, and when I caught it with my claws, parrying it and shoving him backwards again, his power took more of Hookwolf's where it'd scratched the bat, weaving more of the foreign power in with his own.

Reaching out with my own power, trying to copy this ability for my own, I couldn't find any purchase. While _I_ could see it in action with Power Sight, that was still not enough to copy the power for myself. Another swing and parry, my enhanced strength letting me move much faster than him, showed his power already taking effect. Instead of the deep rents my claws had dug in the bat before, now it was just large gouges.

Another few wild swing was parried, one that wouldn't even have hit me if I hadn't stopped him, and by the last blow the claws just scratched the metal. I understood his methodology as he swore at me, swinging seemingly without purpose. The anger, the panic, the blind rage? It was faked, at least in part. He found a way to let his power work through items, letting _them_ take the hit while he became inured to the power of his opponents. Given most capes tendency to play with their opponents, it was a masterful idea.

It would work almost every time, and I had to admit that it _was_ working on me, though not for the reason that he likely thought. Hookwolf's power was running through his own in greater and greater amounts, Power Resistance negating it more and more. This persona had powers to spare though, so I wondered exactly what his plan was going to be. I pressed him a bit, pushing him backwards as I went on the attack. He deflected with the bat, taking a scratch on the other hand, but my claws weren't cutting like the honed blades they were.

We kept going and he started to grin, pushing himself to keep up with my strength. Interestingly enough, his own fatigue and the damage he was doing to his muscles through overexertion activated his secondary ability as well, temporarily making him stronger as his power repaired the damage he was doing to himself. By overtaxing himself he'd pushed himself to Brute levels, even if was only triple or so the human norm. We'd been fighting for several minutes, going back and forth with only the sound of metal on metal, when my claws broke.

Once again, I parried his now heavily marred bat with my claws, only for the metal to snap, as if they were made of brittle plastic. The bat struck my hand, not breaking the shield protecting it but a bit of the White & Gold of _that_ power leaked into Comeback's own Flames.

I snatched my hand back, shaking it as if it were hurt. I parried with my other hand's regrown claws to double check, and those broke as well, though the bat missed my fingers. "Kitty ain't so tough when he gets neutrered, ain't he?"

He took a step forward and swung with all his strength, bat on a direct path to my head. Done playing, I stood up straight from the slight crouch I'd been fighting in and easily caught the bat with the palm of my hand, the impact not draining my shield, and ripped it out of hands. "Neutered is balls, you idiot." Inserting momentum into the object, I shaped it and mimed throwing it, letting it fly through his stomach.

The results were horrific, the ad-hoc ballista bolt pulping his flesh and blasting him backwards, metal shrapnel destroying his bed and embedding deep into the wall behind him. A hint of Brown & Grey entered his power as he screamed in pain, looking down in disbelief at the hamburger that was everything below his ribcage, his shattered hips and legs lying a few feet away. Already, his Hidden Regeneration was working overtime to put him back together, regrowing what was lost in a manner that made the injury still look just as gory on the surface. It was a rather interesting power, but not one I could copy because of the specifics of how it worked, the visual aspects not directly observable. Even scraping away the torn muscle to reveal new flesh didn't help, as that section stopped healing immediately.

 _God dammnit,_ I thought, **_another_** _healing power I can't grab._ While Perfect Body would patch me up after the fact, this power could've _greatly_ sped up the process. I wasn't sure the actual limits of my own self-healing power, a process that would either _suck_ , or require Panacea's diagnostic power to observe effectively. That being said, Comeback Kid's secondary power would've been still been nice to have.

"Quit crying, ya little bitch. You'll be fine when you wake up," I chided, stepping over to him. He ignored me, still screaming. _Probably the worst he's ever been hurt_ , I mused, _and his power is healing him so he's not going into shock to get away from the pain._ A swift kick to the head knocked him out, his power having to prioritize damage, a ruined torso trumping unconsciousness.

Flipping him over, I locked his wrists together with some handcuffs I'd extruded, growing the metal together to lock them. They'd have to cut them off of him, but that wasn't my problem. I did pull the bat out his intestines, to let them heal properly, but he was doing fairly well on his own. It took a few minutes for his flesh to regrow, and I put some pants on him, more for everyone _else's_ sake than his, and then I unlocked the front door, moving downstairs. I was surprised to find police waiting for me, guns drawn.

"Get on your knees!" one of them yelled, and I just looked at him for a moment before shaking my head.

"Better response time than back home," I told the six of them instead, tossing Comeback, still covered with blood, to the ground. "Here's ya lot go, one Comeback Kid. Signed, sealed, delivered, he's yours. Y'all want a ring when I find the next little outlaw?"

They didn't shoot me, which was a good thing, but they didn't lower their guns either, which, well, was a good thing too in that it spoke of their competence. "Please stay here, we need to get the sergeant," one of them asked.

I shook my head, mane fluffing as I did so. "Not gonna happen. You lot keep your noses clean, and keep on keepin' on."

"Wait!" one of them called as I leaped backwards, racing down the hallway to bust out the back door. Re-projecting my claws I used them to help climb the wall, taking to the rooftops and disappearing into the night.

My second target was a few miles north and across the cove, hiding out in a warehouse. _A proper villain lair,_ I mused, approaching the building that Herb had found. Tiny sound bubbles around my feet kept my steps silent even on the gravel. Skirting the edge of the security camera, I approached the compound. The place was still, incredibly so. Tapping into insects showed me that an alarm was going off inside a small set of rooms inside, a thin, blonde man suiting up.

Continuing to move forward I directed a few bugs to look at the tv screen set up. It took most of my concentration to assemble a cohesive picture, but there were more displays than there were cameras, one showing me slowly walking forward. _Must've missed one,_ I mused, looking in the direction the camera should be. It was small, _very_ small, and well hidden as opposed to the larger corporate standard models.

He'd gotten his costume, a pistol, several knives, and a. . . sheet? He did something to it, and it started to glow a dull brown. Sticking the edges of it to the ceiling, he put away the stepstool and took a seat, pistol in hand but hidden by the table. He waited as I entered the warehouse and made my way to the office. I tried the door, finding it locked, and used my 'claw' to pick it.

Pushing the door open, Terro sat there, waiting for me. The Dark Brown & Green of his Bonding Fields burned around him, the Flames of his power burning all across the sheet above me. I didn't move my head to look at it, but with the inside of my helmet being clear I didn't need to. They seemed to work in a similar manner to Skidmark's Speed Zones, though they needed touch to emplace, temporarily sticking one thing to another on a molecular level.

I took a step inside and his power flared as he negated the fields holding the sheet up over my head from a distance, not seeming to move. Reversing myself and leaping backwards, Terro immediately brought his pistol to bear, firing at my seemingly unarmored chest. The first shot drained a shield, the other impacting the fur-covered armor to zero affect.

I held up a finger and shook it back and forth, the sheet fully bonding to the floor. "Naughty, naughty," I chided, jumping forward. From beneath the desk he pulled a sawed-off shotgun, blasting me full in the face with it to seeming no effect as he stumbled to his feet with a panicked, _"Fuck!_ "

As I closed he ran his hand across the table, which glowed with a brown energy as my power copied his own. Trying to throw the table at me, I backpedaled and grabbed the non-glowing leg, shoving it against the wall where it stuck fast. Ignoring his second shotgun blast, I closed once more.

Lacking any healing effect, I had to be more careful if I wanted him to survive. He reached for me with both hands, fingers glowing, and I smacked his wrists, throwing them wide. My copy of his power coming online, I could feel the table, the blanket, and something else in the next room all active with Bonding Fields.

I thrust my hands forward in a double palm strike, breaking at least one rib as I knocked him down. "What do you want?" he wheezed, trying to get back up. As I closed, he swiped his hands in front of him, setting the ground aglow around him to keep me away. I didn't need it, leaping forward, cheating with flight, and lashing a hand out. Striking his shoulder, I knocked him back into his own field as I landed against the far wall, using my claws to dig in and keep from touching the ground. His blood shone a dull brown, Bonding Fields hidden within and ready to bind me to the floor. The blood on my claws bonded to the wall, but it was easy enough to shed those bits of metal.

While the blow knocked him back down, he was immune to his own power as he moaned in pain, bleeding from the wound. He flailed, lighting up the ground around him, his clothing, and everything else around him. Creating a bit of metal from the surface of my malleable claws, I replaced the projected claw on the pointer finger of my free hand with one made from Kaiser's power. Pointing it at him, I infused it with a bit of momentum and aimed it for next to his hand. I missed.

The metal spike stuck his arm as he cried out in pain, the metal instantly bonding to the metal plates that adorned his costume. _"Drop the fields,_ " I growled, growing a second claw.

"I can't!" he cried out. I shot again, this time hitting the mark and missing him, sinking it into the ground by his head. "Fuck!" he cried, the fields winking out of existence, the table dropping with a crash from the wall.

I felt an echo of the powers from where they used to be, but assumed that was just an effect of dismissing them. Leaping down, I found this to be in error when they immediately sprang back into existence, bonding my feet to the ground.

"Got ya," he laughed, still in pain. His mirth was short lived, as I shot him in the foot with another claw.

"Longer I stick around, more things I stick ya with," I observed calmly, regrowing a third claw.

The fields winked out again, this time with no echo-feeling left. "The fuck do you want?" he yelled, twisting in pain.

Striding over to him, I flipped him over and grabbed his arms, causing him to yelp as I jostled the arm with a claw still stuck in him. Slapping him with another pair of extruded cuffs, I closed them up and dumped him back on his chair. Extracting the claws I'd shot and pocketing them, he tried to kick me, but I thought it was just reflexive so didn't hold it against him. Grabbing the now-loose sheet I ripped it into strips and used them to tie him to his chair. When he tried to struggle, I just held up my hand to his face, claws at the ready.

"Just makin' sure you ain't goin' anywhere," I reassured him. "If I wanted ya dead, I woulda killed ya from the start." After I finished tying him up, I wandered over into the room he'd been trying to head towards. It was his bedroom, complete with a cell phone on a charger. _Bingo._ While it was locked, even locked phones can still call the cops.

"Nine one one what is the address of your Emergency," a feminine voice answered.

I gave her the address, adding "It's also Terro's Digs. He's ready for pickup. By any chance, have you lot seen a wolfman runnin' about? He's the one I was lookin' for to begin with."

"Did, did you say Terro?" The woman asked, the sounds of furious typing in the background.

"Yeah. He's the sticky fella, right?" I inquired.

"And you say you're looking for a wolf man?" she continued, not answering my question.

 _So it's not a Brockton Bay thing. Lovely._ "Yeah, you lot spot him yet? He's a nasty piece o' work, not the type the boys in blue should be gettin' too close to." Glancing at the phone it was only eight, but he might've started early.

The woman on the other line was silent for a minute. "Miss?" I pressed. "Your boys seen him?"

"I'm sorry, we haven't," she admitted. "If you could please stay there while-"

"I'm sorry too, I don't got time to talk. You have a nice night now." I tossed the phone on the bed. The dispatcher said something else, but I was already leaving. I tried to figure out the accent I'd been using. It was. . . southern? Maybe Texan? I hadn't really thought of a mode of speaking before and it was slipping all over the place.

Nodding to Terro on my way out, it was easy enough to climb the warehouse, run along the roof, and leap into the trees behind it, the sound of distant sirens ringing into the night.

Nursing another coffee, I sat back and relaxed in my civilian guise in Deering Oaks Park, a hop, skip, and jump away from downtown Portland. It'd turned nine a few minutes ago, and I was just waiting for the fireworks to start. Sure enough, a few minutes later I heard an unearthly howl that drilled straight to my bones. I smirked and sipped my drink as I saw a few pedestrians stumble, looking off in the direction of downtown, their pace noticeably faster as they headed wherever they wanted to go.

Finishing it, I slipped into the shadows, and shifted into my Prowl guise. I hid my surprise when several animals, birds, squirrels, and even a deer, all started emerging from the trees around me. _Kara then_ , I thought, staying hidden. Another howl rent the night, and I could hear the sounds of galloping hoofbeats. Peering around the tree, a girl in her late teens, early twenties dressed like a fantasy ranger was riding a stag, cloak pulled back, her eyes wide with panic behind her green, vine-themed domino mask.

I Saw her, the Dark Green & Dull Red of Forest Animal Summoning reaching out in every direction. Where it concentrated, another animal leapt out of a place it shouldn't have been and rand behind her, where the sounds of carnage was steadily growing.

A mountain lion was thrown towards her, missing by less than a foot, flying a good forty feet past her before impacting the ground with a spine-cracking snap, the animal's shape losing cohesion and disappearing like a mirage. As she rode into the park, her power strengthened, larger animals jumping from behind trees.

When I saw Herb round the corner, I almost didn't recognize him. _He's added more_ , I noted, as he was easily ten feet tall if he stood now, loping down the street and ripping through anything that got in his way with ease.

Kara rode past my position without noticing me, heading to the center of the park and jumping from her mount to a tree, scrambling up it as the deer continued to flee, her cloak tied to its antler. She summoned a bunny and held it close, the girl trembling like a leaf. _I think he might've overdone it a bit_ , I thought to myself.

Herb, a nightmarish vision of primal brutality under the thin sliver of moon that shone down from above and the reflected nights of the city, continued to tear through the animals with ease. More appeared from the direction the deer went, throwing themselves at him in a stream, slowing him down but nothing else. One elk tried to gore him with his horns, the tips barely penetrating his flesh, only for the injury to heal as he broke its neck, the projection disappearing into nothing.

 _It was a good strategy_ , I had to give her. If my teammate was an _actual_ werewolf, the deer would take her sent away while the stream of disposable animals would lead him in the direction of said deer, the rabbit possibly hiding her own. However, that wasn't his main sensory power. As soon as he got within thirty feet of me, he slowed down, sniffing theatrically. A bit of sound manipulation whispered to him, "Coming in on your right."

He looked around, nodding slightly, and I launched myself at him with a roar. He turned, catching my outstretched arms and hurled me into the park towards Kara. Twisting in the air, with a bit of flight to assist, and I landed on my feet, claws extending from the front of my boots digging into the turf. "I've finally found ya," I snarled at him. "You can't run from me forever, boy!"

He looked over my costume, smiling broadly and growled, "It's go time," before dashing forward _far_ faster than even a wolf his size should've been able to. One clawed hand came up in a disemboweling, rising strike, only to be blocked by my crossed hands, hidden armor helping to distribute the power of the blow. Before I could move to retaliate, he grabbed my arms and hurled me towards the tree next to where Kara was hiding.

Twisting, I struck the trunk, feet first, and launched myself back at him, jumping the twenty feet back to him with just a touch of flight to cover the distance. He tried to grab me but I caught his hands with my own claws, metal digging into flesh which would heal soon enough. Using my own grip against me, he tried to slam me into the ground, only for me to let go and use the momentum to somersault forward, extending a leg to strike the top of his head with a kick as I spun.

The strike landed, staggering him momentarily as I pushed off him to jump high in the air, trying to make this as showy as possible. The time it took me to fly twenty feet in the air, stall, and start to come down, claws once more outstretched gave him time to rally and dodge as I came back down. His fist lashed out, a blow that would've caught me in the chest caught easily. However, without obvious use of flight powers or the kind of training needed to pull of Saotome-style shenanigans, the momentum of the blow once more sent me flying on a collision course for another tree.

Throwing myself to the side I missed it by inches, one clawed hand reaching out to dig into the bark, leaving deep furrows as I twisted halfway around, landing and coming back to him in a loping run. "You've gotten stronger," I growled, using as much strength as I could without draining the shields on my feet to charge him in long, loping strides similar to his own.

He tried to catch me with a haymaker but I ducked underneath it, cutting across his side with my claws, hands coming away bloody as I turned to face him, still crouched. He twirled around, bone-spike capped knee catching me in the shoulder and sending me bouncing away. With my enhanced sight I could see the wounds I'd inflicted had already half healed, the already fading bruise I could feel forming on my arm kicking the healing portion of his Vampirism into action. As I got to my feet he launched himself high with a roar, mimicking my previous tactic but with the sheer mass to make it _truly_ destructive.

I turned, ready to meet his blow with my own strength when a flicker of colored fire shone from a nearby tree and a _moose_ came charging towards me as Kara, from her position in the trees, yelled "Duck!" I did so, and I could hear Herb whimper as the Moose jumped over me and slammed into him, mid-air, knocking him away from me with the _crack_ of snapping ribs. The summoned animal landed with a heavy thunk as Herb rolled over and over, scrabbling to his feet and facing the creature that was only slightly smaller than he was with a snarl.

The bull moose trumped another challenge and charged the dire werewolf, who howled and charged in return. They met with a mighty clap, Herb grabbing hold of the projection's antlers before he could be gored and grunted as he coiled himself down and _lifted._ The creature gave a call of dismay as it was lifted up and over its foe, arcing up to be slammed down, back-first, onto the ground. The projection 'died', spine cracking as it destabilized, disappearing like a fading mirage.

With the werewolf looking away I looked towards Kara and gave her a nod of thanks, charging Herb silently, Sound Bubbles on my feet, as I quietly warned him, "from behind. Roll and throw me forward when I hit."

He looked down at where the projection as he growled, "Yes! Now you're fighting! Like foxes were going to take down a _wolf!_ "

I pushed off hard, claws out to strike my fully-healed opponent, and came down on his back, metal blades digging into shoulders. As soon as he felt me impact he rolled forward, his weight slamming into me and 'dazing' me so that I let go and started to fall backwards, only to be grabbed as he reached behind himself. With his enormous hand grasping my leg he whipped me forward, away from Kara, towards the pond that was part of the park.

I landed with a splash, almost hitting the tiny island in the middle of the water, and sank like a stone, the metal threaded throughout my body destroying any buoyancy I might've had. Launching myself up from the bottom, I exploded out of the water and landed on the shore, completely soaked.

Herb, who had made his way back towards Kara, ripped one bear in half while another cut into him from behind with its claws. My teammate was blood-soaked, but with his wounds healing with every animal he dispatched, he was still uninjured. I slammed into his back and we both tumbled forward, this time with me hanging on and out of range of his grasping hands. Instead I wrenched myself back, forcing him back as well, my feet touching the ground and metal claws growing to dig in deep.

With a heave I threw him into a smaller tree, which broke under the impact of what was easily a ton of bone, fur, and flesh. Two more bears emerged from behind trees, one seeming to unfold itself from behind a bush. Glancing at Kara I could see her sweating from behind her domino mask, her power pushing itself to its limit to try to keep up with the fight.

Herb and I met again in combat, my 'speed' vs his 'strength', the bears serving as distractions and as backup as we fought. "Something faster," I yelled in her general direction as the werewolf dodged a bear's bite, beheading it with a swipe of his claws, which had become serrated.

"She can't help you," Herb snarled nastily. "Little red forest wood ain't shit. I'm sure she'll-" was as far as he got before an orange, white, and black shape slammed into him, claws tearing into his flesh. He lashed out in surprise, not holding back for the first time in the fight and shredding the beast attacking him with a surprised yelp.

From around us another four tigers, each bigger than a man, stalked out of the darkness, joined a moment later by two more bears, these _far_ larger than ones that had been summoned earlier. Getting over his surprise, Herb looked around and let out a low laugh. "Lion and tigers and bears. Oh my."

I almost broke character as I was torn between facepalming and laughing, settling for a growled, "Is this a joke to you?"

He shook his head. "No, she was, but not anymore," he announced, pulling back his lips in an evil grin. "This is going to be fun!"

What followed was a blur of fang, tooth, and claw as we fought. At first the summoned animals and I got in each other's way, the greater numbers making coordination much more difficult, but against a regenerating foe we had more than enough time to iron out the problems. It was a learning experience for me as well, fighting with others in more than a basic 'don't get in my way' style, and not being constantly worried about having to protect those I was fighting 'with', since they were just projections.

What felt like hours, but was likely only five minutes later, both Herb and I paused, hearing sirens in the distance. Blood soaked, but uninjured, facing off against a fully replenished group of bears, tigers, and panthers, and with the sounds of the police closing in every direction, the dire werewolf backed off. He gave a deafening howl before growling loudly, "You've got me this time, but I'll be back with my _Pack!_ " With that declaration he bolted, still limiting himself in his strength as he ran on all fours, tearing up the dirt as he fled.

There was the sound of squealing tires and gunshots in the direction he left, though they quickly stopped. Police cars, lights flashing, drove past the park. A few slowed down, but quickly sped up again, heading the same way Herb had.

I growled in irritation, spitting out, "Coward," before looking back at Kara. She wasn't shaking anymore but she was bruised, battered, and exhausted. Walking over to the tree she was still hiding up, I saw that she wasn't really injured, to my relief. "Prowl," I introduced myself, retracting my claws as I offered my hand.

She looked down at me with suspicion for a second before hanging her head. Shimmying down the tree, she dusted herself off and taking it with a solid shake. "Kara. Kara Beau. You know that. . . thing?"

I nodded seriously, coming up with a backstory on the spot. "Been tracking him for a while. He. . . I have my own reasons to wantin' to bring him in," I told her. "Once he starts runnin' he doesn't come back for a while. Always was on his own before, never mentioned a pack. That's new. I don't like it."

She shrugged, the deer that had originally fled with her cloak trotting back into the park as cop cars raced by on the street in the distance, in the direction Herb had ran. Taking the green cloak off her projection, leaning against it as she wrapped it around herself. "I've heard people say there's supposed to be werewolves in the woods north of here. I thought it was just, you know, superstition. Maybe it isn't," she stated, brows knitting with concern.

 _Seriously? Dammnit Herb, this is gonna keep that rumor going forever._ "You shoot?" I asked, motioning to the empty quiver on her back.

She grimaced, "Not really. I can, but I don't like hurting people."

"Sometimes they don't be given' ya a choice," I observed. "Sometimes ya got ta get your hands dirty, to keep your soul clean. From what I saw, you did a good job here. He's a tough one, and without you I'd be hurtin' a lot more than I am right now." _She acquitted herself here, and has a descent head on her shoulders_ , I thought, watching her response.

She looked at me in surprise, her expression turning thoughtful. "I. . . I'm not sure I could." I looked back at the apex predators all around us, then back to her. "That's different. He was. . . He was. . ."

"A monster," I nodded, patting her on the shoulder. While she seemed like a good enough hero, she wasn't the type I was looking for in the Penumbral Defenders. "I hope ya never have to for someone that looks human. It's not a bad thing to know yourself. Hopefully we won't need ta meet again, given who I'm huntin'. Stay in Portland, it seems like a nice place to be."

Leaving her to it, I took off at a run in the direction the cops had, 'pursuing' the 'werewolf'.

Meeting Herb back in his room, he grinned broadly as I walked in. "That was fun!"

I nodded absently, "We should spar more. Wasn't able to get Comeback's power, and Kara's a hero, even if she's a bit naïve."

"You get the klepto's?" he inquired. At my look held wiggled his digits. "Sticky fingers."

I rolled my eyes, pulling on that power. Grabbing a napkin from the table, I ran my fingers over it, leaving behind a royal purple glow. Tossing it at him, he reflexively caught it, the paper sticking to his hand. He tried to pull it off, only managing to rip off the top part. The section I'd used my power stuck to his hands, glowing slightly, and he couldn't remove it.

Shifting to his dire werewolf form, the bed creaked, and he gave a low, "Ha!", his hands now free. The sensation of the field disappeared from my mind as well, and I looked at him questioningly. He shifted back, napkin still stuck to his hand, and scowled as I laughed.

Mentally dismissing the field, the bits of paper fell from his fingers. Trying again, I used the power on another napkin, and suppressed it. It disappeared, leaving the echo-y feeling. I tossed it to him, and the feeling disappeared as soon as it left my hand. _I need to be touching it?_ I wondered. Grabbing a third, I created another field, suppressed it, and brought it back. When I tried to suppress it again, it dismissed instead.

 _Damn, that limits this a bit._ Prepping a battlefield with suppressed Bonding fields only to stop suppressing them at will would've been _great_ C&C, but that would take a bit more work. "So there you go, Terro's power."

"Yeah. Sucks that it's your color thought," he commented.

I looked back down at the napkin, growing the exact same color as my copy of Miss Milita's, Brandish's, & Sundancer's powers. _"Shit,_ " I swore, nodding in agreement. "I'll throw it on the 'maybe' pile'."

I leaned back in the chair, looking at the ceiling. " _This town is too damn peaceful,_ " I groaned.

"Sorry Bro," Herb apologized.

I shook my head, "No, I chose the city. It's my fault. We _could_ go to Boston, but that's where Accord is, along with another PRT team, and god knows how many more minor heroes and villains. It's as big as Brockton Bay for crying out loud, and one that we have almost _zero_ info on."

"And that's a _whole_ pot we don't wanna stir," he added, being reasonable, for once.

"And New York City is like, _ten times_ as big. Flechette's there, but I'll see her during the Leviathan fight, and I wouldn't be surprised if us showing up is gonna trip _some_ kind of alarm," I sighed.

He nodded, "Yeah."

"So," I said, leaning back forward and using the momentum to pop up to my feet as I started to pace, "there was one person who I scouted whose power _doesn't_ suck, out in the mountains of Maine. He's a _retired_ Hero named Brix. From what I can tell, we might be able to recruit him, and if not I need his power for Dryad."

"He's named that cause that's what you're shitting when you fight him?" Herb joked.

I just shook my head, "Want to check out early? I don't need to sleep so I can just drive."

His form shifted back to his first attempt at a werewolf. "I can take a puppy nap!" he cheered.

I grabbed my backpack, never having had to unpack it, and the two of us, both human, headed to the front desk. The somewhat bored looking older man manning the desk frowned at us. "Do you need something?

"We need to leave early. I have a personal emergency back home. Yes, I know we'll be charged for the night, we just need to check out."

He looked between the two of us, then at our keys, and our room number, before he smiled knowingly at us. "Well I'm glad we could provide you with a bed."

"That you did," Herb nodded from beside me, leaning up against me.

I looked at the hotel receptionist, then at my partner who was smiling at me. "Motherfucker," I muttered to myself, walking for the door, nearly dragging my teammate out with me.

He allowed himself to be dragged, leaning backwards to wave at the receptionist with a call of, "Toodaloo!"


	113. Reconnoiter 10-8

**Reconnoiter 10.8**

I didn't quite understand how _big_ Maine was. Two and a half hours later, driving from highway to slightly smaller highway, I still had a good hour and a half left before we arrived at our next destination. In the wee hours of the morning, the roads were completely empty, and it'd been a _while_ since I'd seen any active sign of civilization. To conserve fuel I'd encompassed the car in a lift field and been flying it just over the road, bringing it back down to an inch off the ground the one time a car had been going in the opposite direction.

Herb was asleep in the passenger seat, so I jumped, the car lifting a good twenty feet off the ground, when I felt someone tap me on the shoulder. Looking back, I saw another Herb, this one looking panicked. Landing on the shoulder and turning on the emergency lights, Herb mumbled in his sleep but did nothing else as I turned around.

"Hello, what's your name?" I asked the clone politely, trying to avoid another Curtis situation.

"Mike. I'm Mike. My name is Mike," he said in a rush. "But don't tell anyone else!"

I blinked slowly, taking in, of all things, a nervous, _paranoid_ version of Herb. "Can I tell the others in the PD?"

The replicant froze, eyes darting back and forth, before nodding rapidly. "Yes. Them. But only them. No one else."

"Okay," I shrugged. "Anything I should know about you?"

He froze again, going completely still, before nodding rapidly once more. "Yes. Don't want to fight. Fighting's dangerous. But I want to help. How do I help?"

While it was a bit odd, I was glad to deal with a version of Herb I could carry a conversation with, even if he seemed pulled taught with sheer nervousness. "What's your favored animal form? Herb's are dinos, Boojack's are large herbivores, Cu-"

"Birds!" he blurted out. "Birds are fast. Gotta go fast."

"Are you sure that isn't hedgehogs?" I joked, only to get a blank stare in return. "Right," I coughed, feeling awkward. "So, you don't want to fight?"

"Yes."

I waited, but that was the entirety of his response. He looked increasingly nervous, so I nodded, "Okay, I can work with that. Do you mind doing Search and Rescue during the Leviathan fight? Not _fighting_ him, but just getting _other_ people to safety quickly."

He went utterly still once more, which I was quickly coming to assume meant he was thinking hard about something. "Can do that. Running is good. Helping others run is good too. Don't want to die."

"If you do, you'll just come back in a week or two," I pointed out kindly. "Others don't have that safety net."

A look of anger flashed across his face, gone so fast and so completely that if I wasn't looking directly at him I would've never known it'd happened. "Said I would. Will. Sorry," he said, his face shifting downcast for a moment before once again returning to his default anxiousness.

"Sorry Mike, I'm used to dealing with Herb, where you need to make sure. So, I'm assuming you want looks of your own. You want to step out of the car for a moment and stretch out while we look up some references."

"No!" he blurted out, panicked. "Sorry," he added as he calmed slightly. "Car is probably armored. Safe. Outside isn't. Don't have shields like you. Sorry."

I shrugged, "It's okay man, calm down. We can do that here. You have any preferences for what you want to look like?"

He started to answer immediately, only to close his mouth before he could say a word. This process repeated four times before he looked away from me completely, muttering, "I don't care. Whatever you want is fine. Maybe a skinny body? I don't like muscles, but it doesn't matter. Sorry. A thinner nose, if you could. You know what? Don't mind me. Stupid for bringing it up. Stupid for bugging you. It's ok. I'm ok. World's ok," he let it out in a long rush. Muttering to himself so quietly I needed my power to hear him, he added, "We're all gonna die anyway."

"Dude, it's okay," I told him, reaching over to put a comforting hand on his shoulder only for him to flinch away form me, shoving himself back against his seat. Retracting my hand, I continued, " _I_ asked _you_ , so don't feel bad about this _._ If you want to do this freeform, I can give that a shot. Not sure how many body-wide changes I can make safely, but it's not that big a deal."

Tweaking his body to his specifications, while having to repeatedly tell him that his having specifications in the first place was okay, resulted in someone who looked _vastly_ different than the original. Herb and I both had a decently broad build, definitely endomorphic. What Mike ended up with was distinctly ectomorphic: tall, lean, and with a certain bird-like appearance. He had his skin lightened even more than Herb, to the point that he barely looked African American at all and was just what someone might call just 'ethnic'. Similarly, his features, other than thinning and narrowing a bit, were made generally bland. Boojack and Curtis had both had definite styles they were going for. Mike? If he was going for something other than 'thin and nondescript', I couldn't see it.

"So, what are your plans until the fifteenth?" I asked as I was finishing up, my phone in my other hand as I tried to copy the structure of a hawk's eyes. It seemed to work as he blinked, looked around rapidly, and gave me a quick nod.

"Gonna scout. Keep on the move. Keep an eye out. Maybe find the Teeth? That'll help, right? I find them, call you?" he asked rapid fire.

I hadn't even considered heading them off, not knowing where to even start looking before they came to the Bay. "Sure," I shrugged. "If you can, awesome, if you can't, don't sweat it. We know where they're going to end up. Just be there for the Endbringer fight."

He nodded again, quickly flashing a thumbs up before rolling down the window. In the space of a second he was gone, transforming into something small, dark, and fast, flapping once and rocketing out the window with enough force to blow my hair back, the beat of his wings, a dozen feet away, hard enough to rock the car with the wind generated. The 'bird' seeming to teleport out as I could barely track it, arrowing away up and westward into the night.

 _The hell?_ I thought. Unless in the middle of a fight, Mike should've been limited by the biological constraints of what he turned into, just like Herb was. I wondered if that had been some weird bird, but no, what I'd just seen was _physically impossible_ for unpowered physiology to replicate. Shaking my head, I rolled up the window, looking over at my teammate who hadn't even woken up, turned the lights back on, and levitated the car back over the road once more.

* * *

Two hours later, I'd run into a problem. The address on file for Brix from Eclipse's database lead me to a P.O. box, in a place called Presque Isle. I'd ended up on U.S. Highway 1 of all things, which was almost unrecognizable _as_ a highway, considering it was two lanes, three at most, like ninety percent of surface roads. The town was a nice bit of condescend civilization after so long only passing the occasional dark house, 'driving' across mile after mile of sparse forest, dotted with large expanses of oddly empty ground.

Luckily, there was a 24-hour Dunkin Donuts nearby. While I didn't need the caffeine to stay awake, the tea so sweet I had to repeat my order three times helped calm my frustration. Looking him up online, it took an hour to track his _real_ location down, a news story from someplace called Ashland (Maine, as apparently there was one in Massachusetts as well, and wasn't _that_ confusing!) about him moving there giving me a destination, with a quote from him saying he was retiring and just wanted to be left alone.

 _Well, he'll either join us or I'll nab his power and leave him in peace,_ I thought, pulling out of the parking spot and waving to the cop who'd pulled up across the lot from us and had been watching us for the past ten minutes. The other car followed us until it was clear that we were leaving his town, making a u-turn and driving back the way he'd come. Part of me wanted to copy him and drive right back into town, because he was being kind of a passive-aggressive ass about it, but antagonizing the local constabulary was antithetical to the entire 'keep a low profile' thing I was trying to do. Well, at least as ourselves, and I didn't have time to do so as someone else.

The sky was starting to lighten, though dawn was still quite a while off, when I rolled into Ashland, having amusingly passed through a town _literally_ named Mapleton. In the distance I could finally see the mountains I'd associated with Maine, slowly realizing that pretty much everything I knew about the place was based off of bad stereotypes. Except for the number of trees. That was spot on.

The article had given me an address, but as I rolled up to its location on a dirt road, off a dirt road, off a third dirt road, I only found dense forest and was forced to confront the fact that either the GPS was wrong, or the address was. Busting out the paper map in the glovebox, I found that the map was at least a decade out of date, so that didn't really help me either. Driving back to Ashland, I actually found a real person up and about, even if it was just someone manning what I assumed was a general store.

Buying gas and a couple of sandwiches made the old guy behind the counter willing to answer my questions, though when I asked about Brix his mood fouled up again pretty quick. Telling him I was working for a hero group looking to recruit him netted me a full on scoff, but also directions to where he lived. The directions. . . well they sucked. It was all 'go down that road a bit' and 'if you see the tree that looks like a bird, you've gone too far'. Herb was still fast asleep when I got back into my car and headed off once again.

* * *

Almost forty-five minutes later I was about ready to kill something. On the bright side, he was right, that tree _had_ looked like a bird. On the not-so-bright side I _still hadn't found Brix's place._ I tried to pull off what passed for a road, more levitating the car slightly into the woods than pulling off since there wasn't a real shoulder to pull off _onto_. Herb was still asleep, so I let him rest as I turned off the car and stepped outside, locking it behind me.

Lifting high up in the air, I strained my eyes as I looked for this _god-damned house._ I finally spotted it in the distance, or at least a _really_ bright campfire, the trees lit from below by _something_. Looking around I spotted what was more a _suggestion_ of a path then an actual one, ending at what I assumed was where his driveway met the road. However, the driveway wasn't even a dirt road, it was a wide spot between _two fucking trees._ Tracing the path to where I was, I realized I'd probably make it there shortly after dawn, which was actually probably for the best now that I thought about it. Dropping back down to the car, A high-pitched noise emanated from inside, like an overfilled balloon slowly losing air. Leaning over to look inside, Herb had woken up and was looking in my direction, eyes wide with fright, scrabbling for his seatbelt.

Clicking the unlock button, the lights turned on inside the car, and he froze as he looked at me, and I just looked back at him, one eyebrow raised. Getting back into my car, he said, voice faint, "Oh, you're back. Thank you. Thank you so much."

"You're. . . welcome?" I replied. "We're not quite there yet, we should be there in like. . . twenty minutes?"

"Don't ever do that to me again!" he snapped, uncharacteristically angry.

I blinked, staring at him uncomprehendingly. "Do what?"

"Leave me in the dead of Maine! Alone! _What were you thinking!"_ he yelled.

. . . _what._ "You're a superpowered person who can become a werewolf, and that's barely scratching the surface," I pointed out. A moment later I was looking back at his first attempt at being a werewolf, thankfully not going dire were in the car that couldn't hold his larger form. He turned back a moment later.

"Oh. Yeah. Sorry," he apologized, contrite. "I forgot."

"Are," I hesitated, "are you scared of _forests_?"

"The dark, _dark_ forest?" he asked right back, as if that meant something.

I looked around, easily able to see everything around us, the pre-dawn light more than enough to let me see without my Power Sight doubling as darkvision. "The sun's almost, okay, the sun will rise in like half an hour. Forty-five minutes, _tops_."

"The dark, _dark_ _forest?"_ he repeated, as if I missed his point. I _did_ , but just repeating it wasn't going to help.

"We're going to talk to someone whose power is to grow and control trees," I reminded him. "Is this gonna be a problem?"

"That's fine, as long as he doesn't bury me in a dark, _dark forest_ ," he insisted.

I raised an eyebrow, "I think that's _literally_ his power."

"Yeah, I'm not gonna do good on this one, am I?" he whimpered.

"What is it even called when you're scared of forests?" I asked, waving around us. "Treephobia? Arboraphobia?

He frowned, shaking his head, "It's not the forest, exactly, it's the dark, _dark_ forest."

". . . what's the difference?" I questioned, still not getting it.

He shrugged, "Well, during the day I'm not so scared."

 _So, the darkness?_ I thought, wondering why he couldn't have just lead with that. With what we'd done not _ten hours ago_ , he was just being silly. "Dude, you can do partial transformation," I told him. He just looked at me, not getting it. _"Give yourself wolf eyes!"_

His pupils immediately shifted, irises turning amber as his whites turned dark like spreading ink. "You know," he informed me, "some days. Some days _suck_."

I rolled my own eyes, not bothering to try to decode that statement, levitating the car back onto what might be called a road, if one was feeling charitable. "Just remember you can be dazzled more easily with those," I advised, but if he heard me he didn't say anything, too busy looking all around us as I 'drove'. We ate our breakfast as I levitated the car just above dirt paths the vehicle likely couldn't have handled, the ground impassibly muddy, snowy, or _both_. At least Herb enjoyed my complaining about the state of the roads.

It was indeed after dawn when I found the turn off that would lead to Brix's house. I could've _sworn_ I'd been _exactly here_ before, and it'd been solid trees, not the obvious corridor that turned off into the forest, but after a certain point all these backroads started to blend together. Landing the car to actually _drive_ the last bit, I still had to use a lift field to move the car, the tires spinning uselessly otherwise.

I growled and Herb laughed as we turned the corner only to find a cleared, _paved_ road twisting deeper into the forest, trees arching overhead, hiding it completely. Driving without having to cheat anymore it was another few minutes before I turned the last time, his driveway squigglier than an indecisive snake, and saw Brix's house.

It was astonishingly modern, looking quite a bit out of place surrounded by impenetrable forest. The mini-road ended in a large paved area, a single beat-up looking pickup parked in front of the house. Leaning against it was an older man in flannel, arms crossed, watching us as I pulled up. He had a thick beard, black with bits of grey, and looked the very definition of a lumberjack as he peered at us with suspicious eyes.

Seeing at him as I parked he blazed with the Bark Brown & Birch White of Tree Growth & Control. Herb had already gotten out as I did the same, studying his power as it spread out in every direction, like a spider's web, connecting to every single tree around us, to the house, to underneath the road. We were positioned in the center of his power, which might be part of the reason he was standing there, calmly, waiting for us.

Now that I was actually here, I wasn't exactly sure how to start this conversation. Herb broke the ice for me, giving the older Parahuman and grin and a wave, greeting him with a "Howdy!"

Brix, and it couldn't've been anyone else, nodded slowly, "Mornin' boys. What be bringing the two of you to my doorstep at this time of the hour?"

Extending my shades to my standard domino mask, I disconnected the pieces and 'pocketed' my shades to appear that I'd been wearing the mask the entire time. "I'm Vejovis, and this is Break. We're from the Penumbral Defenders, a new hero group in Brockton Bay. Are you Brix?"

He gave me a long look, seeming to be looking for something. I took the moment to get a better handle on what his power was. He could grow trees in any way he wanted, from seeds or from existing trees, and anything he grew he could both sense and control. _The entrance,_ I realized. It had looked like impenetrable forest because it _was_ impenetrable forest until he'd been ready for visitors and moved the trees blocking his driveway. His expression didn't reveal what he was thinking as he drawled, "Mayin' that I might bein' this fella, Mayin' that I won't bein' this fella. What is your business with this here 'Brix'?

His power being what it was, he could've ruined most people's day, which explained his easy confidence. Us though, he'd barely slow down. Ignoring that fact that we could fly, and his trees couldn't, Herb could shrink to the point of being invisible and I didn't care how tough his trees were, they'd still burn if I shoved a sun into them. As such I was completely comfortable being upfront and honest, ready in case things went badly. "We're recruiting for our hero group, and you both have a good track record, and you have powers that could be used for more than just combat. We've a precog contact, and things are going to get worse in the Bay before they get better, so having someone both experienced and able to help others is what we're looking for. We're reaching out to a lot of people with constructive powers, and we'd like your help." Herb nodded enthusiastically but didn't say anything else. While I would've liked his assistance, he also wasn't undercutting me, accidentally or otherwise, either.

Brix looked at me, at my teammate, and didn't say anything. I waited for his response, and Herb followed my lead. After a long moment he calmly pointed out, "I'm retired. Have been for a while. Whole buncha people fightin' for nothing that really matters, no matter what they be claimin'."

I shrugged, taking that as a 'I don't want to fight, what do you have to say to that' statement. The fact that he was obviously a Natural Trigger made me doubt that, but I'd deal with him as he was. "Then don't fight. While we could always use the backup, support staff are still necessary. If our Tinker decides he never wants to throw down, I'd be okay with that, right?" I asked Herb.

He nodded, "Kid's getting' good at hand to hand, but if it's just to keep him safe, it'll be worth training him."

There was another long pause before he finally nodded once, slowly. "I'm not be sayin' yes, but if you be wantin' to make your pitch, I could be usin' some hands to help around here."

Knowing what his power was, I knew that was absolutely _bullshit_ , but it wasn't a no, so I'd take it. Looking to Herb, he shrugged, so I turned to Brix and nodded. "Sure, what do you need us to do?"

* * *

What he needed us to do was put spigots into trees to collect the sap to turn into maple syrup. It was so incredibly, stereotypically _Maine_ , that I almost asked if he was serious, but I didn't want him to think I was baulking at his request, so I just went along with it. Herb just grinned, finding this hilarious, though he at least didn't do more than chuckle. After a quick instruction on how to do it correctly he led us deep into the forest, which was if anything _thicker_ with his power. The two of us carried a large stack of buckets, a bag of spigots, and an old-timey, hand-cranked drill each.

It was a balmy fortyish degrees outside, and we trudged through the snow, carefully putting the taps in. I could See him tweak the trees with his power, the sap starting to drip as soon as the spigot was secured. While not needed, I did appreciate the gesture, giving us an immediate payoff to our actions. We worked for almost an hour, both of us in our t-shirts, sneakers, and jeans, before Brix, in heavy flannel, winter pants, and boots finally asked, "Aren't you boys cold?"

My Immunity power kept me comfortable and glancing over I could See Herb borrowing my power to keep from freezing as well. I shrugged, commenting, "The cold never bothered me anyway." Herb laughed, almost dropping his spigot. "So," I continued, hoping that since Brix had broken the silence we'd fallen into, it meant it was okay to talk. "Why _did_ you retire? As far as I could find, you never said."

"Been readin' up on me, haven't ya?" the older parahuman asked dryly.

"Yes?" I replied. "I was planning on trying to recruit you. What kind of person doesn't look up the people they're trying to recruit?"

"The PRT," Herb called, getting a chuckle from Brix, the first bit of mirth either of us had seen from the man.

"What kind of _smart_ person doesn't look up the people they're trying to recruit," I amended, the Mainer pretending he hadn't laughed as he nodded seriously.

"You'd be surprised," he informed me. "I never did say why I stopped." He lapsed into silence again, and I could almost feel him waiting for me to say something. With the oddest feeling like this was a test, I held my tongue. If he wanted to tell us, he would. If he didn't then he wouldn't. My goal here was to either recruit him or copy his power. While I wouldn't copy a Hero's power for moral reasons, _retired_ heroes where an entirely different ballgame. Getting his reasons for retiring wasn't needed for that.

I tapped into the local insect life and watched him watch me, before he nodded to himself, stating, "Like I said, it was a whole buncha people fightin' for nuthin'. Saw no worth in it. Just idiots dressin' up and fightin' for things they don't need. Capes been around for a while, but how much of 'em get married, settle down, and raise a family like _proper_ Americans?"

I paused mid drill, thinking about it. "Huh," I remarked, "you're right. There's New Wave, but they're not exactly a good example, given how Brandish treats Panacea. Hadn't really thought about it, more worried about trying to save people from others trying to kill them."

"You and every other feller in spandex, runnin' around like you've got something to prove. Know how many heroes settle down?" He asked. I shook my head. "Neither do I, but I'd be bettin' ya it be less than one in ten," Brix told me. "You got anyone back home?"

Herb laughed again, calling over, "It's really bugging him!"

Resisting the urge to throw a metal spigot at my teammate's head, I ground out, "No. Things are kind of tense right now, with the bombing, and the Nazis, and everything else. Maybe when things calm down in a year or two, more likely two, but I'm kinda busy. "Besides," I shrugged, considering it, "I'd need to be with someone I was equal to, which for better or for worse means a fellow cape, which limits the pool substantially." Herb made a sound of agreement as he tried to hand the bucket so that it'd hang off the spigot, even once it was full of sap.

Brix smiled in my direction, expression firming back to his neutral mask as I looked back at him. He motioned back to the tree I was working on and I sighed, getting back to it. "Do you have any kids, if you don't me asking," I inquired, setting a bucket underneath my own tap. As he reached out with his power to make the sap flow through the tree, I let my own power reach out and grab a copy for myself. If he joined, I wouldn't use it, but if we had to leave, short of a fight (which I didn't want), I wasn't sure if I could get him to use his power in front of me.

He shrugged. "Maybe I do, maybe I don't," was all he said, and the conversation petered off after that.

* * *

It was nearly noon when we finally finished, and other than being a bit hungry, I was perfectly fine. The work was repetitive, not strenuous, and, like before, I got the feeling that this was some sort of test, so I went along with it. After putting in all the taps, which required us to go back and get two more sacks of them apiece, we had to make the rounds collecting the sap as it flowed.

If I hadn't known that powers were at play before, I would've known from the trips that we had to make, gathering gallon after gallon of clear sap, the buckets _always_ almost full when we got to them. He had us continue to collect and stack up the filled jugs next to a small shack that'd been hidden when we first arrived, the snow disturbed all around it by the trees that had uprooted themselves and moved away when we were out of sight, but not out of sight of the insects I controlled.

Giving into temptation we both tried the sap, which turned out to just taste like water with just a hint of maple and sugar instead of syrup, but otherwise it was just a whole lot of walking and carrying. Setting us to watch the sap as it cooked off in a still built into the shed, Brix went inside his house and told us he'd bring us out some lunch "in a few."

"Well, I think this is going well," I commented after he left.

"You really think he's going to join?" my teammate asked dubiously.

I brought my copy Brix's power to the forefront, not using it but making it obvious if Herb was borrowing my Power sight. I motioned to my eyes and he nodded, eyes darting over me and nodding to himself. "If he doesn't, then I'm sure that Case 53 we talked about might be amenable. He's got more experience, so I'd prefer him, but if he says no then we'll just have to accept it."

He laughed, nodding. "Gotchya."

"Wait, you hear that?" I asked him, the sound of a car driving towards us faint but slowly growing. Herb shook his head, before his ears rippled momentarily, briefly becoming furred and pointed before he nodded, ears returning to normal. Moments later a blue SUV turned the corner, slowing down as the person driving likely spotted us. It pulled up next to Brix's truck, the passenger's side facing us, and the driver got out.

Walking around the car was a teenage girl, who looked at us incredulously. Having _no_ idea what was going on I followed Herb's lead and waved to her in greeting. She had black hair tied back in a brad, was middling in height, her build was somewhat stocky, and she just stared at us incredulously, finally declaring, "I'm going to kill my dad."


	114. Reconnoiter 10-9

**Reconnoiter 10.9**

The girl didn't say anything else to us, turning on her heel and striding to Brix's front door, opening it with a call of "Dad, you said you'd stop!" I shared a bemused glance with Herb at this. She was definitely Brix's daughter. Not only did she share several facial features with the man in question, but her power was _very_ similar.

A moment later she came back out, dragging a bemused Brix, beer in his hand. The Violet & Rose Red Flames of Dicot Growth & Command wrapped around the teenager in tendrils, reaching out and around her to connect to plants all around her, but not the grass peaking out from underneath the snow at the edges of the driveway. I vaguely remembered what a dicot was from biology class several years ago, classifying a plant by having two parts in the seed, along with other things which I couldn't recall. Her power was interesting as, unlike her father who puppeted trees he grew himself, she connected to all around her and could command it as if it was sentient, though limited by biology. _Oh god, I can see the Disney Princess jokes from here._

Glancing over at Herb, I saw him grinning and gave him a stern look. His return look said, 'c'mon man! It's right there!'. I glared at him, giving a small shake of my head. He just rolled his eyes, and we both looked back at Brix, who himself was looking between us with a smile mostly hidden under his beard.

"You said you'd stop doing this after last time," the girl said, folding her arms in annoyance.

Brix took a long pull from his drink, pointing out, "Those were villains. These two boys bein' heroes, or so they say, are bein' a different thin' altogether."

"Hey, I'm a villain!" Herb protested.

I sighed as Brix looked at me with a raised eyebrow. "He's really not. He watched the A-Team as a kid, and took to the entire 'villain helping the little man, regardless of what those in power want' message."

"But _you're_ a hero?" the still unnamed girl asked, expression guarded.

I nodded and Brix said, "See, honey? This bein' a completely different situation from what I be sayin' I wouldn't be doin."

She waved at the shed behind us. "And you _didn't_ make them go mapling?"

He shrugged, "They did a good enough job."

"Dad, you know-really?" she asked, surprise derailing her thoughts, glancing over at us. Herb just smiled and gave her another friendly wave.

"'sides, I said I'd let 'em stay for a day or two to try to convince me to join their group. It'd be mighty disrespectful to turn them away now," Brix reasoned.

She frowned, sigh, and pointed to me. "You're a hero, right?" I nodded. "Fine. I'm going to go change and you'll help me collect more sap. Dad'll show your friend how to work the filter." She headed back into the house without another word.

"So, Daughter?" Herb asked for a moment.

Brix nodded, "Hedera's more like her mother every year." He glanced over to me, "I don't need to say anythin', do I?"

"In the woods you completely control?" I shot back, getting a nod from him. "I'm heroic, not idiotic."

* * *

Half an hour later, Brix's daughter, Hedera, was out and leading me back into the woods. While we were waiting Brix showed us the device which used reverse osmosis to filter out a large portion of the water, cutting down on the time needed to cook the sap by _quite_ a bit. I grabbed snacks from the car for Herb and myself, sharing them with Brix who was mildly amused at my preparedness.

Before we left I had grabbed several large jugs, getting a raised eyebrow from her until I said, "Brute," which caused her to hand me a few more. Once we were well and out into the woods, she used her own power to affect the trees around us, causing the sap to flow once more. Given her non-combatant status, I had no qualms grabbing her power as well, making sure to keep it from activating immediately. After gathering sap for a bit, she finally stated, "He's not going to say yes, you know."

I just shrugged, "I assumed so, but it didn't hurt to try. Besides, I'm making maple syrup in Maine, which is kinda cool, even if it is out of season." Her power faltered and gathered in the trees around us, ready to grow them out, likely to try to entrap me. "Nice of your dad to use his power to make it happen, and his range is something else," I continued calmly. Her power dissipated, the flow of sap picking back up again.

"Uh, yeah," she agreed, looking away guiltily. I considered pointing out that it wasn't like she could actually _stop_ me, but that would likely do more harm than good. "But if you know he's not going to say yes, why are you still here?" I looked at her questioningly. "Not that I want you to leave," she added hastily. "But, why?"

I sighed, moving to another tree and pouring the gathered sap into one of my larger jugs. "I needed a vacation, and Brockton Bay's been. . . a bit much," I admitted. "Herb and I had a bit of a falling out, and I've been trying to figure out how to make that work as well, though that's been. . . difficult."

"Herb?" she asked, confused. "You mean Break?"

I froze, not realizing that I'd used his wrong name. I sighed, shaking my head, "Yeah, his name's Herb. Mine's Lee. Neither of us have much of a life outside of hero-ing, so it's not that big a deal."

"But, your family," she started to ask, trailing off.

"My brother has a different last name," I explained, the chances of him using the same fake last name for his identity hear astronomical, "and my parents," and now it was my turn to trail off. My dad. . . didn't really seem like my dad anymore. The time I'd met him there were flashes of him in the body he now inhabited, but there were also flashes of someone else entirely. My mom was back home, and I wondered what happened to her, suddenly finding herself alone. It was something that I hadn't really thought about, though saying it was something I hadn't really _wanted_ to think about would be more accurate.

"My mom's gone too," she admitted, seeing something in my face that prompted her.

"You don't need to-" I started to say, but she shook her head and kept going.

"I only kind of remember her," the teen continued, as if I hadn't said anything. "I only kind of remember her. She left when I was young. Dad won't say why. She moved to New York, and died in a cape fight. She wasn't even involved, just in the wrong place, at the wrong time. I think that's why dad retired." She looked over at me, "That's why he's not going to help you."

"That. . . sucks," I said lamely, unsure what to do. "Did they catch who did it?"

She nodded, "Ayuh. Broke out of prison a month later. Died fighting someone else. Another villain. Bitch."

I had a moment where I wondered if it was Rachel, but no, she was just calling the person a bitch. I wasn't sure if she was referring to the cape who killed her mom, or the cape who killed the cape who killed her mom.

"You're a hero," she said, more to herself than to me, "you ever kill anyone? I know Break, Herb has. I've seen the video."

"Civilians? No," I stated. "Murderous gang bangers? _Yes_ , though for obvious legal reasons I'll deny it if officially asked. If you've been following what happened in Brockton Bay, you know what happened there."

She almost negligently used her power to make the sap flow, overdoing it a little and making it flow like a hose. It tapered off after a moment when she realized what she was doing, and she shot me a sheepish look. "I think your dad wants us to come back," I remarked dryly.

"He can wait," she dismissed. "Why?"

"Why what?" I asked in return.

"Why did you do it? Why didn't you take them down like a real hero?" she clarified, likely not meaning the insult she conveyed.

"The longer I took, the more bombs went off, the more innocents died," I said. I knew I likely could've stopped it on the first day, but to do so would've required me to do the entire thing myself, and there would've been no way to do so without slaughtering the ABB en masse until I found Bakuda's lab, which would've in turn brought down more attention I could handle, which would've meant I would've had to reveal my hand, which would've brought even more attention, which would pit me against the entirety of the PRT, and likely most of the parahuman population of the world. I could fight them, or I could gain strength and fight Scion. Not both.

"And Herb?" she asked.

I just shrugged, "You'll have to ask him. He's less utilitarian, so it was more likely they tried to kill him and his, so he stopped them and returned the favor."

She didn't have a response to that.

* * *

Returning back with several more jugs of sap, Brix looked up at his daughter, concern hidden but evident in his eyes. She gave a small shake of her head, and he relaxed a little. His power, which has started to flow out when we approached, slackened off to what appeared to be its resting state. Herb groaned at the additional material he needed to process, but grinned as he did so, moving them to the other barrels he had hooked up to a large, complex looking machine.

"This'll be workin' for a while, ya just needin' to be makin' sure ya don't run it dry," Brix said, standing up and walking back towards his house. "I'll be showin' ya where ya both'll be sleepin'."

As we followed him Herb shot me a look. At my incomprehension he whispered, "Things goin' well?"

"Um, Yes?" I whispered back, having no idea what he was referring to.

"Should Taylor be worried?" he teased. Reading my confusion, he sighed, "I guess she shouldn't. Don't worry, I got this."

 _Oh god. He has a plan._ I thought. _And there's no way for me to find out what it is. **Shit**._ Brix led us inside the spacious, two-story house, showing us the room we'd be sharing. I dropped my overnight bag inside, and the Mainer appeared unimpressed at Herb's lack of luggage. "A bank card is all you'll need, huh?" I asked my teammate, giving him a hard time.

Shooting me an annoyed look, Herb turned to Hedera. "Where's the nearest mall?"

"Uh, Presque?" she said, not sure why he was asking.

"And where's that?" he asked.

"Forty-five minutes that way," she replied, waving in a westerly fashion.

He nodded, opening a window in the room. Disappearing with a faint crack of collapsing air, a pterodactyl appeared outside, gave a few flaps, and flew up into the sky. Brix and his daughter stood for a moment, stunned. Having Seen his power, I knew he hadn't teleported, but turned into something _very_ small which passed through the screen at high speed before shifting to his dinosaur form and leaving me behind.

"He'll be back in an hour, tops," I announced. _Hopefully_ , I added internally.

Brix turned to look at me, incredulous. "Are you tellin' me that he be usin' his power to go shopping?"

I shrugged, "Says the guy who uses his power to make Maple Syrup."

He looked at me for a long moment before nodding. "Fair enough," he admitted. "You want to be waitin' for him to come back?"

I shrugged again, "Sure. Anything else you want me to do while I'm here?" I tapped my bug control. "Get the ants out of your basement?"

He just stared at me before shaking his head, heading back downstairs. "Ayuh. Might as well."

Joining him downstairs, he'd poured out a drink for himself, and offered one for me. Taking him up on it, Hedera rolled her eyes and put a kettle on, muttering "men" underneath her breath. Sitting down, I took a sip, and it tasted like maple whiskey. Looking over at Brix, I could see him hiding a smile underneath his beard. "It's good," I complimented what I was ninety percent sure was his own home-made alcohol.

"So, I was wondering," I asked after a long few moments. "When I asked about you in town, they didn't seem happy to see me."

"Hmph. Buncha cheap bastards," Brix grunted. "They got themselves a bit of a villain problem, and they want old Brix to help them."

"You could," Hedera called from the kitchen.

"And they could pay me," he called right back with the air of having had this argument many times before. "Those revenuers kife my hard-earned profits, they can either be payin' me like I'm supposed to be payin' them, or they can be gettin' one of those goverm'nt capes to do it," he stated, settling back into his chair as if he'd just won an argument.

"What kind of villains are we talking about?" I asked. "Because they run the gamut from Break, who calls himself a villain but is really a hero with odd ideas, to the late Hookwolf, who had a hefty body count, to anyone on the Slaughterhouse nine."

"Don't rightly care," he replied. "They be knowin' better than to mess with me and mine."

"People have gone missing," Hedera said, coming in and taking a seat. _So. Murder, at the very least,_ I mused. _More than enough reason to pay them a visit._ "People are scared," she continued, shooting her father a significant look, to which he just laughed.

"Not scared enough to pay," was his rebuttal, and in a very cold sense I had to admit he had a point. Then again, I wouldn't be taking my payment in money, but powers.

"Do you know where they are?" I asked Hedera.

She ignored her father's derisive snort and shook her head. "They're in the mountains," she said, "to the south. They've hit Patten too."

"You should let the Protectorate _protect_ them," her father argued.

It was my turn to snort derisively. At his look I had to say, "You really expect the Protectorate to help? If I waited for them to work in Brockton Bay, where the have a _main office_ , the bombs would _still_ be going off and people would _still_ be dying."

He opened his mouth to counter what I said, but paused as it sunk in, nodding. "Can't be rightly arguin' that. They _are_ a bunch of numb, lazy parasites. Why you be doin' their job for them?"

"Maybe I will, maybe I won't," I hedged. "Best to keep my options open. Hedera, do you know their numbers, powers, anything like that?"

She frowned, thinking hard. "There's at least two of them. One's a blaster with Ice powers, and another is a striker who uses poison. I don't know anything else. Sorry."

"More intel then if I went in blind," I reassured her. "PHO?" she nodded and Brix muttered about kids and their computers under his breath. "So," I said after a long moment and after taking anoth sip of maple whiskey. "How does the entire maple syrup thing work when you're _not_ using powers to cheat?"

* * *

Herb returned nearly an hour later, carrying a couple of shopping bags. He stopped, looking at us with a smile as Brix talked about the world of black market maple syrup and "barrel rollers." A knowledge which he stated was entirely hypothetical with a "now I not be sayin' that I ever be doin' this, but you hear things if you stop 'n' listen." Smiling, he joined us as Brix finished up.

He looked between the two of us, got up, and poured himself another whiskey, offering both of us some more, which we accepted. Herb laughed after taking a sip, quickly apologizing and taking another. "Alright. So you flatlanders be wantin' me to join your team. Why should I?"

"For pay, to help people, to fight evil, take your pick," I replied easily. If what Hedera had said was true, then this was a lost cause, but at least it'd be good practice for others. "Things are getting worse and worse, and while those with power can carve out their place in the world, or at least try to defend themselves, others don't have the power be it political, financial, _or_ parahuman, to do so. Now, on a personal level I don't care about those who don't at least try to help themselves, but no amount of initiative, ingenuity, or integrity will save you from Heartbreaker, Crawler, or the _Simurgh_."

"Add in governmental corruption, which is unfortunately _redundant_ , and diffusion of responsibility and you have people _punished_ for trying to help others because they aren't slaving themselves to a non-functional system. The Penumbral Defenders say ' _screw that_ '," I stated with authority, swinging my free hand out in emphasis. "A mad bomber is destroying the city piece by piece and the PRT is sitting on their hands? We'll work with villains if that's what it takes to fight a _greater_ evil. If, in the process, we flip a few black hats that were on the other side through no fault of their own? _Even better._ "

"The Protectorate comes down hard on troubled teens, but lets raping, murdering, pieces of _filth_ like Lung off time and time again. If a _normal_ person did _half_ the things he did, the cops would go after him _hard._ However, because he was strong, the PRT allowed him to," I paused, memories of the second raid bubbling to the surface. "He was kidnapping kids, having his men rape them, and sell them into sexual slavery," I said quietly, my voice still carrying throughout the space.

Hedera gasped and Brix's face was stone. Looking over, Herb looked equally shocked and angry, which surprised me. _Didn't he know?_ "Hedera, you're on PHO. Did you see the video people took of the kids I brought to the hospital?" I asked.

She shook her head, eyes wide "I heard about it, but it was removed and anyone who tried to post it was banned." She said. "No one knew what happened."

"They had a _fuckin'_ **_breakin' station?_** " growled Herb almost animalistically. I'd never heard the phrase before, but the meaning was clear enough, and I nodded. "I shoulda hurt him more."

"This was going on for _god_ knows how long," I told the two sitting opposite of me. "It was _well known_ by the locals, just as the Merchants dealt drugs to everyone, including kids, and that the E88 were white supremacists, that the ABB's distinguish crime was _sex slavery_ , but no one wanted to think what that _really meant,"_ I stated coldly. "They had territory that could be targeted, their members were known, hell, their leader was such a hubristic asshat he _regularly_ got into fights with other _teams._ All it would've taken was calling in some help from another department or two for a few days, a week at _most_ , and they could've been stopped. _That_ is part of what we want to do, to fight the _real_ monsters. Not the showboating jerks like Über and L33t. Not small time heist groups like the Undersiders. Our foes are those that make the world worse by their very presence, and who've been given free reign to do as they wished because they were _strong_."

"The thing about the entire struggle of Good versus Evil?" I asked rhetorically. "Evil is usually individually stronger. The Darwinian, 'survival of the fittest' world Evil lives in leads to that kind of isolated power. But Good? Good is supposed to win because they work _together._ Laugh about the 'power of friendship' BS that gets thrown around, but at its core it's not _wrong._ However, those who are held up as the epitome of righteousness, those who are supported as working on the side of angels? At least in Brockton Bay, they're just as bad, if not _worse_ then the villains. Not because they commit atrocities, but because they're a _trap_ , a comforting _lie_ that lures in people that _want_ to help, binds them in regulation, isolates them, and keeps them from doing _anything._ "

"And supposin' I don't want to fight?" Brix proposed, watching me carefully.

"Then you don't have to!" I replied immediately, "The way things are going, it's going to get _worse_ before it gets better, and the people are going to need help that government will either be too slow to provide, assuming the help doesn't get siphoned away in a thousand little ways into a thousand little pockets, each corrupt official telling themselves that _they're_ only taking a _little_ , or that _they_ know how this can _really_ help people, supporting those they like and leaving those they don't, which nine times out of ten are the poor working class, to suffer."

I looked him in the eye, "I'm not asking you to work for free, or for the 'good of the cause' or some utopian nonsense, but with your power you could help rebuild after a disaster, at least provide a bit of shelter for those in need." I motioned to the perfectly fitting hardwood floor under our feet, the surface not made of individual boards but a continuous piece of timber, "Unless you want me to believe you found a rectangular tree to cut up to make this place."

I sighed, feeling oddly drained, "People focus on the fight, and the fight _is_ important. You can't help people if you're _dead_. But just as important is the _recovery_ afterwards. We've got a secure base of operations to weather whatever storm comes our way, and a secondary fallback point if necessary, but being safe ourselves means a lot less if we can't help innocents after the combat ends, the rubble settles, and a new day dawns. There's always another fight, and will be until the Endbringers are ended themselves, but without people helping in the background it's _incredibly_ easy to win the most of the fights but lose the war."

At my pronouncement, there was silence. Herb stared at his feet, face stony in anger, but not directed at any of us. Hedera was glancing between Herb and I, occasionally glancing to her father. Her father, however, looked thoughtful. "You've given me somethin' to chew on," he announced, slowly standing up. "And somethin' that's gonna take a bit. I'm gonna go get started on suppah. I'm not sayin' yuh, mind ya, but I'm not sayin' nah either."

* * *

After a quiet dinner Hedera asked me if I'd be willing to talk more about what had happened that had ended up dropping the kids off at the hospital. With some slight tweaks, like saying that the gun I'd created with Miss Milita's power was a Tinker firearm I'd gotten from Arachne, I took her through the entire thing, step by step. It wasn't pretty, but recounting it was cathartic after a fashion. After it'd happened I'd not thought about it, too busy trying to keep going forward, but going over it again helped, oddly enough. Herb listened in silence, along with Brix, though the latter's interest spiked when I described Lucas' Trigger event. I remembered halfway through that Shards tried to scrub that knowledge from parahumans' memories, but, likely because I never mentioned The Warrior, that didn't happen to the father and daughter listening to me.

We all went to bed shortly afterwards, the sun having barely set ,but a few hours of meditation later I was awake and at the ready. Cloaked in a Sound Bubble, I sneaked out the window, setting the screen back in place behind me, and moved to my car. Opening up the trunk, I lifted the fake cover up from the bottom and extracted the PSAT from the storage that would normally carry an extra tire. Silently closing the trunk, I rose up into the sky and headed almost directly west towards my target.

This far out everything was almost completely black, the moon a thin crescent rising in the sky, lights few and far between as I flew, hiding in Shadowform, across the border into Canada. The lights started to grow in number and intensity, and I found Quebec city, glowing like a veritable jewel in the night compared to the inky blackness of rural Maine. Dropping down enough to get service on my phone, I re-oriented myself and moved on, flying for at least another hour.

One more check and one more course correction later, I found what I was looking for. It was decently well hidden, looking like an upscale campground in the middle of the Canadian wilderness. Id I'd been moving faster, higher, or not knowing what I was looking for, I could've easily missed it. Flying high, high above, thankful for the lack of clouds, I brought the PSAT up and viewed through the scope. The weapon automatically zoomed in on the ground over two miles below.

The air was thin, but a bit of Aerokinesis solved that problem, and the frigid air didn't bother me in the slightest. I was actually thankful for the feeling of the cold, feeling brisk but not uncomfortable, as I felt sick to my stomach below me.

I'd call it an orgy, but that would suggest that more than one person was having fun, that there were people paring up in blind hedonism instead of over a dozen woman fawning over one scrawny, naked man as he casually thrusted, seemingly bored by it. Moving the scope minutely helped me scan the surrounding area, more women in the area, along with quite a few kids and several men handling the heavier labor, though they were heavily outnumbered by the women.

Taking my eye off the scope I tried to See him, but at this distance I couldn't even make out his power. Even opening up the eyes of my mask, the night suddenly painted in rich, velvety tones, didn't let me See his power. Re-covering my eyes, the blackness below me becoming the same visible darkness the night now became for me, I sighed. It was likely for the best. Heartbreaker's power was _evil_ , the complete destruction of the minds of others. I'd happily torture someone to death before I'd do _that_ to them, destroying who they were and replacing them with a poor, twisted facsimile of who they used to be.

Victor's power had a use, and I still felt a slight pull to use it again. The more I _knew_ the fewer mistakes I'd _make_ and the more people I could _save_ but it was still _wrong._ With Heartbreaker's power it would be so deliciously _easy_ to take over the world. Sneak into Congress, make everyone my friend and make them _do their damn jobs_ , and pull America out of the spiral it was in. I could even seen the rationalization, as they'd all sworn an oath of office and were violating it daily. I'd just enforce the pledge they'd willingly taken, along with the privileges that had come with the obligation. It wouldn't be my fault that they made promises with no intention of following through on them, after all.

Other countries would fall in line even easier, and I could focus on _killing Scion._ Power controlled locations would be difficult, but I could sneak into Cauldron easy enough and unlike Weld's ragtag army I wouldn't try to doom the world with my tantrum, I'd _save it._ I could do all of that, and all I'd have to sacrifice was my morals, and the minds of everyone that opposed me. Even if I had the power I _wouldn't_ do so, or at least that's what I told myself, but the temptation was so _strong_ to make people stop being so stupid and _be truthful_ was _scarily_ powerful.

No, while I was of the definite belief that it was good to have aces up one's sleeve _just in case_ I needed them, to go down this path I might as well have Panacea break Taylor's power, copy _that_ , and use Doormaker & Clairvoyant to replicate Canon, only without the twenty-two millimeter lobotomy at the end. If I had to mind control humanity to save it, then it didn't deserve to be saved. I _wouldn't_ need to, and if it turned out that I did. . . Then fuck it, and fuck them. I'd gather the powers and pull a Noah, rebuilding humanity on Mars if the rot ran straight through to the core.

Taking a deep breathe I pushed those thoughts away. However this all turned out, what I was doing _now_ was the _right thing_. Re-sighting in on Heartbreaker he'd moved to a different sex puppet, the woman's expression rapturous as it turned my stomach. I considered waiting for him to step away from them, but these women were effectively dead. They were broken things that would never recover from a violation far deeper than even what Lung had been doing to those _children_.

Turning the PSAT on, it hummed, starting to glow. The Aerokinesis that kept me supplied with air jumped in difficulty to maintain, but was still easily doable as the only other things vying for my attention being keeping my aim stable and keeping myself stationary in the air. The oily feely grew, and grew, and grew, extending outwards in every direction.

It took nearly ten minutes before the ready light turned on, the charged air extending hundreds of feet in every direction, if not farther. Flicking the camera Theo had affixed to the scope on I made sure to take a deep breath and let go of the air, which expanded out around me as I held my breath, just in case that would change the weapon's effects. After one last time sighting in on my target, I breathed out and pulled the trigger.

Just like when Theo had fired it, time seemed to slow. Careful to keep my aim steady, I opened my the eye not staring down the scope to look around me as best I could. The energy, unseen, swirled in towards me in fractal patterns. What had before been a pattern a dozen feet across, and almost two dimensional, became a latticework a hundred feet across and perfectly spherical as the accumulated energy, enough to kill me in an instant, silently screamed towards me.

Trusting in Theo's design, I held still, the energy swirling up and around me, never quite touching as it started to light up the plates running down the length of the barrel. What had glowed like a bonfire before no shone like a series of rectangular suns, casting light in every direction, even illuminating the compound far, far below.

Heartbreaker, facing down, started to turn, twisting at a slug's pace, as his death continued to slowly unfold. Gathering in front of the tip the energy became lightning, not one bolt, but _dozens_ , all flowing downwards towards the Master in interweaving patterns so bright that I knew, if my eyes had not been supernaturally able to handle what I saw, it would leave me blinded.

The bolts, interweaving, dancing around each other, seeming to race each other down their unfolding path, taking what felt like a full minute to reach their target, but by how much those far below had moved, couldn't've been more than a few seconds. By the time that Heartbreaker had turned to face me the bolts were a scant hundred feet from the ground. Even if he could've seen me to try to use his power on me, the luminescence of the bolts would've rendered his power useless, unable to see _anything_ but the oncoming bolts.

They struck him, the ground below him, those around him, and everything within twenty feet. From there the energy blasted into the ground, rebounding outwards, striking every exposed inch of the compound. His death was instantaneous, flesh instantly blackening as it was blown apart by the sheer force of the energy his body was forced to try to conduct. The devastation the PSAT wrought was horrible, it was beautiful, it was a sight that I doubted I would ever forget. Whatever let me see this work also showed me how it functioned in detail how every man, woman, child died in what, to them, would be an instant, but to me seemed like an _eternity_.

My Acoustokinesis kicked in automatically as the simultaneous thunderclaps from easily over two dozen lightning strikes wrapped around me as the sky split open and everything below me _died._ Time returned to normal and the muted echoes of the PSAT's discharge thundered back up at me from below. The warning light of the weapon was shining a baleful red, warning that, despite what Theo had thought, I only had one shot from his weapon, not that I needed another. The forest below me was on fire, a jagged, blackened circle where the compound used to be, bits of glowing hot stone and metal lighting the area in a hellish light.

* * *

I'd headed North at first, dropping below the ground before returning back to Brix's house. Once I was close I rose above the treeline once more, dropping out of Shadowform. Silently landing next to my car, I opened the trunk once more, freezing as the faintest sound of a single tree moving was carried to me by my Acoustokinesis.

Turning around slowly, I saw Brix standing there, the tree at the edge of the parking area partially open, revealing a hollow inside. "It be mighty suspicious, sneakin' around at night with a piece of tech like that," he pouted out calmly, his power reaching out to control trees all around us, and trees hidden underground.

I turned my back to him, putting the weapon away and closing the fake bottom. If he attacked me, I'd defeat him. If he tried to kill me, I'd return the favor. I really didn't want to do either. "I was taking care of a problem that was long overdue for being solved," I stated, not bothering to silence the sound of the trunk closing.

"Those villains up in the mountains," he asked, and looked annoyed when I couldn't help but laugh.

"No, I heard about _them_ this afternoon. I don't normally Tinker canons in my car for fun." I felt tired again, _so_ tired, and resolved to get some _actual_ sleep before morning came. "Trust me, if I took care of a local problem, you'd either notice immediately, or not at all. I tend to be fairly all or nothing about those things. No, I was dealing with a rot that Canada allowed to fester for so long, it _almost_ explains why the Birdcage is there, given the evil their government, and by extension their people, have no problem ignoring."

He looked at me, confused, and I sighed, weary beyond words. "Brix, If you haven't guessed by lunch, I'll tell you, but I _don't_ think I'll have to tell you."


	115. Reconnoiter 10-10

**Reconnoiter 10.10**

I slept, to try to escape the devastation I'd just inflicted, and the poor souls I'd taken out along with a man who should've been eliminated long ago. However, maybe because I was focusing on it as I went to sleep, maybe because there was something I was missing, all that happened was I got to watch it happen _all over again._ Only this time, I couldn't even move, just along for the ride.

I woke as something struck the side of my face and launched myself up with a snarl, metal claws projected from my hands and ready to kill whatever attacked me.

Herb stood near the door, one hand holding a bunch of small rocks, the other ready to throw a coin sized stone, likely from the pile. "Ya got Wolfie's? Good on ya. I'd hoped ya had before I took him out," was all he said. I blinked fully awake, not at all rested. "You okay? You look like shit," he commented.

"Didn't sleep well," I mumbled, pulling back the metal underneath my skin again.

He nodded sagely, "Missin' Taylor. I know how it is. I'm missing the light of my life." He waited a beat before announcing, "Breakfast's ready," as he opened the door. "Come on. It'll make you feel better. They made waffles!"

Pausing to shift my clothes to something else, so it'd at least _looked_ like I changed, I stumbled after him, trying to wake up, and generally failing. A full spread was out, waiting for Herb & I, and Hedera handed me a cup of coffee, which I gratefully accepted. Slamming back the steaming hot beverage helped a bit, making me aware enough that the others had stopped what they were doing to stare at me. "Um, heat resistant," I explained. "But thanks, that helped. Could I possibly have another?"

Sipping this one, I had to admit Herb was right, it did make me feel better, if even just a little. "Not a morning person?" Hedera asked.

I grimaced, "Didn't sleep well."

Brix gave me a knowing look, which Herb caught but didn't comment on. As we finished, the retired hero turned on the TV that sat in sight of the table but had remained off while we ate. Flicking through a few channels, he settled on the news, which was reporting on a very familiar patch of forest, the devastation looking worse in the light of day.

"-still don't know exactly what caused the event which shook windows in Ottawa, and the light from which could be seen from Montreal," the news anchor for NBC stated, images of the flash of light that had been my firing of the PSAT followed shortly by a vibration which set off car alarms down the street playing before cutting back to the fire. "The PRT have cordoned off the air until they can determine if there are any lingering effects. Anonymous sources within the Canadian Government have stated that the location could have housed Heartbreaker, the elusive Master. Reports have been coming in of those effected by this villain's power revealing themselves across Ontario & Quebec, falling catatonic upon hearing news of the villain;s probable demise. Authorities urge caution, in case any effected by the Master's power strike out at those around him. From preliminary reports, over four dozen individuals were at the location of the time of attack, mostly women & children."

Brix shot me a look and I just stared right back, not blinking, sipping my coffee. _They knew._ I thought. _Those motherfuckers **knew** where he was all this time, and they did **nothing.**_ The PRT and the Canadian government could _hang_ for all I cared.

"Those poor people," Hedera breathed, eyes riveted to the screen.

"And there'd be less of them if the PRT had done their damn jobs," I couldn't help but add. Herb, who had been watching the screen with dawning realization, snapped his head over to give me a questioning look. Brix gave me a raised eyebrow while Hedera just seemed confused.

"But all those innocent people he had with him, did they have to die?" she asked.

I sighed, not really in the mood for this. "They were dead the moment they locked eyes with Heartbreaker, or the moment he saw them, depending on how his power works. Worked," I corrected. Herb frowned but nodded, probably knowing what I meant, but Hedera obviously didn't. "You _are_ your mind," I said, trying to put this into words. A good example would be vampires from the Buffy series, but that wasn't a thing here, nineties television in Earth Bet seeming to fetishize heroes instead of vampires. "Imagine you were in Montreal for some reason. Maybe visiting family, maybe a school trip, maybe just vacation, doesn't matter. You're walking down the street when you move to pass by a guy in his forties, just another part of the crowd, when all of a sudden everything you feel is changed. The love you have for your father? _Gone_. All he's worth is stringing along for resources to give to your _new_ beloved. Your friends? They don't matter, unless of course one of them catches the eye of the only person you _really_ care about. All you feel is an all-consuming _love_ and _lust_ for the man in front of you. You'll give him everything you have, betray everyone you know for him, have his children, and you _will_ have his children, and be rapturous for the morning sickness because it shows that he loves you even a _fraction_ as much as you love him. And the worst part? His power isn't _persistent_ , it's _instant_. For the rest of your life, no matter _what_ you do, you'll _love_ him more than the most devout believer loves their _god_."

Hedera paled as I talked, obviously picturing exactly that scenario. "Thing is, those feelings _doesn't make sense._ People, at their core, _do._ They can believe contradictory things, and their actions can seem utterly illogical, but go deep enough and they have _reasons_ for what they do. They might not be _good_ reasons," I gave, "but there's still _reasons_. Those effected by Heartbreaker? They aren't people anymore, they're puppets, having all the memories and habits of the bodies they inhabit, but none of the _soul_. If there was _any_ kind of visual indicator, even something as simple as a mark on the skin or a change in eye-color people would be faster to recognize a threat on the level of _Nilbog_ , dormant at the time but a ticking timebomb, waiting to go off and destroy _cities._ Instead they just ignored it, because he was happy to effectively _kill_ a few women at a time, turning them into puppets to keep himself sexually satisfied."

"I've met one of Heartbreaker's children," I disclosed, "one of the few who _escaped_. He's a good kid at heart, I think, but damaged almost to the point of _sociopathy_. He learned how to puppet people, using a temporary method much different than his father, and still doesn't get why it's _wrong_ , only that doing so isn't worth the blowback he'd get for it. His father's inflicted overwhelming, _mind-numbing_ terror on him so many times, and to such a degree that the boy can't feel scared of anyone _but_ his father anymore. If there was anything left of those women, they'd be screaming in their heads until the day they died, but Heartbreaker doesn't even allow them that, wiping _everything_ out. The man was a cancer on the level of the Slaughterhouse Nine, and the fact that the PRT _knew where he was_ and did _nothing_ surprises me, but it really shouldn't."

"'bout time someone did something about him then," Brix said, surprising me. "Mind you, no way that person's ever gonna get thanked for that, let alone _paid_."

I just shrugged, "That's why it's good to have alternate revenue streams. Heroing doesn't pay, but that's why I work as a Healer for those willing to spend the money for my services."

"And that be workin', even with all them revenuers sniffing down your neck?" Brix asked skeptically.

"It does when you hire lawyers to take care of it," I shot back, glad to get off the topic.

"Hmmf," he snorted. "That be just usin' one evil to fight another."

* * *

Working on the sap we'd collected yesterday gave us, gave _me_ something to do. The taps we'd carefully put in the previous day had been re-bagged and tasking a beetle to go look at the trees within my range had shown that the maples had completely healed from being drilled without a single blemish. Hedera had returned to her room, and Herb and I worked in silence, though he did give me odd looks from time to time. Brix came out after an hour and looked over our work with an approving nod.

"That rifle you be puttin' away last night," the retired hero said leadingly.

"We've got a Tinker," I confirmed. "The warning he put in tripped, so I'd not use it again before he okay's it, but he made what did that."

"This boy got a name?" he asked me.

I looked to Herb, who shook his head, "Not yet."

"Not officially," I told the retired hero. "And he's a long way from being ready to fight."

"Ready to fight?" echoed the florakinetic.

"I won't put anyone in the line of fire unless _I_ think they're ready," I stated. "Going off half-cocked is a good way to get yourself _killed_. Break, Enter, and I are there, _barely_ , but our other team members _aren't_. We fought the ABB because we had to, to save the city, but we've still got a ways to go before I'd be comfortable doing the entire 'patrol and wait to get attacked' song and dance."

He was quiet for a long moment. "Fancy a bit of a spar? Ya be talkin' a good game, but I'd like to be seein' if you can be backin' up your barkin'."

"Um, the syrup," I hedged.

"-Will keep. Unless you're scared," he teased a little.

I looked at Herb and he just grinned. "I'm next!" was all the support he gave.

* * *

After getting Hedera, along with Herb and I changing into our costumes, all four of us moved deeper into the forest, coming across a clearing in the middle of the woods that, by the disturbed snow and thicker than normal forest at the edges, hadn't been a clearing five minutes ago. Herb was off to the side, grinning like a loon, and Hedera, all bundled up, was standing there right next to him, a thermos full of hot chocolate under her arm.

Brix waved for me to go to one side of the clearing, and I hesitated. "What kind of spar is this going to be?" I asked.

"The kind where we fight," he said, but he seemed amused, not taking my questioning for cowardice.

I couldn't help but roll my eyes. "Are we starting light and going harder to get each other's measure? Should I try new things? Should I go straight for the win? There's different kinds of fight."

"You be tryin' ta win, and we'll be seein' how that gets ya," Brix smiled.

I nodded, "Then please armor up, so I don't accidentally hurt you."

He gave me a long look then nodded once, his power flaring downwards to something buried below us. Branches seemed to explode around him, twisting tight and forming a suit of wooden armor around him, the bark creating a flowing armor that covered him from head to toe, slits open for his eyes. Copying the technique, I gave him a single nod, floating over to where I'd be fighting him, landing on the ground. I could See his power priming something below me, but it wouldn't get a chance to work.

"When you say start, deah," Brix called to his daughter.

She looked between the two of us, excited but maybe a little worried, something else in her expression as well. She opened her mouth to say "Go," but both of us were moving before she made a sound.

I leapt into the air, wooden hands growing up around where I'd been a moment before as I unholstered my hidden, Speed Zone enhanced pistol and drew down on Brix's chest. A wall of wood sprung up as I pulled the trigger, obscuring him from my line of sight. My insects, however, caught sight of him rolling to the side as the round hit the barrier and broke it apart, splintered wood flying into the space where he'd just been, burying themselves like daggers into the snow.

As he moved down the barrier, I fired three more times, punching holes in his wooden wall, stopping when he positioned himself so a shot would've sent hand sized splinter flying towards Herb and Hedera. "Good!" Brix called as the trees behind me moved, growing spears of timber and hands with which to throw them. "But now what's your plan?"

"I wait, old man, and use what you give me," I replied calmly, watching his power go to work. Holstering my gun, I stared at where he stood behind his barrier, now a half circle thirty feet wide and fifty feet long. My first instinct was to grab the spear the tree threw at me and hurl it directly at him, but I quickly remembered that the only requirement for him controlling the wood is that _he grew it._ That kind of showboating would have him immediately grow the spear down my arms to bind me.

Instead I dodged the projectile, flying up high and angling myself around the wall he'd made. Diving down towards him, a dome of wood grew to cover him, spikes growing up and out of it. Spinning around to lead with my foot, I slammed down onto the structure next to where he'd been and reached out to grab him, but he was already gone. The wood surged towards me, already hooking around my feet, and I had to launch myself up, draining the shield on my other foot, the first broken from my descent.

Looking around he was no where to be found, likely _in_ a tree. "Don't be a _Stranger_ ," I said, staring at the trees below. "If you wanted to make this a Master fight you just should've said so."

Reaching out with Taylor's power I took hold of the insects in the forest below, commanding them to converge on the arena we'd entered. They gathered, a trickle at first but then a stream, buzzing angrily as I searched for Brix.

The trees started throwing more spears, but they were easily dodged, my Aerokinesis meant that even the ones that got close, which in turn exploded into tendrils to try to grab me, still missed by several feet. The insects continued to gather and blanket the area, the trees' aim getting worse and worse. _I've found him_ , I thought, _I just don't know **where**_. The bugs were messing up his line of sight, I just didn't know _which ones._

Concentrating on them to find out would make me a sitting duck for the spears, but I didn't need to _see_ through their eyes I just needed to. . . **_there!_** A few at the edge had just died, the spears being thrown my way becoming accurate once more.

Looking in the other direction from him, I focused on the bugs, finding _exactly_ where he was. I managed to get a few ladybugs inside his armor before flipping around and diving straight for him. He dropped down below the ground once more, the not-ents firing blindly, and I tracked him as he maneuvered himself not to the other side of the clearing, but off to one side. Flying up to be directly above him, I felt the bugs move as he tried to angle himself to see me, finally leaning outside of the tree, still armored.

Silently dropping down, making sure not to touch a branch, I placed my open hand on the back of his head, fingers splayed out. "I win," I announced, not wanting to hurt him.

"Do ya now?" called Brix, three trees over. I looked at him, then down at the armor, which turned to show that it was completely empty before exploding into growth and binding me completely.

"Huh," I said, looking over to him, my head the only part of me not encased in timber. "So, I'm in a bit of a pickle."

He looked down on me from a tree trunk, ten feet above me. "Ayuh," he agreed, smiling broadly behind his beard. "I know it."

I looked around at the wood, figuring out three way to get out of this _without_ tapping more powers (though it'd put him and possible the others at risk), then back at him. "Not that kind. I could show you how I'd still win, but I'm not sure I can do so without _actually_ hurting you, which I don't want to do."

"Hard tellin' not knowin' how you'd be pullin' that one off," he commented. "Ain't nuthin' to be 'shamed of, losin' to me." Hedera, who looked oddly disappointed, moved to walk towards us only to be stopped by Herb, who was still smiling.

"Yeah. Um. That's not what's happening here. If you could be so kind as to go stand with the other two, I could show you what I mean," I offered in turn, directing the insect swarm all around us to head back into the woods.

He snorted, seeming to flow down the tree before calmly walking over to the other two. "Whenever ya be ready, _Vejovis_."

I gave him a nod, throwing up an Air Shield in front of them, _just in case_ , "Can you grow a dummy for where you were when you first spoke?" I requested. One appeared, stepping naturally out of the wood like a real person. My Sight greedily drank in the use, and the level of precision needed to pull that off was _astounding_. It was a pity that I was going to wreck it with sheer power. "Right. This might get loud," I warned, and gripped the wood encompassing me with both hands, with both crystalline shields shifted to run along my knuckles.

I'd gotten them to work by discharging them to enhance strikes, like Glory Girl did, but their purpose wasn't to enhance blows, just pure _strength,_ tearing through new growth like it was rotten and moving my arms just forward enough to make this work _._ Slamming my elbows back, discharging the shields there, gave me room to pull back and shove my arms forward like pistons, slamming the palms of my hands forward as hard as I could into the wood in the direction of the dummy Brix. I did so in one smooth movement, taking less than a half a second from grip to push.

There was a thunderclap as the wood _exploded_ and was thrown outwards at speeds only I could likely see, timber accelerated to the speed of bullets, if not more, tearing into the trees, blasting them to splinters, as well as the trees behind them, _and the trees behind them_. After what was left of that part of the forest finished raining down like snow, the devastation left behind looked like a tornado had blasted through sideways.

I negligently slammed myself backwards, dispelling the shield there and blowing the tree off me, lifting up and using the shields on my forearms to crack off the pieces still clinging without draining them. Glancing backwards, Brix and Hedera were staring at the damage, all three of them covering their ears. The Air Shield was nicely splinter-free, so I dismissed that entirely.

Flying back, I dropped down to ground level and started to walk towards them. "So, yeah, if this was a fight you were dead the moment you revealed yourself, but I don't want to _actually_ hurt you. Hence my problem."

Brix gave me a long, considering, look before grinning broadly, "I be appreciatin' that. So, how'd'ya feel about marryin' my daughter?"

"I. . . I'm sorry, what?" I asked, nonplussed. "You, that, _what?_ "

"She's smart as a whip, good around the house, and wicked cunnin'," he insisted.

"Daaaad!" the girl in question groaned, turning bright red.

"I, um, no?" I sputtered. She was _kinda_ cute, and not jailbait like Taylor, but I'd _just_ met the girl, and we'd had a grand total of _one_ one-on-one conversation. "I mean, I'm kinda busy, and what I'm doing is _really_ dangerous, I mean, I lead from the front, and it wouldn't be fair to _her_ , and-"

"And he's kinda got someone he's interested back home," Herb interjected.

" _No I don't_ ," I snapped. "We're not dating!"

Brix gave me a long look, then nodded. "Ah, you're one of those." _Those what?_ I thought, but couldn't think of anything to say in response. Brix gave me another nod, "I understand." He turned to look at Herb. "What about you? I've already been seein' ya fight, and if yer with this one," Brix nodded in my direction, "Yer only gonna get better."

Hedera blushed even harder, carefully inspecting her shoes.

My teammate gave her a long look. "Is that what you want?" he asked her gently, not joking in the slightest.

She played with the thermos in her hands, "I. Yes." She mumbled. _Where is this coming from? Who **does** this?_ I thought as I watched this play out.

"Then I'd love to," Herb smiled broadly.

Brix looked at him for a long moment before smiling in return. "Good man. C'mon Hedera, let's go be getting' you ready."

The father and daughter walked off, leaving the two of us behind. Once they where out of earshot I turned on Herb, who looked _far_ too calm with what just happened. "Dude. _What. The. Fuck?"_ I practically hissed.

He just smiled that stupid fucking smile of his. "We're gonna Rom-Com this bitch," he stated authoritatively, a red flag if I'd _ever_ seen one.

"One, I fucking _hate_ Rom-Coms, two, what the _fuck_ does that mean?" I demanded.

He looked at me, confused, confident stance broken, "Wait, you hate Rom-Coms? How can you hate Rom-Coms? They're fantastic trash!"

I nodded slowly, as I _thought_ it would be obvious, desperately wondering how 'Rom-Com' equaled ' _Marry a girl you just met!'_ Actually, that fit a bit _too_ well, but I'd answer his question first. "Well, I seemed to miss the seminar on how relationships were supposed to work, so I turned to media."

He slowly nodded in return, face pained as he made the connection, "So you used Rom-Coms?"

"Doesn't work!" I yelled, throwing up my hands. "At least, not unless you're really fuckin' hot, and I wasn't playing life on easy mode then because I was fat, so all it was, was people laughing about lies and girls saying they wanted the thing, that when you did it, they didn't actually want."

"Nooo. Noo," he sighed, shaking his head. "The number one rule of life is it never works unless you're hot."

"I wouldn't say number one, but it's up there," I agreed, distracted. "Right up there with 'don't listen to most people about what they want.'" I groaned, "That's why I hate romantic comedies, they're neither romantic, nor comedic. I don't like seeing people in pain, physical, psychological, emotional, or otherwise, so I derive _no_ joy from them!"

He nodded again, seeing my point, "Yeah, you can inadvertently fall into one of those, but not purposefully do so."

I motioned around us, "Pretty sure you _just fucking did."_ He just shrugged, grinning once more. "How does this work with your plans? Fuck it, do you even _have_ any fuckin' plans?

He shrugged again, unconcerned, "Deal with Kayden."

"That's it? Deal with Kayden. For the full week? I know that _this_ is gonna create one hell of shitstorm, but then we have to _fight Leviathan!"_ I practically yelled.

"Probably gonna take a week," he nodded, as if that answered my question.

I couldn't help but ask, "How about _training with your powers to get **stronger?**_ "

"Huh," he said, as if he hadn't considered this before. "Yeah. That should be a thing."

"That should be a. . ." I trailed off the terminal stupidity on display finally too much for me to handle. "Did you even think about this in the _slightest?_ "

He shook his head, "Not really, no"

I stared at him. _He's gotta be messing with me. He **has** to be._ But try as I might, there was nothing in his tone, nothing in his body language, nothing **_at all_** that suggested he was anything else but being _completely honest_. Unbidden, a question crossed my lips, not angry, just curious: "What is your problem?"

Herb looked honestly confused by my query, finally answering, "Nuthin'."

There was a long pause, as I felt mental circuit breakers pop. There was a disconnect here. One that ran _deep_. Either he was messing with me, in which case I was going to beat him so bad he'd _need_ my healing power to be able attend his own wedding, or he was being completely serious and just straight up didn't understand why I was so upset. There really could be no third option.

"Dude," I said seriously, "Leviathan is here in a _week and a fuckin' half!"_ I wasn't angry, just trying to get across the enormity of the situation.

"Yeah," he nodded, still confused, "and we're taking a break."

"From doing w-" I started to ask, but I knew that going down that road would just lead to weasel wording, obfuscation, and _more_ miscommunications. I needed to be as fair and straightforward as possible here. "Okay, I know what _I've_ been doing but what the fuck have _you_ been doing? I want to assume it's been _something_ , but I haven't _seen_ anything _,_ and I haven't _heard_ anything, so there's no way for me to know _exactly_ what you've been doing."

There was another long pause where I just stared at him, waiting for him to reply without giving him anything to spin, _anything_ to react to, forcing whatever he said to stand on its own.

Eventually he shrugged again, the movement looking awkward. "Handlin' stuff."

"Like _what?"_

"Things," was the entirety of his answer.

"Oh of course! Things and stuff and stuff and things and I'm trying to throw together a plan to save our lives when I could've just been doing _things!"_ I yelled, but Herb wasn't getting what I was saying, and once again the circuit popped, draining the anger from me. "You know why I stopped making plans with you?" I asked calmly.

Herb was looking more than a bit confused, but just shrugged again, "No. I thought it was because you were still mad."

"About the Dinah thing?" I queried.

"Yea-" he started to nod, seemingly happy to be back on solid conversational ground, only for me to interrupt him.

"Well after I fixed _your_ goddamn fucking problem, I figured we could move on-" I started to say, only to be interrupted by him in turn.

"Which, honestly," he commented, not finishing his sentence.

I waited for him to finish his sentence, not doing the job for him. It was a working theory, but maybe, just _maybe,_ he didn't _actually_ have the rest of his sentence thought out whenever he did this, using whatever I came up with as a springboard while pretending that's what he meant all along. So, instead of giving him that, I just asked, "Yes?"

"You did that wrong," he chided me, as if he was in a position to do so. "You shoulda at least had some help."

 _I'll bite._ "Oh, okay." I nodded. "Like _what?_ "

"Like _me,_ " he replied without missing a beat.

Instead of dismissing what we _both_ knew was a fucking lie, I took him seriously. "Okay, so would you have been able to sit there and just watch her get shot up with drugs, waiting for the exact correct moment to move so you didn't fuck up the timelines? Would you have been able to _sit back_ and watch an innocent girl _suffer,_ _knowing_ it was the only way to stop your plan to save her from falling to goddamn pieces?" I asked intently.

He shrugged nonchalantly, "No."

"Yeah, so that's why I _didn't fucking bring you!_ " I snapped, forcing myself to calm down with a long sigh. "More than just _that-_ "

"Wait," he interrupted, looking disgusted. "you sat back and _watched?_ "

 _You do not get to judge me!_ "I fucking _had to_ to do everything at the correct _time_ to keep Coil's two timelines in _sync._ It's _literally_ the only way to get around his powers!"

He shook his head sadly, muttering, "At least you saved her. That was weighing on me."

"For _good fucking reason,"_ I growled. _Fuck it, let's go for the throat._ "That's your problem. You _don't fucking plan_. And when I _try_ to plan _with_ you I can't get a goddamned straight answer _out_ of you. _Ever._ I _think_ we have a plan, I think we're going to go do a thing, and then you're all like, 'oh that works, and I'm just going to go out in the _identity that's tied to the hero group I'm a part of'_ , linking, you know. . . oh god," I sighed, pressing my hands to my face. "Just let me count the ways!"

"First of all, you were going to go start shit _as Break._ Do you _know_ how much of a fucking _line_ I'm walking with the PRT to try to keep them off our asses?" I demanded. "And you're a _registered_ member of this team and you're just gonna go _start shit_?"

He looked shocked, and timidly replied, "You're right."

I looked at him incredulously, not sure if this was honest or _just another trick,_ "Don't just 'you're right' me! Dude, you don't tell me before you do things. Now I do the same thing, don't get me fucking wrong, but at least my plans have some _sense_ to them!"

"I believe I'm doing the right thing at the time I'm doing the right thing!" he defended.

"Do you even _think_ about the thing or do you just _convince_ yourself you're doing the right thing and _stop there?"_ I practically sneered. _That answer was so bullshit it fucking **moo'd**._

There was a long pause as I waited for an answer that never came.

"Yeah, that's what I fuckin' thought!" I spat. "So, oh god," I groaned as I thought _where do I go from here?_ "What _is_ your plan for Leviathan? I'm assuming you have one, at least."

Herb looked down, not meeting my eyes. "Well, meet him at the ocean. . . fight him into the land. . . hopefully reduce some of the damage. . . whup his ass."

I blinked at this. My own plans were nested, relying on various variables, ready to adapt around what Cauldron did with the forewarning, with backups in case we got lucky and Behemoth, or the Simurgh, showed up instead. "I. . . I'm sorry," I said. "What."

He started to recite his 'plan' again: "Meet him at the ocean-"

"No I fuckin' heard you the first time, I just wanted to give you the chance to see how _stupid_ that was!" I snapped. "So your _great_ plan is to fight the Hydrokinetic in the ocean, _to start with._ . ." I tried to figure out the mindset required to make that plan. What I came up with. . . wasn't good. "Dude. You do know that's how you _die. . . right?_ " I asked him without rancor, trying a gentler approach. "Your power ramps with _time_ , not fighting him at his strongest right off the- Send _Boojack_ to do that if you want to see how well _that_ plan's gonna fucking turn out," I suggested, swearing without heat. "You can make more clones, I can't make more _yous._ "

"Yeah, true. Clones would be nice," he commented.

"What do you mean 'would be'?" I asked incredulously. "you _already have them!_ "

"Yeah but I don't _really_ do it, they have, like, their own mind. It's _really_ weird," he complained.

" _They're you. You've **said so!**_ " I reminded him. _This is why I hate liars, because everything turns into a game of 'I know I **said** that but I didn't **mean** it!' or 'If you can't remember it in **exacting detail** then it never happened and **you're** the liar!'._ "They're all you if you took a different path in life."

"I know," he agreed, not even bothering to address the _lie_ I'd just revealed. "It's. . . _weird._ "

"They're. . ." I trailed off, realizing that he'd turned my serious concern into another side conversation. He'd just made a statement, and when I proved that statement was wrong, he didn't argue, didn't apologize, just changed the subject. I got the distinct feeling he wasn't even doing it on purpose, which just made it _worse_ in so many ways. _Nothing to do but address the core problem and ignore the diversions._ "That's not even why I'm mad. I _try_ to be clear. I try my _best_ to be clear. I succeed most of the time, correct?"

"Yeah," he shrugged.

"Yeah." I echoed, keeping my tone mild even as I asked, "Why can't you pay me back that same. Basic. Fucking. Courtesy?"

"Ehh," he said, making as if he was going to say something. Then he didn't, and I let the moment hang.

Drawing out the moment long enough to make it clear that I knew _exactly_ what he was doing, I finally continued my point, "When I ask you what is going on, you do not answer the question _I am asking._ You answer the question you think I am going to ask _next._ And, I mean, if you're _right_ , oh, look at you, you're so _wise_ , and _mystic,_ and _cryptic_ , and **_bullshit_**. But when you're _wrong_ , I can't even have a conversation with you because you're having a conversation with someone that **_doesn't exist_** _!_ "

"Sorry 'bout that," he shrugged.

I started to get mad, but tamped the heat down to the point that it was ice cold. "That's just it? 'Sorry'?"

The moment dragged, and dragged, and it became very clear that _this time_ , I wasn't going to say _anything._ "Okay, _look,_ " he said seriously. "I know I'm not the perfect partner, and I may be goin' about this the wrong way." I stared coldly at him, not saying a word. "But I'll listen to you more."

 ** _YOU TRITE MOTHERFUCKER HAVE YOU NOT BEEN LISTENING TO A GOD-DAMNED THING I'VE BEEN SAYING?_** I raged internally, keeping my expression as calm as I could, though my voice still carried a fraction of my frustration, "That's just _it!_ I don't want you to _listen_ I want you to fucking **_Talk!_** "

"Well I don't doooo that wellll," he replied, finishing in a sing songy voice, referencing _something_.

"I'm sorry. Was that supposed to be funny," I said, voice dead.

He at least had the decency to wince, "A little bit"

"Yeah, ya fucking _failed,_ just like you fail at fucking _planning,_ " I informed him.

"Well, I'm a sucky planner," he said, as if that absolved him of all guilt.

"Yes!" I cried, emotions spinning out of control. "So maybe, _maybe_ , here's a thought, ya just, I don't know, _say your plans out loud?_ " I asked sarcastically. "Check them with other people? I've realized I need to start doing so and am going to do so with Taylor because I forgot about the fucking armor 'cause that, _that_ , was fuckin' _dumb!_ But _seriously_ dude, at least I'm trying to talk to someone, and most of _my_ plans seem to work! Are you talking to _anyone?_ "

There was a long pause, which spoke _volumes._

I let out a quivering sigh, "At least you admit it-"

"Kayden," he threw out.

I blinked. _Every time I think he can't go lower._ "You're really telling Kayden your plans for the future, and what you're doing?" I asked him incredulously. "Not in a 'I love you so much I want to have kids with you someday' way, but 'Here's my plan to _fight Leviathan'_?"

"Our relationship," he shrugged.

"Yeah, that is _literally_ not what I _just **fucking** asked!" _I yelled. "And guess what? That relationship isn't going to work if one of you are _fucking dead!_ That relationship isn't going to work if _Scion wins._ "

"Which, that is something we have to work on," he admitted.

I gave him a scathing look, derision dripping from my tone, "No, _really,_ I would've never _fucking guessed._ "

"Look, you're the best planner I know," he said, pausing for my response. I didn't. "You have plans upon plans upon plans upon plans upon plans, and I expect you to-"

"Not five deep," I had to correct him, "but yeah, I guess."

Herb waved expansively, "I expect you to. . . plan out. . . whatever it is that we're gonna do, because you do it the best." The sheer calm confidence in his tone, with annoyingly pacifying tones, seemed so incredibly out of place with this _entire_ conversation, I had to stomp and think what kind of mindset would lead him to say _that_ in _that way._ Either he was completely lying to me, but he tended not to do that. _Blatant lies,_ after all, would be _easier_ to deal with. But if he was honest, just bad at communicating. . .

Pieces I didn't even know existed fell into place. I was always better at planning, but the level of faith he had in me. . . it was near _religious._ That. . . that wasn't something I had _ever_ expected, and it _certainly_ wasn't something I was comfortable with. I sighed, _trying_ not to get mad at him again. "I can't make plans if I don't know what's going on. If I make a plan that requires you to do something, or _not_ to do something, and I assume you would because. . ." I trailed off, trying to figure out how to explain this. "Okay, when I make plans, I account for what I know people are going to do. If you're just gonna go off and do things randomly, the plan _doesn't work_. This is _literally_ Accord's problem. This is _literally_ why my actions are fucking with Cauldron."

I motioned to myself, "I am a Blindspot to their plans. You're not. Charlie is. Dad is. They can't account for us in their plans, so we're fucking up their plans. Now, you aren't a Blindspot to _them_ , ironically for this _fucking_ situation, but, _similarly_ , I keep on making plans, only to constantly be on the lookout to keep _you_ from fucking them up! Or Kayden, flying in like a _fucking_ cowboy into a mafia shootout."

"Eh, I didn't know it was that bad," he admitted, chagrined.

 _Oh god. This is it. This is exactly what's been going on. It hasn't been maliciousness, it hasn't been simple stupidity, it's been blind fucking faith in me. I. . . how do I get angry about that? He hasn't been listening to me, but I've always known he's just as fucked up as I am. This is my fault. I should've seen this coming._ Quietly, I started to say, "Dude, on the way here- no." I approached this from another angle, not 'you messed up', but 'you're working without seeing what you're doing'. "You have plans too man, the problem is that your plans require other people to do what you want them to do without being aware of them. They work a lot of the time too, because people don't want to be honest with themselves. But, answer me this, _honestly_ , do I act like other people?"

He looked at me curiously "No."

"Do I _re_ act like other people?" I asked him.

Herb shook his head, "No."

"Then why the fuck are you treating me like other people." I said more than asked, feeling run down. "You're _managing_ me, or at least _trying_ to, and with fucking _Taylor_ , ignoring the entire fucking thing _that's_ turning into, I appreciate you trying to help. I do. _Thank you_. I'm kinda shit at being careful about people's feelings sometimes, but when you try to manage me like you try to manage other people, it _doesn't **fucking** work._"

He didn't say anything, and that, at its core, was the **_problem._**

"Just _talk to me_ man," I begged. "I'm not gonna get pissed. Well, unless you've already gone and _done_ something really stupid _._ But just a 'hey, I'm planning on doing this' is what I'm asking for. It might be a good idea. It might be a bad idea. It might be an okay idea that could _become_ a good idea with a bit of work. But! I gotta _know_ that it _exists_ in the **_first place!_** "

"I'll try to be more vocal," Herb promised, but the loophole might as well have been made of _neon_.

"No!" I yelled, feeling like I was nearing the end of my rope. "No don't make me be Yoda about this bullshit! Don't 'try', just fucking _talk to me._ If I _ask a question_ , give me an answer to _that question_ and _then_ give me the extra information you _think_ I might fucking need!" I waited for a reply, an affirmation, a denial, _anything_ I could work with. "Okay?"

"Okay," he agreed, his tone as if he wasn't sure why I was so upset, "You're so ramped up."

"And you're _way_ to fucking passive about this!" I cried out, out of anger, out of rage, out of anything but _despair_. _No matter what I do I fail. I always fail. I was stupid for thinking anything else._

Herb, however, just looked confused. "'Cause. . . we got this," he affirmed with supreme confidence.

" _No. No we fucking don't!_ " I almost sobbed. "Do you know what it would take to break _everything_ down on our fucking heads?"

"But you won't let that happen," he stated.

"I'm. . . what?" I just looked at him, uncomprehendingly. "I'm not fucking _God!_ I can try, I can do my _best,_ but-"

"But you plan so well," he reasoned.

I laughed hysterically, unable to cope with what I was finding out, what had been going on this _entire time,_ "No I fucking don't!"

"But, here's what I'm seeing. I'm seeing the stress breaks. And that's my fault," he declared.

I grimaced, while it was his actions, I should've figured this out _weeks_ ago. "Not entirely."

He shook his head, "No it-"

"Okay, fucking _yes_ ," I cut him off before he could try to take on more shit that wasn't his fault. _I_ didn't see this coming. That was on **_me_** _._ "But it's not just _you_ it's this fucking _situation,_ and what's going on with _her,_ and what I need to _do_ and-"

"So much stuff," he agreed. "Me tryin' to lighten the situation doesn't seem to be helping."

"You need to _tell me_ you're trying to lighten it man," I implored. "I know that's not how it works for most but sometimes when you try to lighten it kinda works, but sometimes when you try to lighten it. . . just. . . it sounds like you're pulling the Dinah shit all over again. Makin' plans based on what you think you know is right, and trying to manipulate me into going along with them."

"Alright. But getting Hedera out is kinda. . ."

And now I could see the plan. "Oh god. You aren't doing this to marry her, you're doing this to get her out of Maine and out from her father's thumb, aren't you?" He just nodded, a bit of a smile coming back to his features. This one honest, not meant to distract. "Assuming that Brix doesn't fucking _kill_ you, then. . . yeah, it'll be a good thing," I agreed. "Not what I woulda done, I've already got too much shit to worry about, but having her around would actually help a great deal, yes."

"So I did one good thing," he announced.

I just looked at him in confusion, "You, you've done more than _one_ good thing man. You-

"All I know is this," he said, cutting me off and stepping towards me. He put his hands on my shoulders and looked me dead in the eyes.

"Yeah?" I asked, confused.

"I'm with you," he promised. "And I may not be the best of bests, but I'm with you. I'm _literally_ gonna do my best to try to fill you in on what's in my head, but even _I_ don't know what's in there sometimes. So, I'm _very_ reaction. Don't know _why_ I'm so reactionary. _But._ You make a plan? I'll letter that son of a bitch."

"And if you make a plan, fucking _tell me_?" I confirmed, making sure this wasn't just some over-the-top bullshit move to agree to do something that wouldn't actually _change_ anything.

He didn't even flinch. "That I will."

"In that case, _fuck_ ," I swore stepping back and away from him, watching him carefully, looking for any expression, and bit of body language that would betray what he was saying. "You're _really_ gonna tell me your plans? Anything _large._ Getting groceries, going out on a date with Kayden, not stuff like that. I'm gonna go pitch a fight- Pitch a fight? Damn I can't even fucking talk. _Pick_ a fight with Skidmark then-"

" _Yes,"_ Herb agreed emphatically, but I needed to get it _all_ out in the open.

"Then I'll do my best to help you and include it in my plans. And unless it's _really_ fucking stupid I'll find a way to make it happen, or explain why I _can't_ ," I promised in turn. "Really?"

"Yes," he said again.

I wanted it to be enough, I _really_ wanted it to be enough. _One last bit of trust. That's gone, we're done forever._ "Promise," I demanded.

"On my heart and hope to fly," he stated with complete seriousness.

I had to just stare at him. **_What the fuck did he just say?_** _Oh god, has he not listened to a god-damned thing I said? About how if he's trying to lighten the mood he needs to **say** he is or it'll backfire? Is this entire thing me just fooling myself, frog and the scorpion style? No. He uses weird fucking phrases sometimes. They're funny, so people laugh and he thinks they're real. Like dire wolves being 'real in his head' when he meant imagination. I have to know though_.

"So, dude," I said, looking him dead in the eye. "I know you're trying to be funny, but, dude, _seriously_."

"I'm being serious," he promised.

"In that case. . . _fuck it_ ," I sighed. _This is either going to blow up horribly, or help me save everyone, and I have **no** idea which one this is. If he's going to help me though, he needs to be **better.**_ "I've had some ideas. You can turn into any animal, right?"

"Right?" he asked, obviously put off by the apparent non-sequitur.

"Even fake ones, though you don't get their magical effects?" I asked leadingly.

"Right," he agreed, still not knowing where this was going.

I felt like I hadn't slept for a week, been beat with hammers, and my head and heart both ached worse then I'd ever felt, but maybe things were going to get better, for once. I gave him a tired grin, "You ever try a Dragon?"


	116. Reconnoiter 10-11

**Reconnoiter 10.11**

It was nearly an hour later when we returned back to Brix's house, both of us happy with the results of Herb's training. "So, just to be clear," I stated, "You're planning to fake-marry her so her father will let her leave the house and she can be independent. Right?"

"Yep," Herb nodded.

I considered this with a 'what can go wrong' lens. There was a lot, but one thing stood head and shoulders above the rest. "You need to tell her before you do."

He scoffed, "It's obvious."

"To _you,_ not to me at first, and you can't guarantee it is to _her._ Everyone assumes that everyone else is like them and that they think is obvious is obvious to everyone else. It's so ubiquitous it's probably evolutionary. You _need_ to tell her, _explicitly,_ if you don't want this to blow up in your face."

My friend opened his mouth to reply, but paused, considering it. "Couldn't hurt," he agreed, thankfully not fighting me on this.

As we got in sight of the house, I noticed that Brix's old, beat-up pickup truck was gone. I shared a questioning glance with my teammate, and we both headed inside. Hedera was cleaning up the living room, and looked up at both of us, blushing as her eyes darted to Herb, and looked back down. Turning to look at him, I jerked my head in her direction in a 'go on' gesture.

He nodded, clearing his throat. "Can I talk with you for a mo'?" he asked, sounding a bit nervous.

She looked up at him, expression curious and just a bit apprehensive. "Why?"

"I'm going to make some tea," I announced, heading over to the kitchen to put a kettle on, giving the two some privacy. When I returned a few minutes later, Hedera was still cleaning up, looking a bit more determined and without the same smile. She looked up at me, smiled briefly, shook her head, and continued.

"So you told her?" I asked, and he nodded. "And you are okay with this?" I asked her in turn.

She nodded. "It's very nice of him," was all she said.

I took a sip of my sweet tea. "Are you sure you-" I started to ask Herb, who interrupted me with an "I did." I took another sip, grateful that heat immunity meant I didn't need to wait for it to cool. "Okay, so, where's Brix?"

At my question she smiled more broadly, "He's off to get the minister!" Herb looked a bit dismayed at that, obviously hoping it'd be a quick, small, and most of all _unofficial_ thing. I just took another sip, smiled, and asked her if she needed any help tidying up.

* * *

Well, Herb's expectations were correct on two points. The wedding _was_ quick and small, taking a bit less than half an hour to get set up. Brix grew a wedding arch from the ground and Hedera headed inside to 'retrieve' the flowers to decorate it with, her power still clinging slightly to them as she put them up and subtly grew them to better hang onto the beautifully shaped wood.

Dismissing Vicky's armor back at the base, and making a note to re-form it later, I extruded a tuxedo for Herb from my costume in our room, shifting my own clothing to match. "You need to look your best," I smiled as I tossed it to him in the living room, smiling broadly at his sour look. At Hedera's obvious confusion I told her, "It pays to be prepared."

She had gotten a wedding dress that was obviously a bit too big for her, but I could See thin threads of her power running through it, tightening it up, her power growing something in thin tendrils like living thread. I had to admit she _was_ attractive, a bit rounder in features than Amelia, or Vicky, _definitely_ more than Taylor. Her hair was a dark brown, and fairly straight, which offset her green eyes. I hadn't really noticed, assuming that I'd never see her again.

As the minister went through the entire process, I hid a smile as I noted that it was the nicest shotgun wedding that I'd ever seen. Technically it wasn't _really_ , given that Herb hadn't slept with her, and likely wouldn't, knowing him, but with Brix's power subtly primed to grab my teammate, it definitely had that feeling. Mind you, with Brix as close as he was, Herb could shut down his power in an instant. Even if the shotgun in a shotgun wedding was unloaded, it still counted, and _Brix_ didn't need to know his preparations were for nothing.

My wearing shades got a raised eyebrow from both Brix & the minister, but they didn't say anything, so I didn't defend my choice. I'd forgotten that Herb had gone with the last name of Wilson, and it took a moment to remember that my ID here was Elric, not Rycroft, though the hesitation was probably taken as not wanting to 'unmask' as it were. Brix' name was Edward Martin, and Hedera wasn't her cape name like I thought but her _actual_ name.

Shortly thereafter the Minister left, having arrived in a SUV of his own, while Hedera and Herb drove off in her SUV to spend their first night as a married couple in a hotel and _not_ in the room she'd grown up in, as Hedera had quietly told her father. That left the two of us, sitting by the fire, drinking _really_ good bourbon.

"You be makin' sure he be takin' good care of my little girl," he finally said, after having wordlessly offered me a drink and the two of us having sat there for the over half an hour. We were both three glasses in, and that had been enough to get him talking.

I glanced over to him, but he wasn't looking at me, just staring at his drink. "I will."

"And be makin' sure she doesn't be getting' hurt," he added.

I grimaced, "You know I can't promise that, anymore you could promise that to _your_ wife. If she doesn't want to fight, I won't make her, but I _will_ make sure she can defend herself just in case. Besides, if her power is what I think it is, that's not going to be that difficult."

 _That_ caused him to look up at me eyes narrowing. "How'd you know. . .?"

"It stands to reason," I shrugged. "The kids of capes Trigger much more easily, and usually have power like their family, if not their parents directly. There's no way you could get _that_ many flowers that quickly," I pointed out. "I also got your range when we fought," I half-lied. "You might be able to feel through your trees, but you can't _see._ She was getting the maples to make more sap without tapping the trunks or anything else to get your attention. That means she was doing it herself. Can she control plants like you can?"

He shook his head, staring at me. He wasn't prepping his powers, just watching. "Then she just grows them. As far as I know you don't do flowers, so she's probably gotten greater versatility instead. Directed growth would work for ensnaring and restricting, and depending on how it works, and how quickly she can do so. That's got some definite defensive capabilities. Probably couldn't burrow like you, but that's only useful for a forward attack role, which I wouldn't want her in without her having a _lot_ more training."

He laughed once, and as I glanced over at him he started laughing harder. It took him a minute to finally calm down, wiping his eyes. "You really be the finest kind. I do believe this old timer's got a bazz on, and it bein' best if I headed to bed."

He got up swaying slightly, and I moved to help but he just waved me away. He paused, looking at me, and squinted. I realized that I should be swaying, but it was a little too late for that. "High alcohol tolerance," I shrugged, felling apologetic.

He snorted, "Right. Tell ya what. Those bandits Hedy been mentionin'. You interested in 'em?"

"If they're hurting innocent people then, yeah. It's not like I've got anything else to do this evening," I joked.

He gave me a long look before pointing southwest, "You be goin' about eight miles that way, follow the road apiece, then go west from there ya be seein' a tree that looks like. . ." he paused. "What'll ya be seein' from up with the birds?"

I shrugged, "How about an arrow?"

He nodded, his power flaring for a second as it sped off to the southwest, "When ya be seein' a tree that be lookin' like an arrow, it be pointin' ya to a mine. Small thin'. Not on a map. They be hidin' out there. I might not be seein' through timber, but when some numb young villin' be scratchin' up my trees for fun, I be getting' an itch."

I nodded before the implications hit me. "Um, Brix? How far _does_ your forest extend?"

He smiled a toothy, knowing smile. "If ya be goin twenty miles that way," he waved to the south, looking at me for a response. When I nodded, he finished, "ya be halfway there!" He cackled at my poleaxed look, turning and heading off for bed. "Never be underestimatin' what a bored old timer can get up to, boy!"

* * *

Flying through the darkened night I followed Brix's directions. Sure enough, there was a giant wooden arrow, complete with fletching and, written in raised letters, 'this way' on the shaft. _I sparred with the god-damned first hokage_ , I thought shaking my head. While he _probably_ wasn't capable of the complete _ridiculousness_ that Hashirama could unleash when he stopped holding back, I had to wonder how much of our 'spar' was actually real. Seeing powers didn't give me an exact accounting of what they could do, just generally what they were capable of: features, not limits.

I knew that I could defeat him if I had to, even if that was just by cranking Momentum Infusion & Metal Creation to shell the area with hypersonic bars, my own personal 'Rods From God', and cloaked in Shadowform there wasn't a thing he could do to hit me, but _still._ Following the arrow's path, and focusing on my Bug Sense, I stumbled across the mines he'd mentioned. The front was uncovered, stones stacked to shield the entrance from an aerial view, and other loose boulders here and there, but it was next to invisible if I hadn't been looking for it.

From what insect life lived within I could get a sense for the tunnels and skimming their senses I found a lit section a few twists down. Slipping into Shadowform I flew into the stone, following the tunnels but not entering them. There was a cleared & cleaned section, with all the creature comforts of home. There were at least two people there, a generator powering everything, including a big-screen tv. _I must have missed the dish_ , I noted.

Continuing down, there was an odd conglomeration of bugs. My power gave me names (Cheese Skipper (which was a type of fly), Hide Beetles, and a whole mess of Blow Flies), but other than their usefulness in combat (not much) I didn't get _why_ they were there. Digging a bit deeper told me that they were eating something, which tasted _delicious_ to them, but that was with fly taste buds, receptors, whatever, so that didn't really help. I could feel other caves as bubbles of air tickling my Aerokinesis, but none of them were occupied by bugs, _especially_ not in the numbers of the cave in question.

Dropping down to the sealed cave they were stuck in, I swarmed them around, but there didn't seem to be anything else in there then whatever they were eating. _Trash disposal?_ I wondered. One of the guys had rock powers. Living in a mine, if you could control rocks you could open up a shoot to drop trash in, resealing it when you didn't need it to keep the stink out. Heck, you could open and close it in stages if you really wanted to avoid the fumes from flowing back up to you.

Knowing it was probably stupid, but without light I couldn't rely on the insect's eyes, I stuck my head into the cave so I could see inside the pitch-black cave with my enhanced sight, whereupon I discovered three things. First of all, I could still smell in Shadowform, as well as vomit. It turned real a half second after it left my lips, splattering the cave floor. Second of all, I was right about the trash, after a fashion. In addition to the garbage I could easily make out over a dozen human bodies, in various states of decay, many still wearing shreds of clothing, their synthetic fibers having not decayed and broken down yet. Third of all, that I'd been romanticizing the idea of 'bandits'. Not to the extent that would normally merit the phrase romanticizing, mind you, but I expected literary highwaymen behavior: robbing and roughing up those too weak to fight back. The kinds that waylaid the heroes, only to be fought back, or whose victims limped into town to kick off a low-level quest. _Real_ bandits were murderous monsters, those who rejected society and more importantly societies _morality._ The fact that these people hadn't been killed wherever they'd been attacked, but brought back to the bandit's hideout, did _not_ suggest good things.

Pulling myself back into the wall, if only to escape the smell, I focused harder on the other insects in the tunnel. Two people in the lit section, a third in a room off to the side. Paying attention to the empty spaces that pockmarked the area around the tunnels unnaturally, I found a tick, fat and happy all on its lonesome in its own personal cave.

Moving to it, my Acoustokinesis kicked in, bringing the sounds of someone whimpering to my ears through the stone, coming from the same direction as the tick. I flew into the pocket, finding two people on the ground, and stopped at what I saw. It looked to be a couple, hikers, if the boots they both still wore were any indication. The man, naked except his boots and spandex shorts, laid on the ground, eyes open and unseeing, twitching slightly. The woman was beside him, sitting so she was touching him but curled in on herself, shreds of a jacket wrapped around herself. Both looked to be about my age, and at a glance both seemed to be in bad shape.

Doing this as either Vejovis or Boardwalk would bring down more attention than I wanted, but there were _several_ reasons I'd come up with multiple identities. Shifting my costume to my old red-lion hoody and jeans from the first day, I sparked a sun to shed some light in the pitch-black chamber, announcing my presence. The woman screamed, her voice ragged and broken, curling herself tighter. I paused, looking through the bugs I'd tasked to watch the three bandits, but they hadn't noticed. I slapped a Sound Bubble around the chamber, just in case. I took a few steps towards her, the purple sun drifting up to the top of the chamber, highlighting the couple.

What I'd taken for spandex shorts on the man revealed themselves to be blacked, withered flesh, with similar small circles and lines of damage littering the man's chest, ripped skin around his neck and wrists, his socks torn and bloody as well. The woman had similar chafing, along with streaks of reddened, puffy skin that had started to darken to blue and black on her back.

The man seemed still alive, but with injuries like I saw I wasn't sure how long he'd stay that way, so I started with him. Kneeling down, ignoring her, I laid a hand on his chest. He twitched harder at the contact, the blackened skin flaking away like dust beneath my fingertips. I touched the flesh beneath and started channeling 'Get Better' through my Biokinesis. I wasn't sure just using the body's own natural healing processes would help, and with damage this bad, I was pretty sure I'd need Panacea to fix, but the man was dead if I did nothing so I turned it on fully and let it flow. The power poured into him even faster than it had gone into Marissa, like a stream of life filling an almost dry well.

Almost immediately his spasming stopped, his shallow breathing slowly deepening over the course of a few minutes. The girl still remained a tight ball, but if she had the strength to press herself together, she'd keep a bit longer. Astonishingly, not only did what I was doing work, it started to regrow the missing flesh, my hand pushed up slightly as the wound I'd put my hand over healed. His pelvis, which had been a mass of dead flesh, slowly started to shift, the dusted tissues breaking apart as he healed. It took a good half an hour, by my best guess, but he looked intact. Emaciated, and each of the small wounds had left small scars, but intact. His pelvis had a ring of scarred tissue as well where the regrown flesh butted up against the rest of his skin. The regrown flesh looked new but unmarred, all his bits intact, which, as a man, I was happy I could restore. What had remained of his original genitalia was now just blackened dust on the ground.

I let go of him, feeling drained in a way I couldn't describe, but the feeling slowly faded. "Ma'am," I tried, but the woman didn't respond, just whimpering in a ball. I reached a hand out over the man and touched her shoulder and she screamed like I'd burned her, flailing wildly. Moving over him I grabbed her wrists and directing her away slightly so she wouldn't kick and injure the man I'd just finished healing. She screamed more, crying, weeping, and utterly insensate to anything around her. I ignored her as I tried to heal her.

As she thrashed about, I saw what she'd been covering up. The marks, which I recognized now as _severe_ frostbite, not only littered her back but ran all across her breasts and pelvis, her genitalia blackened from extreme cold.

I made the connection to the man's state and calmly decided that the bandits would not be going to jail as I'd first planned, directing the police to the cave full of corpses. Their powers were forfeit, _along with their lives_.

The woman continued to thrash, her blows, not enough to drain my shields, growing weaker. I looked down, concerned, but she seemed physically to be improving, the fight was just draining out of her as her skin slowly shifted color, puffy sections shrinking, the damage seeming to move in reverse as it deflated. Like the man, my healing left scars, but they were minimal. I could possibly remove the scars, but without a reference I was just as likely to miss something important and change her features slightly, and as far as I knew Vejovis was the only _plastic surgery_ cape in New England.

Moving the now sleeping woman next to the man, who was similarly unconscious, I put out the sun, wrapped them both in Lift Fields, and turned us all into Shadow. Flying back the way I came, I found Ashland easy enough. While I wasn't sure if they had a local clinic, _every_ town had a police department. I just looked for the parked police cars and dropped down. The houses all around still had their lights on, so I knew that, despite the cold, _someone_ would help them if the cops didn't.

Avoiding the camera, singular, I laid the two of them out in the parking lot and manifested a Desert Eagle. Firing the red and purple weapon three times in the air, I could hear cursing from nearby so I took off into the night. Looking down from above, two police came out, guns drawn. Seeing the people I'd saved one kept looking around while the other rushed over to them, calling for help from inside. A third person came out, and the two carried the people inside, the third covering them all the while. He didn't look _up_ , but then again people rarely do.

I had a momentary temptation to go to the police, talk to them about what happened, and do this the official way. I squashed that, _hard_. Everything I'd seen since I'd arrived here told me that they'd just go 'not my problem' and call the PRT, who'd put me under a microscope, metaphorically speaking. They'd either try to turn the murderous rapists to work for them, or put them in jail, only for them to break out again. Hell, the PRT might try to pressure _me_ to join, claiming the fact that I kept these two from dying was, I don't know, 'tampering with evidence' or something equally stupid.

No, they weren't going to wiggle out of this. They would face the consequences of what they'd done. They'd been doing this for god knows how long, and it was stopping _tonight._

* * *

I returned to the Bandit's cave and did a thorough sweep through all the sealed off mini-caves I could find. Other than another body off in another cave, this one having liquified from rot but without insects to feed off the corpse, I approached the soon to be dead parahumans. Sneaking in Shadowform, I had more than enough time to take in the setup. It'd been made to not be seen easily from the tunnel to the surface it opened up to, the interior smooth, likely power created, instead of the rough, pick-hewn stone of the rest of the mine. The television played some kind of reality show, which two of the bandits, a man and a woman, were sitting on a leather couch and watching together.

The man, who's Granite & Amber Flames of Mineral Manipulation spread out around him, was small and reedy looking, not at all what's I'd associate with rock powers. Curled up next to him, her head in his lap, was a woman in her early thirties, average looking but with a sharp nose. Her Ice Projectile Projection Flames lazily twisted in the air, Blue & Silver interweaving.

Moving to the room off to the side, one of several that branched from the main chamber, a woman, mid-twenties maybe, slept in her bed, sheets tangled around her legs. Slightly heavier, though more bulky than fat, she wasn't really overweight. Her blond hair was splayed out across her pillow, the Green & Purple Flames of her Toxikentic Exoskeleton hugging her tightly.

 _Toxin for the man, Ice for the woman, and Rocks to hold them in place,_ I noted, taking stock of their powers calmly, my emotions distant as I went through the mental checklist of what I needed to do. Having Seen their powers, all that was left was to see them in action and do onto them as they had done to others. _No_ , I mentally corrected idly. _I'm not going to rob, rape, and torture them. I'm just going to kill them._ _However, I suppose I could try out a new identity in the process. Make their deaths more useful than their lives were. What persona to use?_

I'd been throwing around ideas for a while in my head while I trained, and while I didn't have the song memorized yet to play with Acoustokinesis, this situation called for a man of, shall we say, Wealth and Taste. I let out a deep breath, taking on the persona that was offering itself up to me, burying myself beneath it and letting _it_ finish the checklist. With that done, I noted that what these idiots did no longer horrified me, merely offended me. . . _professionally_. Returning to the entryway, I did the polite thing, and knocked, enhancing the sound to ring throughout their little hidey-hole.

The two on the couch froze, the one in her bed turning over, not waking up. After a moment, the two relaxed, likely assuming they'd imagined it. I knocked again.

The man surged to his feet, dumping the ice creator onto the rug in front of him as he grabbed the remote and muting the tv. _Rookie mistake._ I waited, and he stared at the doorway, the third one _finally_ waking up. I waited a long moment. The fallen woman got to her feet, looking at the doorway cautiously, not saying anything.

The poison creator opened her door, wearing only a shirt and panties, yawning. "The fuck do you want Fred?" she asked.

"Shh!" he hissed back, eyes not leaving the doorway. _No sensory powers then. **Good**._

"Don't you shh me! You fu-" was as far as she got before I knocked a third time.

The rocks around me all pressed inwards in what I'm sure would've been a _deadly_ surprise attack, if I wasn't already in Shadowform except for my knuckles, which slipped into intangibility as I crossed my arms, waiting. The rocks ground together, loudly, before flying back the way they came. The guy let out a sigh and opened his mouth to speak again when I knocked once more, exactly the same as before.

The rocks descended, and I reached through the door just far enough to resolidify a fingertip and flick the deadbolt open. I stepped through the grinding rocks, opening the unlocked door and becoming real as I did so, clothing myself in a full tuxedo, a clear helmet extending around my head but not touching my hair, with holes for my mouth and eyes. "Well, that was just rude," I commented.

Unfettered, I Saw their powers in _full_. The Mineral Manipulator didn't need motions, but used them as a mental crutch, his hands clenched to try to crush the rocks behind me. His power lashed out and flung a ceramic knife from the kitchen to my right towards my head. I turned to Shadow, letting it pass through me before catching it by the handle. I also copied his power. He'd shown he couldn't handle it, so I was more than willing to take it off his hands.

"Who taught you how to receive guests?" I tut-tutted, idly flicking the blade towards him. He tried to grab control of the knife, but my copy of Mineral Manipulation battered his away, letting the blade fly straight and nick his ear.

The other two immediately manifested their powers, which was quite accommodating of them. Razor sharp icicles formed around the one woman's head, all pointing towards me, while the other exuded a dark green substance which hardened into crystals over her hands and feet. As I copied their powers, I couldn't help but feel sympathy for their Shards. The Ice could be _so much more_ than simple, _caveman_ level knives, and only using the poison on her extremities? And in such _basic_ shapes? I was really doing their Shards a favor by freeing them from such _uninspired_ hosts.

The odd thought crossed my mind and I blinked, focusing on the here and now and the pieces of human garbage I needed to get rid of. "Anyways, I just _happened_ to be in the neighborhood when I found this _delightful_ little hovel of yours," I said, ignoring the open 'threats' of their powers. The Toxikentic actually had a low-key poison aura directly around her, which I supposed was nice, but I wasn't sure if that was on purpose or not.

"So, I took care of your used toys, _dreadfully_ uncultured of you to leave them in such a state," I commented, "and I found mys-"

 _"Get to the fucking pointI_ " the half-clothed woman snapped. She started to say something else, but I dragged the air out from around her in a bubble, thinning it to something similar to that found at the height I'd been last night when I took care of Heartbreaker.

As she gasped and fell to her knees, mouth working uselessly for breath which wouldn't come, the other woman flung her crude ice knives in my direction. Flexing Marissa's power, several small, blood red suns winked into being in front of me, effortlessly blocking the ice knives as I truly made my suns _dance_. I rather enjoyed the practice, trying to move them in concert. I missed a few, but caught the first one that slipped past my defense in my white gloved hand, using it to deflect three more before tossing it over my shoulder. Unlike Brix she couldn't reform them after they'd been created. While it lessened the utility of her power, I wasn't going to turn down taking it for my own, freely offered as it was.

She stopped firing, which she could do rapid fire once she'd created the first few, remaking others in their place. I let the other woman breathe, as she was starting to discolor, eyes bloodshot, and she gulped in the air greedily. The two still standing just stared at me like cornered rabbits. _And now you feel the other side. Pity that you've already passed the point of any possible redemption._

"I found myself wondering," I said, as if I hadn't been _rudely_ interrupted. "Just exactly _why_ you three would be doing all of this? The stealing and hiding, that makes sense. So many villains go that route. It is, after all, so horribly. . . _easy_ ," I gave, spitting out the last word. I cleared my throat. "Anyways, why the rape? Not only that, why be so _destructive_ about it. Why not just get a few and keep them? It'd draw less attention, for certain." _And would've meant you would live through the night._

While still horrible, I could heal the victims and they could've testified in court, the justice system theoretically acting as defined. The _brutality_ of what they'd done, combined with the sheer amount of death, meant that whatever prison sentence they got, it would be too light. You didn't reform mad dogs, after all, you put them _down._

"Fuck you," the toxic woman spat, ignoring the warning look the rock controller sent her. "You think you're better than us, yo-"

"I _know_ I'm better than you, my dear," I corrected. "But if you'd please answer the que-"

"Eat shit and die!" she screamed, throwing herself at me. She led with her claws, predictably, which I caught. She grew claws from her feet and kicked at my legs, the thin cloth of my pants not tearing and the armor hidden below taking the blow. She looked down in confusion and kicked again, the cloth moving but hitting something unyielding beneath, which she might be assuming was my leg. Growing her claws out, she tried to scratch my face, but I turned them sideways, missing me.

She hadn't realized that she wasn't limited to a linear shape, and so the long claws didn't branch out to try to hit me again. Letting go of one of her wrists, a band of hardened air keeping it in place as she tugged desperately at what would look like nothing, I reached out and snapped one of the claws off. To her confusion, I held it up and bit into it like it was a sugar crystal, chewing it.

"Tangy, but with a hint sweetness," I told her, tossing the rest to my side. "Oh, I'm sorry, was that supposed to do something. Are you telling me your power _isn't_ to make candy weapons?" Her look of disbelieving outrage was hilarious, but I'd clearly reached the limit of her power. I could see the crystals running down her skin in thin lines, working to puppet her to make her stronger that hadn't been there a moment ago, but, like her soon to be cold companions, it seemed to be driven more by instinctual fear than panicked inventiveness.

Reaching out, I took hold of the top of her head and, quickly, so as to not be overly painful, snapped her neck.

Tossing her corpse to the side, I addressed the other two. "So, about my quest-oh for hell's sake!" I sighed as more ice daggers were thrown my way, the roof simultaneously collapsing in on me, crushing the body of the dead toxikentic to paste.

Once more turned to Shadow, I strode out of the rocks. "If it didn't work the first time, what made you thin-" and he did it again.

 _Thoroughly_ annoyed, I flew out, tentacles of metal projected out of my back in arcing wings, ignoring the ice which impacted my body uselessly. The tendrils that made a roughly 'wing' shape shot out, stabbing through the icicle-thrower, spreading out slightly to get a better grip inside her. It stopped the icicles, but also made her incapable of doing more than gasping in pain as I'd speared both lungs.

Not _only_ would I not get the answers I wanted, but I was causing her undue pain, all because I had gotten annoyed. "My apologies" I told her, honestly sorry about my lapse of control, before pulling the now-hooked in tendrils running through her bodies in different directions. As she splattered half the room, dying in an instant, my last target turned around and ran, _physically_ , before locking himself in his room.

 _Do I **really** need an answer_, I questioned myself. From the damage it seemed like his two compatriots did most of the. . . damage, while he held them down. _That or the more horrific damage covered up his own malfeasance_ , I mused. Lee hadn't exactly performed a thorough examination of the girl, merely healed her to the best of his ability, leaving any of the _male's. . ._ evidence unseen. Approaching the door, he finally remembered he had superpowers and dove down into the ground to try to escape me, the flies I'd stuck to his clothing allowing me to track him easily.

Not only that, but while he had to _dig_ through the earth, I could just _fly._ His direction was linear, so I flew ahead and found a garage, of a sort. A windowless van was parked, pointing towards the exit, and piles of ill-gotten goods were stacked haphazardly around the area, waiting to be moved up to the base. Taking this in mind, I entered the van and took a seat in the back, waiting for him.

Sure enough he stumbled out a minute later, feeling his pockets for something. _Please tell me he didn't forget his keys._ He _did_ , but he grabbed a spare set from a nearby table, rushing into the driver's seat, turning it on, and flooring it. I let him drive for a few minutes, putting the cave far behind him, before I silently moved forward, leaning over his shoulder and asking, "So, where are we going?"

He screamed like a small child, a shrill, mindless sound of absolute terror as he swerved and hit a tree. Not willing to be done with him so easily, it was easy to grab the back of his shirt and drop us both to Shadowform, landing safely on the other side. I touched down lightly as he fell face-first into the grass, rolling around to face me. Scrabbling backwards his power flailed out, sending every rock, stone, and pebble at me in a desperate, if useless, bid for survival.

I flexed my own version of his power and they froze, hanging in the air, our powers perfectly balanced. Pushing against the floating minerals with air as well, I won this little contest of wills, locking down the area around us. "Now, I _do_ believe I asked you a question," I informed him, stepping forward and resting my hands on his cheeks, effortlessly lifting him to his feet, and then off the ground, pulling back my gloves enough to make physical contact. I stared in his eyes, the radiance from my own actually bright enough to shine in the darkness and light up his face in an ever-shifting rainbow. I drained him of every ounce of skill he had with his power.

The poison armor was problematic on so many levels, especially with the necrotizing effect it had. While a good holdout, it was _not_ the power of a Hero. While that didn't mean I wouldn't use it, the PR cost had to be accounted for as well. The ice was interesting, but seemed purely offensive. _This_ power though, I could already see working with. Kaiser's Metal Creation, Brix's Tree Growth & Control, and this pitiful soul's Mineral Manipulation, it would all come together for a _wonderful_ persona.

I'd have someone to help rebuild Brockton Bay with steel, stone, and timber after it was wrecked by Leviathan's waves. Cementing the Penumbral Defenders as the group that helped the people while the PRT took their money in taxes, giving nothing back. I'd wondered what third power Dryad would have, and with this I could have her be completely separate, physically, at least, from Vejovis.

The whimpering of the man I held distracted me from my thoughts. "I'm ever so sorry, could you repeat that? I was miles away," I apologized.

"It was them, it was all them, they made me do it!" he cried out.

I was _pretty_ sure that was a complete falsehood, but I _did_ have a method to check. I started to drain his ability to lie as I gave him a sympathetic look, still not letting him go, his feet dangling several inches from the ground. "That sounds _terrible._ How did they do so?"

"They made me!" he stated, echoing his previous statement. "Said they'd do _things_ if I didn't. Bad things!"

"They said they'd do _bad things?_ " I mocked, the drain increasing as he used the deception skills I was currently drawing from him. "Whatever could you do in the face of such malevolence?" Not wishing to get any more of this _particular_ skill, _thank you very much_ , I switched back to draining his skill with his power, already starting to get the feeling of slowly diminishing returns. _He had that little? For shame!_

"You, you did something to me!" the small man, on _so_ many levels, cried in panic, legs kicking uselessly. He tried to use his power against me, but instead of the many tendrils of Fire he'd wielded before it moved sluggishly in small gouts that fumbled with even the simplest stones as I got that 'digging the bottom' sensation.

"I've done _many_ things to you," I agreed, "and _all_ of them deserved. Don't worry, I'll only do one more thing."

He almost looked relieved as I snapped his neck, carrying him back to his car. It was well and truly wrecked, but I didn't need it to _drive_ , I just needed it in relatively one piece. Tossing him in the back, I wrenched it free of the tree, moving to sit in the passenger seat, the drivers seat well and truly crushed. Extending a Lift Field around it, I 'drove' it back to the garage he'd hidden it in.

It took about half an hour to gather the most valuable, portable items and store them in a few sacks the bandits had had lying around, apparently not being so forward thinking as to get actual zippered _bags._ With that done, I hardened the air in the garage, leading a long line of it out and trailing to the entrance of the mine. No longer needing to preserve evidence, I ransacked their hidey-hole as well, ignoring the corpses, before hardening the air throughout their base and leading it back in a line out to the entrance, joining the first. From there I extend a single line up in the air and out, and, with everything set up, dropped the _magnificent_ persona I'd crafted to complete this task.

As the artificial mindset dropped away, with all of its idiosyncrasies, beliefs, and ways of doing things, I felt a bit sick to my stomach. I. . . _suppose_ that worked. Maybe crafting a persona modeled after the Great Adversary _wasn't_ the best of ideas, as was **_blindingly obvious_** in hindsight. The level of brutality, of malignance, over outright _evil_ that it took to serially kidnap and rape to death innocents was a bit hard to handle, so I'd let someone else handle it, in a way. The question for _him_ hadn't been 'dear god how could you do something like that to another person?', it's been 'why had you been so _stupid_ about it?' which, to be honest, was a much easier question to handle at the time.

I looked at the bag in my hand, filled with the valuables of the bandit's innocent victims, with mild disgust. Money was fairly neutral, but the jewelry and other items seemed more. . . _personal_. I'd already gathered it, so, waste not want not, I guess. It wasn't like I could return it without identifying myself as the one who'd done this, after all. Looking at the solution to the problem of leaving behind evidence that he'd. . . _I'd_ made, it made sense that it would all end in fire. Lighting a small purple sun, I touched it to the tip of the hardened air, a thread no bigger than a pencil. It caught, exploding outwards with enough force to push me back slightly in the air, but that was it.

More importantly, it set off a long chain of explosions, a rolling thunder that increased in sound as the thread got thicker, part branching off towards the garage. The sound muted as it entered the mine, still audible but with a slightly ringing quality, until it hit the living quarters.

The mountain didn't so much explode as seem to shrug slightly, parts of it lifting up and dropping down further than they were before, but not by much. With a roaring sound an inferno shot out the opening of the mine, throwing rocks in every direction, followed by a massive plume of dust which smothered the flames of the brush which had caught fire.

A secondary explosion went off before the first one finished, with much the same result. It was. . . disappointing. _Next time I blow up a mountain, I'm going to need a lot more explosives_ , I noted, the slightly saner part of me pointing out, _or just, you know, **don't** blow up a mountain._

I scoffed to myself as I headed back to Brix's house, _But where's the fun in that?_


	117. Reconnoiter 10-12

**Reconnoiter 10.12**

Getting back and dropping the loot in the trunk of my car, I considered what I should do next. It was still the middle of the night, and I really didn't have anything to do. Returning to the area that Herb & I had trained in, I rolled up my metaphoric sleeves, shifted my formal suit to my civilian clothes, and got to work putting my newly stolen skills to the test.

Immediately, the difference between starting blind with a new power, like I normally did, and having drained the original user of their skills was readily apparent. Reaching out I could vaguely feel the rocks around me, the feedback much less than Aerokinesis, really only mentally highlighting what I could use my power on. The dead man had never done that much construct work, favoring basic manipulations like he'd shown, or rock-cuffs. In trying to form a strong foundation for a building I could feel the stolen skill hesitating, trying to figure out how to do it. On the other hand, I now knew _exactly_ how to bind someone's hands and feet in order to leave them vulnerable to sexual assault. . . so. . . _yeah._

Moving on mentally, trying to strip off some of the 'tags' my stolen skills gave me for how to use the techniques, I levitated and moved some of the rocks around me. The purer the rock, the easier it was to move. Quartz was quite easy, whereas I could barely do more than nudge dirt. _Explains why burrowing wasn't his first move,_ I mused. _You'd need a stone floor to pull It off._ On a whim, I grew some iron from one of the rocks. It emerged seamlessly, the surface of the fist-sized stone rippling as the dark metal extruded. Narrowing the grown metal until it snapped off, I wasn't surprised by what I found.

To Mineral Manipulation, the hunk of metal now sitting in the grass might as well not exist.

It was, after all, right there in the name, I reminded myself. _Mineral_ Manipulation. While some might argue that Iron could be considered a mineral, the power didn't really care. On a whim I tried to create some pyrite, only to fail. Gold however, was easily done, but invisible to Mineral Manipulation. I walked over and grabbed the gold, burning it in a sun. No one would care about a bit of iron in the middle of nowhere. The same _wouldn't_ be true of gold.

To make Dryad work, I'd need to use Tree Growth & Control to create and control the skeleton, making the rest of the body out of metals & minerals. I'd also need to get used to making and controlling her independently of my own body, but there was _no_ way I was going to practice with Brix's power in the middle of Brix's forest.

It took a bit of effort to break off a bit of Bedrock and lift it up through the dirt, though with my current skill level it was a nice, evenly sized piece. Almost subconsciously I broke off the bumps on the side facing me, the rocks falling away and revealing a completely smooth surface. _I didn't really mean to do that,_ I observed, halting my power from shaving off the sides as well. _Do I pick up a person's idiosyncrasies when I steal their skills? That could be. . . bad._ It'd require more testing to check, which would mean stealing skills from more people. Shelving that issue, I turned back to something that I _could_ focus on.

Taking a seat, I pulled up Ice Projectile Projection. The air shimmered around me and ice shards seemed to slip into being, not really forming but appearing to glide in from somewhere else. Having seen this use, I could ape it immediately, but that's where my knowledge ended. _I need to drain more of my kills_ , I thought. Hopefully I wouldn't _have_ to do so again, but I knew I was being optimistic.

Thankfully, the ice that formed was the opaque blue-white of special effects ice, instead of the red or purple of my own color. The ice wasn't clear, like _real_ ice should be, but powers seemed to ignore reality and pattern themselves after media, more often than not. Maybe it had to do with how they patterned themselves off their hosts, with most host's view of reality more shaped by Hollywood than scientific accuracy? Regardless, a mental command sent them hurling at the rock, making small gashes as they struck and shattered, which was _damn_ good for ice shards.

Focusing on the creation process, I tried to form them into new shapes. I started with daggers, and that resulted in longer, thinner, more misshapen ice shards. They still flew true though, which was odd, considering their differing shape. Abandoning the blade concept, I tried for spheres, getting lumpy balls of ice instead. They flew true as well, striking the target before shattering. Several more attempts resulted similar results. The more annoyed I got, the more misshapen my balls became.

 _Wait, that's data I can use._ Calming myself down, the balls became smoother. Trying to become as peaceful as possible helped, but didn't give me a sphere. I kept forming and firing them, one at a time, as I considered this. There was no _obvious_ feedback, but was there something I was missing? Despite my best efforts, if there was more sensory information, I couldn't see it. Trying other shapes worked just about as well. My pyramids had convex sides, my cubes were concave, and while the points of the shuriken I tried for were sharp enough, the center seemed melted together. They all flew flawlessly.

The Caveman-like stone knife configuration, however, I could make without issue. I made more of these, my power going on autopilot as I did so. The process took a second and a half, but could be done simultaneously in different locations easy enough, creating, while not a machine gun, was still fairly fast. The ice formed and fired in a circular sequence, the effect was very much like a crank-operated rotary canon, with my power doing the 'cranking'.

Following the process, it seemed pretty simple. Call, aim, fire, repeat. Firing was simple, it was just a 'go' command, giving Newton's third law a nice middle finger. Aim was slightly more complex. I didn't have to micromanage the vectors, just designate a target and let fly. That _also_ meant that I couldn't designate exact flight paths. . . or did it?

Half an hour taught me that, _yes_ , I _could_ try to micromanage the flight paths, but that doing so was a _massive_ pain in the ass. Also, my aim needed work. Honestly, the only reason I was even hitting the ten-foot square target was my training with Air Blades, which had similar mechanics, only the ice shards didn't even have the feedback that Acoustokinesis provided.

Turning to the last step, calling the projectile into existence, that was also a lot more complicated. The process happened so quickly it was hard to follow, the power fluctuating in repeating patterns in my head. Going over it, over and over again, I pinpointed the steps. A half an instant before it appeared the image of the shard flashed across the back of my mind. The shard then appeared, exactly as I saw it in my head, each shard physically identical.

Taking it off autopilot, I tried making a ball. Now that I was looking for it, I could feel the power almost take a screenshot of what I was thinking of, making it real. Taking my time to picture a perfect sphere, like I was using Momentum Infusion, I held the image in my mind before calling it forth. The air parted and a perfectly smooth sphere slid out in front of me, hanging there, waiting to be used.

Reaching out I plucked it like picking an apple, turning it over in my hand. It was still an opaque light blue, and, on a whim, I licked it.

It tasted like water. _Whelp. That didn't help._ It wasn't salt water, so I suppose I learned something, but I still wasn't sure why it was _blue._ Being immune to diseases & poisons meant I didn't have to worry about any of that, but my tendency _not_ to lick random things in the past meant it was a sense I hadn't really developed. Putting that off for later, I focused and made another sphere, the power doing most of the work for me this time. Holding up the first sphere, the second one seemed identical. Making a third took even less effort, and it was the same in appearance as the second.

Concentrating and overriding the power I made another sphere, trying to concentrate on it. This one wasn't as nice, slightly oblong. Trying to create another sphere, it almost felt like the power hesitated, making another of the first type. For the next one I made it pick the other, and an oblong sphere, similar to the one I'd made before last, appeared again.

 _It saves designs,_ I realized with a smile. Now _this_ had potential.

* * *

I returned back to Brix's house with the sunrise, _very_ happy with what I'd figured out. While I couldn't use them willy-nilly, it'd been nice to work on pure testing instead of having to deal with the scum of the earth. The fact that I could override the natural throwing mechanism of the ice with Momentum Infusion just made things _ridiculous **but**_ made the power instantly lethal to all but high-tier Brutes _._ I did hope that Brix didn't mind me destroying those trees. I thought that three feet of solid stone would've been enough, but I _might've_ gone a bit overboard.

Entering the house, Brix was making breakfast and just gave me a _look_. "Sorry," I apologized, almost reflexively. "Still getting used to the full extent of my powers."

"You be takin' care of that them there villains?" he grunted.

I paused for a second, trying to figure out exactly how much I should say, before going for the explanation that made the most sense, given my known powers. "Found them, found their latest victims, healed the victims and dropped them off with the police, then took care of the bandits."

He gave me a long look before flipping the pancake he was cooking. "You sure those boys bein' able to hold the villains? Be a shame to go through all the trouble to be catchin' 'em only for 'em to get loose."

I paused again, getting an unimpressed look from Brix as he likely assumed I hadn't thought that far ahead. "Right, so, I dropped their _victims_ off at the police, since I didn't know where the local doctor was and who to contact. I assumed they would."

The retired hero nodded, turning back to his cooking. "And the Villains."

"No longer a problem," I stated. "Pity the mine they were in collapsed."

"Cryin' shame," Brix agreed, smiling slightly. "You be wantin' bacon?"

* * *

It was shortly after ten when Herb & Hedera returned, Brix and I packing up the maple syrup that my friend and I had made. We'd be taking home three gallons of the stuff, and it was odd to be taking home something I'd actually made _without_ powers.

Pulling up, they got out, Herb looking amused. "You have a good time?" I couldn't help but ask.

"Did you?" he asked in return. "Heard on the news two people that had gone missing turned up, 'miraculously healed'." He used air quotes and everything.

"I was bored," I shrugged. "Sue me." He just laughed and shook his head. "Hedera, when do you think you'll be ready to go. We need to be back in Brockton Bay tomorrow, but I figure we could stop by Portland on our way back."

She looked unsure until I mentioned Portland, getting visibly excited. "Just a few hours. Is it okay if I leave some stuff here daddy?"

Brix hid a smile and nodded with great importance. "I suppose if you be needin' to, then it needin' to be done."

"Thank you!" she smiled, giving her father a quick hug and heading inside.

Herb watched her go, then looked at Brix, who stared right back at his new son-in-law, before said son-in-law headed after her with a call of "I'll help!"

* * *

Two and a half hours later we left, her taking her car and following behind me. Herb, as her husband, _of course_ went with her. I insisted. The drive was oddly peaceful. Arriving at the Hyatt, we parked and moved to get rooms for the night, with one slight hiccup. When I asked for three single-bed rooms Hedera spoke up with a "hey!" I looked at her, and she looked at me, and motioned with her eyes to Herb. I waited and she finally mumbled, "We're married."

Behind her Herb was giving a subtle head shake, his expression saying _no._ Turning back to the person behind the counter, I said, "Two rooms. One king. One with two queens."

Hedera looked unhappy when I handed her the key for the two bed room, but not nearly as much as Herb did. _Ah, compromise._ After we dropped our bags off, we split up with plans to meet for dinner. As his new wife dragged him off to the local Art museum I waved to him with a grin. He did perk up when he found where she was taking him, so he'd likely have at least an okay time.

Slipping away and down a few alleys, I found a blind alley and slid into the ground, heading towards a tiny little forest we'd driven by on the highway. Reaching it I relaxed, reclining on air while in Shadowform, focusing on the insects I'd been using to scout as I set up a Sound Bubble, just in case. Pulling Tree Growth & Control online I felt the trees above me, the wood forming out-of-focus shapes in my mind, fuzzy and indistinct, like the world was for me without my glasses, back when I needed glasses.

Fumbling blindly with my power while focusing on the tree above me, I watched it with my insects as I tried to make it grow. The tree next to the one I was aiming for grew slightly, leaves rustling and with a slight cracking sound. As it did so, the image of the tree sharpening weirdly, a disk of the wood sharpening into clarity. _The part I grew_ , I realized. Instead of trying to just 'grow' the tree, I focused on making a branch instead.

An arm, just like my own, shot out of the side of the tree. It was crystal clear and I could move it like it was attached to me, though the sensation I felt was muted, like it had fallen asleep. _Wrong kind of limb,_ I chided myself. Picturing a tree's limb like I'd picture an Ice projectile, and aiming it to come out elsewhere on the trunk, the growth shot outward in an instant, appearing to be a normal branch. Just like the arm and the disk-like growth, this created part of the tree stood out starkly in my mind. With a bit of focus it twisted back and forth, like a wooden, leafy tentacle.

. . . _probably should stick with fake arms_ , I decided, my years on the internet telling me this was something I didn't want to develop further. Trying to dismiss the two different limbs, I hit a bit of a snag. The power was Tree _Growth_. Checking the area, I levitated through the ground to the tree, making a quick blade from air and hacking off the obviously unnatural arm. As I did so I could feel the blade bit into it, the shock causing my blade to lose cohesion, blasting the rest of the limb off and stripping the bark from the tree in a foot in every direction.

The sound of the minor detonation was contained by my sound control, thankfully, and I picked up the removed Limb, the remains of which I could still sense, and dragged it down with me underground. Letting go, it dropped out of insubstantiality, packing the dirt around it as it displaced the matter to make room for itself.

Knowing I'd have to bury it as well, I focused on the tree I'd been working on and called forth a copy of Brix's Armor. Using the techniques I'd Seen him using, it effortlessly stepped out of the tree, the coloration slightly different due to it coming from a different species of tree but otherwise identical. It too stood out starkly in my mind, but the only way I could see anything _around_ it was by using the insects all around it, watching its movements as I tried to make it walk.

Trying to maneuver it like a Resident Evil character was difficult, collating the two different senses while moving it from afar taking several dozen minutes during which the armor managed a total of five steps in a row before falling over. While I could move the timber using what I assumed was telekinesis, given that the wood lacked any _real_ method to walk, I couldn't just levitate it to set it back on its feet.

Moving a few insects into the armor's eye holes helped immensely, giving me a pseudo first person perspective, though the insects' eyes weren't exactly the best, the image from each individual insect blurry, better for picking up movement than details. Adding another pair of bugs, one for each eye, helped a bit more, giving me a bit of a headache as I tried to handle four sets of eyes all at once. However, taking my time to force it to make sense, the image settled itself, clarifying slightly. It wasn't enough to spot fine details with, but would hopefully be more than enough to use in a fight. Finer images could be put together by other insects if I needed them, but too many would make the contents of the armor's eye sockets _disturbingly_ obvious.

With this new setup I could better maneuver, starting to create the illusion of life in the armor's movements instead of obviously being the puppet it was. Time rolled by as I put it through its paces, and after several _hours_ it was good enough to use in combat, though only because 'Dryad' could be completely blown away, only to 'reform' shortly afterwards. Immortality capes were rare, but enough of them existed that it wouldn't raise _too_ many eyebrows.

Underground, still in shadow, my phone beeped, telling me it was time to meet back with the others, having had enough time to 'bond as couple'. Replicating the 'burrow' move Brix had pulled, the armor snapped its legs and arms together, the soles of the armor's feet growing into drills which spun and tore through the ground, dropping the armor out of sight. I hadn't noticed during the spar, given the snow and everything else, but doing so left a _very_ obvious hole in the ground. Tapping Mineral Manipulation, I nudged the dirt back into the hole, having to strain it slightly to do even that.

I was tempted to have the armor un-burrow, to see how it was done, but that was something I'd have to do back in Brockton Bay. I hoped that the evidence wouldn't be obvious, and any more and it would only be a matter of time until someone noticed that _something_ had happened here, even if they weren't sure what.

* * *

Finding the address Herb had sent me, I spotted where the two of them had claimed a table in the dimly lit restaurant. It wasn't until the waitress came over to ask for our order that I realized that this was where Kara Beau worked in her civilian identity. Out of costume she looked younger, and a lot better than when I saw her last, though she wasn't being hunted from a werewolf out of her worst nightmares, so that likely helped. I caught Hedera frowning when Herb looked at Kara when the waitresses back was turned, likely making sure that what he'd done hadn't hurt her too bad as well. It took me a second to figure things out, whereupon I couldn't help but laugh.

Herb shot me a look, and I dropped a Sound Bubble around us, Hedera jumping slightly as the world muted a little. "He's not checking her out," I told the florakinetic. "One of our contacts was here a few days ago and saved her from someone else _far_ above her in combat strength. We're just making sure she's okay."

"What? Huh? No!" Herb sputtered, shaking his head. "She's not my type!"

I nodded sagely, "He prefers brunettes."

My friend nodded quickly in agreement, Hedera smiling and idly playing with her black hair. Herb immediately stopped nodding and shot a betrayed look my way. I raised an eyebrow, having referred to Kayden, only realizing after I'd said it that that also applied to Hedera, who'd turned back to her meal. 'Sorry' I mouthed, getting a small sigh and shrug in return from him.

It was very clear that while she'd been told that Herb wasn't _really_ marrying her, she still liked him, despite him nearly being old enough to be her _father_. On one hand, that was awkward as all hell, on the other not only was she eighteen, so technically of age, but the sheer karmic pleasure I was getting out of this after all his comments about Taylor couldn't be denied.

Herb clearly didn't want to encourage her, but didn't want to upset her either, and she kept on taking general comments as personal compliments. Even accepting a bit of her dinner that she made him take, after he said it was good, had her blushing about her complimenting her good taste. Finishing dinner, we tipped well, leaving a 'keep up the good work' note as we left. Returning back to the hotel, I took a quick shower before heading over to their room and knocking. "You two decent?" I called.

"No," was Hedera's response, only for the door to open as Herb said, _"Yes."_

Shaking my head, I walked in, taking a seat on the air. Herb sat on his bed, only for Hedera to move off of hers to sit next to him. I repressed a smile as I asked him, "How much should I tell her about what's going on with the Penumbral Defenders? She's your wife, it's your call."

He gave me a sour look, sighing and hanging his head before responding, "She's a very loyal person, from what I've seen so far, but we still need more time."

She preened under the compliment, seeming not to notice the fact that his answer was essentially "don't tell her anything." He wasn't managing _me_ anymore, but he was still managing others, though I didn't object as he obviously meant well, and I couldn't fault his reasons. "You've got all night," I shrugged. "Is there anyone else I should look up around here? Just to, at least, approach them, even if they don't want to join?" Mentally reconfiguring my costume into my Vejovis configuration, Hedera looked interested at the effect. _I probably should figure out a costume for her. Maybe set her up with Parian? I never did get the Undersiders the costumes I said I was going to pay for._

"Why not Mouse Protector?" Herb asked. "She seemed fun. Whatever happened to her?" he questioned, slipping his phone out of his pocket. Typing for a second, he suddenly paled. "Dude, you need to see this," he informed me shakily, turning his phone towards me. On the screen was Mouse Protector's entry in the Cauldron database. Listed plainly was her secret identity (her first name was Karen, not Minnie, like I'd thought), her power (mark-based teleportation) and her location (Poughkeepsie, New York). However, plastered across all of that was a flashing notification, commanding Herb to halt any planned operations in the area without approval from someone with a security code of 12 or higher, as the Slaughterhouse Nine were currently on site.


	118. Reconnoiter 10-13

**Reconnoiter 10.13**

I stared at the Herb's phone as I finally remembered what had happened to Mouse Protector. After quitting the Protectorate and going independent she continued to be a Hero, and had an ongoing rivalry with Ravager, a villain whose power was to inflict wounds that festered and scarred horribly. Ravager, in a move which boggled the mind, hired the _Slaughterhouse 9,_ a group of nomadic, psychopathic villains, who regularly totaled entire towns, to kill her rival.

They captured Mouse Protector instead, as well as Ravager herself, and Bonesaw, the Bio-tinker who'd they'd recruited when she was _nine_ , had merged the two together into a horrible abomination dubbed "Murder Rat". The slowly rotting abomination had both parahumans' powers, was enhanced with cybernetics, and was enslaved to Bonesaw's control, with either nothing left of the minds of either women, or with their conscious minds locked away, unable to do anything, while their combined bodies killed countless others. As was common for the S9, they'd take a job when offered, but they were just as likely to turn on you for it, finding the moment when Villains realized they couldn't control that band of murderhobos, or at least escape them, _hilarious_.

This was happening _right now_.

 _What do I do?_ I thought, paralyzed with indecision. _I can't fight the entirety of the Slaughterhouse 9 without revealing my powers. Do I just let this happen? I don't want to, but do I have a choice? With what's going to happen, and how much is riding on me getting this right, wouldn't it be better to let it happen and copy the powers later?_

At this thought, I stopped, took a deep breathe, and did what was _right_ instead of _easy. **No,**_ I told myself, _I always have a choice, and I choose to **help**. The only question is **how?** I don't need to fight them, I just need to get to her and get out._ A plan unfolded as I scrabbled desperately for it, flipping through Personas and possible approaches for the best way of doing this.

 _Boardwalk, for all his attack potential, is still my best Mover, especially with Shadowform to escape by flying underground, and to get there. . . **fuck it**._ I didn't know how much time I had, and I had _more_ than a few tricks up my sleeve. I could burn this one, blame it on Arachne Assembleges, and set up a firmer cover-story for Vejovis to use later.

Looking over at Herb, I opened my mouth to ask him what he thought. I'd been going off half-cocked, but if I was going to try to work with him, I _needed_ to talk to him like I'd asked him to talk to me. Before I could say a word, he read my expression and nodded, saying, "Go."

I nodded in return, tossing him the keys to the car, my costume rippling as it shifted to Boardwalk, and I leapt out the window, turning to Shadow as I passed through the glass and flying upward as I brought my own phone up and figured out the direction I needed to go. By the time I had it I was several hundred feet up, with more than enough distance to do what I wanted.

Pulling on the power, instead of activating it fizzled, unresponsive. _Right, the timeline split in the eighties. It must be too modern, so it was never made in this world when Tinkertech exists._ Dropping back one model and moving as fast as I could towards Mouse Protector without using Light to avoid blasting what I was about to make, I pulled on Miss Militia's power once more. Purple & Red light bloomed around me, accepting my command and complying as the cockpit formed around me, pushing me into a seated position.

The rest of the plane formed out behind me, a nearly incomprehensible set of dials, indicators, and switches solidifying before me. With a thought most of those reshaped themselves, letting me see in front of myself more easily, my enhanced sight having to do, since I didn't know how to fly this thing by the instruments alone. On either side of the purple fuselage were a matching pair of blood red Entities, likely snaking the entire length of the SR-71 Blackbird.

With the power directing my movements, I grabbed the throttle and pushed it to full, the engines starting to roar behind me. Pushed back into my seat, I held it for a long moment before being directed to lift both engine levers and push them even further, igniting the _afterburners_. Instinctively going into Lightform, the pressure I was feeling lessened, insulating me from G-forces as I redlined the engine, my power ready to replace parts if they broke. I used the compass at the top of the cockpit to keep myself centered as I left Portland behind with ever increasing speed.

The land below rolled past me as I blazed through the air, having already broken the sound barrier, the wake behind me distantly tickling my Acoustokinesis. I was flying as fast as this thing would go, going faster then I ever could with Lightform alone, and even then I hoped I wasn't too late. With how Jack Slash and his little band of psychopaths worked I had _no_ idea what to do when I actually _got_ there, only that I'd be pulling out all of Boardwalk's stops if I needed to. I had a full reservoir of Light and _no_ compunctions about blasting any member with enough force to paste them, along with anything within thirty feet of them.

As I neared what _must've_ be Poughkeepsie, a good portion of it was on fire, lighting up the night as smoke choked the sky above it. However, a Flame of Glass & Grey flickered in the air, flying away from me at what I assumed was great speed, though I was going to overtake her in seconds. _Silica-Kinesis. Shatterbird._ She was so far away I couldn't see her power in action to copy it, but she wasn't the reason I was here. Rolling the plane to better see the ground, a line of light across my controls matching my turn, I caught flickers of Flame running down another street, but they were obscured by buildings and trees. What wasn't was the Bone & Flesh Flames of Adaptive Regeneration wrapped tightly around the van sized monstrosity that was Crawler as he headed down the road in my direction, only abandoned cars left on the street.

By their vectors, they were all fleeing from a central point, a warehouse on the outskirts of the town that was notably _not_ on fire. I had less than five seconds before I reached them to decide on a plan and went with the safer bet. Rolling the plane back over, I pitched it downwards, gathering Light around me, on a collision course with Crawler. With a second before impact I blasted upwards with Light in a single hard shove to give me a different vector and shifted to Shadow before I impacted the roof of the cockpit. What little air resistance I still in had Shadowform slamming into me like a stone wall, discharging my front-facing shields as my plane slammed into Crawler, who had slowed down to look at what was coming.

The crash was instantaneous, the plane detonating on impact, the explosion itself skewing forward with the momentum of the collision, obscuring Crawler, or what was left of him. Ignoring him I forced Light forward from me in a steam, burning it to slow down before I overshot my target. Ignoring the others, which had surely seen my entrance, I dropped down to a manageable speed and arrowed down into warehouse, tapping every sensory power I had.

Either the place was spotless or all the insects inside were dead, feeling minerals, wood, and air didn't really help to find what I was looking for inside, as the entire place was sub-divided self-storage units. The sounds of two heartbeats, both incredibly weak, reached me through Acoustokinesis, and I focused on that feeling exclusively. Flying through the units, I emerged through the back-wall of one to find the operating theatre Bonesaw had set up.

Two women were laid out on separate table, both cut open, their skin being held back by thumbtacks. A small pile of devices were piled up next to one of them, with several more already inserted into her body. A thick yellow mist hung in the air, but whatever it was, I was Immune to it. Both women were naked and mutilated to the point of unrecognizability, and it was by their powers that I identified them.

The one without the prosthetics burned weakly with the Purple & Smoke Flames of Wounding, with a physical enhancement package as her secondary. The Mustard Yellow & Red of Marked Teleportation sputtered in the second woman, who also had a physical enhancement package, though different than the first. Mouse Proctor was the one being enhanced. _Of course_.

As I moved to her side, I saw that one of her arms flayed open with claws integrated into them, the other set of claws were off to the side. A brass spider looking creation jumped from the pile of cybernetics to the side, syringe tipped clawed reaching for me, but I'd been expecting _something_ to happen. A blast of Light blew it to pieces, scattering half the room in its debris and a spreading plume of greenish gas. Pulling back fabric covering the hands of my costume, I picked up Mouse Protector, pressing 'Get Better' into her cold flesh as much as I could as I covered her with a Lift Field, shifted us both to Shadow, and dropped through the floor before the billowing cloud could reach us.

* * *

Once I was several miles away, heading back towards Brockton Bay, I lifted up into the middle of a forest. With no sign of anyone with powers anyone around, I called Taylor. Directing her to get one of the medbays in the base up and running, I also asked her to get Panacea and tell her to get ready for someone who needed her, _badly_. She just asked for what time I'd be there, if she should get people ready for a fight, and my e.t.a. I told her the base wasn't going to get hit by what I was doing, and I was already out so I didn't need assistance. She immediately got to it without asking any more questions, which I appreciated, letting me focus on flying there as fast as I could and keeping Mouse Protector stable.

I had _no_ idea what had been done to her, but she seemed to be slightly stabilizing as I flew, her Flames no longer looking in danger of going out, so there was _that_. Amy would need to deal with Bonesaw's work, all I could do was help keep her alive long enough for that to happen. Time slipped by as I flew for Brockton Bay, several hours at least, though the journey blurred together as I passed dozens of small towns and mile after mile of forest before my destination finally appeared over the horizon. Dropping to fly underground, I came up outside the railyard entrance, Zilla opening the way.

Canary, who'd been in the kitchen, looked at me with wide eyes as I walked past her, carrying what appeared to be a mangled, bloody corpse. "Slaughterhouse Nine got Mouse Protector. I got her out," was all I said as I breezed past the noncombatant Master.

Taking the elevator down to Eclipse, I didn't bother with the internal elevator and was in the medbay in moments. Taylor was there, still working to get the entire area operational, a bed and equipment ready to go. Amy sat nearby, an annoyed expression on her face which dropped as soon as she saw the heroine I was carrying.

"What the fuck!" she cried in disgust, dropping the book she'd been reading.

"Bonesaw got hold of Mouse Protector. Was going to fuse her to a villainess named Ravager. She's half prepped, and I need you to _un_ due the work that was done on her," I explained quickly, carefully laying the fatally injured Hero on the bed, keeping the Lift Field up and the healing flowing. " _Now!"_ I commanded as Panacea stared in frozen horror.

The healer moved forward, hesitantly placing a hand on what remained of the heroine's face, her skin flayed and hanging in flaps, revealing the muscle, bone, and cartilage beneath. Amy paled, pulling her hand back as if she was burned before turning and stumbling to the trash can. She vomited as Taylor stood back, looking on in shock.

"Amy," I called after she finished. She stayed where she was. " _Amelia_. I need your help. I can't do this on my own."

"No," she replied, not looking at me. "I, I can't."

"I'm not asking you to biotinker I'm asking you to do the _opposite._ I'm asking you to fix what a _monster_ did, not to do anything like that _yourself_ ," I pressed. "I'm holding her together, or at least I _think_ I am but _I'm_ not the expert here, _you are._ Knowing how Bonesaw works there's some fucked up traps in place to keep the normal ways of saving her from working, and my power is likely the only thing keeping them from springing. Worse, I've been doing this for her for longer than I've ever done this for _anyone_ else and I'm not sure what _that might do_."

At this both girls looked at me, confused. Before Taylor could say anything, Amy stood up, walked to the other side of Mouse Protector, and put a shaky hand on her bare chest. Panacea's power, which had coiled tightly around her, unbound and started to flow down into the mutilated heroine in Bone White & Blood Red rivers of Flame.

"Could you get us some water?" I asked Taylor, who was looking like she needed something to do. I could feel Amy's power tugging on my copy of her own, and let it follow her direction. Surprise flashed across the healer's face, but she shook her head, eyes closing as she concentrated.

"This is. . . This is. . . _wrong,_ " Amy muttered to herself. "It shouldn't work unless. . . Oh. Oh you absolute _monster._ " She worked for several minutes in absolute silence, taking a sip of the water Taylor provided absently as she focused. "You were right, about the traps," was the first thing she said, her power still working furiously. "Nothing was in her brain, thank fucking god, but there were needles primed around her heart to stuff it full of. . . you don't want to know. She had a disperser in her abdomen that doesn't really fit everything else. It doesn't even seem to connect to anything else. I've neutralized what was in it. Nasty strain. Should've. . . don't know why it didn't work. It was exposed but didn't take. Your doing?"

I just shrugged, gaining me a scrutinizing look before she turned back to her work. "Pushing it out now. Catch," she instructed, Mouse Protectors stomach opening like that scene from _The Thing_ , only instead of a maw of teeth there were wires running inside, a small sphere in the center. The flesh started to mold upwards to push it out, but the connections to the other cybernetics kept it in place. "Unplug it and get rid of it. I don't think it's still dangerous but. . ." she trailed off as I removed the sphere, created a small sun, and tossed it inside, dismissing the star. "That works."

Shaking her head, she turned back to Mouse Protector. "You'll want to do that to half of the stuff in here, at least. I mean, with how it works, _none_ of it should exist, but. . ." she trailed off, struggling with herself.

"What do you mean the way it works?" I prodded.

"It takes things over. Its smart, but it's also _really **really** dumb_. Like," she waved to the claws. "Those are screwed into her phalanges. That works. Lets her move them independently. Even with the strengthened bones — _no_ idea how she pulled off — they won't hold for long. Few months, at most. Putting them on the metacarpals would be better. It'd. . ." she pulled her hands off Mouse Protectors still broken form, having barely touched any of the external damage. She stumbled backwards, staring at her own hands in horror, as if she were scared of them.

"You okay?" I asked. It was obvious that she _wasn't_ , but I needed _something_ to work with.

Amy let out a long breath. "Yeah. Sorry. I'm not. . . I _wouldn't_. . . It's just. . ."

I understood immediately, having hit the same philosophical trap when I was her age. "Understanding evil doesn't make _you_ evil. Knowing how to be a better bastard just means you're _smart_. _Not_ _being_ the more effective monster is what's _important_."

She looked up and gave me a searching look, nodding as she reached back forward. "Thanks. Sorry. I'll. . . I'll get rid of the claws first. That middle one's poisoned, so be careful. Reservoir's ruptured, but it didn't do anything. Not sure why. Her biology's not immune to it."

We worked for several hours, Taylor bagging and tagging anything that wasn't dangerous, anything that _was_ taking a one-way trip into a star. Turning to the issue of putting her together, Panacea frowned. _"Shit._ "

"What?" I asked, having done nothing but provide power, sort prosthetics, and watch Amy's power work. It'd gotten to the point that I didn't even need to force my power to follow hers, they meshed completely.

"Not enough biomatter. You're _somehow_ making it out of nothing, but not fast enough to fix her," she informed me, glancing up and glaring at my laugh. _"What?_ "

I got my laughter under control. If _that_ was the issue that meant Mouse Protector had been saved, _despite_ my idiotic ass forgetting what happened to her, then everything was going to be alright. She wasn't going to die, and I hadn't failed her like I'd failed Dinah. Riding the high of my relief at _finally_ getting things somewhat under control I grabbed some of the Swarm that Taylor always kept nearby, directing them through the vent and gathering them in a bowl of air, which I moved to float next to Panacea. "There you go. Scramble them and use it to build whatever you want. You'd think of this trick in a few weeks when you helped Lady Bug fight an S-Class threat."

"Wait, _what?_ " both girls shouted, stopping to look at each other. "What do you mean _S class?_ " Amy pressed.

"I've been studying, and there's only _six_ of those," Taylor added. "And half of them are _Endbringers."_

"Eh, there's six that've been _publicly_ identified as such as of right _now_ ," I countered. "I've seen a possible future, remember? There's a ton with the possibility of hitting that, and more that are there already but don't get the designation for various reasons, like the Thanda."

"That's not the point!" contested Amy. "There's a _Class S threat coming here?_ "

I hesitated, but while Amelia and I disagreed, she wasn't _dumb_ , and I'd already told Taylor that I'd bring her completely into the loop. "So, I'm kinda working under the Precog Paradox, where if I'm too free with who I tell what, the actions might butterfly to the point of negating the future I saw, rendering my planning _worse_ than useless because what I'm getting ready for won't happen, _something else will._ " Amy started to reply but I kept talking over her, "Knowing _that_ , and knowing that if you tell people, and they tell people, and it changes things enough to throw off the future, _thousands will die that we could've saved_ , do you both want to know?"

Amy started to say yes, but hesitated. "Can I tell Vicky?" I shook my head. "Why?" she asked, sounding offended.

"Because _you_ can keep a secret. Even a secret this big. Vicky would tell Dean, no matter _what_ she tells you," I said, and while Amelia obviously wanted to defend her sister, she didn't say anything. "Dean would then, being the good but naïve person that he is, feel the need to tell Miss Milita, who'd tell Piggot, who'd tell the _rest_ of the PRT, who has the informational security of a steel sieve and the threats would change. Maybe they'd show up later, maybe they'd show up _early_ , maybe they'd be better prepared, maybe they'd do something _entirely different_ than they were going to do, making all of our preparations _worse_ than moot, because we would still be operating as if they were doing the same thing as the first time. Things have already shifted to the point that only the worst things are _probably_ still going to happen, but even _that's_ in jeopardy. I can tell you, because I think trust you, both of you, to keep your word not to tell others, but I won't _without_ your word not to do so."

The Endbringers were Sandbagging, _hard_ , and while having a dozen or so hours to prepare instead of the one or two they got in Cannon shouldn't make things _too_ bad, several days of warning meant that either Leviathan would go for us immediately, it'd stop sandbagging, or, worst of all, _it might bring its siblings._

Part of me, a part I _really_ didn't like, noted that there were three of us with Endbringer Targets on our backs, and there just so happened to be _three different Endbringers_. I'd tried to keep the escalation down, with minimal success given the fights I'd had with Oni Lee, Herb's throwdown with Lung, and the _entire_ E88 fiasco a few days prior. Keeping up the pattern I could _easily_ see Levi coming after me from the sea, Behemoth coming after Charlie from the land, and the Simurgh coming after Herb from above.

If that happened, no ifs, ands, or buts, we'd all be unmasked as being _far_ more powerful than we pretended to be, and, assuming we all survived, I'd be surprised if there weren't calls for all _three_ of us to be Birdcaged for fear of what we _might_ do, regardless of what we _did_ do, _just like Canary._

Taylor spoke up, breaking me from my thoughts as they turned increasingly dark, "I want to know. As much as you can tell me. I won't tell."

"Me too," Amy quickly added.

I wanted to ask if they were sure, but I'd asked and they'd answered. Double checking would just be insulting, suggesting that they didn't know what they were saying. "Okay. There's not _one_ S-class threat coming to Brockton Bay in the next few months. _There's Three."_

The other two just stared at me. Amy calmly walked over to a chair, sat down, and started to take long, deep breaths. Taylor just looked at me, then at Mouse Protector, then nodded to herself. "Okay. Slaughterhouse Nine are one, right?"

"Not telling you what the other two are," I pointed out. "Because the Slaughterhouse Nine are, ironically, the _most_ predictable of the three, but yeah. _They'll_ come knocking in June. They'll be down a member, or maybe two, and are here to recruit. Burnscar will go for her old friend, Labyrinth, mostly just to see her again. Shatterbird went after Hookwolf and Jack Slash went for Oni Lee, but that's not going to happen anymore since they're both dead now. Bonesaw though. . ."

"No," Amy whispered in horror. " _That's_ why you want me to. . . to. . ."

"Learn how to counter her abominations? _Yes_. She forced you to break your taboo in that now _impossible_ timeline, and your power lashed out because she'd messed with your head, leading to _very_ bad things that would _never_ happen if you practiced with them before. Not practicing breaking your taboo," I said, holding up a forestalling hand, "but using your powers in ways _other_ than healing. If you'd been doing that before she showed up, you never would've been trapped by her in the first place. When the S9 meets more resistance than they were prepared for, she lets loose a Prion plague that makes it so people can't recognize each other, and which would've killed tens of thousands in a 'fuck you' move as they tried to escape, if you hadn't stopped countered it."

Taylor reached into a pocket and pulled out the Orichalcum baton that I'd made for her, turning it over in her hands. "The power suppressor?"

I parsed what she _didn't_ say and nodded. "Yeah, Hatchetface prefers to go after Brutes, so he'd more likely target the Alexandria of Brockton Bay: Glory Girl. However, even depowered she'll be able to use her sword to kill him, considering he'd tank the blow thinking his own innate durability can handle it and she's depowered to the level of your average cheerleader. _You_ ended up tangling with Mannequin, and while the circumstances are going to be so different that that's unlikely to happen again, that should be able to crack his armor. Your ability to track via bugs is a hard counter to his seemingly erratic fighting style, but you're _not_ an AoE blaster so he won't avoid you like he would Purity, or known for your strength so he'd keep at a distance like he would with Vicky."

I smiled, "If Crawler survived what I did to him, which I'm not really sure if I want him to or not, then Glory Girl uses her blade at _full power?_ If not enough to kill him, definitely enough to disable him long enough for one of our heavier hitters to take care of _that_ regenerator."

"Why would you want him to survive?" Amy asked, confused, focusing on the newest detail instead of everything else I'd said. _And this is why what Herb does works so well with most people,_ I realized.

"Because we know what Crawler does," Taylor answered her for me, "which means he knows how to stop him. He's strong, and has acid, but that's about it. If Crawler's dead, then they might have someone else."

Nodding, I motioned towards Mouse Protector, who I was still keeping stable, my right hand resting on what remained of her left arm. "They were coming here no matter what. If I had to guess they'll be targeting Æonic, Herb, and myself. Saving her _might_ bring them sooner, but it was between trying to plan for the future I saw, and letting her be turned into another of Bonesaw's abominations. So," I hesitated, asking the question which I knew I should, even if I might not like the answer, "you think I did the right thing?"

Taylor's immediate answer of, "Yes!" made me smile, though Amy remained silent. "Did they know it was you?" she finally asked.

I shrugged. "I was dressed as Boardwalk, and only used his powers, so maybe? Honestly, I'm not sure."

Taylor looked upset that Amy wasn't agreeing with her, but I gave the bug controller a shake of my head. "Yes," Amelia said after a moment. "What did you do, _exactly?_ "

"Crashed an SR-71 Blackbird I made with Miss Militia's power going Mach three into Crawler, flew over to where they were all running from, found Mouse Protector & Ravager, destroyed the spider that Bonesaw left behind, she likes to use bio-mechanical 'spiders' loaded with syringes full of horrors by the way, grabbed Mouse Protector, dropped through the floor, outed, popped up several miles later, called Lady Bug to get you and set up a medbay, then dropped back down and came here, using my healing power to keep Mouse Protector stable," I rattled off. "What?" I asked to their incredulous stares. "I got out of the plane before it hit Crawler."

"That's. . . insane," Taylor muttered to herself, as if this was something new for my plans. "I'm in -" she stopped, seeing me staring at her. "Okay. Um. Yeah. I don't think they'll connect that to Vejovis."

"Good!" I smiled, wondering what she had been about to say, before motioning back to Mouse Protector once more. "So, can we finish healing her?"

* * *

Another hour later, half of which was coaching Panacea to use the collected bugs to make an all-purpose bio-slurry with which to use to patch Mouse Protector up, and the Hero was fully healed. Whatever Bonesaw had done to enhance the heroine's physiology to better take the Biotinker's hardware was resisting Panacea's attempts to reverse, but the healer had gone over the changes in as close detail as she could and didn't find anything malicious in them, so we had to leave them in place. Putting back Mouse Protector's face had been a bit difficult, as I didn't have a reference image. Even with her real name there were over a hundred different Karen Smiths, and any of over a dozen could be the woman in front of me.

I'd split the difference and just went with what facial features I could tell from her underlying bone structure and what unmarred skin that was left, filling in the blanks the best I could as I went. I could shift it to whatever she wanted later, after all, and it was likely better to wake up to a strange face than the horrible damage Bonesaw had left as she'd started to craft the foundation of Murder Rat's 'nose'.

Panacea sat back and let me work for that portion, making a slight adjustment here or there once I explained what I was doing, but letting me take the wheel, so to speak. It was past midnight when we finished, both stepping back and sitting down. "Any idea when she'll wake up?" I asked Amelia.

She just shook her head. "She's perfectly healthy. No brain damage from what happened to her, she's just not waking up."

"Brain activity normal? I don't want you to do anything, but you can see what's going on," I quickly added.

She shook her head again. "No, that seemed normal. She's just resting. Maybe a coma, they look the same. Should I. . ." she trailed off, obviously not wanting to finish that sentence.

It was my turn to shake my head, "No. If she's in a coma, _not_ a vegetative state, then she might just need time, right?" Amy nodded. "Then lets give her time. None of my plans involved her being present, and while she can help, I don't want to potentially hurt her to _get_ that help. If she's still like this when it's June, we'll talk. Until then, I think that's all we can do. _Thank you,_ " I stated sincerely, smiling over at her. "She'll live because of you, and hopefully help us deal with what's coming. I'll see you tomorrow at ten. We need to work on getting you more comfortable using your powers for something other than healing. _This,_ " I waved to Mouse Protector's sleeping form, "is not how I wanted to start those sessions, and while jumping in feet first has it's merits, there's a _reason_ it's best to cover the basics."

Amy looked at me incredulously before groaning, hanging her head, and walking out with a, "Fine. See you then. Asshole."

I just smiled tiredly and wave to her as she left, getting a middle finger in reply. _She's feeling better,_ I mused, _otherwise she wouldn't be sassing me._ Turning to Taylor I sighed, "How've things been while I was gone?"

"What?" she asked, glancing at the door Amy just left through. "Um, fine. It was fine. Æonic sent a message that Weaver had seen a problem and that he'd taken care of it. Nothing else. How was your trip?"

I winced. "It was. . . interesting," I sighed, reminding myself that I needed to keep to my word and be more open with her, needing that secondary moral guide. While I'd work with Herb, and trust he'd work with me, I no longer felt confiding in him and was grateful I had Taylor. Hopefully she'd understand what happened with Heartbreaker. Best to lead with the most amusing part, though, just in case. "Herb got married."

She blinked, narrowing her eyes and tilting her head as if she wasn't sure she heard what she thought she heard. "He what? To who? Why? You guys were gone for less than a _week!_ "

I smiled, getting up and motioning for her to follow. "I'll tell you over tea. Deal?"

"Definitely!"


	119. Reconnoiter 10-x

**Reconnoiter 10.x (Interlude: Grue)**

Brian knew he needed to do something, but he had no idea what. He wanted to blame Vejovis; if he hadn't shown up then Brian would still be happy with what was happening. He had had a plan, a way to get Aisha out of their mom's house, and a way to get _out_ of all of this. That hero had ruined everything.

 _That's not fair,_ he chided himself. _Without him Bakuda would've killed you, and you'd still not know who you were working for_.

Another thing he could thank Coil for. If that asshole hadn't been threatening Lisa with _death,_ she never would've pushed for them to do the bank job. If they hadn't done the bank job, they wouldn't have been targeted by Bakuda. He should've still said no, found _some_ way to make it work. Bank jobs were _dumb_ , too much risk and attention for too little gain, even doubled. He couldn't blame Lisa for not telling him about Coil's threat, even if it hurt that she hadn't trusted enough to tell him. They were a _team_ , they needed to work _together_.

His body strained as he lifted the weights he kept in his room, the effort centering him. _Some team we are,_ he thought bitterly. After they'd worked to take down the ABB, they'd all been drifting apart. Rachel had spent more time away from the rest, taking care of her dogs. He understood that she liked them more than she liked people, even her teammates, and that they were what made her so useful, but he'd barely seen her yesterday. She'd been drifting away more ever since she'd worked with Break and Enter. On top of that after Vejovis had come by a few day ago, Alec had been off as well.

Brian had known him for less than a year, but that guy was _always_ relaxed, never taking _anything_ seriously. It'd annoyed Brian, but Alec knew when to follow his lead, even if he pushed on his authority as team leader. Now though, he'd been quiet. Not the 'I'm too good for this conversation' quiet, this was different. He'd say worried, but when Alec got worried he got _more_ talkative, not less. The only one he really talked to anymore was Brian's sister, and Brian didn't know how to feel about that.

The fact that Aisha had joined them was something he wasn't happy about either. It'd made sense at the time, that night the bombs were going off there'd been a bomb near their mother's apartment that had gone off as they'd left. If she'd slipped out, _or if she'd been kicked out,_ she could've been caught in the blast. The armor that she'd been given had saved her life too, as well as Lisa's.

Lisa. . . hadn't been the same since she'd met with Vejovis a few days ago. She'd come back panicked, more scared than he'd ever seen her, demanding Alec to tell her 'when he'd left'. Brian hadn't even known Alec _could_ sense people, but the boy had just asked if it was Vejovis, and did it. No backtalk, no jokes, _nothing_. She'd insisted Vejovis hadn't done anything to her, just that she'd 'seen through him'. She'd been shut in her room ever since.

Racking the weights, he took a shower, not any closer to a solution. Ever since they'd escaped from the mayor's party, Lisa hadn't heard from Coil. They still got the money they received just for being a group, so they hadn't been cut loose, but that was it. He _hated_ this uncertainty, not being able to do anything, waiting for someone else to make a move. It was always harder to counter if you couldn't see the blow coming. He'd know.

Walking out of his room, the tv was on in the common area, but no one was there. It was playing the cartoons his sister liked, and it _was_ Saturday morning, so that meant she was probably watching them. It'd taken a bit to get used to Aisha's power, but he was doing well enough. Her _having_ powers to get used to was just another example of him failing her.

Before he could knock on Lisa's door she yelled, "Pancakes are fine, over easy, three." Shaking his head, he moved to the others' doors, seeing if they wanted breakfast. Neither of them were home. Rachel made sense, she always left first thing, and she'd been leaving earlier lately, but it normally took a _crowbar_ to get Alec out of bed.

Wandering back out, he set to work, making three breakfasts worth of pancakes, eggs, and bacon, dropping the chocolate chips he'd stashed on top of the fridge on Aisha's, since she'd started asking for them.

He wasn't sure what to do. Obviously he had no place in the E88, but maybe they'd take in Alec or Lisa, if he couldn't protect them. Not Rachel though, given her history with Hookwolf. The Merchants. . . he did this entire thing to get Aisha _away_ from drug-addicts. That didn't leave very much.

Not for the first time, he thought of the Wards. He knew he could join; he hadn't done enough, yet, to close that door. He didn't for one reason: it wouldn't help Aisha. It was hard enough for her just to go to school, for all the rules the Wards had to deal with? It'd never work. That just left Vejovis' group and the Æonic's gang, which had only started up just a few weeks ago.

They were new, secretive, and well-funded, which were _all_ warning signs to Brian. Established groups had a rep, good or bad, and that told you not only what kind of person they were, but how they did things. It's why he made sure the Undersiders were known for being strong, but not _too_ strong. You got too strong, others would try and take you down.

The lack of any solid reputation, the secrecy, and their uniforms all reminded him of Coil's men from the fight against the ABB. Soldiers fighting instead of Capes made for official attention and nothing but _death_. With how working for _Coil_ had turned out, it made sense that Brian didn't want to throw his lot in with another group just like the one he was part of right now. If this didn't work, joining a group that was the same as the one you had to leave was just stupid.

Leaving Aisha's breakfast on the table by the tv, otherwise she wouldn't eat it, he carried Lisa's over to her room along with his own. Ignoring her call of 'I'll be out in a minute' as he reached the door, he opened it and stopped as he stared at her room. Plastered across the walls were pictures, news articles with highlighted sections, and scribbled notes.

Lisa herself. . . didn't look good. She was in her pajamas, her eyes bloodshot, her hair a mess, and she smelled like she hadn't showered in days. "Jesus Lisa, what's wrong?" he asked, concerned. _She's normally put together. . . what **happened** when she talked to Vejovis?_

"What? I said I was coming out Brian!" she snapped, looking furtively around the room.

"You said that last night and never ate dinner," he observed. "I wanted to make sure you were okay. Looks like I was right to worry."

"I ate dinner, it was meatloaf, and you used too much ketchup," she dismissed.

"That was Thursday. It's _Saturday_. _Talk to me,_ Lisa. What's wrong?" he prodded. Sometimes she got so deep into her power, she lost track of time. Never this bad though. Not for the first time that day, he wished that Vejovis hadn't come to Brockton Bay.

She looked around, shaking her head, "You wouldn't believe me."

He put both plates on her desk, "You've never had trouble saying unbelievable things before, and you're usually right. I'll get you orange juice, you take a shower. We'll eat, then you tell me what's going on."

Lisa looked at him, as if she was just now seeing him. "You're lucky you're cute, and you're right, I stink. Fine. Be back in a minute. Don't use the canned stuff, I'll know. Also, coffee, you know how."

He couldn't help but roll his eyes, a smile tugging his lips as Lisa started acting like Lisa again. A couple squeezed oranges and a coffee made the way she liked it later he headed back to her room where she was already eating. Putting the drinks down, he motioned around the room. "Finish eating, but is this all about Vejovis?"

She washed down a bite of pancake with juice, shaking her head. "No. Yes. Not really."

"That doesn't tell me anything," he pointed out.

"It involves him, but it's about so much more!" she said, "He's just-"

"-Finish your food," he instructed, holding up a hand.

"You asked," she grumbled, before taking another bite. From the way she was tearing through her breakfast, he wondered if she'd eaten _anything_ yesterday. "Happy?" she asked after she took the last bite, chugging down the last of her juice.

He nodded, "So, Vejovis? I thought you said your power couldn't work on him." It had been a worrying discovery. Lisa's power is what let them get the edge on others, and without it it'd be that much harder to work against him. Brian wasn't planning on doing so, but it was best to keep his options open.

"Not on him, but the _concept_ of him," she smiled. "Same with his 'gifts'." Following her gaze, he saw that the costume that she'd put on was her old one, not the version that Vejovis had given her. She leaned closer to him, as if sharing a deep secret, " _They're not Tinkertech._ "

 _That can't be true,_ Brian thought. "The lightweight fabric that's cutproof, bulletproof, and _clear_ isn't Tinkertech."

"No, _it's skin!"_ she insisted. "No, I don't need to sleep," she snapped before he could open his mouth to suggest just that.

"Okay Lisa, skin from what?" He asked instead.

She pointed at a packet, pinned to the wall, smugly sipping her coffee. Brian just shook his head and got up, looking at what was some kind of scientific study. The language was a bit dense, but it was about the Anti-Thinker properties of . . . _"Endbringer_ skin? _Really_ Lisa?"

"Not skin _exactly," she hedged._ "But the same base material. It's Arachne Assemblages, their symbol is on the inside of _all_ of this, but you want to know what _else_ was on what they gave us? That!" she pointed at the symbol sketched out on another paper."

"Omega?" he asked, having no idea how this ended up with _Endbringer Skin_ clothes.

"No, it's the ome-, wait, how did you know?" she asked, her eye twitching. "You were planning on going to college?"

Brian felt a bit hurt at her incredulous tone. "Once Aisha grew up and didn't need me to protect her."

She just shook her head, "Doesn't matter, yes, it's _Omega._ He said it was-" he cut herself off. "Doesn't matter what he said, but he was _wrong_ and I am _right._ They _tell_ them that it's _that other thing_ but-"

"What other thing?" Brian asked, feeling increasingly lost.

"Doesn't matter," she waved off. "But it's _also_ the Omega symbol. The _end_ which is why they made the _end **bringers**!_ It's right there in the name! But it's _more_ than that, it's the symbol for _genetic crossover!_ That's why I thought it was aliens, but it's _not!_ "

"Aliens, Lisa?" Brian asked skeptically.

"How often am I wrong?" she challenged. "Not counting that," she added as he was going to mention Glory Girl being at the bank job. "Or that," she said before he could mention Lung's response time nearly a month ago. "Or that either!" she said, not letting him point out five weeks prior when they'd run afoul of the Empire. "I get small details wrong sometime, but the big things? The big things I'm _always_ right about. Besides, I said it's _not_ aliens, try to keep up Brian."

He sighed, "So what was it?"

"Genetic experiments! It makes perfect sense! Think about it, we started developing the technology in the early seventies, and nothing seemed to happen, but suddenly, ten years later, which is how long it takes for new technology to really get going, who shows up, all glowy and inhuman?"

"Scion?" Brian shrugged, still not seeing how this connected to Vejovis.

"Exactly! They struck gold when they created Scion, but they couldn't _control_ it! It got loose, and has been helping people, but not like a _person_ would!" she waved to a section of the wall, covered with news stories about the gold-skinned man. "It cares about a cat in a tree as much as he cares about a _tsunami!_ It doesn't act like a person would because it's _not_ a person, or at least not completely!"

"And Vejovis isn't a person?" he asked. "He seems like he is."

"Yes, no, let me finish," She argued, pausing to take a sip. "Where was I?"

Brian started to say "They created Sci-" but was interrupted.

"-Right, Scion, so they tried again, but whatever they did, it didn't work, not like they wanted to. Whatever they did got loose though, probably a rhinovirus, and it started to change people. _That's_ what gives us powers, not 'Shards', _mutations!_ Do you know how much of our DNA we don't use?" He shrugged. _"Ten percent Brian!_ Whatever got out works off of _that_ , which is why everything is so different! It'd be easy to find if _they_ weren't stopping people from telling everyone!"

"Who's _they_ Lisa?" Brian asked. "You keep saying _they_ and _them._ Who are _they_?"

"I can't tell you!" she stated without complete certainty. "Names aren't important, except when they _are_ , but now's not the time. What's important is what they're _doing_! They're the ones _creating_ the Case Fifty-Threes, just like they _created the Endbringers_! Don't you get it Brian? _Case 53's are failed Endbringers!_ "

He turned this over in his head, trying to understand what she was saying. "So these people, who you won't name, are the ones that created powers?"

"They're the ones that created the thing that creates powers!" she nodded, drinking her coffee as she got up, opening her laptop and scrolling through a long list of names, dates, and dollar values. "That's why you can _buy powers,_ Brian!"

"How did we get from Case-53's to buying powers?"

"It's _obvious_ if you know where to look! Look at all of these heroes that join the PRT, do you know how many of them come from _wealthy families?"_ she asked, a frantic gleam in her eye which worried him. " _A **fifth** , Brian, a fifth!"_

He couldn't help but shrug, "Okay, so?"

"So? _So?_ _Twenty_ percent of PRT heroes come from families in the top _five_ percent income bracket. In a small group that wouldn't be bad but there's several _thousand_ in the Protectorate!" she practically yelled.

"Oh," he replied, the statistics classes he had to take as part of his GED finally being worth something. "Okay Lisa, you might have a point."

"'Might have a point'," she mocked, "more like might have cracked this _entire_ conspiracy wide open! They can give people powers, even people that _shouldn't be able to Trigger!_ "

"Wait, go back," he said, "How did you know they came from wealthy families?"

She just shrugged, "Hacked them. Doesn't matter. What matters is-"

"Hacked the people who sell powers?" Brian interrupted. "Are you-"

"Pfff, of course not," she interrupted him right back. "I'm not _stupid_ Brian, I hacked the PRT."

"You _what?"_ he bellowed. "What is _wrong_ with you Lisa!? We have to run, we have to-"

"We'll be fine, they think the Bratva did it. The Russian villains," she explained, when she saw he didn't know who she was talking about. "They're always doing things like that, and that's even if they find out I did it, which they won't. What's important is that they _also_ made Eidolon!"

"Eidolon of the Triumvirate?" Brian checked, wondering if Alec had slipped her something. It'd explain why he was so quiet lately, if he was waiting for Brian to discover what had happened to Lisa. "He's a Case-53?"

"More like a Human Endbringer," she disagreed. "Think about it, _any_ three powers? That's ridiculous! That's not even _close_ to any _normal_ power! That's so far beyond Legend or Alexandria that he shouldn't even be grouped with them! What he's been doing hasn't been on the same scale as the Leviathan or the Simurgh, but can you imagine if he started _destroying_ things like an Endbringer? With any three powers he'd be just as bad as the others! That's _also_ why he's always covered up! He doesn't look human, just human- _oid!_ They're all the same, which is why Scion will fight, but not kill, the Endbringers, but _hates_ Eidolon, who still works for their creators, and _does_ try to kill them, but he's too weak!"

"And Vejovis is another?" Brian continued the thought, seeing the logic, twisted as it was.

 _"Exactly!_ He told me his name was Lee, and I thought he was just picking a name at random, because I was wearing Lee brand jeans, but he wasn't saying his name _was_ Lee, he was saying he was _a_ Lee!" she announced, smiling like the cat that ate the Canary.

"A Lee?" Brian echoed, once again having lost where she was going.

She snorted, finishing her coffee. "I thought you were getting your GED, Brian. A lee is something that shelters, like the lee of a wall might protect you from the wind. He was saying he was going to protect us!"

That. . . was rather comforting actually. She wasn't wrong, he _had_ protected them. Nodding, he asked her opinion on something that had been bothering him, "So should we join his group?"

Her eyes went wide, "What? No! _No!_ He's not human, Brian! We can't trust him!"

"But you said he was protecting us," he argued. "He could help us stay away from Coil!"

"It's not _him_ I'm worried about, it's _them!"_ She argued back. "The things they've done, and he's working against them! They'll tolerate it for now, but when he does too much they'll kill _him_ and everyone _around_ him!"

Brian growled, frustration mounting. He'd followed her down this path of insanity, and it _did_ make sense, sorta, but he was getting _sick_ of only getting as much information as she thought he needed. He knew she did it all the time, but never so _blatantly_. "Who will kill them, Lisa? Who are you so scared of?"

She started to respond, but looked around, eyes suddenly fearful. She leaned in close and whispered a single word.

"Cauldron."

And then the world exploded.

* * *

Brian stumbled, suddenly outside, staring at the warehouse he'd called home for two years, an explosion frozen mid-blast inside. Æonic stood in front of him, along with Lisa, who was still bent forward, mid-whisper. The clock-themed villain pointed at Lisa, then at Brian, and mimed throwing. Picking up the girl he tossed her, Lisa suddenly flailing halfway between the two men. Brian caught her, barely, restraining her flailing as he whispered, "It's okay," causing her to freeze, eyes wide, as she saw Æonic and the frozen explosion behind them.

The Leader of For Whom The Bell Tolls, walked towards them, his footsteps making noise after a few paces, announcing, "And now you've been saved." Looking back at the warehouse he snapped his fingers as Brian's eyes went wide and he yelled "Aisha!" but it was too late.

The explosion started up again, blowing his home to pieces, the shockwave and heat pressing on them. A metal shard flew out towards Lisa, on a path to sink deep in her chest, only for Æonic to casually pluck it out of the air, tossing it to the side. "Who?" The villain asked.

"My sister," Brian said softly, dropping to his knees. "My little sister was still in there."

"You must be mistaken," Æonic disagreed. "I checked every room. Even packed up your belongings," He motioned to a stack of boxes that Brain hadn't noticed. "It was only the two of you," he assured, but Brian knew better. Her power was to not be noticed, and it'd _killed_ her. His little sister was _dead._

 _I'm useless. Everything's useless. I couldn't do anything. I couldn't save her. All of this, all of this pain, and fighting, and hiding, and lying. It was for **nothing.** _He sobbed, openly, not caring anymore. _His power, the power he'd gotten just in time to save his sister from their mother's dealer, the power that had been the thing he was going to use to save her, when he'd needed it most, it'd been **useless.**_

A memory that seemed crisp, but long forgotten at the same time, came to the surface. He didn't care, didn't want to feel, didn't deserve to feel anything other than the pain he was feeling right now, but the memory didn't care about him either. He couldn't say what it was about, or where it was from, but it was there all the same.

Two being twisted in the dark, lights twinkling in the background. They were of the dark, consuming the light as they rode the waves of blackness that filled everything. As they danced, they flickered, slipping through the shadows, their endless waltz carrying them forward. The beings worked together in perfect harmony, the two of them perfectly matched. Each Entity itself was made of countless others, all dancing, shifting, and sliding through the darkness in patterns that were simple, but unfathomably complex. They were cooperation _perfected_ , the many doing what the few never could, ignoring reality itself with the strength of their fellowship, leaving a trail of beautiful dusk behind themselves

The Entities continued for how long, he didn't know, but they started to shift, to slow in perfect synchronicity, when something else came near. While the others were many, this was one, old, without the perfect unity of the Entities. It didn't dance upon on the darkness, but slid through the light. Ancient customs, that were old long before the Entities were born, were still to be upheld. The second Entity, the one who thought while the first acted, moved forward to initiate the ritual with the Old One.

Shadow flowed against light, and Shards of both pulled free. The other Entity, movement perfected, pulled up the largest of the Shards before the other, older Entity of light could turn around. The light came, and was allowed to take the Shards that remained, as was custom. It turned again, its movements slow and ponderous, not slipping through the shadows of the universe, and left as fast as it was able to, ashamed of its poor performance.

The two Entities became one, the Shards of the Old One integrated into the perfect dance they shared, before turning back to their destination, a blue-green marble hanging in and an ocean of inky darkness. It was familiar. It was Earth.

"Huh, that was odd," A voice said, and Brian was back where he was, crying over the loss of his sister, the one person he cared most about in this world.

Brain opened his eyes, then opened his eyes, then opened them a dozen times more. He was on the ground, kneeling, but he was also standing in a doorway, watching himself on the ground, Lisa standing beside him, Æonic looking all around. He was also underground, in a sewer, and under a tree, and standing on the roof looking down at himself as he stood beside two others who laid on the rooftop, and dozens upon dozens of other places, more than he could count.

He shuddered and he disappeared, over and over again, until all that was left was him, on the ground, tears drying on his face. He could feel his Darkness, dripping from him as it danced away, collecting in every shadow, and knew that with a thought he could be there as well once again.

"B-Brian?" Lisa asked, unsure. "Are you okay?"

Her voice brought him back to the moment, the moment where he lost _everything_ because of Lisa's arrogance. _Okay? **Okay?**_ "This is _your_ fault!" he growled, turning to glare at her a he stood, more of him forming in the Darkness of his shadow and standing as well. "If you hadn't hacked them, if you hadn't done what you _always_ do without thinking about what could happen then _Aisha_ would still be alive!"

"It wasn't me, it-" she started to say, but he had no time for more of her _lies._

"It's _never_ you!" he interrupted before she could try to spin it, like she _always_ did. Ready with a reason that worked until you thought about it, but which let her escape her mistake when it was at its rawest. "It's _always_ someone else's fault! Not this time Lisa! If you hadn't-"

"One moment," Æonic interrupted, but before Brian could tell that vested idiot to go fuck himself a van barreled down the street, slamming on its brakes as it turned to face them. The side door opened, revealing three men in armor with assault rifles, all moving to point their weapons in Brian's direction.

The shadows behind him leapt forward to protect Lisa and his main body, but a layered boom echoed from beside Brian as the heads of the gunmen all exploded, the windshield broke, and the tires all blew up. Looking over, where Æonic had stood there were now eight of the man, all overlapping on top of each other, each holding a gun aimed in a slightly different direction. The images reformed, and Æonic looked at Brain, Lisa, and the Dark Brians that had thrown themselves between the two and the gunmen before nodding once to himself.

He broke apart once more, firing two guns at the rooftop that Brain had been standing on before he'd disappeared, the barrels so close they were overlapping, before reforming again. "I'm not exactly sure why you're blaming your teammate for this," The villain said, waving towards the dead men. "Unless I am mistaken, these men are, _were_ , Coil's. If I may be so presumptuous as to guess at the man's motivations, I'd assume he was liquidating some assets who had outlived their usefulness, which is why half of your team was, shall we say, conveniently absent."

Brian looked at the villain, thinking hard. _That. . . that makes more sense. Lisa was talking about people making Endbringers, which somehow were skinned to make the costumes Vejovis gave us. When she's wrong, she's **really** wrong._ The problem was she was so _sure_ when she was right, she brought Brian along with her if he wasn't careful. He'd been thinking about leaving Coil's organization not even an hour ago, it made sense that Coil would try to blow them up. It wasn't _Lisa's_ fault that Aisha died, and it wasn't Æonics, he hadn't known about her, it was _Coil's_. He'd kill that snake bastard himself for what he'd done to his little sister.

He turned to Lisa to apologize, but she looked at Æonic, shaking in terror. "You. . . you're like _him!_ "

"Like whom?" the clock-faced villain asked.

Before she could answer the air next to him shimmered, a figure covered head to toe in dark armor appearing out of thin air, "Enemies neutralized, sir." Æonic waved at the van full of dead mercenaries. "Ah, sorry. I was busy with the others."

"How many others?" The villain asked, as if he were talking about the weather.

"Twenty-one gunmen, three sniper teams," the armored man replied.

Æonic nodded, "Then you did well, Riot. It's not as if I'm without recourse should I need to get my hands dirty."

"Vejovis," Lisa murmured, shaking like a leaf.

"What? My apologies, what about Vejovis?" the villain asked, turning away from what must've been his subordinate.

She whispered, but it still carried, even over the sound of sirens in the background. "You're like Vejovis."

Æonic nodded graciously. "I suppose that makes sense. He _is_ my older brother, after all." Lisa froze, then passed out, caught by the Dark Brian next to her, nearly weightless in his shadowy arms. The villain turned and looked at Brian, head tilted in confusion. "Was it something I said?"


	120. Preparation 11-1

**Preparation 11.1 – May 9th**

Amy Dallon was nervous, and with good reason. Ever since she'd Triggered, she'd been walking a moral tightrope. Her power, the power she'd lived with for two years, was a _dangerous_ thing, and Lee _didn't seem to understand that_. He _had_ her power, how could he _not_ see that it was something that had to be constrained? One slip, one mistake, was _all_ it took!

He'd gathered everyone together that morning, except for Canary, who still lived up in the fake base, and the precog he'd saved, who was still recovering. "So, good news, and bad news," he'd said, smiling in that stupid, confident way he always did, as if there wasn't anything he couldn't handle. "Bad news is that the first of the bad things that's heading to Brockton Bay is almost here."

"Wait, the _first?_ " her sister had asked, incredulous. Amy wished she could tell her how bad, but she'd promised Lee, and despite all the stupid things he did, he always tried to keep his word, so Amy would too.

"Comparatively, yes," he'd shrugged, as if an S-class threat, something on par with an _Endbringer_ , wasn't a big deal. "Which means it's time to stop lazing around and get to _really_ training."

"I've been training!" Vicky had countered, and she wasn't wrong. While Vics practiced looking good while using her power, she'd never really practiced _using_ her powers before. Amy hadn't even thought that she had to, until she'd seen her against Lee as Vejovis. Now, the difference between where she was then and where she was night and day. It was half the reason Amy was going along with his plan to train her, as horrible an idea as that was.

"How many shields are you up to?"

"Five regular ones, one of the special ones," Vicky had stated proudly.

He'd just looked at her incredulously, "That's it? Damn, we need to get you up to snuff. I'm up to fourteen and I've been busy doing a dozen other things. After school, come straight home and we'll get you started. Even if you're not directly fighting, I want you up to ten _total_ before next week, at least two of them crystalized. You can bring Dean too - in fact, _definitely_ bring Dean - I want him to work with you, and for you to stick to him like glue when things kick off."

Her sister didn't have a response to that, just nodded and sat back down. Purity hadn't gotten down the technique Lee'd described, so he'd told her to do that as soon as possible, or else Boardwalk wouldn't teach her. The fact that the nazi thought she had to be taught by one of her 'inferior races' had made Amelia smile, especially knowing it was just Lee in a mask.

Amy had begged off of going to school not wanting to deal with that _and_ to deal with what Lee was going to make her do. She knew why he was doing it, seeing what Bonesaw had done. . . it was _horrible_. What was worse was the fact that Amelia could do it _better_ , she _knew_ she could. She knew Lee had been trying to be nice, when he said what he did, but she wondered if he wasn't a bigger monster than she was if _that's_ how he saw things.

She stood there, waiting in the mostly empty room. The label on the door had said 'power testing', and not for the first time she wondered what _exactly_ this place was. It was _massive,_ bigger even than the Rig, and just as advanced as the little she'd seen of the Protectorate base when she'd been called in to heal. There were cameras and computers along the side of this room, the back wall completely blank and covered in replaceable panels. The space felt empty, just like the rest of the base. It should've felt spooky, and it did at first, but the longer she spent here the more it felt like it was just. . . waiting. Just like she was waiting for Lee to show up to the meeting that _he asked her to attend._

Speaking of which, he walked into the room like he had all the time in the world, smiling broadly at her. Her nervousness of what they were going to do made her stomach twist in odd ways, but she gave him a flat stare, not showing what she felt. _Something I have a lot of experience with,_ she thought glumly. Her un-sisterly feelings for Vicky had been fading, slowly, and she didn't want to think what _that_ meant.

He silently took a seat a few feet away from her, sitting on nothing at all, and motioned for her to do the same. Hesitantly, she moved to do so, finding a force-field behind her, oddly soft. Feeling it, her fingers slipped right off it, giving her power nothing. _Not biological, not that I thought it would be._

"So," he said, clapping his hands together. She was so used to seeing him in his Vejovis costume that seeing him wearing jeans, sneakers, a long-sleeved shirt, and sunglasses was odd, like _this_ was his disguise. "Let's talk about your powers, Flesh Sculpting in particular." She could practically hear the capital letters. "You use it to heal, which is nice, but Biokinesis is so much _more_ than that. Mind you, as open ended as your power is, it's good to be cautious with it, but there's being cautious and then there's being _scared._ "

Amy felt herself flush, angry at his dismissal of her _completely justified fears_. "And you aren't? Do you know how dangerous what you do is?"

He looked at her, confused, as if he didn't understand what she was talking about. "Can you be more specific?" he asked, the corner of his mouth tugging up in a smile, the asshole. "Because the lacking armor thing was pretty dangerous. Thanks for that by the way."

And now he was smiling at her, which was _not_ what she wanted right now. "Why are you wearing sunglasses anyways," she said, trying to talk about _him_ and not _her_ , and definitely not about her _power._

He hesitated, "You don't know? Didn't you see when you touched me?"

Now _she_ was confused, and more than a little offended. "What are you talking about?" she asked. His biology, what parts of it she'd seen, was a little odd, but she wouldn't look at everything about him without asking first! People thought she could just bump into them and she'd see everything about them but that _wasn't_ how her power worked. Lee should've known that!

He hesitated again, shaking his head before he took off his shades, and her breath caught. Instead of eyes, he had twin prismatic spirals that twisted down into a matching pits of complete blackness. They glowed as the spirals twisted, dancing to a tune just out of her hearing, and she found herself staring at them, drawn into the inky darkness in their centers.

She blinked as he covered them back up with his sunglasses, pulling herself back, as she'd started to lean towards him. "I'm technically a Case 53, though a very low level one, just like Herb," he divulged. "It's why all my personas have their eyes covered. It'd give me away immediately."

Turning over what he said, she asked, "His teeth?" referencing the elongated canines that Break had, regardless of his form, and he nodded. "Oh." It'd been easy to overlook, with how weird things were around either of them. She'd thought it'd been Break's power, not a deformity forced on him. She'd tried to work with Case-53's before, but their biology always resisted her power.

"Oh indeed," he smiled, waving a hand. "But back to the topic at hand, you've been using it to _heal_ when its purpose is to _modify_. It'd be like your sister _just_ using her power to fly, or Legend only using his power to make lightshows."

He was right, she knew it, but that didn't mean she had to _like_ _it_. "But what if I mess up?" she had to ask, "What then?"

He shrugged, "So you mess up, who cares?"

She couldn't help but stare in horror at his casual dismissal of human life. She'd been wrong about him this entire time. He didn't act like he was a hero, because he _wasn't_ one, and now that she was in too deep to get out the mask had slipped. The words came unbidden to her lips, "You _monster!_ "

He looked puzzled, and a little hurt, but not nearly as much as he _should've been._ "Um, how?" he had the gall to ask.

"You don't care if I ruin someone's life, if I kill someone, just so I can _practice_?" she demanded. Of _course_ he was a monster, no one who was good would ever like someone like her. Vicky did because she was family, though not really, and now this villain was-

"What the fuck are you talking about?" he asked, sounding upset. "Did. . . did you think I was going to have you experiment on _people?_ What the _fuck_ Amy?"

Her thoughts crashed to a screeching halt. "You weren't?" she asked, hoping she'd been wrong.

"Do you _see_ any people?" he demanded, motioning around the room, slipping an acorn out of his pocket. "We're working on _plants_ , Amelia. Nice, simple, can easily be disposed of with copious amounts of fire, _plants._ " He tossed the acorn to the side, its shape distorting as it exploded outwards, forming a woman made of wood, body made of intertwining branches, her face a blank, mouthless mask. The plant-woman waved merrily as Lee pinched the bridge of his nose. "Fucking Tinkers. Say hello to Dryad."

She wanted to feel offended, but her relief was too much. "I. . ." she trailed off, not knowing what else to say. Of _course_ they weren't going to start working on _people_. What kind of _person_ was she, that she thought they were going to be experimenting on _people!_ She was just as bad as her _f-_

"If you've got someone who's scared of, I don't know, _clowns,_ you don't take them to the circus right off the bat. You take them to McDonalds first, get them clown _adjacent_ ," he said, breaking her out of her thoughts. "Besides, you don't start off an artist by working on the incredibly valuable, easily destroyed materials, you give them basic tools and the simplest mediums they could learn from. And for science, you always start off small before you go _big_. Yeah you _might_ get the big thing right but if you haven't tested it out on a small scale, then it might not work. That's _why_ we practice, so you aren't trying new things in the heat of battle, only having to adapt things you've worked on to the circumstances, letting you _know_ what you can do," he continued, ranting a little. He did that, she'd noticed. Sometimes it annoyed her, how self-righteous he always sounded. This time, though, she just felt embarrassed. Now that he'd _said_ it, it was obvious. "What the hell makes you think I'd do that?"

"Well," she hedged, having to bring it up. It was something that had bothered her, but there was no good time to say it. _You've been waiting for the right time, and he just asked_. "You've killed people." _There_ , it was out there. She'd done her best to ignore what had been happening during the fight against the ABB, telling herself that it was a special case, that he'd stop as soon as they stopped, but then it'd happened again with the E88. Vicky had told her about Stormtiger, how Lee had just shot him dead.

". . . and?" he asked, not seeing the problem, like she _knew_ he wouldn't. "If she didn't have you on call, Vicky would've killed at _least_ one person by now. I'm _ninety_ percent your adopted mother has, given the nature of her power and her Trigger," he dismissed casually, ignoring the blood on his hands. "Hell, she's tried to kill _me._ Not exactly hero material, I'll grant you, but just because the PRT is good at hiding it doesn't mean _they_ don't kill people. Hell, they'll hide their heroes breaking the Endbringer Truce if they think they can get away with it." She stared at him, unable to believe that. "Armsmaster by the way, and Legend will cover it up rather than deal with the fallout and have to _actually_ follow those Unwritten Rules everyone swears by. Well," he smiled maliciously, "not in _this_ timeline."

"But. . . heroes _don't kill_ ," she insisted. She wanted to tell him he was lying, to tell him he couldn't be right, but he didn't lie to her, even when she _desperately_ wished he would. But if that was true. . . "If we do, we're no better than villains!"

He looked at her, thoughtfully, and asked, more to himself than her, "I wonder, am I talking to Amelia, or am I talking to Brandish?" The question hit her like a slap in the face. After what that woman _did_ , after what she _said_ , how could he- "Because you've _seen_ Brandish try to kill me, showing that to be a lie if you're just repeating what she said. If _you_ decide you're never going to kill, okay, but you'll need to get _much_ stronger to pull it off."

That made _no_ sense. "What do you mean 'pull it off'?" she demanded. "You just _don't kill people. It's not that hard!"_ How could he even be arguing this? She thought he was a good person, but what he kept saying, didn't he realize how hurtful it was?

He looked at her, sighing, as if _she_ was the one who wasn't getting it. "Mercy is the gift of the strong," he declared, putting up a hand to stop her from responding. "To give someone mercy you're saying that not only can you defeat them _now_ you can defeat them in the future again, _no matter what._ You're saying that if they attack you in the middle night, when you're out with your loved ones, when you're sick as a dog, _you can still defeat them without losses._ Otherwise, if they're smart, they'll bide their time until you have a moment of weakness. If they were the honorable sort, you probably wouldn't be fighting them anyways, so they'll wait until you're vulnerable, and then they'll _strike._ " He hesitated, but she knew what he was going to say. It'd been something she'd been thinking about for weeks, even if it made her a horrible person for doing so.

"Like when you're supposed to be asleep in your home, but just happen to have been reading a bedtime story to your daughter, like your _father_ was. If he'd killed them publicly, he'd be Birdcaged, probably, but he was going to be no matter what. If he'd done so quietly, so that one night the Brockton Bay Brigade just. . . disappeared? Not gone after _their_ kids, just the people who were actively _trying to kill him?_ You would've had your father growing up, Amelia. His mercy, past the point that his moral code was regularly and blatantly being used against him, along with lacking the strength to win _despite_ that handicap, was what led to his downfall. He treated dishonorable foes, who would strike at _anything_ he tried to protect _without even checking to see what it was_ , with mercy, and it led to him never seeing his daughter again."

Amy could feel tears pooling as her breath hitched, but she wasn't going to cry. _Not again_. Lee sighed, " _Fuck_. I'm sorry Amelia, but you need to figure out your _own_ morality, not just parrot obvious lies from adults who abused you." He looked down, and she could barely hear him add, "I did."

There was a long moment where neither of them said anything before he slipped two thin pieces of metal from his belt. The small plates shimmered, growing upwards into metal cups. Ice appeared from nowhere and he plucked it from the air, dropping it in the cups, a purple star appearing between them, the ice that poked up over the lip dropping out of sight. The star winked out and one of the cups floated over to her. "Drink, you'll feel better," he said, drinking from his own cup.

She took it from the air and took a sip. It was cold, but more than that it was _completely clean._ She always felt bacteria in everything she touched, but this water had _none at all_. The coolness of it helped clear her head, but not as much as not having to taste all the microbes, for once. "Right, sorry. I'm shit at this kind of shit," Lee swore. "Let's, let's just work on powers, okay? You might not believe it, given how I fuck this shit up, but I _am_ trying to help. You're decent, as far as parahumans go, but you've got so much _potential_ , as a cape _and_ as a person, and it's practically been beaten out of you. That. . . that pisses me off. Sorry."

He gave her time to collect herself, which she appreciated. "Start small?" she asked after she'd wiped her eyes clean, glad she didn't wear makeup like her sister did. "So. . . bacteria?" She reached out her power on the bacteria on her hands, their presence so constant that it normally faded to the background. "I coul-"

"What? No!" he practically yelped, jumping to his feet. "Nononono. Nothing that replicates easily, which is almost _all_ bacteria does! _Plants_ , Amy, _plants._ " The wooden woman next to him, who'd she forgotten was still there, held out a hand and grew a branch. He reached over and snapped it off, tossing it to her. "Look at _this_ and see what you can do. Nothing seed or pollen related, for that reason."

With him watching her, she prodded the pieces of wood in front of her, the branch still alive. Seeds she understood, but pollen? What could she do with pollen? As her thoughts turned to it her power highlighted a little bit on her arm, she wasn't sure where from. Looking into it, the structure was simple, but there was still potential. Considering the branch in her hand, she could see how changes to the pollen would result in changes in the wood, despite being different species. If she just changed a few structures, then she could make the pollen create wood like what she was holding, instead of what it was supposed to make. A bit more of a change and it'd work on other trees, like oranges. It was easy to make the traits dominant, so after it'd been accepted into a flower it would. . . spread. _Oh._ Careful not to move and break contact she collapsed the grain within itself, scrambling its DNA to be useless.

"Makes sense," she breathed, nodding, ignoring his intent look. She stared at the branch, looking over it, unsure. _What did she do?_ She could make the branch stronger, she guessed, realigning the grain into a latticework. It shrunk slightly, the bark cracking, so she worked on that as well. She tightened it, organizing the layer underneath the surface to move nutrients more effectively. Changing the material that made the outermost layer to strengthen it, it darkened. On a whim she shifted the color to the same red Lee had made Canary's feathers. It took a bit more work, implementing the pigment throughout the structure of the wood, but she could do it.

She almost dropped it as the wood rippled, the structure shifting and growing a single leaf. It was a malformed thing, warped by her changes. She glanced up and the wooden woman who Lee had created had her hand raised, pointing at the branch in Amy's hand. She looked down at the leaf, then back at Lee. She wasn't stupid, she got his point. She had to be careful, or else her changes would wreck something else. He didn't need to be an _ass_ about it. "I get it," she snapped.

He looked at her, acting like it wasn't _obvious_. "Did you mean _'I'll_ get it'?" he asked.

"I'm trying to!" she shot back. What did he expect? She'd been avoiding using her power for this for years, did he expect her to suddenly be amazing at it? Or did he think she'd been lying to him about not using it?

Before she say anything else, he held up a hand again, in that stupid 'don't be mad' gesture of his. "It looks like you're doing fine. I grew the leaf so you could work on that too. If you could also make it so it can't pollinate or make seeds, that'd be even better."

That didn't make sense at _all_ unless. . . she flushed. He hadn't been being an asshole, he'd been trying to help, and she'd yelled at him. He could at least look over her work, make sure she hadn't missed anything, but he just sat there, watching her, trusting her not to mess it all up. She turned back to the branch in her hands, focusing on the leaf. Making allowances for it in the structure of the wood, she realized she'd choked off the other parts that could sprout leaves and shifted the matrix to include that in their design.

Looking at the leaf, the structure was complicated, but inefficient. With the new inner layer of the branch she'd made it could be made better as well. She could make the photosynthesis better as well. Chloroplasts were good, but if she made it work with _all_ light, including green, she could make it more effective, which would let the tree grow faster. The leaf blackened in her hand, looking at first like rot, but quickly shifted to a uniform black. It was incredibly dark, but was nothing on Lee's pupils, which seemed to drink in the surround in light.

Implementing the design in the other parts of the wood that could sprout leaves, she enforced the changes so that if the branch continued to grow, it'd continue to do so like she'd designed. When she glanced up, she blinked in surprise as she saw that Lee was sparring with the woman he'd called forward, not watching her. That was disappointing for some reason, though she appreciated the trust.

Dryad was running silently, wielding a bow and running while she tried to shoot him. In addition to the rough branches that had interwoven to make her form, she now had dark metal in plates on her arms and legs, making an odd kind of armor. Each time she moved to shoot she'd pull an arrowhead out of her armor, her own flesh extending out into an arrow, with leaf fletching, as she pulled the string back before letting it fly.

 _Something's wrong,_ Amy thought, watching the fight, and it took her a while to figure it out. The wooden woman pulled the bow back in the same way. Not in a similar way, the _exact_ same way every time. She also stopped running between every shot, not stumbling to a halt, but moving in the exact same way. Left foot comes down, bow comes up, body twists so that her right foot puts her perpendicular to her target, pull fire, right foot moves as she starts to move again. This happened over, and over, and over again, and she had no idea _why_.

Every time she'd do so, Lee'd slow, speeding up to dodge the shot, but he'd start slowing _before_ her left foot came down. They were both getting faster as she watched, Vejovis flying back and forth as a smile mountain of splintered arrows on the floor behind him, making the pauses stand out even more. Lee glanced up at her and missed his dodge, an arrow impacting his head and shattering, the wooden woman freezing unnaturally.

"Done already?" he asked, floating down and brushing the splinters out of his hair. "You fixed the leaf! Also, like the coloring," he grinned.

"Who _is_ that?" she whispered, not having really registered the other Parahuman. With everything that had happened she'd been distracted, and only now was really registering her.

"Dryad?" he asked, grinning. "She's the newest member of the Penumbral Defenders. A Case-53 who lost the ability to talk when she gained her powers, or something." He waved and the woman walked over. "Still working on the design, and on working all the kinks out of her power."

"She, what?" Amy asked, looking between the two, feeling completely as she tried to process his odd phrasing. "Um, nice to meet you?" she greeted, paling realizing that this new Parahuman knew her real power.

Lee laughed, "She's not real, just a puppet."

Dryad, seeming to take offence to that, drew and shot another arrow at Lee, who caught it without looking. He tossed the arrow to the side as it exploded outwards like the acorn had, revealing another Dryad. Her form rippled as matching metal armor formed along her body, becoming identical to the first. Amy almost missed the flies that flew out of the air-vent and into the new Dryad's head, crawling into the wooden woman's eyes.

Suppressing a shiver of disgust, she turned to look at Lee, who was frowning in concentration, the two Dryads both looking down at their hands. "That's. . . gonna take some getting used to."

"Are you controlling them?" she asked, as both Dryad's took identical steps forward, the original taking a step back while the new one took a second, this one unsteady.

"Huh?" He asked, both Dryads freezing before taking identical standing positions. "Yeah. I wanted to find a way to publicly use Kaiser's power to help people. Combine it with two others, you have Dryad. So, what'd you do to the maple branch I gave you?"

"Um, here," she said, handing it to him, hoping she'd done the right thing. He'd obviously given her this with something in mind and looking at the two creations behind him it felt. . . inadequate. He turned it over in his hands, inspecting it from every angle. "Okay, it's denser, and the color's different, but what else did you do?"

"Isn't it obvious?" she couldn't help but ask. What she'd done wasn't _that_ complicated. If he was doing _that_ then this should be simple. She knew he followed her lead when healing, but this was _his_ forte, not hers.

"Um, no?" he shrugged, and she felt. . . she wasn't sure. Sad? Let down? He looked down at her project, then back at her. "Um, did I ever tell you how my power copying works?" She shook her head. He'd never really confirmed that he _could_ copy powers, she'd just understood that he could. "Right, so, don't spread this around, for obvious reasons, but it needs to have an observable effect. There's a little wiggle room on what exactly is 'observable', as powers that are invisible, but effect biology, are 'observable' when they're used _on_ me," he opened his arms. "Which is why I can steal skills like Victor or control people like Regent, though I wouldn't puppet someone like him since it's, well, _massively_ immoral."

She could see what he was saying, but if that was true. . . "But you have _my_ power," she argued.

"I have _one_ of your powers," he corrected. "I have your Biokinesis, _not_ the diagnostic capabilities of your Biological Understanding. It's why I need your help to do anything more than skin deep."

 _"What?"_ she asked, trying to figure out what that meant, dread filling her stomach. "But. . . then you'd be doing everything. . ."

"Blind," he agreed cheerfully, as if what he was saying wasn't _absolutely horrifying._ _How many people has he worked on? How many people think everything's fine, while their bodies sicken because he's messed up. Oh god, I've seen him work on people's **brains!** I thought he knew what he was doing, but what has he done? What should I do- _"If I couldn't use your power to make people's body heal themselves things would be _so_ much worse, and I likely would never've used it without you right there."

"What?" she asked again, feeling like she was on repeat, not sure what else to say. "My, that's, you. . . that's not how my power works!"

Lee titled his head in confusion, "I'm pretty sure it is. Are you sure about that?"

"Yes!" she shot back, "It's _my_ power."

"You say that like it means something," he joked, but it fell flat. "Miss Militia didn't realize she could make vehicles until I pointed them out, and Brandish hasn't figured out _half_ of what she can do. It kinda helps when you can literally _see powers._ "

She just stared at him. This was too much, too fast. How many powers did he _have?_ "What."

"Didn't I mention I could do that?" he asked. "Huh. We really need to have a sit-down meeting about this. Actually, let's do that right now. Zilla? Could you please tell The Lady, Bug to come down to meet Panacea and me?"

"She's on her way," the base's computer replied a moment later, Amy still processing what he just said. _If he can see powers, then he knew what I could do right away. He knows what **everyone** does. If he can do that, then-_

He smiled indulgently, "There we go, we'll all be on the same page and I can show you what I mean, since I can't effect myself and you can't see yourself. Human experimentation is generally bad, but this is perfectly fine. Probably. Hopefully. We'll see," he finished with a shrug, his smile having slipped. "And if it hasn't been. . . Well, I might need your help putting some things right." Before she could reply to _that_ ringing endorsement, he'd been he held up a hand, saying, "Wait! You've _seen_ me use my power that way! On Sundancer, Dinah, and even Mouse Protector last night!"

"That, _that_ was 'making people heal themselves'?" she asked incredulously. "Sundancer was _soup!_ The only thing left intact was her head, her spine had been completely shredded! You don't 'heal' from that!"

"Well, _duh,"_ he scoffed. "That's why I needed _your_ help. I could keep her from dying, but that was it. Thanks for that, by the way. I did all I could to protect her, but Oni Lee was a dangerous SoB."

"The little girl," she tried, _knowing_ what he was saying was wrong somehow, just not how. "The kid who was drugged. You reversed the damage that'd been done to her!"

"Not really, and besides, people heal from that damage on their own," he countered immediately. "It's not that complicated, it's like life support and can heal over time, but it's not _magic_. Well, no more than powers normally are."

Before she could continue arguing how _stupid_ he'd been with her power, the door opened and the bug girl walked in, wearing the ladybug themed domino mask and dirty work-clothes. "You needed me?" she asked, glancing over at Amy, but dismissing her as she focused on Lee.

"Good to see you Lady Bug. Have I mentioned I could see powers?" he asked bluntly.

She glanced over to Amy again, her eyes measuring the other girl, before she turned back to him, "Yeah, a while ago. Are you sure you should be saying so in front of _her_?"

He shrugged, "She'd already figured out that I can copy powers, this isn't that much worse. Besides, we've got a problem I think you could help us with. You know how I've been patching you up after we spar?" As Lady Bug nodded, Amy couldn't help but wonder how hard they'd been training, if it required _her_ power to heal afterwards. "Well, according to her, her power doesn't work that way, so I thought she could see it in action to understand what _is_ happening. Sound good?"

"Sure," the bug girl nodded, walking over to Amy, taking off her glove, and holding out her hand. "Go ahead."

Amelia took the offered hand, ignoring the girl's comment of 'So that's Dryad?" to better focus on what she was seeing. The bug controller's body was in _incredible_ shape, even better than Vicky's. More than that she had great genetics, lacking any of the small physical defects that most people had. Something about the girl's physiology seemed familiar. _Have I met her out of costume?_ She wondered. She'd healed the girl's eyes a few weeks ago, but that wasn't it. Her _bones_ were familiar for some reason. They were particularly dense, unusually so, but not with the uneven patterns one got from breaking and re-healing. None of her bones had _any_ of that actually, all of them uniformly thick and completely lacking any sign they'd _ever_ been damaged.

"Since he started healing you, did you notice any changes?" Amy asked, interrupting the conversation the other two had been having, ignoring her.

"What kind of changes?" the girl asked, heartbeat picking up as she looked at the healer.

 _If he's been messing with your brain, would you even notice?_ " _Any_ changes," Amy stressed, "not just your health."

"Um, I've been getting stronger and faster, but that's because I was training. Also my power's gotten easier to work with, but, like I said, _training_. He's good at bringing out the best in me," she said, blushing as she glanced at the hero who was looking at both of them in concern.

 _Ugh, I don't want to deal with this right now._ From her reaction, the girl liked Lee, though, glancing over at him as well, he didn't seem to notice. At least he wasn't creeping on a girl younger than _Amy_ was, which helped tamp down the unease and anger that she was feeling about this entire thing. "Nothing else?"

The girl shook her head. "That's it." _Lie,_ Amelia thought, watching the girl's biology. Giving the girl a flat look, the bug controller divulged, "Okay, it feels _really_ good, but that's just adrenaline without being hurt. It's natural."

That was the truth, or at least the girl _believed_ what she was saying. As loathe as Amy was to deal with a schoolgirl's crush, she waved Lee over. "Okay, do whatever it is you've been doing. Does she need to be injured?"

He shook his head, "No, I've done it on people who weren't physically injured." He took Lady Bug's other arm, slightly pushing up her sleeve to make skin contact, and Amy could see his power flood the girl's system as her heart sped up, but after a moment of inspection she realized that it wasn't because of Vejovis' power, staunchly resisting the urge to roll her eyes.

The first few seconds his copy of _her_ power fixed minute, normal wear and tear everyone picked up, then power spread out to every part of the girl, nearly disappearing to Amy's senses, and started to slowly _change_ things. Bones _very_ slowly became denser, muscles stronger, nerves faster. It was slow, _incredibly_ slow, almost _glacial,_ but it was obvious that he had been affecting the girl.

Carefully, _very_ carefully, Amy looked at was going on in Lady Bug's brain. Lee's power was there too, but what it was doing was subtle, even more than what was going on with her body. There were no effects on the Frontal Lobe, or the Hippocampus, and Amelia had to keep herself from letting out a sigh of relief. Whatever he was doing, he wasn't affecting her personality or her memories.

There was a glimmer of power effecting her sensory cortex, specifically the section that connected to her Corona Gemma, the part of her brain that controlled her powers. Whatever he was doing, she couldn't make heads or tails of it, so she moved on. The girl's brain stem was being modified, slightly, but as Amy looked closer all that seemed to be happening was that he was adjusting her brain to adapt to the faster nerve speed his other changes instilled. That was it, or at least that was all he was doing _right now._ Like withdrawing from a pristine beach, trying not to leave any footsteps in the sand, Amy carefully pulled back her power.

Looking over everything he was doing, it hit her. She _knew_ where she'd seen this before: Mouse Protector. When Lee had brought her in, her biology had been enhanced, even more than Lady Bug's was. Amy had assumed that it had been Bonesaw's doing, to better make the Biotinker's enhancements function, but it hadn't been her at all. That meant. . . _Oh god, without those enhancements Mouse Protector would've lasted barely six weeks, and the **pain** she would've been in!_

"You okay, Amy?" Lee asked, concerned, cutting off his power immediately. "Have I been doing something wrong?"

She looked up at him, "What? No. No, she's fine. Better than fine, actually. I was just thinking about. . . something else. I _was_ right, though. You _aren't_ making her body to heal itself."

His power cut off abruptly, leaving the bug girl to shudder slightly at the feeling. "Then what _was_ I doing?" he asked, worry coloring his tone. The kind of worry he _should've_ had about using her power _this entire time._

She ignored him though, stepping around Lady Bug to touch his hand. The same bone density, the same muscle strength, the same nerve efficiency? She was staring right at it, but further along. Even from when she'd fixed him last week, the changes were slight, but noticeable now that she was looking for it. His physiology, everything about his body, had gotten _better_ in every way. "You aren't healing them, you're making them _like you_."


	121. Preparation 11-2

**Preparation 11.2 – May 10th**

Days took on an entirely different meaning when you lived them a dozen times over.

Theodore Richard Anders, Theo to his friends, not that he had that many, sighed as he pushed himself back from his newest project. Mentally Looking Forward, he took three five-minute breaks: reading the comic book he was working on, watching the tv show he had paused, and just sitting back and relaxing.

When his time was up, he moved his bookmark, fast forward the video through what he just watched, and turned back to work, ten seconds passing for everyone else.

Theo's ability to see the future didn't work when he was Tinkering, something about how the knowledge came to him refused to function when he was living through those 'what ifs'. Theo was glad it didn't, it helped him figure out what was real.

Looking at what he was working on, he wondered exactly what Vejovis needed it for. He'd been specific yesterday, when he'd come down to Theo's workshop. His requirements had been exacting, which had helped Theo pick from the hundreds of ideas that had ran through his head.

Vejovis needed a 'dehydration gun' that wouldn't hurt people. He'd needed it to be fired over and over again. He'd needed it to work over a wide area. He'd needed it able to be used by someone who wasn't Theo.

The first was easy, but getting the second and third to work together was a pain. He could make it work in a line but widening up the area put the system under so much strain that either it only was good for a few shots or it just desiccated everything in range.

Theo took another bite of the jerky he'd made, glad that he'd started seasoning the strips of steak he'd used to test the 'wouldn't hurt people' part of his designs. At least Vejovis was giving him all the materials he'd asked for. He could recover some components when he broke down his latest prototype, but not everything, and he didn't want to even start to think how much this had cost the hero.

The doors to his lab slid open and the man in question strolled inside, smiling broadly in a way Theo's father never had. In his hands was the Protonic Static Aggregator & Targeter, which Theo had forgotten about. Peering into the future, like he had with Kayden when she came to talk, he had to remind himself that his power wouldn't work on the hero, as while the P.S.A.T. stayed on the table where the hero put it down, Vejovis himself disappeared as if he was never there.

As he returned to reality, Vejovis smiled. "Forgot that didn't work on me?"

"Um, yes, sorry sir," Theo apologized flushing. _Stupid. Should've remembered that._ He suddenly felt a lot less certain about the conversation he was about to have. His power had been incredibly useful in getting through a conversation with Kayden, and in getting Break to tell him a lot more than he probably meant to. The black man had taken Theo's use of the power happily, laughing whenever he'd start to explain something, only for Theo to Look Forward, get what was going to be said, explain it back to his teacher, and move onto the next topic.

The first time he'd done so he was sure that Break was going to be upset, but the black villain had just thought it was funny and encouraged him to do it more. His new power was a godsend, especially for asking things without having to be embarrassed by the answer. It sucked that all the girls here didn't want to go out with him, but he understood, with how fat he was.

"Hello, Earth to Theo," Vejovis verbally prodded, waving a hand in front of Theo's face.

"Sorry," he apologized automatically. "I, uh, I'm used to having time to think."

The hero laughed, "Then use the time when you look into a future to do so. I won't be in it, but you're doing so for the ability to pause reality, not use your precog."

That. . . made a lot of sense. Theo flushed, "Right. Sorry sir."

"Don't call me sir unless we're in the field," the hero dismissed. "How's the anti-water gun coming along?"

"It, um, it isn't going well," he admitted. "I can't get a focusing array fine enough without drawing too much power, so you only get a few shots. It scales with area, so if it was just a beam-"

"No," Vejovis interrupted, holding a hand up. "Weight is less of an issue then it would be for normal people. Don't make it only usable by someone like me, but someone who's, let's say in great shape, should be able to use it. If you're having problems. . . Ask Herb. Break," he said a moment later, likely reading Theo's confusion. "My name's Lee, by the way, in case I hadn't mentioned. Sorry, we're really doing this piecemeal. Maybe I should make an orientation manual?"

"Um, are you sure?" Theo asked. Break, Herb, he guessed, knew a lot about a lot of things, but had said that science was more of Vejovis'- Lee's, field.

"No, maybe not a manual. Maybe a general lesson plan? I could problem hammer out the basics in a two-hour seminar," the hero nodded in agreement.

"Um, I meant getting B-Herb to help," Theo clarified, hesitantly. He'd gotten use to talking back to Herb a bit, but Vej-Lee was different. He was in charge _,_ and Theo had been taught, repeatedly _,_ that that changed things.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. I think you'll be. . . pleasantly surprised at how much he can help. If he's hesitant, tell him that Lee said that two minds are better than one, and resonances can have impressive effects," the man smiled, his voice taking on the same tone Theo's father had when he was planning something bad. "Once you get a rifle up and ready, if you could make a few pistols that do the same thing that would be awesome, even if they're only good for a few shots or are shorter range, fifteen feet instead of thirty or more, though they will need to be light enough that a normal person can use them."

Thinking about it, Theo thought that might be easier, actually. Pushing those ideas to the back of his head, he focused on the PSAT, resting on the table behind the hero. "Um, did it work." Lee's expression darkened, turning frosty, and Theo felt his heart drop, not knowing what he'd done wrong. _Not that that ever mattered_. "I'm sor-" he started to say.

"No," Lee said firmly. "You didn't do anything wrong. It worked well, really well, like if Crawler shows up, and is in a clear area, I'd see if it could kill him good."

Blinking, Theo had to say, "Um, are you sure? I'm not saying you're lying," he added quickly at Lee's look. "It's just, it doesn't seem that powerful."

"Have you watched the news lately?" Lee asked, changing the subject. Theo shook his head, having been too busy. "Ah, you know how I mentioned I was going to kill Heartbreaker?" Theo nodded. It seemed like an unrealistic thing to consider, that villain had been around when his father was his ag- "I did. He's dead. You said you had a camera on this thing?"

Theo just looked at Lee for a long moment. That was. . . anticlimactic. Someone Theo had grown up hearing about was gone, and Theo had been part of making that happened. That made him feel. . . odd, but odd in a good way.

At the hero's look, Theo nodded. "Um, yeah, I did! Lemme get it." It was the work of moments to disassemble the scope, extracting the camera he'd added. Plugging it into the workshop's computer, there was only two video files, the first being the test Theo had performed. In retrospect, turning the camera on by aiming the lightning cannon at his face probably hadn't been a good idea. Quickly deleting that file, he brought the other one up.

It was dark, probably night, the scope swinging around until it focused on a. . . oh. That was. . . oh. Feeling incredibly awkward to be watching this, especially with Vejovis peering over his shoulder, Theo ignored all the bare skin and focused instead on the gun's internal stats playing on the side of the screen. Power levels were good, as was internal integrity. He hoped Heartbreaker would move somewhere else soon so Vejovis could shoot him and get this over with.

The fact that Vejovis was going to shoot him when he wasn't expecting it was. . . wrong somehow, but it was Heartbreaker! That was like killing Jack Slash, it didn't really count! When the gun started powering up, starting the protonic static aggregation process, Theo frowned. He hadn't mentioned it, but the PSAT could only hold the charged state for so long before it started to break down. Maybe that's why Vejovis hadn't looked happy with him?

The numbers he was reading were all wrong though. The PSAT had a range that it would work at, with tolerances for more open areas, but even if the user was flying, as Vejovis obviously was, it should've been less than half of what it was currently at, and still climbing. Theo slowed down the recording, the video still clear as the camera recorded at just above three-hundred frames per second, as he watched the internal diagnostics start to go crazy. Internal integrity was starting to drop, but it was still intact behind him, which meant. . . Theo paused the video, to look at Vejovis, horrified.

"Considering I haven't fired it yet, those symbols mean something to you," Vejovis observed, waving to the readout.

"You killed them," was all Theo could say.

Vejovis gave a gruff snort, full of derision. "No Theo, Heartbreaker killed them. Erased their minds and put in whatever he wanted. It wasn't an ongoing effect; it was a permeant one. I'd rather have sniped him alone, but if I put a few tortured souls out of their misery, well, misery if they retained anything of their minds, then I'm okay with it. But it was more than you said it was going to be. The increase in effectiveness, it was quadratic instead of linear, wasn't it?"

"Exponential," Theo said absently, glancing at the readouts, trying to process what was just said. At Vejovis' look he said, "Quadritic is to the second power. The readings are more than that, so they're exponential. You. . . you killed them?" he asked, not sure how to take it.

The he-, the cape nodded. "Yes. Didn't mean to kill them all, but if I'd been down there and someone else had been firing. . . it's what I would've wanted, if I could want anything through his power."

Theo had to look back at the screen. Even with the increased power, the PSAT shouldn't have killed more than, he tried to count bodies without actually looking at them, twelve people. It was a lot, but from the way he'd said it, Thro felt that wasn't want the man meant. "All?" he asked hesitantly, not wanting the answer.

Vejovis sighed, "Just watch the video Theo. Just watch the video."

Not wanting to, Theo's body obeyed without any input from his mind. He clicked play, and watched the internal status devolve even further, gathering far more power than was safe, enough to heat up the area around the PSAT when it fired to the point that it would've burned Theo fairly badly if he'd fired it. Finally, with the internal stability of the gun just above fifty percent, and wtih the potential energy held in place by the PSAT so intense that even Theo, who'd built it, didn't have any frame of reference for what it meant anymore, Vejovis fired.

The PSAT which should've fired a single bolt, shot dozens, each of which contained over ten thousand times the voltage he'd test-fired. Watching it in slow motion, Heartbreaker died, cooked and blasted into particles, then those around him, then those around them, and it Just. Kept. Going _._

He watched, transfixed in horror, as it all played out. By the time the energy was discharged, internal integrity was at eleven percent. Less than five, and it might explode at any time. But that was just something he noticed without giving it much attention. What dominated his thoughts was something much simpler.

Everyone he'd just seen was dead, so dead that no part of them remained, and it was his fault _._

If he'd built something that didn't scale, something with a tighter path, something that wasn't so stupidly powerful _,_ then none of this would've happened! If he hadn't built it at all, then Vejovis would've just used a sniper rifle, and all of those people would still be alive!

The video ended a few seconds after firing, the gun returning to a ready state, the battery ready for another four shots. "So, yeah, that happened _,_ " Vejovis said almost conversationally, breaking Theo out of his thoughts. "So, I'm going to need this thing repaired and ready to go a week from, let's say Wednesday."

"No."

"What?" Vejovis asked, as if he wasn't sure he'd heard Theo.

"No. I'm not going to," The Tinker repeated. He hadn't understood what he was doing, what he was building, until now. "That. . . That's too much. I'm not going to repair it." He shut his eyes, ready for what he knew what was coming next. Leaders had to be followed, and he'd promised he'd follow Vejovis, but he wouldn't build something that did that ever again. No matter what Vejovis did to him, he refused to.

Instead of the demands, the threats, or just the blows that his childhood prepared Theo for, Vejovis just said "Ok."

Looking Forward to give himself time to think, it didn't help. "Okay?" Theo echoed in the present, unsure, looking at Vejovis, but not in his eye. He knew better.

"Ok," Vejovis agreed. "Honestly, the only things I'd want to use that on are the Slaughterhouse Nine, Nilbog, or something else of that level. For what's coming next, this would be, well, less than useless. It was more to have another resource to pull on, an arrow in our collective quiver of 'don't mess with us'. If you want to repair it, but demand that you get to decide when it's used, that's cool too. You can see why I want the next one to shut down water powers without hurting any though, right?"

Looking at Vejovis, Theo realized he wasn't looking at him, but at the PSAT. "Um, yeah," Theo had to agree, not sure exactly what just happened, but happy to switch topics before Vejovis changed his mind. "It's hard to get it right, though."

"Humans are simultaneously the toughest S.O.B.'s out there and incredibly fragile," the. . . the cape said, something like sadness filtering through his tone. "Less so for those of us with physical enhancements, but it's still an issue. We know you can do destructive Theo, now let's see if you can do something much, much more difficult."

* * *

She was furious, though she didn't know why. That was a lie, but the truth wasn't something she was ready to admit, even to herself.

Kayden, tapped her foot, waiting in yet another room in the labyrinthine corridors of 'Eclipse' as Lee had called it. Not for the first time, she wondered where it had all come from. She'd lived in this city for nearly a decade, and she'd never even heard of anything like this place existing! Max would've certainly heard about, if there was anything to hear about, and made sure he got something even better. That was just the way he was.

She didn't consider going back to him. Not anymore. She'd thought about it, a bit, right up until he'd tried to have her _killed_. Would've succeeded, if not for the efforts of. . . the efforts of the Penumbral Defenders. Max had always talked about how guns were the weapons of the inferior races, how it took skill to wield a blade. Just like everything else he said, it was only true until it didn't help him anymore.

The room looked a bit used, a scorch mark in the corner, a bit of the metal flour gouged out, and part of what looked like an arrow stuck in the panel-lined far wall of the room. She wondered who had left their mark on this room before her. No one had fire powers, or used a bow, and the damage to the floor looked oddly familiar, she just wasn't sure why. The room had said 'Power Testing 1' on the door, and she couldn't help but marvel that this place not only had a room dedicated to testing powers, but that it had more than one.

She waited, checking her phone for the time. She was still seven minutes early, but given how _those people_ treated punctuality, she'd probably be waiting another ten, fifteen, maybe even twenty minutes! She still wasn't sure why she had to take lessons from _Boardwalk_. What could a man like that, let alone one who'd likely not even had his powers for six months, teach _her?_ Besides, they had completely different powers! There was no way that _her_ brightness, her brilliant energy, could be used by someone like _him._

The doors slid open, and before she could be pleasantly surprised about the colored hero's earliness, she realized it wasn't him.

"What do you want?" she spat at the intruder, who was looking at her, surprised, as if he hadn't known what he did. She'd assumed his white half would temper his baser natures. She'd been wrong.

"To make sure you're okay?" Herbert asked, as if he had any right to. As if he hadn't been playing with her emotions this _entire time._

She felt her blood boil, as if she was still some stupid woman who couldn't remember what happened _last night._ Maybe the type that _he_ was used to dealing with were, but _she_ was a cut above. "Okay? _Okay?"_ she demanded. "Get out, I don't want to talk to you!"

However he didn't leave like a civilized person, he just stood there, confused, a look befitting his color on his face. "But why?" he asked, forcing her to say exactly what it was, not able to understand that some things were better _understood_ then said outright.

"You were married this entire time?" she reminded him, not bothering to hide the derision she felt. And to think she once thought he might've been _different_. Max had talked about the duplicitous ways of the inferior races, and while he'd been duplicitous in his own right, he'd never _cheated_ on her. As much as she hated his manipulations, they'd always been for higher reasons, not to sate his base _lusts!_

Herb blinked, once. "Oh, uh, _no._ " he insisted, losing steam quickly as he continued, unable to muster any defense. "I. . . See. . ."

"See _what?"_ she demanded, angry that he couldn't even come up with the _flimsiest_ of lies. "See that you walk in with some young thing, barely older than _Theo!_ " She knew she wasn't the most attractive, which is why what she'd thought was his honest appreciation of her had hurt so much. Knowing what he actually had waiting in the wings, it was obvious that he was just playing her, and she, in her weakness, had fallen for it, to her shame. After what Max had done, she must've been _desperate_ to turn to someone like _him._

"Were you planning on cheating on your wife?" she asked, when it was obvious that he wasn't going to address the _gorilla_ in the room. "I shouldn't have been surprised," she spat, mad at herself for believing he would be different.

"Wait, you _'shouldn't've been surprised?_ " he echoed, sounding offended. After what he'd done, after what had been _revealed_ , he had _no right_ to be offended for being _outed_ as the philanderer he was!

She crossed her arms, looking down her nose at this example of everything Max rallied against. Sure the man in front of her was powerful, but what did he do with that power? _Nothing_. "I thought you were better then that, but _obviously_ I was wrong."

He looked back at her, good humor gone now that it was obvious that she wouldn't be swayed like the women he _normally_ dealt with. "Better than what, _Kayden?_ "

She bristled at him using her name, like they were on familiar terms. She understood the implied threat, that he knew her identity, but after what Coil had done, that threat had no teeth. More than that he was still not admitting to any wrongdoing, and she _wasn't_ going to play his game. "You know _exactly_ what I'm talking about. _Break._ "

"No," he said pleadingly, only know realizing just how much he'd lost with his actions. He'd tried to be tough, he'd try to be offended, and he was worse at _either_ of those than Max was. "No no no no, _listen-"_

"No, no. I'm not going to listen," she interrupted him, slashing a glowing hand through the air, having heard _enough_ of his lies. Max had a way of dripping honeyed words into one's ear, so that even if you _knew_ he didn't mean what he was saying it was at least pleasant to listen to. Herbert was all clumsy words and seemingly heartfelt statements. She'd thought the clumsiness endearing, because he liked her so much it struck him dumb, but it appeared to be that was just how he normally was. And his 'heartfelt' statements? He'd learned to fake honesty, at least, but didn't have the intelligence to make that _nearly_ as effective as Max had.

Yes, he'd been able to take apart the show that Max had been putting on, but Max would've _never_ done to her what Herbert had obviously been planning on doing. "I don't need to listen," she informed him. "I'm here to meet with Boardwalk and deal with _him,_ I don't need to deal with _you_ as well."

Herbert took a deep breath, nodding, _finally_ seeing reason. "Alright. Right now. . . not the time. You need to focus on your training."

 _Don't act like that was your idea_ , she thought, stating coldly, "That's what _I_ was saying."

"But I'm gonna clear this up _right_ quick and steady," he continued, as if she hadn't spoken. She re-crossed her arms, looking down her nose at the man standing five feet away from her. "This happened as a way to get a new member," he started, and she struggled to keep her expression reserved. He married her just to get a new member on the _team?_

She's heard that his type didn't respect their vows, but to do that, to do that was just something else! It also reminded her _far_ too much of the dark thoughts she'd had, when she first left Max. He'd always been adamant that his interest in Kayden had been personal, which she'd doubted, but to have him come right out and _say it, like it didn't matter!_ "I'll explain it more deeply later," Herbert promised. "I'm sorry it hurt your feelings, but kinda glad all at the same time, but-"

That was too much for her to handle without speaking up. "You're _glad_ you hurt me?" she demanded. She'd thought it was just his boorish lack of care for anyone other than himself, but to be _glad_ he hurt her was something else entirely!

He had the audacity to shrug, stating matter-of-factly, "Well that just means you care."

"I don't care about you!" she shot back immediately. That might've been true before, as unlikely as she'd would've thought it, but now? After what he'd shown his true _colors_? _Never._

Her statement didn't affect him in the slightest. He only smiled patronizingly, like she was a little girl throwing a tantrum. "Okay. It's just. . . brush the green off your shoulder."

And now he'd devolved back into saying nonsense. "At least speak _intelligently."_

"You're green with jealousy, baby," he joked, smiling wider.

The _nerve_ of the man, to think that she'd be jealous of that hick-floozy from the middle of nowhere! That she'd want to be with a man like him! "I am no such thing, and don't call me that! Now get out!" she commanded, her form filling with radiance in preparation of _making_ him do so if he didn't even have the manners to leave when a lady asked.

He turned his back on her, walking towards the door, but not before throwing out over his shoulder, "I'm out, I'm out. Love you." He was gone a moment later, which was fortunate as Vejovis would not likely not appreciate her putting holes in his base, which she would've if that infuriating _man_ hadn't left immediately.

She paced, trying to get herself under control, angry that he'd wormed his way under her skin in that way. She should've known that working with inferior races would lead to this sort of thing. "If you lie down with dogs, you'll wake up with fleas", she muttered to herself. At least she hadn't _laid_ with him, thankfully deciding to take things slow enough she hadn't made _that_ mistake! And know she was waiting for _another_ of his kind to come and 'teach' her, as if he could show her anything!

It'd taken her a bit to figure out what Boardwalk had done to carve the metal like he had, but it was _obvious_ afterwards. God only knows how many weeks it'd taken _him_ to figure out the same thing. It made sense though, given how much men liked to write their names in the snow, that he'd do something similar with _steel_. The finger-painting aspect fit his maturity.

The doors opened and she got ready to give Herbert a piece of her mind, stopping when she saw it wasn't him, but Boardwalk instead. The hero had kept his all black uniform, head to toe leather with a leather cowl and black mask of a man's face covering his own, the eyes flat black pits of darkness. The leather coattails extended all around his waist, not quite looking like a skirt, obscuring the black belt he wore, lined with pouches. He ambled in, hands hanging loosely at his sides, looking bored.

"Took you long enough," she snapped at the black man, probably barely out of his teens, who had the audacity to think he was her better.

He stopped, looked at her, tilting his head, before smoothly opening a belt pouch and pulling out a phone, checking it and putting it away lazily. "Yeah, I'm on time," he languidly pointed out. "Calm yer fuckin' tits, lady."

The sheer _disrespect_ in his tone, combined with the conversation she'd just had, was too much. Calling brightness to her hand, not enough to do more than blast him back, she let fly at the negro hero who was dismissing her as _nothing_.

However, instead of being blasted backwards, his own hand glowed a _disturbingly_ similar white and caught the blast. He held it, looking it over. "Huh, so that's how ya fuckin' do it. Kinda sloppy, but I guess it works." She tensed, ready for him to send it right back at her. What she _didn't_ expect was for the air around his hand, shining as he held the energy in his palm, to darken, obscuring her vision.

She was reminded of that member of the group of villain children she'd heard about, the Underdogs, or something. Their leader had a similar darkness, but on a large scale. With how family had similar powers, she wondered if they were related, and if they were related to the black on the local Wards team.

The darkness tightened around his hand, which no longer shown white but glowed a shifting panoply of colors, before shrinking into a marble in his palm which blew apart, no sign of her attack left. _How did he do that?_ If he could do that to her power. . . she suddenly felt far less safe, here with him, then she had a moment ago, which likely was intentional on his part. _Keep calm Kayden_ , she told herself. She knew better than to show fear to someone like him.

"So," he said, walking farther into the room, heading over to a cabinet. "V-man said you finally figured out how to carve steel. Good. Took ya fuckin' long enough."

She barely let that comment slide, but she restrained herself. Arguing with him would get her nothing, as he apparently had Vejovis' ear. He glanced at her and nodded to himself. She couldn't help getting the feeling she was being judged. She flushed, but kept her mouth shut.

He returned holding a stack of steel rectangles, and she had to wonder if he got a Brute rating, or if that was just due to his people's nature. He tossed one to her and she caught it, glad that Vejovis had healed her the previous morning. She'd been feeling better, until _he'd_ come back, but she didn't have time to dwell on that topic, nor did he deserve the _effort_. She brought herself back to the moment considering what she held. By its weight, it must've been aluminum, and turning it over she spotted the symbol of the Tinker group that Vejovis had, something that Kaiser would've sold his firstborn for. At least, _before_ he'd gotten Tinker powers of his own.

"Alright glowy, show me how ya did it," Boardwalk prompted, setting down the other plates. She didn't pay his insult mind, focusing on the use of her radiance she'd discovered. Holding the sheet with her left hand, she focused on her right, infusing it with more and more brilliance until it was ready to burst from her skin. With a single finger she drew her power across the surface of the metal, the material fleeing the brightness as it was blasted away with a sizzle, her other hand holding it steady.

With a flourish she finished, her name signed in flowing cursive, neat and tidy, before glancing over to look at her 'teacher'. His expression was unreadable behind his mask, but his relaxed posture had straightened with interest, and she hid her smirk. "Huh, that's fuckin' new," he said, holding up his own hand. It glowed white, just like hers had, the brightness condensing just like she had. He reached down and picked up another plate, pressing his finger against it.

It hissed like an angry snake, increasing in volume until his finger blew a hole through the back, sending a fragment skidding across the floor. The pure light of his hand dimmed, shifting into colors, shining brightly as streaks of black crept down his limb. Pressing his hand against the metal, it passed through as if it wasn't there.

 _Definitely_ _related to the Ward_ , she decided. He pulled it back, only his fingertips turning white and tried again. The aluminum plate hissed as it was eaten away, and it looked like the colors down his arm drained from him as he dragged his glowing digits back and forth messily, destroying the surface without rhyme or reason. When the hissing got louder, the drain hastened, cutting off abruptly as the last of the colored light drained out of the colored man's fingers.

"Yeah, this wasn't I fukin' do in the slightest. Not bad Kayden," he said, looking over at her, respect peeking out from his impudent tone. She smiled, before she fully processed what he said.

"Wait, what do you mean that isn't what you do?" she asked, confused. She watched as he flipped over the ruined aluminum slab and held it at arm's length with his left hand, his right pulled back like he was stringing an invisible bow. Boardwalks fingers glowed in shifting colors and from his two pointed fingers a stream of multicolored light flew, carving into the metal.

He blasted out his name, just like it had appeared on the metal she'd been given as a reference. She'd assumed that the jagged edges were his lack of care, not a different technique altogether. "How?" she asked, but she could see how it _might_ work. When she let loose a blast, she let a bit of her brilliance blast out of her, but he was _forcing_ it out, not letting it gather naturally.

It was definitely a man thing to do, but that didn't mean she couldn't do it herself. Turning her own piece of metal over before he could respond, she tried to do the same thing. It took a moment, but her luminesce acquiesced, flowing in entirely new ways. The power of it was more than she expected, ripping the metal out of her hands and tossing it across the room as her beam, pure white instead of his colored stream, pushed her arm backwards. Her power slid off her target and lashed out across the room in a line, carving out a gash in the wall to her side, missing a computer monitor by inches.

At Boardwalk's guffawing laughter, she turned to glare at him, mortified by her mistake but not appreciating his finding humor in her embarrassment. "Is something funny?" she demanded.

He brought his laughter under control. "Nah, I'm laughin' for my fuckin' health. Get off yer high horse, glow-stick, you're learnin' new shit. Mistakes fuckin' happen. I'm doin' this in the wrong order though. Follow me."

He left without looking back, and she hesitated for a moment, unsure, before heading after him. He led her out of the base, into the Railyard. Turning around several hundred feet away from the entrance, in a corridor just like all the others, he announced, "I've been doin' this shit all wrong. First, I need to teach ya to fuckin' fly."

"I know how to fly," she snapped. She was nearly as fast as Velocity, who's _only_ power was his speed, and _he_ was ground-bound. It was one of the things she had the most practice with, having had _hundreds_ of flight hours, to this _boy's_ , what, _dozen?_

From the negro's head movement, Boardwalk was rolling his eyes, which she _didn't_ appreciate. "Yeah, but you're still using yer fuckin' trainin' wheels. Try _this_." He glowed like she did, a white which would've blinded most others who weren't used to that level of brilliance, before the light concentrated in his hands and feet, leaving everything else unpowered.

Before she could say anything, he blasted off up into the air, and, though she was loathe to admit it, he _was_ doing so faster than she could, if not nearly as gracefully. He bounced back and forth through the air, at times depowering a limb entirely, before heading towards the ground, completely without radiance. Before he hit, he flared to light fully, using the kind of flying _she_ was used to and touching down.

"Now, bein' lit up like a fuckin' Christmas tree helps a bit, so don't fully shut that shit off, but _focus_ it," he instructed, as if she hadn't _just_ seen him do that exact thing. "Keep it up at a base level, but give it a try. Before you do-" was as far as he got before she blasted off, faster than _he_ had.

The speed was _incredible_ , and more than a bit dizzying. She tried to get a handle on it, but she kept pushing herself off in different directions, having to use her old flight to right herself. However, if _he_ could do it, then _she_ certainly could. She didn't fight for control like she'd seen him do, but started moving _with_ the spins, the unexpected turns, at times pirouetting through the air like a high-wire acrobat.

Boardwalk followed, barely able to keep up, as she got better and faster the longer she flew, finding herself quickly accustomed to this more complex, but _far_ more graceful, type of flying. The sun shone down on them both, helping to keep her in the air, and it was nearly an hour before she realized that she _still_ had as much energy as she could hold. Flaring to slow down, unsteadily keeping herself stable with her new flight, as this was the first time she'd tried to stop mid-air, Boardwalk flew up to meet her.

Reading her expression, he laughed good-naturedly. "It's a bitch to get used to, but damn if it isn't fuckin' fun, right?" She nodded, despite herself, and he continued, "And best of all it doesn't burn through our reserves like a junkie on pay day! Ya look like ya got the fuckin' basics. Now's the fun part."

He darted forward, hand full of Light. Reaching out and tapping her shoulder, the light smoldered and blasted her backwards, forcing her to try to right herself using her old flight again. "Don't use that unless you're about to fuckin' hurl or hit something," he commanded her, smiling. "Otherwise. Tag bitch, you're it!"

She blinked, nonplussed, before she felt her face heat up in anger. "What did you just call me?" she asked.

"I called you _it_ , now get your skinny white ass in gear and catch me, if ya fuckin' can, _old lady,"_ the black man cackled, blasting upwards as she shot forward, hand aglow, missing him by inches.

 _Oh he is **dead,**_ she fumed as he took off, catching him and wiping what was _surely_ a smug smile off his face the only thing on her mind.


	122. Preparation 11-3

**Preparations 11.3 – May 11th**

Once again, she was back in the forest. She was back in her costume, like she always was when she woke up here. She didn't open her eyes, trying to lull the monsters that surely waited for her into leaving her alone. A growl to her left told her it didn't work.

She waited for it to come closer, to catch it off guard, and when it did she leapt to her feat, creating a longsword out of energy to slash the beast. She struck deep, the wolf-thing picked up and thrown back into the trees, going limp as it died. It, like the others she'd seen, had the unnatural calling card of elongated canines, but this one looked new. It was covered with bone spurs, one of which had been broken in two by her weapon.

"Deciding to take after your father?" she called out to the forest, where _she_ was listening, but as every time Carol had tried to taunt the villainess, she received no response.

She heard something move behind her, and was almost able to dodge as a deer, covered with bone like the wolf, slammed into her, sending her sprawling. They never made her bleed, keeping their blows blunt, no matter what she did. She could use that though, use it to win this twisted game they made her play.

The other animal disappeared into the woods, and she readied herself for the next attack. Always singly or in pairs, they'd come for her. She glanced to where the wolf had laid, but it was gone, taken by the others for god knows what purpose. She'd known that girl was trouble, tried to keep her from becoming just like her father, but she was his daughter through and through.

Charging out of the forest was a bear, larger than she'd ever seen, with blood red eyes and pitch-black fur. Bone spikes studded it's back and limbs, and it frothed at the mouth as it focused on her. Waiting for it to come close, she readied her blow, ready to take down this creature as well.

 _Hold, hold, **now!**_ Stabbing forward for its eyes, she felt the impact and retreated into her sphere. Blind, she felt the impact of something and tried to mover her flight to the side. She'd tried to escape upwards before, only to be struck by something flying the moment she came out to look around. She tried to direct her movement, but she stopped abruptly, hitting something and losing her momentum. Waiting a long moment, she emerged, sword ready to strike, only to find herself thrown to the ground as the bear, unharmed, slammed her down with a paw on her chest, pressing down hard, its open mouth waiting inches from her face.

A voice from behind her spoke, its tones gruff and bestial. "You don't understand how this works. You're the prey. You run. We hunt. You can't win this Carol."

"You won't, she won't let you!" she snapped back, striking the beast in the side. Her blade bounced off, ineffectually, and she stared at the weapon in her hands, feeling oddly betrayed.

The voice sighed, and a monstrous form lumbered into view. Its face was almost human, with some feline features, and a mane of jet-black hair. When it opened its mouth though, it revealed several rows of shark teeth, and the stench of its breath nearly made her gag. Two gigantic, almost human hands landed on her arms, carefully, but she still felt her bones strain under the pressure. She could barely make out to gigantic bat-like wings behind it, but her attention was quickly grabbed by the thing's tail. It was long, _very_ long, and was slowly reaching up over the rest of the monster. At the end was a cluster of spines, almost like a demon porcupine, except each quill had barbs running down their length, and glistened in the moonlight.

The bear-thing backed off and Carol retreated into her sphere, ready to come out swinging. As she emerged, the massive quadruped, big as a truck, slammed a paw down on her with lightning speed, slamming her to the ground again. "Nuh-uh-uh," the monster growled, the tail reaching up over it's head. "You run, or else."

Breathing was hard, but she wouldn't be scared by this nightmarish creature. "You won't kill me," she wheezed, snarling at it. "You won't even draw bl-"

The tail snapped forward, like a snake striking, and a line of fire running down her cheek. She froze, and the creature leaned forward, its foul tongue licking her blood. "Delicious. You don't run, this isn't fun. This isn't fun, we stop. You don't want me to stop."

It stepped back, and she laid there, unable to move, heart beating faster than it had since she woke up. _Oh god, she's lost control of them._ She knew what that man's daughter could do, no matter how good she pretended to be. Carol had known something like this was going to happen eventually. That stupid, stupid girl had made things she couldn't reign in, and if Carol didn't escape, she was going to die.

Shakily getting to her feet, she felt her cheek, her white and orange glove coming away red. The monster before her grinned terribly showing off all of its teeth, and Carol fled. The monsters throaty, rumbling laugh echoed from behind her as she tore through the underbrush. She ran for who knew how long, her lungs burning and her legs aching, finally stopping and hiding behind a tree, trying to control her breathing.

Despite her attempts to hide, she heard the growl of a wolf, closing in on her. As it leapt, she created a lance of energy, spearing it through and killing the bone-covered monstrosity. She looked around, trying to spot that. . . thing, when she heard something coming through the brush to her right. She hid behind the tree, hoping it would move on, only to hear a throaty, "Not done yet," and something whistling through the air.

Ducking, the tree above her exploded, sending bits of wood in every direction, the top falling to the side. Where her head had been was the creature's tail, undamaged, before it pulled back just as fast to where the creature crouched down on all four bone-spur studded legs, ten feet away from her. "Go," it growled, and she took off, creating a shield to block a wolf which jumped at her from the side, deflecting it without doing more than singing its fur, not having time to stop as the nightmare made flesh behind her started to slowly walk after her, each of its steps two of hers.

She kept going, only able to stop for a few minutes, picking up several more wounds as she ran. Her costume was torn, and she was bleeding from over a dozen wounds. _I can't I keep running. I'll just die tired_ , she thought desperately, the forest, the endless forest she ran through blending together into a green hell. She stumbled to a halt as she saw a familiar splintered tree, only the bottom four feet left standing. _I've been going in a circle. It's been herding me._

She needed to fight this thing, kill this thing, before it started going after other people. Creating a shield and spear, she got ready for it. Part of her hoped that it would try to hurt her in small ways, like it and the wolves it commanded had been so far, but she couldn't bank on it. This thing wasn't anything like that man, and she hated herself for hoping that it was.

Just like before, a wolf with elongated canines and studded with bone spikes leapt from the brush, and she killed it with a thrust, letting that spear go and making another as she turned, lifting her shield as she heard the whistling of the monster's tail.

It struck like a wrecking ball, and she was thrown backwards, but kept on her feet. "We done?" it growled, giving a chuffing laugh. "You want to die?"

"You first," she snarled, launching herself forward. It knocked her spear aside and slashed out towards her, but as soon as it did she let both weapons go and made a second pair of spears. They slammed deep into the creature's chest and she retreated right before its tail slammed into her. She flew backwards, bouncing off something, before coming out with another spear and shield.

Ducking the creature's tail, she sank another deep and couldn't help but smile. _I can do this. I can kill thi-_

"Psych."

Faster than it had before, faster than her eye could follow, it turned and slammed her down, pinning her, a giant hand on her each shoulder, pinning her arms to her sides. She glanced down and saw, instead of the bloodied, torn stomach she could've sworn she'd seen, which would've killed it eventually, there was only unblemished fur.

It leaned its head forward, and whispered in her ear, "I had fun. See you later, _prey._ "

She felt something pierce her stomach, and the world went dark.

* * *

Carol Dallon woke up with a gasp, sitting upright in her bed, looking around her room in a panic. She was in her pajamas, and as she ran her hands over herself she was completely healed. Mark had already gotten up, like he'd started doing, so she was alone in her bedroom. Shakily standing up, she stumbled to her bathroom, looking at herself in the mirror.

Before, when she'd woken back up home, she'd been sore, bruised, and a little battered. Mark hadn't believed her, saying that she must've run into something by accident, or fallen off the bed while she slept. She was aching a bit, but all the wounds, the dozens upon dozens of cuts she'd picked up, were all gone.

 _Did I imagine it? Was that real?_ She thought, checking over herself again and again, shaking. _No, no I didn't,_ she told herself, getting so close to the mirror that her breath fogged it up before she saw it, before she saw proof.

It was still spring, and she didn't tan like she used to, but in a thin line down her cheek was a pale line where the monster had cut her, the flesh unblemished. _It's new. She healed me, but she didn't put it back all the way!_ she thought, a weight on her shoulders she didn't realize lessening.

Walking out of her bathroom, a there was a spring in her step at finally having proof! She got dressed and came downstairs Mark had made her breakfast, as he'd started doing recently. He was humming to himself, once again the sweet, caring man she'd fallen in love with. "Mark," she said, unsure how to continue, and he turned around and smiled at her, his smile growing concerned as he looked at her.

"What's up honey?" he asked. "You looked tired, so I made breakfast. It'll be ready in a few."

"Mark, I have proof," she declared, standing firm.

Her husband sighed, the smile slipping off his face. "Carol, it wasn't our daugh-"

"She's _not_ my daughter!" she snapped. "She's _his,_ and you won't believe me!"

Her husband sighed, putting down the spatula, and but didn't turn around to face her. "I don't like the fact that our daughters were so unhappy they ran away, but-"

"They didn't, she took her!" Carol insisted. Why couldn't he understand what was going on! "She has our daught-"

"They're _both_ our daughters," Mark interrupted, turning to face her, a steel she hadn't heard in years in his tone. "We failed them _both_ , and they left. I don't like it, but I can't blame them either, I'm just glad they're safe. It took them leaving for me to pull my head out of my ass and realize what was going on, and I'm not going to try to drag them back somewhere they were miserable just to make _myself_ feel better. Listen to yourself!" he said, shaking his head. "Amelia is _somehow_ sneaking into our house, knocking you out, dragging you out of the city, and making animals that hunt you, but never hurt you? And bruises don't count, even if she _could_ which she _can't._ She's a _healer,_ Carol, and has done more good then either of us has."

 _He didn't know,_ she realized. _He believed her lie._ He'd always seen the good in others, seen the good in her, when Carol wasn't sure she deserved it. He meant so well that he'd been taken in by that girl's lie, trying not to see the monster he'd tried to raise to be a good person. But you couldn't make a monster good, they were evil, and evil would always out. She started to tell Mark exactly what that man's daughter could do, to point out the proof of the villainess' actions on her very face, when a flicker of movement caught her eye.

A squirrel, with canines far too large, was sitting on a branch outside the kitchen window. It shook its head slowly, holding up a paw, a single finger extended to its mouth in a 'shush' gesture. She froze and stared at it; sure she wasn't seeing what she thought she was. It grinned at her, a mouth full of needle-sharp teeth and oversized canines, and gave her a thumbs up before scurrying away. The weight, which had been lifted off of her, slammed back down on her as she understood that she was being watched, and the last thing she noticed, the thing that was too much for her, was when she realized the squirrel had six legs and a scorpion stinger hidden in the end of its bushy tail.

* * *

Missy Biron still wasn't sure what she should do.

On one hand, _officially_ , the base the Penumbral Defenders was. . . It was _ridiculous._ She'd lived here all her life, and this thing was just _sitting here_ the entire time? If this wasn't the _definition_ of 'vital intel to tell your team lead', she didn't know what was. She knew what the rules said she should do, had actually read the manual over the _years_ she'd been a Ward, unlike _some people_ , and she should tell Aegis about this _asap._

On the other hand. . . _it was really cool._

Okay, it was more than just _cool_ , she'd been so worried she'd almost been sick when she first came here, sure _something_ bad was going to happen. She knew that the PD were supposed to be heroes, but having seen what Break & Enter could do, she wasn't so sure about that. Then again, after seeing the video of Break, well, _break-ing Lung_ (even though her parents, Piggot, and Aegis told her not to (which just made her want to even harder)), she realized how soft the two had gone on them at the bank, and Kid Win _really_ shouldn't have been shooting when there were civilians nearby. That was like elementary school level heroing!

She was sure _something_ was going to happen, only for Vejovis to pop out and invite her in for dinner! Who _does_ that? Well, _he did_ , apparently, and had given her an open invitation, along with Dean, to come in. Dean had promised not to tell, and that made sense, 'cause Glory Girl was living here, but _she_ hadn't promised not to. But they'd been so nice, and more than that they hadn't treated her like a little girl!

She'd asked Aegis for fighting training and used Vejovis' argument about treating it like fighting a Brute (and as a last defense), and he'd said _yes!_ It was harder than she'd thought, but she was getting better! She'd even got Dean to help her train, which had just been. . . _great!_

And now she was here, with Dean, working with Vejovis to get even _better!_ Glory Girl was there too.

"Right," the hero said in the large underground room they were in. It was like an indoor football field, the walls and floors made up of metal squares. "It isn't a Danger Room, but it's close."

"A what?" Glory Girl asked, looking around curiously.

"Not a thing here," he dismissed, "we'll be training mobility against AoE attacks. Area of Effect. Attacks that cover a large area," he explained as Glory Girl obviously didn't understand.

"Shaker abilities," Missy piped up, and smiled as Vejovis gave her a nod of affirmation.

"Okay, I fly," the Alexandria package shrugged.

Vejovis waved to the two Wards, "And the other two? You'll leave them to die?"

Glory Girl paled, "What? No! I'd carry him!"

 _Excuse me!_ Missy thought, offended. _What about me!_

"So you'd just leave _Vista_ to die?" Vejovis asked, and Missy gave a firm nod as both Dean and Glory Girl looked at her.

"What? No, of course not! But be real, how often am I gonna be with _both_ of them!" the ex-New Wave member whined.

"And that's why we're here. I've taught you how to fight one on one, and how to hit, Vicky, now we're here to teach all three of you how to _run._ I'd do this in the railyard, if the PRT wouldn't lose their shit over what looks like me attacking all three of you," the hero mused.

"Yeah," Missy agreed, "We got put on alert when Boardwalk fought Purity. Oh, sorry," she apologized as Dean shot her warning look from behind his visor.

"They. . . _ugh_ ," Vejovis groaned. "He wasn't fighting her, he was supposed to be _teaching_ her."

"Teaching the Nazi to fight better? Not much better, bro," Glory Girl replied, and even Missy had to nod in agreement.

"She did quit," Dean pointed out. "But yeah, looks bad," he gave after both girls looked at him and his lack of response.

Vejovis sighed, muttering to himself. "Whatever," he said after an awkward moment. "So, right, _dodging_. Dean," he addressed Gallant, and Missy had to stop herself from reacting. _Right, he knows who we are. Another thing I should report, but also a reason why I shouldn't._ "Your Mover capabilities are _nil._ If you can, get Kid Win to add something to your armor, even if it's just a glide functionality. And do so soon. Like, _by Saturday._ It's a weakness that needs to get fixed _asap._ In the meantime, either stick near Vicky or Missy, both if possible."

"Vicky," he continued. "I showed you how to make a Lift Field. Use one to carry whoever you are to insulate them from G-forces, and flying in a straight line for too long is a _death sentence-_ "

"I said I was sorry," she interrupted with a huff.

Vejovis looked at her, confused, before understanding flashed across his face, making Missy giggle at how over the top his expressions were. "Right, no, I mean yes, but I mean in combat. It's why jumping, while useful, is _so_ much more dangerous to use than true flight. I mean don't fly without changing course for more than three seconds _at most_ if you're under attack."

He turned to face Missy, who suddenly felt nervous for some reason, like she was under a microscope. He stared at her for a moment, thinking, before nodding to himself. "Missy, stay away from crowds whenever possible. Where do people being present mess with your powers the most: if they're around you, if they're around where you're bending space, or if they're around wherever your bending ends?"

That. . . _was a really good question._ "Um," she replied, unsure. "Around me?"

Vejovis looked to the side, and all three of them jumped as part of the floor, forty feet away, lifted up smoothly into a column thirty feet high. "Then let's find out. I want you to try to make a corridor that would let you step up there: once when we're around you, as if we were going to follow you up; once when we're flying where the corridor would go, Vicky, you carry Dean; and once when the three of us are up there, like you were giving us an escape route."

Missy nodded at this, understanding what he meant. She'd worked with her powers before, but always on her own, never with other people. She knew that people being around messed with her power, but that just meant she tried to avoid them.

A few minutes later, she had her answer. "It's easier if you're with me," she told the expectant hero, "then if your there, and it's hardest if you're blocking me."

"Actionable intel, my favorite kind," he smiled. "So let's talk _shaping._ While we're doing this, Vicky, Dean, I want you two to get used to having her pick you up and fly away at speed. I've seen you carry people Vicky, you prioritize comfort, not speed. Dean, you need to work with her to drop the pickup time to half a second. Missy, let's talk bending _space._ "

While the other two flew about, Glory Girl getting grabbier than Missy liked, she barely noticed, talking with Vejovis, who told her to call him Lee (which was nice, because he already knew her name, but the trust that telling her that meant made it that much harder to consider telling Aegis about this), about how her power worked.

She was confused when he started talking about 'non-Euclidean space', but she got it easy enough. When he started talking about vector shifting and refraction angles however, she was _enthralled_. She could see what he was talking about, but the more he talked the more she saw how she could take what he was saying and do even _more_ with it. She got so into it, that she seemed to forget he was there, his presence disappearing to her power, which was weird, but the _ideas_ he was giving her!

"We got it Vejy," Glory Girl said, her voice breaking through Missy's thoughts. "What now?"

Lee stood up from where he'd been sitting, which was apparently nothing at all, something that Missy hadn't even realized he'd been doing, and smiled, though it didn't seem like a nice smile. "Now we see how well you can _actually_ dodge an AoE attack."

Missy could hear a distant buzzing, but didn't understand what he meant. Glory Girl, who paled, apparently did. "What? No. Bruh, _No._ "

"Yes," the hero smiled, and Missy could swear the buzzing was getting louder.

 _"No,_ " Glory Girl insisted. "Using _that_ to train us? That's _Cray!_ "

"Um, what's going on?" Missy asked, getting a little concerned.

Lee laughed, and it sounded more than a bit evil. "Victoria thinks she's ready to train in dodging large scale area of effect powers, and has only _just_ remembered that _I_ have one such power!"

"You do?" Missy asked, but Dean understood, asking, "Um, do we _really_ need to-"

"Yes," the hero said, cutting him off. "They won't hurt, but you three _need_ to learn how to dodge things like this, and you need to learn _now._ Disgust now is _far_ preferable to _death later._ "

Before Missy could chime in, the buzz reached a fever pitch and, from the vents in the ceiling, black streams poured out, reveling themselves to be hundreds, _thousands,_ of flies, beetles, and mosquitos that descended down into orderly rows _blanketing_ the ground behind Vejovis. It was _seriously_ creepy, but Lee had toned down the evil laughter and was honestly smiling again.

"So, they won't bite, but if you get more than, say, twenty on either of you they'll pull back and reset, as you will have _failed._ Once you two can get the grab and run down, we'll add Vista space-warping ridiculousness to this combo," he explained. "She's still working on some concepts, but that means you two get to practice on your own!"

"You aren't helping her with powers like you helped _me_ , right?" Dean asked, which confused Missy. Lee was helping a lot, but the way he said that suggested something. . . _else._

The leader of the Penumbral Defenders laughed awkwardly, scratching the back of his head. "Yeah, _no._ That was a bit much, and I'm not going to do that unless I have to. How'd Piggot take it?"

Dean hesitated, before saying, "Never got the chance to show her. They freaked out over the mist."

 _Mist?_ Missy wondered, missing a lot and more than a little annoyed at it. "Wait, you never even got to the Anti-Master power?" Vejoivs asked incredulously. _Wait, **what?**_ "You figured out the mist on your own, and _I_ got the third degree for that? Ugh, _so_ many reasons I didn't join the PRT."

"What?" Missy finally asked, and Lee hesitated. "Tell me, I can take it!" she insisted. She might be young, but she'd been doing this for longer than _either_ of the other two!

"Vej," Glory Girl warned, but he shook his head.

"Long story short, the PRT is so hopelessly corrupt in Brockton Bay that they might as well be another gang. It's not your fault, and you haven't done anything wrong, but their dereliction of duty is at _epidemic_ levels," he told her straight. "I want to help, but more often than not I'm doing so _despite_ the PRT, not _because_ of them. Your lack of training is part of this, the Protectorate doing nothing during the ABB bombing is another, and there's a _lot_ more going on as well." He shrugged, "When the good guys aren't fighting the bad guys, are they really good?"

That. . . that was something _she'd_ thought, usually when she had to deal with Shadow Stalker, but she'd never heard another hero say it. She frowned, not sure how to respond to that. He wasn't _wrong,_ but he wasn't exactly _right_ either, she just couldn't say why. "But who's the bad guys?" she asked. She'd heard the 'we're really the good guys and you're bad, so nyuh' from pretty much every gang by this point, so she wondered who he'd name.

"Lung," he replied immediately, and she felt a bit sad. He didn't _look_ like a Nazi. "What are, _were,_ the ABB known for?"

Missy shrugged, "Being Asian? It's in their name."

Lee opened his mouth, but hesitated, "They're known for more than being Asian. If anything, their racism is the _least_ objectionable thing they're known for. I know you're not going to like me saying this, but I'll tell you when you're older." He was exactly right; she _didn't_ like him saying that. He held up a hand, "Vista, _Missy_ , trust me when I said I wish _I_ didn't have to know it. Or see it. But damn am I glad I stopped it."

He sighed, "Well, stopped _them_ from doing it. Either way, all _three_ gangs in the city have done _unconscionable_ things, and they were all allowed to do so with impunity. If I was working against Marquis, or maybe Accord, I'd have a harder time dealing with it, but the Nazis, the ones who get kids addicted to drugs, and the. . . and the ABB? While there might be some okay people forced to be in their ranks, the groups and the leadership are _not_ on the side of the angels."

After he finished talking, no one said anything for a long moment. "So," he said, clapping his hands together, obviously trying to force himself to be happy. "We were working on non-Euclidean vector deflection and you two," the swarm behind him sprang into the air, becoming a black cloud, "Let's see how well you can _dodge_."

Heavy philosophical stuff aside, Missy had to admit watching Glory Girl shriek and fly away as the giant swarm chased her back and forth across the room made for a good day.


	123. Preparation 11-4

**Preparation 11.4 – May 12th**

A teenager with a red streak dyed into her hair strode down the street in rubber boots, trying not to be noticed.

Normally she did the exact opposite, having the attention of others on her made it so much easier to make them _hers_ , to do exactly what _she_ wanted, but that would create too much of a splash. That wasn't what _he_ wanted, but it wasn't what _she_ wanted either.

If she was honest, and she only was with herself, she was at a crossroads. She liked to tell herself that she'd joined the Nine because she was _bored_ and they were _exciting_ , but the truth was she'd been scared. Guillaume and Nicholas had almost caught her the last time they'd found her, and they _always_ found her, so she'd decided to find a better patron.

Getting in had been. . . not what she'd expected. Even now her skin still itched, though she knew better to take the brat's offer to 'fix' it. That little girl had been pouting, since she'd been denied her newest 'friend', and Cherish knew better to go under her knife. Under her knife _again._ She'd had to get certain 'upgrades' that the others all got, but she'd been firm on only having the basics.

Everything had been fine, perfectly fine, everyone off having their fun in that city in New York, _though not New York City, sadly,_ when they'd all gotten the call to scatter. She hadn't even known she'd _had_ a radio in her until Jack had turned it on, telling them to run. She'd listened, since he was in charge, _for the time being_ , but hadn't known why. Nothing was in her range, and she'd spot any threat _long_ before it _was_ a threat, or so she'd thought. Then he arrived.

The Shadowed Sun.

Faster than should be possible he'd streaked in, hitting Crawler with _god_ knows what. He'd grabbed the provoker and been gone in minutes, not nearly long enough for Cherish to get a solid read on him, but enough to know that something was _deeply_ wrong with him. His song felt. . . off, like someone had taken a mind and auto-tuned it.

It wasn't by a lot, but it had been enough for her to notice. Beneath his mind was something else, something she hadn't seen enough to put a name to. The names she came up with always came to her, like the name of a song that _perfectly_ fit the tune, but they always started as feeling, and what little she'd gotten she didn't like. All she knew that wherever it was, she wanted to be anywhere but there.

They'd regrouped shortly after, once again in the truck they'd commandeered to move Crawler, who barely fit in the back, and left the still burning city. He'd looked. . . _different_ after he'd healed, and she wasn't sure which she preferred. The way he'd been ugly before, all eyes and scales, but _now._ . . She shivered, not wanting to think about it.

After _he'd_ blasted through, not even bothering to acknowledge their presence, nothing else had happened, which if anything was _worse_. It said he didn't care about them, and he _hadn't,_ not really, and _no one_ in the Nine liked what that said. They'd all been on edge until they left it far behind, though they all tried to hide it. Even Mannequin, despite not having a face, couldn't hide the song of his thoughts from her, and they'd _all_ been unsure, waiting for Jack to tell them what to do, though they'd never admit it.

Jack himself had been. . . off, for a day, which for him was an eternity, but he'd come to a decision, and now it was only a matter of time until he told the others. Cherish didn't much care where they went, as long it wasn't New England. She'd looked up who _he_ could've been, and she was fairly certain it'd been Boardwalk, though his PHO page hadn't mentioned his penchant for _jets_.

He'd let them all wait until he was ready, though the others knew it was a matter of time, so she wasn't worried. As the newest member, it'd fallen on her to do the grocery run, so she'd accepted, if only to get away from the rest. For her plan to work, she couldn't just prime them, she needed for them to feel the 'loss' of her _not_ being there, so she'd grumbled and done it. Well, except for Crawler, but he'd eat at night when a couple people going missing wouldn't be noticed right away.

It wasn't even worth paying attention as she made the cashier smile down at her and believe her sob story about not having the money but coming back tomorrow, letting her slip out without having to spend a dime. It was _boring_ to use her powers this way, and when _she_ was in charge they wouldn't 'lay low', they'd be the force that the Slaughterhouse Nine was _supposed_ to be.

Returning to the house they'd taken for themselves, she wondered how much longer Jack would make them wait. She could probably take over _now_ , if she had to, but you couldn't rush perfection, and this _needed_ to be perfect.

Walking inside, she repressed a snort of disgust. Burnscar was reading her comics, like a little kid, while Shatterbird was reading some smutty romance, probably putting her and Jack in for the protagonists, like she always did. Cherish didn't need to _read_ about that kind of thing, she'd _lived_ it, and it was overrated.

Mannequin was still on the computer, just like when she left, and Bonesaw was sketching something horrible, having gotten over her funk by experimenting on the original owner of the house, who was probably still alive in the basement. Jack was watching television, but not really paying much attention to it, just waiting for something to catch his eye, though from the music of his thoughts he just had it on for noise.

The entire scene was so domestic it made her want to hurl.

She'd run away to get _away_ from this bullshit, and now it turned out she shouldn't have bothered. She had no idea who daddy had pissed off _this_ time, but it'd been one time too many and he'd lost it all. After the problems he'd had with that actress, she should've known it'd been inevitable. Some long-range lightning cape had tracked him down and killed him, his pets, and everyone else. If she'd just waited another month, she could've stopped running and started having _fun._

She was free from daddy, only to be tied to _this_ bunch, pissing away their potential just like her father had. They were the _Slaughterhouse Nine,_ and what did they do? Odd jobs, mercenary work, just drifting from place to pace. That would change though, and soon. She'd done too much, _sacrificed_ too much, to let this opportunity slip through her grasp.

"I'm back," she announced unnecessarily. "Anyone going to help me put this away?" A subtle rush of pleasure got them to look up, Burnscar jumping to her feet.

The little pyro bounded over, eager to help. Cherish faked a smile of thanks and let her do most of the work. Burnscar liked to pretend she was nice and normal, but normal people didn't make others. . . she didn't want to think about that, only that she was the reason her skin itched.

Grabbing another seat, Cherish tried to just close her eyes and let the music from the mp3 player she'd grabbed take her away, but she just couldn't find the right song. Nearly and hour later, and with evening darkening the sky, Jack nodded to himself and stood up, turning off the television. "I do believe I've decided our next destination."

"You have?" Bonesaw asked excitedly, smiling up at her 'father' in adoration that wasn't faked in the slightest.

"That's right, little one," he smiled back in a parody of fatherly love. "Our last endeavor was ruined, and it just isn't right to leave things unfinished." Cherish felt her stomach drop at this, but just smiled back at him. It wasn't enough, and he noticed her trepidation, glancing over. "Something to say, _mon Cherie?_ "

With the attention of the others on her, she had to say _something._ "Are we really going to let some newcomer decide what we're going to do?" she asked, but from the others' expressions they didn't really care, even with the bit of extra incentive to agree with her she provided. Shatterbird even scoffed, but that bitch always had to make herself look the coolest for their 'dear leader'.

"Ah, but he took what was rightfully ours," Jack countered, Bonesaw nodding seriously with a pout. "And though our employer is, sadly, no more, her wish will live on, since her body can't." Cherish knew that was bullshit, and knew that he knew that she knew that was bullshit, but there was no fighting him when he got like this.

"So we're going to Brockton Bay?" Burnscar asked without inflection, interest and dread spiking in her song in equal amounts.

"Not _quite,_ " Jack hedged. "I'd originally planned to have us go recruiting, and this will require a full roster. No, I think we'll stop by for some Brotherly Love first, before heading there. Even if they fail, my little girl was denied her toys, and what kind of father would I be if I didn't provide for her." He grinned, and the song that rang through him showed his lie easy enough. "Besides, Brockton Bay seems like it will be _much_ more interesting soon, and not just because we're there. Before then, Cherish, what can you tell us about our eventual prey. He's certainly powerful enough, but do you think he could be number nine, if our recruits aren't to our liking."

"He's hiding who he is," she responded immediately. She'd learned long ago that trying to outright lie to him just got you caught that much faster, unlike her father. "It's like he's not. . . real." Jack cocked an eyebrow and nodded in the direction where the old man was currently napping. "No, more real than her, just. . . there's more there."

"I thought so," Jack murmured to himself, attention sliding as curiosity and interest slid from him in questioning notes. "He almost reminds me of. . ." he trailed off, shaking his head. "As I was saying, Philadelphia is where we're going next, that means everyone need to do you research! And an extra set for Brockton Bay, those that are left, just in case no-one makes the cut. Good men are so hard to find these days."

Shatterbird gave him an offended look, and he grinned roguishly at her, the woman blushing darkly as he continued, "And good women, of course. Any objections?" he asked. Just like every time he did so, no one had any, at least none they'd say out loud.

Jack smiled and headed towards the kitchen to start cooking dinner, leaving Cherish to her thoughts. They weren't ready for her to take over, but even if Jack didn't realize it, going after Boardwalk seemed like a _bad idea._ She had time though, since from what she'd heard recruiting always took at least a week, and Jack always liked to have the Nine disappear after a job. It might be a bit riskier, but she'd push their training a bit more. It was a matter of time to get them to harmonize with _her_ instead of Jack, and then the Slaughterhouse Nine would be dancing to _her_ tune.

* * *

Dinah Alcott couldn't sleep.

This wasn't new, so she laid in bed, thinking.

She knew she couldn't go back home. There was a 87.43% chance of her parents not believing her when she told them she need to be hidden, that they needed to leave Brockton Bay, and if they didn't there was a 94.89% chance she'd be taken by Coil again, with a 72.42% chance that at least one of them would die, 46.52% chance it would be both.

Staying with Mr. Elric and Herb, as he said she should call him, meant they had a 26.08% chance of dying this year, and nothing she could think of changed it. She was happy that Mr. Elric didn't ask her to answer questions for him, but that just meant she could ask _herself_ more questions. Her only being able to see him half the time, when she really pushed herself, didn't help either.

She didn't hurt anymore, and didn't shake, but she wasn't really sure what to do. Without her power, she couldn't really help. More specific questions were always easier to answer, but sometimes using her power helped her get to sleep.

Closing her eyes she looked at all the universes that hid, just out of sight. Trillions of them, too many to ever see at once, but with patterns of colors, patterns of smells, patterns of sounds between them. They all ended eventually, when she ended, but the ends had gotten farther and farther away lately.

When she was being hurt by Coil, there were always a couple hundred that ended that day, now there were only a couple dozen. Most of them kept going on for a while though, enough to give her an idea of where they were without looking to close at them, without hurting herself. She'd either live for two and a half more years, or eight more years. There were a few hers that kept going afterwards, some for a little bit, some for a long time, but she knew better than to look too closely at those, even though she wanted to.

 _My power doesn't want me to use it that way_ , she told herself, but it didn't make her want to know any less. She knew _something_ bad was going to happen here, and on the fifteenth. She'd told Mr. Elric, and he'd just smiled from behind the mask he always wore and told her, "I know, Dinah, I'm trying to make it _less_ bad," and offered to help make her headache go away. He was the only one who could, though last time she'd asked he said that she needed to not just go to him, and that she needed to learn to reign in her power and use it responsibly.

She'd told him that she was getting better, that she could use it more without getting a headache, and he'd told her that was good, but that he still wasn't going to make her headache go away. She'd tried to tell him the chances of her getting better with her power with him helping versus him not helping, but he'd just laughed when the chances were the same as he disappeared to her sight. Not even pouting had helped, the meanie. He had made her hot chocolate and sent her off to bed, which helped, but didn't make her headache go away nearly as fast.

Looking at everyone's chances of surviving what was coming made her feel better, especially Ms. Kayden's which had gone from 44.328% to 68.985% in the last few days! The other people she'd met had gotten better as well, though there was a good chance one of them wasn't going to make it. She'd tried getting as close to what happened as she could without hurting herself, but all she got was that it was raining and she was hiding, sometimes with a bunch of people, sometimes just with Robin and Theo.

She'd told Mr. Elric this too, who'd told her he knew about the raining part, and had asked, if she wanted to, what the ratios of a lot of people to just the three were. Hearing that it was 63.24% and 31.09%, he'd thanked her and once again asked her to not strain herself.

She'd said that didn't have anything to do, and he'd muttered to himself that she wasn't in school, so he'd had her sit down and came back a few minutes later with paper and pens, and talked to her about what she'd learned in math class. They'd been doing fractions when. . . when she stopped going, so he'd talked about how you could turn a decimal into a fraction, and how to figure out compounding probability to better use her power.

It was confusing, but she _thought_ she got it, and wasn't exactly happy when he gave her more problems for homework, along with a book to read that he'd talk about with her next week and some vocabulary words. Doing them helped, though, and putting the desk in her room together like her desk at school had made her feel less alone.

She wanted to call her parents, tell them to get out of the city, or call her friends, but doing so dropped the chance they'd survive, and even if it wasn't by much, she wouldn't do that to them just to talk to them. The chance that she'd get to talk to her friends _after_ whatever happened was 87.35%, though the chance that she'd talk to all three was 52.3%, and she didn't want to find out why.

It was late at night, almost midnight, but she didn't really have a bedtime anymore. It was right there with homework in things she'd never thought she'd miss, but she did. "Zilla?" she asked the base, "Is Mr. Elric still up?"

"He is Dinah," the robot woman replied. "Would you like me to call him?"

She hesitated, not sure. She didn't have anything to tell him and shook her head after a moment. "No."

"As you wish, good night Dinah," Zilla replied, going quiet.

She checked the chance that Mr. Elric would survive what going to happen, and she got 99.99%, 0%, and 77.7% the three times she tried to check, the feeling of him slippery to her power. She couldn't figure out _why_ , and she'd asked, it wasn't something he could turn off. She wanted to help him, wanted to do _something_ to thank him for what he'd done for her. She tried to grab the concept of him, to not let him slip through her power's grasp, and to _help_ him. Her power flailed around giving her a headache, but, just for a second, she saw it. She saw all the futures with him where she was there to see what was happening, and she wished she hadn't. Mr. Elric, who'd saved her, who didn't want to use her for her power, who'd sat down and tried to teach her when everyone else was ignoring her?

Mr. Elric's chance of surviving the next year was 6.41154186156%.


	124. Preparation 11-5

**Preparation 11.5 – May 13th**

Rebecca Costa-Brown sat at her desk, arguably the most important desk in America, and filed paperwork. It could be argued that the president held more power, and in a legislative sense he absolutely did, but power was not merely a matter of legal capabilities, but of the ability to enforce change on the world. Her office received a fraction of the scrutiny, had a fraction of the limitations, and could implement orders in a fraction of the time. Just as she'd designed.

The paperwork she was completing was another aspect of that design. There was a delicate balance between delegation and direct oversight that had to be walked in order to keep the optimal level of control needed to hold the system in stasis. If it weren't for her enhanced intelligence and tirelessness, she would've been overwhelmed by the amount of information she was required to process each day, constantly walking the edge of exceptional without being obviously superhuman. It had been enough to overwhelm her predecessor, allowing her to gain this position and keep it. Any who usurped _her_ position found themselves crumbling under the workload, returning her to her rightful place. After the second attempt, those who would be inclined to take her station found different positions to aspire to.

Approving the transfer of Clipper to Minneapolis, having improved her Mover capabilities to better fit in with the paradigm Director Scovel was trying for, she cleared her desk in preparation for the video conference that one of her directors had demanded. Pushing her monitor backwards so her camera was in the proper position for maximum psychological effect, she waited the remaining ten seconds for her assistant to contact her, telling her that she had a call coming. Appreciating the short lull, she accepted it, her screen showing her the woman in question.

"Director Piggot, you wished to talk to me?" Rebecca asked calmly. "I hope this is not about your requests for other heroes to be assigned to your department, as that has already been officially denied and the rationale given." This was of course the _exact_ reason she was calling, but certain fictions were required to be upheld to keep things polite. As the other woman grit her teeth, unable to hide her frustration, the Chief Director _did_ feel some sympathy for the woman, but that didn't matter. Emily Piggot had been handpicked to manage the East-North-East department of the PRT _because_ she was the best to allow Doctor Mother's experiment to come to fruition.

Given the likely outcome even _if_ they managed to kill Scion, the breakdown of society was guaranteed. Both she and Numberman had run the calculations, and while some strongholds of control could be kept, it was inevitable that lawlessness would descend upon large portions of the civilized world, as it already had elsewhere. The gradual appearance of parahumans had allowed many governments to maintain their power, which would not last through the coming cataclysm. Both of them could run theoretically models, but they needed experimental data to hone their predications and Brockton Bay was that experiment.

Emily Piggot had been psychologically scarred by the Nilbog incident, instilling within her a distrust of parahumans and a reticence to move with anything short of overwhelming force. Her promotion and direction to the ENE office ensured that, as long as Rebecca kept her staffed with enough heroes to handle the situation, and no more than that, then the other woman would would hold back the Protectorate and let the non-aligned parahumans do as they wished. Too few heroes, and her claims for support would spur the other directors to help, but with enough to reasonably handle the situation all she came across as was greedy.

Director Piggot took a breath and replied in a strained voice, "Chief Director Costa-Brown, the situation has changed. We now have confirmation that it was the Penumbral Defenders who clashed with the Empire Eighty-Eight. They _killed_ several of the villains, escalating the situation, and shortly after bombed a warehouse that the Undersiders, killing over a _dozen_ nearby. They're escalating things to a dangerous degree"

Unbeknownst to the Director, the Chief Director had already reviewed the report on this situation, despite it being filed only two hours previously. It was an underhanded trick, as Director Piggot was counting on her superior having glanced over it before her call, but not having read the full document in detail. Such a cursory reading would've been enough to give weight to the woman's words without giving her the ability to pick out what was being left out. "And you have proof that this was the Penumbral Defenders? If anything, this sounds like a _de_ -escalation of events from what you previously had to deal with. Should I approve the transfer requests I've received, given the lowering of the Villain population you are currently reporting?"

A look of fear shot across the smaller woman's face, too fast for anyone other than Rebecca to have caught it. "The Penumbral Defenders are threatening the position of the PRT," Emily stated evenly. "By moving without our permission, they are undermining us in the eyes of the public and are committing crimes-"

"Which are not crimes, given they are officially registered," the Chief Director interrupted, "and those actions that _are_ crimes you have no evidence of. Do you even have witnesses that will testify _and_ circumstantial evidence to back them with at the very least, Director Piggot?"

Flushing with anger, the woman replied, "We have witnesses that will testify under oath!"

Rebecca let the statement hang, before asking, "And evidence?" At Emily's silence she continued, "You know the official doctrine of the Parahuman Response Teams, Director Piggot." She let the statement hang for a moment before offering the woman a way out. "However, as Chief Director I could be persuaded to temporarily re-assign personnel, if other concerns were addressed."

It was an incredibly blatant offer, the kind that the other woman would be suspicious of, but which she would take at face values once the difficulty of the task was revealed. Emily had a head for tactics, not politics, after all. "What could I do to help you, _Chief Director?_ " she ground out, obviously upset at having to deal with the even the simplest of realpolitik.

"There's a villain operating in your city; he calls himself Boardwalk. We have reason to believe he is behind several previously unsolved incidents. We would like him taken in for questioning." This was an absolute lie, of course. As far as they could tell, he had likely Triggered only a few weeks ago and had only operated in Brockton Bay. It didn't matter, she had a file of 'incidents' that she could use when needed, and this qualified. Someone that Contessa _couldn't_ Path, and Clairvoyant couldn't see, was a threat to the plan that couldn't be allowed to run free.

Director Piggot didn't look happy but believed what she was told. "He's broken out of the Rig once already, when the Protectorate received _orders_ to detain him. Asking him to come in won't work anymore," she replied crossly, Miss Militia likely informing her of the Chief Director's orders. Given what was known about the parahuman, Rebecca's plan would've worked, but he'd been _far_ more powerful than he'd let on.

"I've reviewed the footage," she replied, not addressing Director Piggot's thinly veiled accusation. "It is what confirmed his involvement in the incidents in question beyond a shadow of a doubt. This is why I would be willing to divert resources for what would normally be an official directive."

"Boardwalk has been working with the Penumbral Defenders, should they be taken in as well?" the other woman pressed. Emily obviously wanted official attention on the PD, assuming the greater force of the PRT would be enough to quash the blackmail material they had on her, blackmail the other woman believed her superior had no knowledge og. It wasn't _true_ blackmail, as nothing was officially being asked, but the intention was the same.

With Armsmaster moved and the Brockton Bay Wards under a competent leader, however, it was a temporary bargaining chip that, in a year's time, would be close to worthless. Director Piggot wanted Rebecca to take the heat, triggering that political landmine instead of her. However, the risk was not worth the reward even if she _hadn't_ had an agent in the Penumbral Defenders.

She'd questioned Break on Boardwalk a few days prior as Alexandria, but while he'd met the parahuman in question a few times, he didn't know more than surface details him. Break's partner, Lee Elric a.k.a. Vejovis, was the one who was in contact with the vigilante. Boardwalk had also seen Doormaker's portal, having been the one to shoot Eidolon with a knife, so was cognizant of _some_ hidden organization, complicating matters to a dangerous degree. Break had stated that he hadn't told Boardwalk about the specifics, and that the parahuman had never asked. Even behind his mask, Alexandria could easily read the man's fervent honesty behind his attempts to seem nonchalant.

"If you can find evidence that they knew of Boardwalk's previous dealings, then I shall consider it," the Chief Director responded without promising anything. "Is there anything else you wanted to discuss, Director Piggot?"

"Can I at least have an additional member to replace Armsmaster?" Emily tried. From her body language, she disliked what she likely saw as begging, but was desperate.

"His removal is why I approved the retention of Paninla," Rebecca gently rebuked. "While she did not have his experience, his worth to the PRT, given what has come to light, was not equal to what his station would suggest." After what had been said, it would do for her to appear conciliatory, but firm.

"The machine army has gone quiet, which has always signaled an attempt to breach containment; we're dealing with the aftermath of the Slaughterhouse Nine's work in New York, which was worse than usual; and we're still trying to clean up the mess Heartbreaker left," she 'revealed' to Director Piggot. "If I could send you more resources, I would, but we're stretched as is. Giving you more support would short someone else of support they would need." _Just like you were shorted in Ellisburg,_ was not stated, and was put subtly enough to get the point across without seeming like she was doing so intentionally.

The shorter woman nodded, mollified, "I understand. Thank you for talking to me, Chief Director."

"Anytime," she replied, "I'm glad we could address your concerns. I'm sorry to cut this short, but I have something else that requires my attention." Emily nodded, and Rebecca ended the call. She hadn't lied, the Machine army _had_ gone quiet, recovery efforts in Poughkeepsie were ongoing, and they were _still_ finding Heartbreaker's victims. If she hadn't known better, she would've been worried about what Heartbreaker could have done with the sheer number of assets he'd gained that worked in the Canadian government, the PRT, and elsewhere. Half the Montreal team was in confinement, though they had the resources to reverse the damage done if they needed to use him.

Calling up the next emergency that needed her attention, she was glad things in Brockton Bay were quieting down.

* * *

Everything was going wrong.

 _It shoulda been great_ , she thought, tears in her eyes. The Asians were gone, and _something_ had happened to the Nazis, so it should've been all beers and blunts for her and Skidsy. _Well, it is for **him**_ , she told herself, sitting in the driver seat of her baby, running her hands over the wheel while her skin felt like it was going to crawl off her and over to the crystals sitting in the tray where he'd left them. She wanted to take smoke it, snort it, hell, she'd shove it up her ass like he'd convinced her to do that one time, but she wasn't going to take anything _that_ cunt made.

Fucking _Snowball_.

She thought she and Skidsy had something special, that they'd be together like Baby and Johnny, but she'd only been his until he got something _better_. She thought she knew how it worked. She'd build the things that kept _him_ safe, and he'd keep her safe, love her like she loved him. She'd make him feel good, and he'd return the favor, not dump _that_ and walk off after not seeing her for _days_ , getting' mad at her when she wanted a little suga'.

She sobbed, feeling worse than she had in years.

She didn't care that he'd smacked her around, she probably deserved it for yellin', and it wouldn't be the first time, but he always came back a bit later, always apologizing and makin' it up to her with some lovin'.

It'd been hours.

She knew all she had to do was take the shards and she wouldn't care, she could lose herself in working on her baby, or maybe something else. _Maybe if I built something **really** good then he'd come back_, she hoped, but she knew it wasn't going to happen. Skidsy liked to show off her babies, but he didn't _really_ care if he didn't have anyone to show off _to._ The only other villain left was that Sherlock Holmes lookin' asshole, and he didn't give a shit about showin' off. She heard he had Tinkers working for him, and they were probably classy shits that wouldn't give her the so much as a 'fuck you'.

Her chest hurt, and she hiccupped, snot running down her face, not having the energy to wipe it off as she cried. She knew she wasn't that bad off, her family was there for her, makin' sure she ate when she came over, even if she din't want to. They were the only thing that kept her goin' sometimes, and what did she do? She pushed 'em away. They usually came back, even though she din't deserve it, but Skidsy normally came back, and _he_ wasn't. He was fuckin' those **_bitches_**.

Yeah sometimes some whore would try to snuggle up to her S- to Skidsy, and yeah he'd fuck 'em when she was busy, but he'd _always_ made time for her. None of _those_ bitches had had powers though. Now she was busy, and she _wasn't_ going to share a bed with those _skanks_. She had standards, goddamnit!

Whirlygig wasn't that bad, like some chicks Sheryl had hung out with when she was high, Skidsy was busy, and she was waitin' on parts. Kinda lanky, Latina, probably, and nothin' special. Hell, she seemed like the type Sheryl coulda pointed Skidsy towards when she was real busy without havin' to worry 'bout nuthin' goin' on. No it was fucking _Snowball._

Turns out, Skidsy was an ass man. Sheryl had a bit of junk in her trunk, but that bitch had a fuckin' _junkyard_ , and was just as fuckin' dirty. Sheryl sometimes got a bit of stuff on her when she was busy, but the smell of engine grease was just _sexy_. That cunt just smelled like _whore._

She wiped her face off, more pissed than tired. That wouldn't be bad enough, but that slut's fuckin' _power._ She made fuckin drugs! Right outta thin fuckin' air! Crack, smack, Angel dust, bitch even made Oxy! It was all the same off white, kinda salmon-ish in tint. Skidsy just said it was good branding, but _she_ wasn't gonna take anything that made by the hoe who'd stolen her man had made!

Sheryl waited a long moment, before getting out of the car. _Maybe Skidsy gave me the good stuff. Maybe it'd just **looked** like it was made by **her,**_ she told herself, moving to the back of her garage, where he'd put the rock. She wasn't necessarily gonna _take_ it, just _look_ at it, double check, just in case.

Wandering over to where it had been, it was _gone._ Not even a bit of dust, whoever had snagged it leaving _nothing_ left for her. _Someone took my meth. **SOMEONE TOOK MY METH! I'll FUCKING KILL THEM!**_ she raged. She was going to **_kill_** the asshole who took her drugs, the drugs Skidsy had left for her, and then she was going to kill that bitch! And the other bitch too! And Mush, for leaving her alone to deal with all of this shit! And. . . and. . . and what the hell was she thinking? If she killed that bitch, Skidsy would kill _her._

She should talk to him, tell him how she felt. He couldn't _still_ be doing that whore. Just in case, Sheryl moved to open the laptop Skidsy had gotten her over a year ago. He hadn't known, but she'd put a camera in his room. He looked so cute when he slept, it always reminded her that he was really a big softie and din't mean what he said when he got a bad high.

Opening it up and connecting to the camera, she felt her heart sink. He was still going at it, Snowball taking it from behind, doggystyle, while Whirlygig was off to the side, lighting up. Hesitantly, she turned up the sound, and listened to her Skidsy call the woman things that he'd promised he'd only call her. Tell that bitch that he din't care about her, that Snowball was the top bitch, and that if she wanted he'd kick Squealer out tomorrow.

"Nah, that bitch be useful, but I catch you fuckin' her I'm cuttin' you off!" the woman commanded.

She was telling Skidsy how to run the Merchants? Sheryl grinned, ready to watch her Skidsy put this uppity bitch in her place! He might not always be the same, dependin' on what he was on, but he _always_ made sure everyone knew _he_ was in charge of the Merchants. Instead of beatin' the hell out of the woman, like he'd done to Sheryl when she'd told him what to do when he was fuckin' her, he just nodded, not missin' a beat in his thrusting. He even grinned as he told her, "Sure thing sweet cheeks, long as I get to keep getting' what's mine!"

Sheryl watched, horrified, as Snowball went back to moaning, and complimenting Skidmark's dick. Shakily, she reached over and closed the feed, feeling like she was on a bad trip. Skids-Skidmark _never_ let anyone tell him what to do, not even _Kaiser_ , and Snowball's cooch was so good that he just let went along with it? What the hell had happened? She hadn't even _taken_ anything!

 _Is this withdrawal?_ she thought. _Am I hallucinating? It wouldn't be the first time, but it's never been this. . . real._ She felt like she was going to die, coming down from god knows how many different things, though most of it was meth. Hesitantly she reached over to re-open the feed, just in case she was-

"Oh yeah take my black anaconda you chocolate whore! I'm gonna drop my-"

 _No. No, this is real._ She told herself, closing the window, silence returning to her garage. _What do I do? Do I go home? **Can** I go home?_ She wouldn't know unless she asked. Opening up the chat program, she sent a message to her aunt.

 _RidinHigh9: Hey aunt Barb, can I come home for a bit. Had a fight with Skidmark._

She didn't get a response right away, so she took the laptop back to her Baby, putting it in its slot on the dash. Sitting in her creations always made her feel better, but instead of the warm feeling she normally got, all she felt was sick to her stomach, like she'd had bad clams. The beeping of her laptop distracted her.

 _SmexyB!tch: u sry 4 wat u said_

 _Ridinhigh9: Yes._

Sheryl really was sorry. She hadn't meant to say it, or to yell at her Aunt. Her Nana had raised her better than that. Nana had also taught both of 'em to write all proper, but her Aunt still had _her_ husband, and was the one she needed help from, so she wasn't going to say anything.

 _SmexyB!tch: U hi_

 _Ridinhigh9: No._

 _SmexyB!tch: srsly?_

She growled at the screen. How could Barb think she'd come home if she was high? She never was around Isabella. It sent the wrong message!

 _Ridinhigh9: Would I be asking to come home if I was?_

 _SmexyB!tch: u wer lst wk_

 _Ridinhigh9: Weed doesn't count! I'm not stoned._

The pause was longer this time, and Sheryl wondered if she'd finally gone to far, if she was really going to be alone. She deserved it, for what she did. For trusting that asshole. For not being able to keep him. For-

 _SmexyB!tch: k c u at dnr_

Sheryl let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. She had some place to go for a bit, though she wouldn't want to stay there for long. She'd either have to come back to Skidmark, or he'd come to _take_ her back, like he had when she'd stayed home last time. He was usually nice when he did so, nice for Skidmark, but she wasn't sure he'd be this time. She'd either have to come back or. . .

She pulled the card out of her belt pouch, one corner of it bent from looking at it too many times. It was a business card, fancy-ish, like some high-powered lawyer might have. Nice, but not in your face. The opposite of Skidmark, just like the man who'd given it to her had been. He hadn't treated her like she was dumb, like she was just another thing of Skidmark's, and while he hadn't stared at her tits, he _had_ noticed them. _And it wasn't like you weren't staring at his junk either,_ she admitted to herself.

She wouldn't go through with it, not 'till she was sure, 'cause she got the feelin' that was bell she couldn't un-ring, _'specially_ with what had happened during the truce. Maybe it was the withdrawal talking, but maybe she needed a change in her life, and he might be able to help. She slipped the card back into her pouch. On one side was a phone-number and e-mail address, the other side read:

 **VEJOVIS**

 **PENUMBRAL DEFENDERS**


	125. Preparation 11-6

**Preparation 11.6 – May 14th**

 _I can't believe he said yes._

Taylor sat in her seat in the well-lit restaurant, looking at a menu whose prices made her wince, not sure what to do now. She'd thrown it out expecting him to say no, because of _course_ he would, but he'd just looked thoughtful, smiled, and said that going out for dinner the night before everything happened was a _great_ idea. Ten minutes after that he'd told her he'd made the reservation for tomorrow, and to dress business casual. She had no idea what _that_ had meant, but Herb helped her find something nice to wear, though she'd wished he hadn't laughed so much.

Now she was here, having dinner with Lee, in what was _absolutely_ a romantic setting. He'd said he didn't want to do anything until she was older, but how was this _not_ a date? Trying not to blush, she stole a glance over her menu as he studied his own across the small table from her. He glanced up and caught her staring. "Do you know what you want? I was thinking the lamb," he asked, voice lowered.

"I, um, the price," she stuttered, not sure how to respond. She shut up, not wanting to sound like _more_ of an idiot than she already was. She felt like a fraud, wearing clothing that _Purity_ had picked out for her a little over a week ago, in a place she'd never even heard of, and her family would've never been able to afford.

Lee smiled at her in the way he occasionally did, pure affection like a spotlight shining on her, warming her face as it did odd things to her stomach. "Taylor, _relax,_ " he rumbled, pitching his voice low to keep quiet and just making it worse, the sound reverberating down her spine. "Even if we ordered the most expensive things on the menu, I'd make it back in ten minutes working with Quinn, maybe five. Your suggestion was good, and we've both been working hard this week. _We deserve this._ "

She nodded, not trusting herself not to say something embarrassing, quickly hiding behind her menu. He wasn't wrong, she _had_ been working to get Eclipse ready for full operations, and he was oddly insistent on everything being waterproof. . . **_no_** _._

She nearly dropped her menu as things felt into place. An S-class threat was arriving, which was on par with an Endbringer. Except it wasn't going to be on _par_ with an Endbringer, it was going to _be_ an Endbringer!

"Leviathan!" she squeaked, looking over the table at him in shock. She broke out in a cold sweat, the world seeming to go quiet as she realized what was coming. She had to get out, warn someone, do _something._ Frozen, she just stared at him imploringly, hoping he had _some_ plan, something that would justify _not_ telling people.

He just smiled, and shook his head, "Should've figured you'd figure it out. Yes, Leviathan is attacking tomorrow. About noonish, not sure exactly when." She looked around, but everyone kept eating, talking, and not paying attention to this proclamation of doom _at all_. The only thing that seemed to change was that everything was just a bit quieter around them, though the insects farther away hadn't noticed anything. That meant it was. . . .

"You're keeping this quiet!" she accused, anger bubbling up. She didn't care what plan he had, people _had to know_.

He just laughed. "Depends on what you mean," he quipped, as if this was the time to make _jokes!_ "I'm keeping _us_ quiet because you were right, a nice dinner before everything goes to hell is just what we needed. Alexandria's going to be informed at two in the morning, giving the PRT anywhere between eight to fourteen hours to prepare. I think the most warning they've ever had before was twenty minutes. Hopefully I'm right about what's going to happen because of my actions."

She had no idea what _that_ meant, but she had more important things to worry about. "My dad-"

"Is being taken to safety by Herb," he interrupted. "He'll wake up in pre-paid hotel room in Buffalo with a couple hundred dollars, and without his wallet, so he can't make it back here in time. I've written a note telling him that you're safe, and that you arranged for his safety in exchange for your assistance. It's up to you if you want to tell him if that was as Lady Bug or as an unpowered assistant that we hired. I'd suggest the former, but it's up to you."

Taylor breathed a sigh of relief. He had his secrets, and she knew why he didn't share them, even if she didn't like it, but she should've known he would've told people when it mattered. However, as she listened to him talk, a horrible thought came to her. Lee'd meant it to be nice, but since she'd. . . left home, her dad would take that _much_ differently. He'd probably think that she'd been doing. . . _things_. Not that she didn't want to – focus Taylor – but it'd just make her dad worry _more._ "Okay, what'd I do wrong?" Lee asked, cutting across her thoughts.

"Nothing," she said quickly, still freaking out internally. How was she going to fix this?

"Taylor, you're not that good at hiding how you're feeling. It's one of the things I like about you but- damn, wait a sec. Figure out what you want to eat," he instructed as the world got a little louder, the waitress coming over to take their orders, giving her time to think about what to say.

After she left, Taylor took control of the conversation. She'd considered lying, but this had started by her _not_ saying things. "Iranawayfromhome," she blurted out, adding, "sorry," lamely.

"Okaaaay," he replied, blinking. "Um. . . huh. . . _why?_ " he asked after a long moment.

"I wasn't going to school," she explained, and he nodded, having already known and agreed with her doing that, "and I got busy doing other things, and he didn't notice I was gone, and I got distracted, and then I'd realized I'd hadn't been home in days, and if something happened I didn't want him hurt, and I already had a room with you at your base, and so I just took my stuff from _my_ base and my room and moved out. Without telling him. Or you. Sorry," she apologized, the entire thing coming out in an unstoppable rush.

Lee stared at her, and she wasn't sure what he'd do. Would he make her leave the base? Would he kick her from the team? She knew he _hated_ liars, and she _had_ been lying to him for days. Would he-

"Okay."

She looked back at him, nonplussed. "Okay?" she echoed.

"Okay," he repeated, shrugging. "I mean, I'd preferred to have known about this earlier, so. . . oh, that's _not_ gonna look good. Fuck it, too late to fix it now," he muttered to himself. "Okay. I mean, the entire secret identity thing, and him not noticing when things were so bad you triggered, and. . . it's a mess, just. . . a mess," he sighed, and she got the sense he was talking about more than her. "We'll figure out what to do. . . next week," he decided, and she could almost see the wheels spinning as he came up with a plan on the spot. "Next week. I don't like to lie, but this is one of those grey areas. You can tell your dad your working with us as a hero, or that you ran away from home and we took you in, and you've been helping out. I'd suggest the former as it will cut down on. . . unless he. . . _fuck_ ," he swore. "He would, _wouldn't he?_ "

"He would what?" she asked, feeling like she was being left out of the conversation, despite being the only other person there. Lee glanced up at her, and she could practically feel his eyes pinning her from behind his shades.

"Taylor, if your dad found out you were a parahuman, how likely would he be to ignore everything you said and try to force you to quit the PD and join the Wards instead?" he asked intently.

She didn't _want_ to believe her dad would do that. She didn't want to believe her dad would not notice that she hadn't been home either, but _that_ had happened. " _Fuck_ ," she agreed. Her dad didn't care, until it was too late, then he cared too much, like when she'd gotten her powers. He'd been there for her, but she couldn't exactly tell him what was going on. He'd felt so bad about not being able to help that telling him what else had been happening, how she'd been too weak to just ignore them like you were supposed to. A dark part of her had thought it might've been too much for him, and she didn't know what she'd do if she lost her dad too.

Finding out she had powers, that she was in danger, he'd _lose_ it. He'd either try to make her stay home, which _wasn't_ going to happen, or he'd go after Lee, who had enough problems without her making _more_. "Do I _have_ to tell him anything?" she asked.

Lee thought about it. "Technically, _no_. You should though. He's your dad, and he _does_ care about you," he reminded her, and she felt ashamed. "Plus, you _are_ fifteen, he's got to be worrying about you. I know I would be."

She wasn't sure how to take that last bit, so she did what she'd been learning to do with her feelings around Lee and ignored it. "Can I just tell him I've been working for you? Like, without powers?"

From the movement of his head, he was obviously rolling his eyes. "No Taylor, I suggested that because it _wasn't_ an option. Sure, let's go with that. Anything else you want to drop on me, so we can get it over with?" he asked sardonically.

"No, that was it," she shrugged, trying to remember what they were talking about. "Wait, you're complaining about me not telling you things when you were hiding-" she hesitated, continuing in a whisper " _Leviathan!"_

"Hiding is a strong- no, no that's actually pretty accurate," he corrected before she could say anything. "Also, whispering draws the eye, just speak normally, they won't hear us. Okay, so, _Endbringers,_ " he said tone colored with disgust instead of the fear anyone _else_ would've expressed about them. "There is _so_ much bullshit going on with them, and that's assuming everything I've heard, _will_ hear about them, is true, which it probably isn't. Due to the. . . circumstances of what allowed us to come here to help, Herb, Charlie, and I are pretty much Endbringer Bait until we throw down with at least one of them."

"Charlie?" she asked, having _so many questions._

"Huh? Oh, Æonic. He's my little brother," he revealed, as if this wasn't _incredibly important._ "He's a bit of a brat, but a good kid. Also just a bit older than you. Anyway-"

"No," she cut him off, "don't just 'anyways'. He's your _brother?_ The leader of Bell Tolls?" She'd thought she'd figured Lee out, that she'd understood what was going on, and then he just dropped a bomb like this? What was next? He was he had a _second_ group he was running? He was friends with Scion? He was secretly three midgets in a trench coat? She just didn't know anymore.

"Yes?" Lee asked, confused, not seeing the problem with running a _Hero Team_ while his brother was leading a _Supervillain Gang._ "And?"

" _And?_ " she parroted. "Aren't you worried that you'll have to take him down? Arrest your own family?" She tried to think what she'd do if her _dad_ was secretly a villain, and she had no idea what she'd do.

He cocked his head in confusion, "I don't see why."

"He's a _villain,_ " she stressed.

"So is Herb. Still not seeing why."

"But he's not _really_ ," she scoffed. "He _is._ "

Lee held up a finger. "Herb's not really, but Charlie is? We've got two he's, both of which claim to be villains."

"Æonic _is_ a villain," she clarified, annoyed that he was trying to stall. "He's got a villain gang. He does villain things. Herb doesn't!"

"Well yes, but actually no. We've talked about it, and he's going to be doing it correctly." She just stared at him incredulously, wondering what the hell he meant by that. "Okay, hear me out. People are going to do things that are illegal, mostly because half of the things that are illegal are illegal because someone decided to legislate to control, instead of to protect, despite whatever excuse they used at the time. Before the seventies drug use was frowned upon, but if you look at the history most anti-drug laws were usually passed to punish one group or another to try to engineer society. Anti-opium laws were made specifically to target the Chinese, anti-cocaine laws to target black men, and anti-marijuana laws to target Hispanics, who were all the primary users of the substance at the time the respective laws were passed."

"So, what, drugs are okay?" she asked hesitantly. She hadn't expected him to start supporting the _Merchants_ out of nowhere, but she'd listened to him, well, _rant_ for long enough she assumed he had a point.

"What? _God no_. Even if I _could_ use them I wouldn't," he replied immediately, quieting down as their food arrived.

"If you could use them?" she asked once the waitress left.

"Okay, so, _eat_ , but just know that in addition to heat, I'm also immune to acid, disease, and poison, which drugs count as," he listed off. "Even if I _wanted_ to get high, I couldn't. I'll explain, but first, let's eat."

She had _so many questions_ , but indulged him and quickly became distracted, trying to understand exactly what she was eating and why it was _so good_. Her first thought was powers, but when she suggested it, he just laughed. "No Taylor, just skill and high-quality ingredients," he'd told her smugly. "There's a _reason_ this costs as much as it does.

When they were about half-done, he said, "Okay, right, what were we talking about?"

It took her a moment to remember having been distracted by the panoply of flavors which had danced their way across her palate. "Um, you were defending the Merchants?"

Lee looked at her, confused, "Why would I. . . oh, right. Drug laws. No, fuck the Merchants. I mean, _don't_. You'll catch something," he joked, but it fell flat as she was trying to figure out where he was going. "Right, so you have a bunch of things that people _want_ to do, like gambling, drugs, prostitution, so on, but they don't _intrinsically_ hurt anyone."

He held up a hand, forestalling her questions. "It's not the acts themselves that are harmful, but the things that tend to go hand in hand with them. _I_ wouldn't do them because I can do math, like remaining in control, and find the act of sex without any form of love just _wrong_ , but just because _I_ wouldn't do them doesn't mean that I should stop anyone _else_ from doing so."

"You, what?" she asked, having stopped listening halfway through his explanation when he'd mentioned prostitution being okay. She got it, he was a guy, but _still._

"If it couldn't work, then _Las Vegas_ wouldn't work, and it does. Well, sort of," he hedged, not stopping. "But because it's _illegal_ , you can't exactly go to the police without being punished yourself, so a lot of _really_ messed up practices become common, well, practice. However, if you have someone moral in charge with the power to not be run out of business by evil assholes, it doesn't _have_ to be bad. Follow the Amsterdam model where drugs are regulated, maybe have on-site medical staff for the harder stuff. Prostitution is voluntary, with stringent health guidelines, and a place where both the clients and staff feel safe."

"Feel safe?" she said, a little annoyed that all she was doing was repeating what Lee was saying.

"The guys, or occasionally girls, soliciting the prostitutes are many times just as scared of being attacked and robbed as the girls, or occasionally guys, that they're hiring. Or so I've heard, it's not something I actually have any experience with," he added, which made her feel better for reasons she didn't want to examine. "So, as long as Æonic handles it well, I won't care, having more important things to take care of."

"Oh," she replied, searching for a safer topic of conversation. "So, um, Leviathan? You said you were _Endbringer Bait?_ What does that _mean?_ "

"We're going to have to deal with Levi gunning for us. That's. . . okay that's gonna suck, but it's doable. No, really, it is," he reiterated as she just stared at him.

"Leviathan is going to try to kill you _personally?_ " she whispered. How could he be so calm about this? She'd looked up videos of all three, trying to understand exactly what fighting a class S threat meant, and they all tore through heroes like they weren't powered at all!

He laughed, _laughed!_ "Taylor, the problem isn't going to be _surviving_ , it's going to be surviving as _Vejovis._ It's why _you're_ going to be running the 'converter' for Amy."

He was talking about the device he'd figured out with her and Panacea's help. Device was a strong term. It was a box. A fancy box, but still a _box_. Taylor would direct insects inside and they'd be 'converted' into bio-slurry, which Panacea could then use as a base material to heal people's wound in a fraction of the time it normally took her. Really Taylor would just collect them into a bowl inside the shoebox sized device, and Panacea would put her hand in it, melting the bugs and taking a handful of the somehow still alive goop. It _looked_ like Tinkertech, with a switch that lit up the outside while making it hum, and it had the Arachne Assemblages logo, but it was just a box.

She'd been annoyed that it'd require her to stay next to the girl who _obviously_ had a thing for her teammate, but if it was that or fight _Leviathan_ , it wasn't so bad. But that meant that _he'd_ be fighting an _Endbringer._ Something else he'd said filtered through her memory. "You said you couldn't tell anyone what was coming or else it might make it worse. How could it be worse than an _Endbringer?_ "

Lee shrugged helplessly. "He could've arrived earlier, he could've stopped sandbagging, he could've brought his siblings," he rattled off.

Taylor made a noise of distressed frustration, having reached the point where words just didn't express what she was feeling. If they'd been holding back, that suggested a whole _host_ of terrible things. On top of that she tried to consider more than one Endbringer attacking, and just couldn't. There wouldn't be a Brockton Bay _left_!

He sighed, "Sorry, I'm good at tactics, good at experimentation, bad at managing secrets. Or, well, not really secrets, just talking to people. It isn't so bad, _honest_. Okay. So. In order: Having him show up early would be bad, as the more time I had to get ready, the more likely I'd survive the fight, along with everyone I care about, like Amy, Vicky, and _you_." She appreciated him saying so, but felt annoyed that she was at the _end_ of the list. She nodded, signaling him to go on.

"Second of all, holy _crap_ are the Endbringers holding back. Behemoth doesn't have to be slow, The Simurgh doesn't need to scream, and Levi. . . I don't know, but it won't be good," he admitted. "They're not trying to destroy; I think they're trying to _test_ us _._ I'm pretty sure that's why no-one Triggers _during_ an Endbringer attack, when you'd think that's when the _most_ people would be in the kind of 'abandon all hope, about to die' situation that triggers, well, _Trigger Events_. The more prep time we have, the harder Levi might go. Or maybe not. I _really_ don't understand what Endbringers are, though I probably understand more than pretty much anyone else on Earth Bet."

That made. . . sense. _Too_ much sense. She'd looked into Trigger Events after she'd had her own, and there was a lot of confusion, but most of the research said things had to get bad, and what was worse than an Endbringer attacking? "And the third?" she asked, not certain she wanted the answer.

"There's three of us that are targeted by Endbringers. There's three Endbringers. If that happens, _take Amy and run,"_ he commanded, his tone brooking no argument. _"_ I don't care what she says, you get away and you get her to safety. I can trust that _you'll_ be smart about it, but she might not be. If Eclipse is still intact, go there _after_ the fight, but during? _Run._ Don't hide in shelters, don't try to help, just _run._ I'll probably still survive, but there's _no_ way I'm keeping Vejovis intact."

She didn't reply, turning over what he just said. All three attacking at once was a _nightmare_ scenario, the kind of thing she hadn't even considered, the kind that almost no one but the most pessimistic people out there probably had planned for. If he said he'd still be able to survive, she really didn't have a choice but believe him. His talking about 'keeping Vejovis intact', while a weird way of saying it, did make her feel better. That he was going to handicap himself during an _Enbringer attack_ was insane, but the way he was talking about it he was sure that he'd survive, just that he might need to use more powers than he was supposed to have _as Vejovis_.

"Okay," she agreed, not sure what else to say. "I will."

"Thanks," he sighed, looking like a weight had been taken off his shoulders. "Tomorrow's gonna suck, but this. . . this is really nice. We should do this again, though if we don't recruit a chef we're probably going to need to go to Boston."

"How bad is, was, _will_ it be?" she asked, looking around at the people who had no idea what was coming. _Was this what it was like to be Lee all the time?_ she wondered. She didn't like it, and wished she could help, but she had no idea how, and focused back on him, clarifying, "After tomorrow?"

"Following the original timeline? Half the city's wrecked," he shrugged. "Most of the funds to help rebuild the city are diverted because of corruption and only downtown is really patched up. You were still with the Undersiders, having tried to do the undercover thing only for Armsdick to try to brand you a villain, his _own_ malfeasance undercutting him but putting _you_ firmly on the side of villainy, as far as the PRT was concerned. Idiots," he snorted. "Like you'd _actually_ be a villain."

If she hadn't seen it herself, she wouldn't've believed him, but having Armsmaster, one of her favorite heroes growing up, turn on her like he had? It'd hurt. She wasn't stupid, she knew she'd joined Lee's group because she was mad at the Protectorate, but she'd chosen him, and she wasn't going to back out now. She knew she could, if she wanted to. Lee'd be hurt, but he'd let her. That was just the way he was.

"Each of you claimed a _lot_ of territory individually and you tried to help out the people in the area you'd taken over," he said, and that didn't sound like something she'd do. The claiming territory thing, if she _had_ taken over an area, she'd like to believe she would've helped the people there.

"Did," she hesitated. "Did I do a good job?"

He thought about it, which _wasn't_ a good sign. "Yes," he said after _far_ too long. "You had no idea what you were doing, had _no_ direction whatsoever, and the reputation that others had built up around you hurt more than helped, but for what you knew and what you were given, you did good. Could you have done better? Yeah, but you had no support and even from your own team. Tattletale could've easily helped set things up, but with the Teeth, the Fallen, _and_ Accord all moving in; the Slaughterhouse Nine coming calling, nearly killing half the city; _and_ the PRT deciding that while they weren't going to help people, they'd be _damned_ if they let _Villains_ help innocent civilians, you were kinda busy."

"Oh. . . okay," she said. That had been. . . fair. She knew the Fallen went to places that Endbringer went, so that made sense, and, with the power vacuum the ABB left, Teeth coming back and Accord coming up from Boston made sense too. She'd always thought that Lee's dislike of the Protectorate, which is what he always meant when he said PRT, was a bit much, but if they were stopping people from helping after an _Endbringer attack_ , he might have a point. "Wait, is _that_ why you've been having me get everything running?" she asked. "We're going public after tomorrow?"

"We'll start expanding, we won't go public until after the. . . no, they have Cherish. Damn. Yeah, after tomorrow. We'll need to figure out how we're doing it, maybe tap Sarah to vet upper level staff? Hmm. . . ." he trailed off.

"Okay, yeah," he said, slowly nodding. "I've got some ideas, but we can handle that this weekend. More than that, I'll have Dryad use her powers to quickly build shelters and facilities for those who've been displaced and I've been stockpiling food to help supply kitchens. I've got some designs from a contact for those, and that'll help get things back on task in a fraction of the time. I'll probably buy up the area around the base _right_ after the attack, since anyone with sense will be dumping what they see as bad investments, but after that I'll get to work restoring the city. I'll definitely need your help there, Taylor," he smiled warmly.

"Um, I control bugs. How could I help?" she asked. She _wanted_ to help. To make the city like it used to be was something her dad and fought for for _years,_ but other than making sure a place was bug-free, she wasn't that useful.

He looked at her incredulously. "Seriously? You control an _immense_ workforce that can do the most finicky of detail work with _ease_. You can't handle things that require brute strength, _yet_ , but that's what you have other people for. You could have ants dragging electrical wires, termites boring the holes to drag said wires through, and who knows what else?"

Like a lot of things Lee said, he sounded _crazy_ until you really thought about it. Now that he _had_ said it, though, she could see how to do so easily. She'd learned more about how repair, replace, and sometimes re-install all sorts of things then she'd ever thought possible in the last week. That meant he'd _planned_ this, and just hadn't told her. "Why didn't you say so?" she asked, annoyed.

"Say what?" he asked back blankly. "You've been using them to do that all week. The only difference would be that you'd be building from scratch instead of repairing things."

She started to object, but didn't really have anything to say, taking a bite of her risotto instead. Then another, because she still didn't have anything to say. "This is _really_ good," she said, just to move on from her being stupid.

"Yeah, I never took Amy to a place like this when we got dinner," he commented idly, causing her mental processes to crash to a halt.

"You went on d- you took Panacea out to dinner?" she asked, catching herself.

"Yeah, during the Bakuda Bombings. She would've worked herself to the breaking point otherwise. Never somewhere as nice as here though," he mused, glancing around.

"Oh, okay," she replied feeling better.

"Should I?"

"Should you what?" She questioned, hoping to take the hint. Like usual, he didn't.

"Should I take her someplace like this, or here, assuming this place is still in business," he explained.

"No!" she blurted out, getting an inquisitive look from Lee. "Not here, it'd look weird, taking different girls to the same place," she explained, trying to play it cool.

"Fair enough," he shrugged, buying it and turning back to his food.

"This has been a good week," he said, more to himself than her. "Peaceful." She looked up at him, and he continued, "It's the first week since I've arrived that I haven't killed someone."

She. . . didn't have any response to that. "Before the Truce, who. . .?"

"Merchants and Nazis that tried to kill me first. Not having to do that was. . . _nice._ After everything, it was getting to be a bit much," he admitted, his tone oddly fragile, only for a moment. He continued, once again as confident as he normally was, "It's been good to get everyone else up to snuff. Well, _closer_. I even got some training time in. Thanks for the suggestions, by the way."

"It wasn't anything special," she muttered. It'd just made sense that if he'd made her and Glory Girl Orichalcum weapons, he'd make one for himself. The fact that he _hadn't_ was pure Lee. It'd taken them a bit to figure out the spiral pattern was the source of the effect that made it hit so much harder. That and layering it with his costume so he could hide it when he didn't want to hit that hard. She still hadn't believed it would be _that_ effective until he launched that train-car upwards with a single punch that _wasn't_ using one of his 'special' shields. She wondered if it ever came down, but that's why he'd arced it towards the bay.

"Between that, increasing my shields to sixteen, and my work with my Aerokinesis, I think I'll do well," he declared. "Or at least, you know, not have to out myself as having more powers to keep from dying." He grinned, "Though there's one thing I'm looking forward to."

"In an _Endbringer attack?_ " she asked, incredulous.

"Yeah. I try not to copy the powers of heroes, but there's going to be a lot of people who _don't_ meet that qualification that are going to be fighting. Levi's my focus, but that's gonna be one _hell_ of a windfall."


	126. Deadline 12-1

**AN: I've written my second book! It's called "Burrows & Behemoths" and it's currently available on Amazon. Think Jumanji meets D&D, in reverse. If you enjoy this story, I believe you'll enjoy it as well. As something I'm selling, its writing is tighter, its editing is _far_ better, and if you do like it, please leave a review!**

 **Deadline 12.1**

It was 5:30 in the morning when the door to the common room of the upper base was flung open. I was weighing the benefits of different types of breakfast and looked up as Glory Girl, wide-eyed in panic, flew in.

"Leviathan!" she yelled, hair mussed, her costume obviously hastily donned.

"Yeah, in like eight hours," I replied, ignoring the wave of Aura that was trying to make me feel guilty. Normally I'd be on her ass for not controlling it, and part of me still wanted to, but her lack of control was understandably, even if only barely.

Getting the email from my father detailing Leviathan's arrival at exactly 1:18 this afternoon was an unexpected windfall, and would be _very useful_ in the future, as the chances of Behemoth still attacking New Delhi were likely going to be such that we couldn't count on it. Herb had then gone and told Cauldron about it with ten hours left before Leviathan's arrival. It was two and a half hours later, and they were apparently getting off their asses to tell everyone else.

A bit of the panic faded from Vicky's eyes, replaced with confusion. "Huh?"

I slipped out my own phone and checked, just to make sure they hadn't been _that dumb_. For once, they hadn't. "'The PRT has received reliable information that Leviathan will attack Brockton Bay, New Hampshire sometime after eleven p.m. today. If you are currently in Brockton Bay, New Hampshire, please proceed to an Endbringer Shelter in the next two hours for safe transportation out of the area of probable attack,'" I read aloud. "'If you live within ten miles of Brockton Bay, please vacate the area in the next four hours. If you are a parahuman that wishes to participate, please contact the PRT for the nearest transportation point. Please do not panic.' Okay, the last part's dumb, but it's not bad," I editorialized.

"You. . you _knew?_ " she asked, shock and outrage playing across her features.

I shrugged again, "Who do you think told the PRT? Yeah, we're fighting Leviathan today, shortly after one in the afternoon. My previous orders stand: stick near Dean no matter what, keep him alive, and for god's sake make sure you're never in the water. Go back to sleep Vicky, I'll have breakfast ready for everyone at seven."

"The bugs!" she yelled in realization. "That was training!"

"Levi's going to be faster, but yeah," I admitted. "Go back to sleep."

"I can't sleep when I know an _Endbringer_ is attacking!" she shot back.

"Well, he's not for several more hours, and you're going to _need_ that sleep Vicky. Go bug Panacea if you're having trouble, she can help. Now _get_ ," I commanded gently. "Worrying isn't going to make it any better. There's a _lot_ of reasons I didn't tell you, and we'll go over them during the team meeting we'll be having over Breakfast."

She nodded, numbly, and left, while I decided to just say 'fuck it' and make a full spread, people could get eat whatever they wanted. That just left figuring out how to make everything so that it was ready all at once.

I got to work, sending a message to everyone's phones saying, "Don't worry, I'll explain over breakfast at 7."

* * *

When the residents of Eclipse assembled, they were extremely quiet, each wrapped up in their thoughts. I waved for them to partake in the spread, having gathered my own plate. "Everyone get something, then I'll talk," I instructed when they just stood and stared at the food, and from the expressions of the others, they didn't like it, but they complied. Herb grinned, but it looked forced.

Once everyone had gotten their first plate, I set my waffle aside and clapped my hands. "So, as you likely guessed, the first _real_ threat is here. Leviathan." Looking at Theo, Canary, Hedera, and Dean, who'd shown up to the base five minutes ago, I revealed, "Break and I got a _very_ in depth view of what would've happened in Brockton Bay from a month ago to late July, but we had to deal with the prophet's dilemma: we would know what was coming only if we _didn't stop what happened before it._ Obviously, we've meddled, but we've kept it small."

Panacea let out a disbelieving snort, but Herb beat me to responding. "Nah, really. For him, he has."

"Thanks?" I replied, not sure if that was a compliment or not. "Anyways, the more we change things, the more unreliable it gets. _That's_ why we've been working to prepare, but weren't able to tell you for fear of things going _much worse._ "

"What's worse than an _Endbringer?_ " Purity asked, starting to glow in agitation.

"Three," replied Taylor, not missing a beat. "No one's got warning like this, so who knows what it'll do?"

"Luckily, we got word from the short-term precog I've got on retainer that it's _just_ going to be Leviathan, who's coming in at one-eighteen. Given how precogs mess with precogs, and all the other abilities that affect precogs, all of whom are going to be flooding the city to _fight_ him, that's all I was able to get, but that's why _we_ were able to warn the Triumvirate, who told the PRT, who are managing everything else," I reassured them. "And if for some reason we're _wrong?_ If two, or all _three_ show up? Every needs to _run._ Those in the base hold tight, short of a direct attack it should hold, and everyone else scatter while Æonic, Break, and I hold them off."

"Hold them off?" Vicky scoffed, unbelieving. "You think. . ." she trailed off as I subtly thickened the air in the room, lightly pressing down on all of them as I looked at her seriously. It was underhanded, but it was needed to impress upon her that I was being completely serious.

"Victoria, the three of us are Triumvirate-Tier parahumans, and we've got four of Break's brothers coming in for the fight, all of whom are just a _little_ weaker than him. If things get bad, Boardwalk will jump in, as well as a new recruit, and they're _each_ almost as strong as I am. We'll do it, but how well do you think the PRT would react to _the_ _Super-strong Nine_ of us coming out of the woodwork all at once?" I asked, stressing the phrase as I let up on the pressure.

Dean started to say something, but stopped himself. "I hope they'd be grateful, because you're helping," he finally stated.

"I do too," I earnestly agreed, getting a surprised look from him, "but I'd hope they'd be thankful that Boardwalk saved their Wards, and we know how _that_ turned out. Let's just say I know things that make that highly unlikely. What's the phrase? Hope in one hand?" Herb snorted and Kayden shot me a reproachful look, glancing over to Theo to see if he understood me. She needn't have worried, as only Taylor got the reference, smiling into her tea. "So, let's talk Leviathan. First of all, do everything you can to stay out of the water, _obviously._ He's good at large-scale displays of power, like his tidal waves. Speaking of which."

I tossed everyone an earpiece, giving two to Dean. "This will keep us all in touch. I'll be giving Æonic his later. Dean, give the other one to Missy. Theo, Robin, Hedera, use the base's computers to watch what's going on and warn us if you see something you think we should know about, like a tidal wave." I waited for nods from everyone before continuing.

"So, _Leviathan_. Never was a Parahuman, the Endbringers are something else entirely. Their bodies are _incredibly_ tough, and they have a core somewhere you need to break to kill them permanently. _We're not trying to kill Leviathan,_ " I stressed to the capes around me. "The damage done to Brockton Bay in the process would be _catastrophic._ Behemoth explodes like a Nuke when he dies, and I have _no idea_ what Leviathan would do."

Complete silence met my statement. Mollified that they were taking this seriously, I continued, "He has 'eyes', but they _may_ just be for show. He _definitely_ feels all of the water around him, so unless you're indoors _he knows you're there_ , and even if you _are_ indoors he may or may not be able to feel the water in your body. But here's the thing: he's kind of a dick."

"Um, _Endbringer?_ " Glory Girl chimed in, sounding off balance and trying to find something solid to cling to. "Being a dick is totes all they do."

"Kinda," I told her, noticing how she'd scooted closer to Dean and was currently holding his hand. I _really_ hoped they both survived. "Behemoth is generally apathetic, and Ziz might seem sadistic, but she's more curiously sociopathic than anything else. Levi likes to play with his opponents like a cat playing with a mouse. He's the only one where having a Striker power matters in the slightest, as he'll let his opponents get close, putting up only a token resistance, and let them hit him. Then he'll try to strike back, but he'll play at being injured. He even pretends to 'bleed' despite it having no effect whatsoever. Then, when the cape thinks they're actually doing something, they get cocky and **_bang_** ," I hit the table causing everyone else to jump, "he'll _actually_ kill you. However, this is exploitable. If he gets close, hit him once, and while he's acting injured _fucking run._ He'll likely send a blast of compressed water at you, or try to hit you with his tail, or something, but if you can get away and let someone else distract him you're safe, or as safe as you're going to get. Watch from attacks from behind, as he _can_ turn any water around you into a weapon, and he brings a freaking _monsoon_ with him wherever he goes."

"And the others?" Purity asked intently, the attention of the others snapping to her, then back to me as Herb groaned and sighed, putting his face in his hand.

"Khonsu's a coward, and I don't know enough about Tohu and Bohu to say, but they're not showing up for six months at the _earliest_ ," I explained quickly. "But we're talking _Leviathan._ Behemoth is strength, The Simurgh is finesse, but Leviathan is _speed._ I'm pretty sure can move the water he leaves behind himself to _move_ himself, so if you're in visual range, you're in _striking_ range, or in _blasting_ range as he whips his hand or tail towards you, sending a high-velocity blast of water in your direction."

Honestly, most of this was conjecture, the Endbringer in question never having shown these abilities in the (extremely limited) video that was available of him fighting. If I was wrong about his capabilities, those gathered around me would just be overly cautious, but that would be just fine by me. If I was right, it'd save their lives if I couldn't be there to do it myself.

"Purity," I instructed, "follow Legend's lead, blast from afar. Yes, you could probably hit him better up close, but the reverse is also true, and while you've got that defensive move you still need a moment to pull it off _and_ it might not hold up to a concentrated stream. We want your help, but we also want you to _live._ " Herb nodded seriously, and she glanced over to him, expression flickering, emotions flashing by in complex combinations before she looked back to me and nodded. Hedera didn't look too happy about what she saw in Kayden's expression, but I didn't care.

"Lady Bug, Panacea, you stay in the triage center they set up, and I don't care what _anyone_ says, you aren't going to leave unless Leviathan is either _gone_ or is _coming for you._ The first will be obvious, and if it's the second then call for us, run, and hide _together._ I can save both of you if you're together easily, but things get _much_ worse if you're split up." I did _not_ want to make some bullshit 'which do you save' choice. On one level, Panacea was objectively more useful, on the other hand _I didn't want either of them to die!_

They both glanced at each other, frowning, then glared at each other, then turned back to me. Panacea nodded while Taylor promised, "I will."

"Glory Girl, I don't care what anyone says, _don't go with Alexandria._ You stay with Gallant, and _both_ of you stay with Vista. Gallant, I don't give a shit if doing so is insubordination, I don't give a shit if you're benched for a month because of it, _you all stay together,_ " I commanded.

Dean looked unsure, but Vicky mouthed 'he died', and I gave a firm nod. She moved to hold his hand with both of hers, and he looked between the two of us. She gazed into his eyes, imploringly, and he slowly nodded. "Okay, I will," he agreed, giving a short laugh. "I'm not going to argue with anything that keeps Vics from fighting an Endbringer." She gave a short, vulnerable, teary laugh and nodded as well.

"And what about you two?" Hedera asked, looking at Herb and I.

"Us?" I smiled grimly. "We'll be in his face, trying to beat the shit out of water-Godzilla while trying to stay alive."

* * *

Flying over the city, the sky was clear with barely a cloud in sight, the peacefulness in stark contrast to what was happening below. To be frank, it looked like someone kicked over an anthill. While I could practically feel the tension, there were no screams, no crying, just a lot of car horns and a bit of yelling here and there. The roads downtown were jammed with traffic, people not listening to the directions and trying to drive out, though at the edges of the city things appeared to be progressing fairly well.

Squinting, I could barely make out someone picking up a wrecked car and clearing the road for traffic to continue. There were dozens of fliers in the air, going this way and that, and several mechanical dragons with windows in their sides flew through the air, ferrying people from where they'd gathered at what must be the Endbringer Shelters to the edges of the city, where a small fleet of busses was waiting, more continuing to arrive as I watched.

As much as I hated the PRT, this kind of large-scale operation was something they were _far_ better at than I ever could be. Continuing to the Unitarian church Æonic used as a front, there were a lot of people moving in and out, some still in the uniform of my brother's gang. It wasn't subtle in the slightest, but, with the threat of the imminent attack, no one cared. While a couple people gave me a worried look when I touched down, carrying a large duffel bag, a Middle Eastern girl hurried forward to me, leading me inside without a word.

Blinking, a Vibrant Blue & Light Green glow surrounded her. Respawn was her most prevalent ability, but Temporal Overwrite and Tinker Cybernetics swirled around her main power's glow. Keeping my expression neutral, I carefully looked her over as I followed her, seeing if I could spot any cybernetic implants on her, but if there were any, they were either too subtle to spot or covered up by her BDU's. I was broken from my thoughts by my brother clearing his throat, having been taken to a side room. The Tinker left, closing the door behind her, leaving the two of us in a side obvious.

"Dude, no checking out my minions!" my little brother scolded.

"What?" I asked, unsure of what he was talking about. I wasn't planning on poaching his lieutenants, but that didn't seem to be what he was implying.

"You were staring at her ass!"

 _Oh._ "I was looking to see if she had augmentations," I defended. "Since she's your cybernetics Tinker."

He gave me a measuring look, before snorting and shaking his head. "That ass ain't fake."

I wanted to ask what, _exactly_ , what he meant by that, but changed the subject, putting the bag I was carrying down on the desk with a solid _thunk_. "I've got some things for you." Passing him the box with the earpiece, I instructed, "This will patch you into my base's comms, so we can keep in touch during the fight, but _this_ is what I'm sure you really want."

Opening the bag fully, I pulled out what Theo had completed a few days prior. He'd been stuck until he'd started working with Herb, who'd been able to copy the kid's Tinker ability and whose different mindset allowed him to work synergistically with Theo to create something _truly_ impressive. It was a long, blocky thing that looked like it came from a gritty sci-fi movie, and practically _screamed_ TINKERTECH.

Gunmetal grey, what started life as a Bushmaster rifle had a standard trigger assembly and down the thick, extended barrel were a series of circular protrusions that, when I flipped the safety off and activated it, glowed a dull brown. In front of the trigger, hanging slightly, was a circular power cell that was slotted in at a thirty-degree angle to hold tight to the gun, and which was had lines running down it that glowed the same brown.

"This is a desiccation gun, which'll instantly destroy any water in a thirty-foot cone in whatever direction its fired. It will not, however, _hurt_ anyone," I warned.

"Where's the fun in that?" Æonic scoffed, folding his arms, and I could hear the smug grin in his tone.

I gave him a disapproving look, "The fun is _not_ having to choose between being hunted down by every other cape by violating the Endbringer Truce or being unable to stop a high-pressured blast of water from cutting you in _half_." From his head movement, he was rolling his eyes, but I just continued, "Right, so each cell gives you eleven shots, and you've got six cells, counting the one in the gun. That's enough to help you survive an encounter with Levi, but not enough to use for everything. These fights can last anywhere from forty-five minutes to _several hours,_ though Levi's tend to be shorter but more brutal, so try not to use it if you don't have to."

The villain nodded, "Won't be a problem. Got any more goodies?"

"That's not enough?" I asked incredulously, holding something that gave him a _hard counter_ to half of Levi's arsenal. "What else do you want?"

He shrugged, "What'dya got?"

I considered the issue. "What's your preferred melee weapon?"

He started to respond, holding up a hand, only to hesitate, holding them both up in a 'I don't care' gesture as he shrugged agin, "Yes? I mean, ever since my ass got dropped here I know how to fight, but I'm not sure. Something classy?"

"Define 'classy'," I prodded. He just waved to his costume. Rolling _my_ eyes, I slipped my phone out with one hand, considering the different Victorian age weapons my browser provided, finding something immediately. "Do you have something with your gang's symbol on it?" I asked, and he slipped a business-card from a pocket. Reaching out towards the bare wall to my side, I tapped Metal Creation and got to work, extending a long tube of gold and white metal from the wall, giving it the spiral pattern, which Taylor and I had discovered was the secret to giving Orichalcum its force enhancing properties.

"Kaiser?" Charlie asked, and I nodded as I put my phone away and the wall rippled violently, rattling the doorframe slightly. Someone knocked and he told them "Nothing to worry about, my dear. I have everything in hand," as I concentrated, forming not only the rod, but what was contained within. It took several minutes before I finished, narrowing the tip to an infinitesimally small wire, which snapped as I pulled my creation free.

It appeared to be a cane, with the symbol of 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' on the top instead of Arachne Assemblages, and I manifested a tiny air blade to cut the wire connecting the two separate parts. "Don't toss it to anyone, it amplifies force if you swing or throw it," I informed him, carefully handing it to him.

"I suppose a cane works," he said, sounding a little disappointed. "But it's kinda basic bitch. I was hoping for some. . ." he trailed off, head tilting as he looked at what I'd given him, watching as his arms seemed to move without any input from the rest of him. Holding the middle with one hand, and the top with another, he moved a bit stiffly as he separated the cane into two pieces, unsheathing the thin blade.

"Huh," he remarked, swinging the blade, his movements far smoother than the time I'd tried to teach him how to wield a blade, years ago. A tip caught the metal table I'd laid the duffel bag down, and it cut through the solid steel like it wasn't even there, sending the corner flying off to crash against the floor. "Oh fuck the hell _yes,"_ he muttered to himself as the door opened.

It was an Asian girl, who was carrying a tablet in one hand and a drawn pistol in the other, looking ready to fight. She froze as she saw the two of us, him with the sword while I was holding an obviously Tinkertech rifle, aiming it down and away from anyone else. "Um, boss-man? I heard somethin' and you asked to know when we'd finished. . ." she glanced at me, before going back to staring at the weapon in my hands, "doing the thing."

"Wha?" Charlie asked, looking over at her before clearing his throat and sheathing the weapon. "Ah, yes of course. The base has been sealed?"

His minion, who glowed with the Vibrant Blue & Light Grey of Respawn, Temporal Leap, and Tinker Small Arms, glanced up at me before refocusing on the gun with undisguised interest, which made a certain amount of sense. "Um. . . can I?" she asked, edging closer, her Tinker-born curiosity overcoming her caution. Looking over at Æonic he nodded, so I held it out for her, not letting go.

She lifted it, but frowned as she tried to look it over, having to struggle to get a good hold on it, the four-foot-long weapon looking ridiculous being held by the five-foot-two girl. Æonic walked over, lifting it fairly easily, his own Peak Condition allowing to handle the thirty-five-pound gun with ease. "Hefty," he commented as she looked at him in disbelief, looking over to me as well.

"It needed to be, to make this work. Any lighter and it'd be shorter range, have less shots, or have lower limit on how much it could dissipate, instead of what it has now, which is _yes,_ " I observed. "So, I've got a few more people to see before this thing goes down. You're keeping your people out of the fight, right?"

"All of them except for Gnomon," he agreed. "He's a new recruit, and insisted. His power isn't something your gear would help with," he added. "He's the impetuous sort, and hopefully this will let it get it out of his system, assuming he survives."

"Fair enough," I agreed. While I'd offer my help, as long as he wasn't being evil, his operations were his responsibility, not mine. Heading for the door with the duffel bag I called over my shoulder, "In that case, good hunting, Æonic."

"I appreciate it," he thanked me, "as we are going to be hunting the Most Dangerous Game. . . _Endbringers._ "

* * *

I was on my way to Boojack and Rune, to brief them for the upcoming battle, when a pigeon appeared before me. What made this odd was that that damn thing seemed to teleport, was staring right at me, and had superpowers.

"Mick," I greeted, and it flinched, form shifting until it turned into an enormous, sky-blue vulture with a twenty-foot wingspan, the man in question riding said bird, glancing around nervously. "I thought we were avoiding mythological creatures?" I asked without malice. From when he was formed, he would've had Herb's memories from when we'd gone over his dire-werewolf form, agreeing that anything mythological should not be used with our primary identities, so as to seem less dangerous to the PRT.

He flinched again, as if I'd took a swing at him, and replied quickly. "Prehistoric. Argentavis. Not Myth." His Stand, who I still didn't know the name of, kept its head on a swivel, keeping careful track of all the parahumans around us.

Reaching into my belt, they both stiffened as I pulled out an earpiece. "So you can stay in touch during the fight," I explained, holding it out as we both flew towards my destination, making no move to come closer. With a flap the giant bird blew past me in an instant, Mick grabbing the device and putting it in his ear.

"We'll be around," was all he said, before the bird flapped and they both disappeared.

"You'll also want to get an armband from Dragon," I told him over the comms. "She'll be able to tell you when someone needs help, and without Armsdick there to mess with things they won't be messed with."

"Ok," he replied curtly, before the connection was cut. If I had to assume it was because he shifted forms, the earpiece going into whatever space his clothing was shunted to when he changed shape.

Happy to get that taken care of, that left three more replicants to contact. Tyrone had moved out to somewhere else in the city but was likely to just show up at the base. If he didn't, I'd just meet him at the gathering of capes at eleven. The PRT had sent a text to all registered heroes, and the time and location of the meeting was being played every few minutes as an emergency broadcast far below. Curtis. . . I had no way to contact, which, in retrospect, was a mistake. He'd said he'd show up to the fight, but I had no idea if that meant he'd come back to the base, show up at the meeting, or just jump Leviathan in the middle the battle. That left Boojack and Rune, who I was on-route to now.

Touching down on the roof, a hand over the door down unlocked the door in an instant, the cameras not covering the roof's entrance, oddly enough. Strolling down to the proper floor, the entire place was dead quiet except for the thumping base coming from the room I was walking towards. Knocking on the door, the music continued, and no one answered. I tried again, with similar results. Feeling rather annoyed, I blanketed the area in silence for a long moment, before knocking on the door and allowing only that sound to propagate throughout the area, before letting go, the music slamming back into place.

Muffled cursing could barely be heard, the music shutting off a few seconds later. The locks slid open and the door opened, as Rune opened the door and yelled, "The fuck you wa. . ." freezing when she saw me.

"I came to talk to you and Boojack about your role in the upcoming Endbringer fight," I informed her, the smell of weed mixed with something else assaulting my senses. In addition, Rune was wearing an oversized T-shirt and, apparently, nothing else, though it _was_ large enough to effectively be a dress on her slight frame. "Tell Boojack I want you both showered and ready to discuss strategy in ten minutes, or I'll come in myself. _Go._ " I commanded, causing her to jump and slam the door shut, locking it again, like that'd help.

I sighed, pinching my nose as I tried _not_ to think of any of the unfortunate implications of what I just saw. That and trying to place the secondary smell I'd been hit in the face with. It was hard to smell anything over the overpowering stench of pot, but there was something else there, almost musky. _Did they not take out the trash or something?_

With no cameras in the hallway, and everyone else long gone, I was able to work, though I did drop a wall of darkness around me just in case. It was easy to create the folding platform I'd sketched out for her, even if I did have to fly to keep the rippling of the floor from knocking me over. Stashing it in the bag, I made an orichalcum knife as well, just to test a theory.

That ate up a good bit of time, and I only had to wait another minute before Rune opened the door again, once again hitting me face-full with that odd stench, letting me in. Her hair was still soaking wet, but she wasn't dressed in Boojack's shirt or the skimpy outfit she'd worn when I'd first seen her, so I'd take what I could get.

Boojack was waiting inside, smoking a blunt, but he was dressed so that was acceptable. Well, he was wearing pants, which seemed to be dressed for him. He did look annoyed, but I didn't care. Tossing him his earpiece, he opened it, snorted, and put it in. "Rune," I commanded, getting the teenager's attention as I set the reinforced duffel bag on the small kitchen table they had, which groaned slightly under the weight, "first of all put this on." She hesitantly put her own earpiece in, jumping when Zilla greeted her. "This'll keep you in contact with everyone else. Now, go back to your room and put _this_ on, It's cloth, then plate, then robes." I instructed, handing her the new costume. I'd had Regent's armor flash red for a few minutes before dismissing it to reclaim the material to make her armor. Rune was in that grey zone where she was not only too useful an asset to _not_ bring in, but also was low priority overall so had very little in the way of training.

It was something I'd fix when I had enough time, and if she wanted to join the Penumbral Defenders, but I could help her this way. She looked incredulous, then surprised when what appeared to be steel turned out to be nearly weightless. She retreated back to the main bedroom of the apartment instead of the guest room, which was odd. Finally placing the second smell, I looked over at Boojack, who had gone back to smoking his joint and waiting placidly.

"Dude, she's _fourteen!_ " I chided, scandalized.

He just shrugged, "So?"

"You're _thirty!"_

He shrugged again, "So?"

"Dude, _no!"_ I said, unable to come up with anything more substantive in the moment. From my interactions I knew that Herb's clones would do things that he never would, but while this was the kind of thing I might've expected from _Curtis_ , I thought Boojack was better than this!

He shrugged a third time. "It's not like it was my idea. Told her I didn't give a shit how she dressed 'cause I didn't find her skinny white ass sexy, so she tried to prove me wrong. She's not bad."

I was in _no_ way okay with _any_ of this, but I didn't have time to try to handle this right now. "Stop shtooping the _fourteen-year-old!_ She's young enough to be your _daughter!_ "

"Shtooping?" Boojack snorted. "And _I'm_ the old one? Don't see what you're worried 'bout. I'm a villain. 'Sides, it's not like anyone gives a shit if it's just statutory."

" _I give a shit!_ " I shot back. "Gah. . . just, just stop doing it, okay?"

He shrugged, which I'd somehow forgotten was his default response to any and all criticism. "I'll try."

"No, there is there no try, only do or do not, and stop doing _her!_ " I argued.

"I'll try."

I growled in frustration, and he ignored me, taking another pull off his joint. "You need some help?" he called to Rune instead.

"I can do it myself, not like a sambo like you could figure this out!" she called back, reminding me that she was also a nazi, or at least an ex-nazi, which didn't make what they were doing _any better_. A moment later she called, "But I guess you could. It's not like I _need_ your help or anything!"

Boojack gave me a smug smile and walked in after her. Listening in, to make sure they weren't doing anything _while I was right there_ , there was a lot of racial slurs from both parties, but if you ignored the _content_ of what was being said and focus on the tonality, she seemed embarrassed and relieved at his help, and he seemed both amused by and comforting about.

The two returned, and looking at her in armor, the effect seemed more Jedi than Mage, but it still worked. Handing her the smooth, perfectly clear helmet, she frowned, flipping her hood down to put it on. Just as intended, when she put the hood back up it was undetectable.

Taking out my phone and pretending to do something on it, I adjusted the armor, causing her to squeak as it tightened up slightly, lengthened slightly, and generally reshaped itself to fit her, as I had to guess the sizes. Once that was done, I put my phone away and addressed them both, focusing on the task at hand instead of the _newest_ problem I just discovered, "Boojack, you're to harry Levi whenever possible. Try to do so when you can save someone, or if no-one else is engaging him. Keep him off balance, but don't get into a one-v-one slugfest, you'll either lose or escalate things too much. Rune. . . you need a better name. First of all, see if you can use your power on your armor."

"I," she hesitated, continuing when I made a 'go on' gesture. "I can't do it on cloth." Boojack snorted, but I ignored him.

"Which is why you've got a breastplate," I told her. She looked at the metallic bust of her armor, her hand hovering over the portion of the armor that displayed assets she did not yet have. "Breastplate means a single piece of armor covering your entire torso. Draw it on your stomach."

Obviously relieved, she did so, her finger glowing even through her glove as she traced an intricate pattern with a practiced hand. It didn't match any runes that I knew of, being _far_ too complicated to be Futhark. I copied her power as it took effect, the armor, which had included a modified climbing harness, lifting slightly, causing her to float in the air, limbs windmilling as she tried to maintain her balance. Boojack lazily reached up and stabilized her.

She set herself down, giggling in delight as she took off and landed a few more times. I cleared my throat and she dropped to the ground with a thunk, a look of panic flashing across her face. "Alright, next idea. Take this," I told her, handing her the Orichalcum knife. Creating a steel plate in the duffel bag, I pulled it out and held it up. "Alright, use your power and try to stab the knife into this. I'm serious, try it," I insisted when she hesitated.

She traced her symbol on the handling, the blade levitating upwards before it shot forward and impacted the plate in my hand. Lacking any unnatural force, it bounced off, scratching the metal, but that was all. "Okay, keep it as a holdout weapon," I instructed, creating a sheath on her armor and pointing it out. "Just be careful throwing or striking with it, since it'll hit harder than you'd think. Last thing, this is for you."

Opening the duffel wide, I pulled out what looked like a chain-link fence folded over many times. I showed her how to unfold it into a ten-foot diameter circle, with thin, metallic rods keeping it stable. "Use this as transport if you need it, it'll collapse for easy travel, but it'll be good if you need a platform in a pinch. Don't advertise that you can use your armor to fly, only use it to get away if you need to. I don't want you to fight Levi, or to get anywhere close to him. I want you to volunteer for search and rescue instead. Understand?"

She nodded, relieved. "Okay," I said, wracking my brain. "And as for names. . . Let's go with Raida."

"Raida?" she echoed, confused.

"Raido's the rune for movement, you move things, but Raido sounds masculine so Raida," I explained. "If you can come up with something better, I'm open to suggestions, but it's a good name for an Endbringer fight." Looking at her, I realized that you could see her face and set the top half of the helmet to be the same dark-green of her cloak, but slightly darker, giving her an Alexandria-ish look. Additionally, I imprinted the rune in question on the back of her cloak in an eye-catching yellow, in case any of us needed to spot her in a hurry.

"If you need help, call and we'll try to get there if we can, and if we call for help you'll need to come help in turn, though we're not going to ask you to go anywhere close to Levi," I reassured her. "Any questions?"

She just stared at me, not saying anything. "We're good," Boojack said, putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder, which snapped her out of whatever she was thinking, and she nodded.

"Yeah, I won't let you down," she promised.

"You're main priority is to survive, Raida," I cautioned her. "Boojack can heal from pretty much anything, even if it'll take a bit, but you _can't._ Stay safe, and try to save as many as you can."


	127. Deadline 12-2

**Deadline 12.2**

Returning back to base, Curtis was leaning against the entrance, arms folded as he watched me land.

"Hey birdie," the man practically purred. "The cat's back."

"I wondered," I replied, tossing him one of the extra earpieces I'd been carrying. "Use this to keep in touch, after that it's up to you. Respect the Endbringer Truce, don't kill Levi, and other than that do what you do best."

He smiled widely, "Ooo, well isn't that sweet and _tasty._ My master's letting me off the leash? Well isn't that something new and. . . _interestin'."_

"The Endbringer Truce _is_ your leash," I replied flatly. "This requires all hands on deck, even yours."

He mimed being shot, "Oh, hero, I'd almost think that was an _insult_ , but you wouldn't be trying to _provoke_ me again, would ya?"

I stared at him. "Curtis, I can either kill you now, or you can try your hand at hunting one of the toughest creatures in existence. _Pick one_."

The monster currently in human skin shook his head, "Come on V, you're no fun." I manifested an Air Blade. "I'm down with kickin' some big ass," he reassured me. "Just talkin' shit, no need to get rough." I didn't dismiss the blade. "Dontcha have a chill bone in your body, bud?" he asked, and I just stared at him, waiting for him to actually say something _actionable._

His stand appeared, shifting into a cheetah with oversized canines which slowly stalked towards me.

I beheaded it.

"All I wanted was a little pet, but that's okay. I'll leave your little tightass to all your little worries. But like any good hunter, _I'll always be waiting_ ," he threatened, turning his back to me and slowly slinking off into the mess of rusty corridors that was the railyard. If I didn't need him for the coming fight, and if doing so wouldn't have moved back the possibility of getting an _actually_ helpful replicant, I would've killed him where he stood. I could practically feel the smugness coming off him as he paused, barely for a moment, when he was a few steps away. When he continued, there was an extra swing to his steps.

Entering the base and calling everyone together, I had Theo grab his latest project. Everyone arrived, suited up for battle with the sisters in their full armor. Purity wore a suit of pure white plate armor which I'd had to dismiss Bitch's costume to create. Parian was working on a suit that _didn't_ require me to use the anomalous material of my suit to create, but it wasn't going to be ready until next week at the earliest.

Our resident Tinker walked in carrying a case which he plopped on the table, clicking it open to reveal five identical pistols, each barrel studded with circular protrusions that glowed a dull brown. "Desiccation pistols," he announced. "Each one is good for twenty-three shots, and will destroy all water in a fifteen-foot cone. They won't hurt anyone, but it'll stop Levi's attacks cold. Er, dry," he finished lamely.

"That's ode Gucci!" Glory Girl exclaimed, flying over. "Can I?" she asked the boy, using the non-powered Master effect of smiling honestly and giving him puppy dog eyes.

"Uh, sure," he replied dumbly, his brain shutting down at the unexpected female attention. She grabbed one, looking it over, and he blinked as his power flared, suddenly confident. "The trigger's meant for normal people, so you'll need to be careful since it'll fire easier than you think. There's a safety on the side you need to switch to turn it on, and it can stay ready for the rest of the day no problem. Don't put your finger on the trigger until you're ready to fire," he cautioned, causing her to blush as she almost fired it accidentally. "When you have five shots left the light on the top will start blinking. I can't be there to fight with you, but with this I can still help," he grinned almost roguishly.

"Great, thanks!" she smiled, flying back to where she was, looking it over.

Rolling my eyes, I walked over, grabbing one for myself, the Tinker jumping slightly as I did so. "Good work Theo. Lady Bug, Break, Purity, come over here, you each get one." They did so, holstering their weapons, though Taylor was hesitant in taking the gun, looking to me for confirmation before taking it and attaching it, along with the holster that came with it, to the back of her belt. The weapon rested, concealed in the small of her back, one of the few lightly armored portions of her costume.

Opening my arms in an all-encompassing gesture, I asked, "Everyone ready to go?" At the chorus of nods, I let out a long sigh and dropped my hands to my sides, having run out of things to say to prepare them. "Okay, those going out will meet at the heroes meeting at eleven, which is in two hours. Glory Girl, if you want to use the 'hover sled' I got during the ABB Raids, Zilla can tell you where I stashed it. Anyone have any questions?"

Everyone looked at each other, Panacea speaking up, "Are you sure we can do this? We're fighting an _Endbringer._ "

"Yes," I replied simply. "We're doing this intelligently, and we're a powerful group with powers and protections that most don't have. Is there a chance things will go bad? Yes, yes there is, but Levi was going to come here no matter what. _This_ time around, you all are _much_ more prepared, and even if it costs us, Break and I will do our best to make sure you live through this."

In a 'cruel calculous of war' way, Herb and I keeping our true strengths hidden was more important than the lives of those we'd gathered. However, I'd risk being outed if it meant Taylor, Victoria, or Amelia would survive. I'd be willing to let Kayden die, but Herb wouldn't, and he wouldn't hesitate to save the girls either. I felt a pang of guilt, as I _would_ hesitate. I had when the thought occurred to me, after all, but I'd made my decision and I'd live with it. "This fight's not going to be like anything you've ever faced, but if we're careful, smart, and just a little lucky, we can all come through this alive," I promised them, hoping I was right. "I'll see you at the meeting, and best of luck to you all."

The group split up, Taylor and Amy heading out together, while Herb & Kayden moved to the side to discuss something. The woman still wasn't happy with my teammate, but she had enough professionalism to know they'd need to work together in battle. Victoria walked over to me, suddenly unsure. "What's up Glory Girl?" I asked, curious at the hesitation writ large across her face, her helmet tucked under her arm.

"I, I need to ask a favor," she admitted, trailing off. I waited, and she continued, "I totes need you to help my family get ready." I raised an eyebrow, but didn't say no. "I get that you aren't a fan, and if you're still salty about what Mom did, I sorta get it, she was throwin' _stupid_ amounts of shade, but. . . I don't want my family to die," she admitted, voice small, desperation filling her tone. I was glad her sister had left, and Herb glanced over at me, but I shook my head. "Like, I'll be there for Dean, because of _course_ I will, but I'm worried about them. They've fought before, but never against an Endbringer," she revealed. "They always had a reason, but it's coming _here_ , and I know they're not gonna bail. I know you don't like them, but please, help them? For me?"

I let out a slow breath. She was right, I had a _multitude_ of reasons to despise New Wave, but, to be honest, most of those boiled down to _Brandish_ , and the others' protection/backing of the woman. Besides, I'd gotten to the point where they were no threat to me, and I only had things to gain by helping them survive this in order to help with the coming crisis. Whether they'd get off their self-important asses to _actually_ help afterwards was another matter, but it would cost me very little and might just give them a chance to be the heroes they claimed to be.

"Okay, I will," I agreed, and had to double check for her Charm Field as she seemed to light up, physically lifting off the ground in relief. "I'll meet you at the entrance in ten minutes, then we'll fly over and I'll give them a crash course. I'm not promising that I'll be _nice_ , but I'll help them."

Vicky jumped up and gave me what would've been a bone-crushing hug for anyone else. "You are so the GOAT!" she cheered, flying out of the room. Theo watched her leave while Kayden and Herb smiled at me, the latter giving out a disturbingly realistic 'baaa'.

Flipping him off, I left as well, plans already forming on how I'd handle New Wave.

* * *

It was only as we were descending towards the Pelham's house that a thought occurred to me. "You did tell them we were coming, right?"

"Pfft, _duh,_ " she said, stopping her descent, reaching for her belt pocket. "But lemme text someone real quick."

"Just call your aunt, she'll handle the others," I suggested as Zilla did so, connecting Vicky's phone to the earpiece she was wearing so she didn't have to try to handle her phone and helmet mid-air. She jumped, shot me a look, but nodded in agreement.

"Hi, aunt Sarah? It's Vicky. Yeah, I was wondering if I could come over for a bit. No, just for a little bit, I'm bringing Vejovis," she said, pausing a bit as Lady Photon replied. "No, he can help! He really can! He's helped me get a lot stronger, and he can help you too! Yes, he totes can!" she argued.

"If it helps, tell her I've helped Gallant, Miss Militia, and a few other PRT heroes," I advised.

"He's helped Dean and he's helped the Protectorate!" she told her aunt. "I was there for when he talked to the air guy in Texas. Yeah, him! Um, a minute? Yeah, we're over the house. Sorry, I forgot, and you said I could come home if I needed to!" she whined.

I rolled my eyes as I made a seat in the air and sat down, trying not to disturb the quiver slung across my back. Looking down at the Pelham's house, several hundred feet down, I saw the front door open and someone who burned with the White & Purple Flames of Kinetic Forcefields. I waved.

"Yes, he's right here with me," Vicky said. "Yeah, we can wait a few minutes. We can wait a few minutes, right?" she asked me, and I nodded, holding up an open hand. "He said he'll wait five. Okay."

"Sorry," she apologized, having hung up.

"It happens," I shrugged.

We hung there in the air, waiting, awkwardly. "So. . . Leviathan?" she finally asked.

I nodded, "He's going to try to agitate the aquifer underneath Brockton Bay to turn it into quicksand and sink the entire city, as well as kill certain people. In the original timeline he was stopped, but a lot of people died."

"Like Dean," she said quietly. I nodded. "Why?" she asked, sounding more confused than anything. "He's strong, but not 'throw down with Endbringers' strong. He's tough, but that's just his armor. Why. . . why send him to fight _that?_ "

I just had to shrug. "Maybe it was incompetence, as Armsmaster was still running the Protectorate. Maybe it was malignance, given the rarity of human Masters working for the PRT. Maybe it was just them throwing everyone they had at the problem, regardless if they could help or not. I don't _actually_ know."

"What does Armsmaster being in charge have to do with Dean dying?" she questioned, confusion still dominating her tone, but it was more of an active consternation than the helpless lack of understanding it had been before.

"Talk to Break or The Lady, Bug," I replied, not wanting to get into it right now. "Just know that with you there, and trained up, and with Dean telling his superiors to go pound sand if they try to make him fight Levi, his chances are _much_ better."

"Not his chances, he's _going_ to survive!" she declared, and I could practically feel the challenging glare from behind her helmet.

"We'll all do our best," I agreed, which from her harrumph she wasn't exactly happy with, but I didn't want to promise something that I couldn't deliver on. "That's why we're here and. . . _shit_."

"What?" she asked, looking around, hand going to the hilt of her sword. "Is he here?"

"No. . . but your mother is."

"That's not a bad thing," Glory Girl dismissed, and I turned to give her a disbelieving look.

"The last time I met your mother, she tried to kill me. Literally. She tried to take my head off with an energy sword, attempting to murder me when I was refusing to fight her," I pointed out. "How is this _not_ a bad thing?"

Glory Girl was silent for a moment, saved from having to respond by her phone ringing. "We'll be right there," she promised, hanging up. "Okay, we can go down," she told me needlessly, dodging the subject as she started her descent.

Sighing, I followed her down to the shared backyard of the Pelham and Dallon households, where New Wave had gathered. They'd formed a defensive semi-circle, which Vicky moved to join without seeming to realize what it meant. I got a good look at each member, Seeing their powers more deeply than I had the night of the mayor's gala. Actively searching the Flames for a hint of the capability to pull off what I planned, I got the sense that it was within the shard's power, though how well it'd _actually_ work and if their hosts had the skill to pull it off was another matter entirely.

"Victoria, is that really you?" Flashbang asked hesitantly, his wife glaring daggers at me as I silently landed a few feet behind the armored girl, dropping my duffel bag and the long quiver across my back.

Her daughter, reached up and took her helmet off, looking a bit unsure, but smiling brightly. "Hi dad! Yeah, Vejy got me some armor."

"Given the propensity of the criminals to use firearms during and after the ABB's insanity, I thought it prudent," I remarked neutrally. Brandish could go die in a fire for all I cared, but Mark got almost no characterization in Canon. He was depressed, and then suffered brain damage during the Leviathan fight, so I completely understood his lack of action, but the man before me didn't appear to be suffering in the slightest.

"Thank you for keeping my little girl safe," he said seriously, his gratitude obvious, and I wasn't really sure how to respond.

"Um," I said, a bit off balance, "you're wel-"

"Safe? You think he's been keeping her _safe?_ " Brandish interrupted. "When she's with _her?_ "

 _Ah. This I can deal with._ "I'm sorry, there's several 'hers' you could be referring to. I reassure you that Purity has indeed turned over-"

"You know exactly who I'm talking to. Tell me, _Vejovis,_ how many of her little creations have you had to put down?" she spat, and, this time, I had _no_ idea what she was talking about. By the expressions of the others, I wasn't the only one who was confused.

"What the hell are you talking about?" I asked.

"Don't play dumb," she replied, expression nasty.

"Right," I said, turning to focus on her sister. "So I'm here to help all of you _but_ Brandish, as I have a standing policy of not helping people who have tried to kill me in the past without good reason."

"Don't you ignore me!" Brandish yelled, taking a step forward and forming a longsword from crackling energy. I ignored her.

"Carol," Flashbang said firmly, putting a hand on her shoulder, "What are you talking about? Is this about your nightmares?"

"They aren't nightmares!" she yelled, pulling away. "They're _real_ and he _knows_ they're real!"

From the Pelham's expressions, they were just in the dark as I was. Victoria stepped forward, "Mom, what are you talking about?"

"It's his fault!" she declared, pointing her weapon at me. "If he hadn't shown up you wouldn't have turned your back on me!"

"I didn't!" Vicky denied, hurt. "I helped my sister!"

"You don't have a sister!" Brandish hissed, hatred in her eyes.

" _Yes, you do,"_ Flashbang stated with authority.

"Mark!" Brandish exclaimed, as if _she_ were the one being betrayed.

He shook his head, telling her, "We've talked about this, Carol. Go inside."

"Not while _he's_ here!" she declared.

Before this could devolve _even further_ , I spoke up. "Brandish, you're not a threat, you're just wasting my time. I didn't hurt you when you tried to _kill_ me, not because I was scared, but because you weren't worth the effort. I'm here as a favor to your daughter, so either stop yelling at me and let me say my piece, help your family survive, and _leave_ , or I will make _you_ leave. Your choice." Even as I said it, I realized I could've been nicer, but my patience for those who accused me of _rape,_ statutory or otherwise, was nonexistent, and she'd long since exhausted it even that.

"Now you're threatening me?" she shrieked, turning to the others. "Why aren't you doing anything?"

Lady Photon winced. "Carol, go inside."

"You're talking _his_ side?" the crazy woman with the energy sword gasped.

"No," her sister disagreed, "There aren't any _sides_ , Carol. I understand, you don't like him, but there's an _Endbringer_ coming here, for god's sake! Maybe you're right, but that doesn't matter right now. Go inside."

"No!" she declared, turning to face me. "You might have fooled them, but I know the truth."

"Jesus Christ woman, I'm not Marquis," I sighed. "I'm both _not_ a villain, but I also have no honor code against fighting women for you to hide behind. Listen to your family before you do something stupid."

I knew this wasn't exactly de-escalating the situation, but that wasn't my goal. My goal was to get this over with. Looking around, I'd need to move to the left to have the ocean at my back. Brandish took the bait, because of _course_ she did, and charged me. "And now we have murder attempt number two," I commented blandly, and Brandish was on me before her sister could hold her back. The woman was predictable to a fault, though that might've just been my ability to see her power work.

She swung her sword for my head, and I reached up and caught the blade, the blow not even draining the crystalline shield covering it, the heat neutralized by one power before I could even ignore it with another. I commented conversationally, "Sphere, please," as she made a dagger in her off hand and swung it for my stomach, the blade harmlessly skidding off my armor.

As my free hand came up, she reflexively sphered, her form condensing into a foot-wide ball of orange-white light. Not holding back, I slammed that sphere with my palm as hard as I could, draining the crystalline shield as I did so.

The world slowed, as my perceptions temporarily accelerated for a reason I still didn't understand, and the sphere rippled as it absorbed the kinetic energy being transferred into it. With the sound like a cannon going off, Brandish's sphered form blasted up and away, leaving the city limits in a matter of seconds with a sharp crack as she broke the sound barrier. With a bit of Acoustokinesis to keep the sound from hurting anyone, the shockwave still pushed everyone back slightly.

"Mom!" Vicky yelled as Brandish seemed to disappear.

The others brought their powers up, and I dusted my hands off. "She'll be fine. You didn't want her to get hurt, and she'll probably be touching down in New York. Maybe now she won't try to _kill me_ a _third_ time. I swear to god if she wasn't your mother." I looked around at the others, ready to fight.

Knowing what they could do, I could take them down without breaking a sweat. "Yeah, that's cute. You can attack me, and I'll try to take you all down _without_ hurting _you_ , or I can try to help you all survive. Besides, you'd think that, with her being a lawyer, she'd realize what _breaking the Endbringer Truce_ would result in, but I won't say anything if you all don't."

 _That_ took the wind out of their sails. I know I was being the 'tough guy', but I didn't care about this bunch of rule-breaking, honorless, blight on the name of heroes. However, Shielder and Laserdream didn't deserve to be judged by their parent's action, and Vicky _did_ ask, but there were _dozens_ of things I could rather be doing and this entire fiasco had already eaten through a good chunk of my quickly diminishing time.

"She's fine?" Vicky asked.

"Her ego's likely bruised, but," I smoothly reached behind myself and pulled out my pistol, New Wave stiffening, "If I wanted her dead, I'd just _shoot her._ " Stowing the weapon, I turned my back on them and walked over to the duffel bag, pulling out the long, pointy, flattened, teardrop-looking piece of metal out. "So, this applies to Shielder mostly, but also Laserdream and Lady Photon, since you all have the same basic power. So, _Shielder,_ " The boy, who had been primed to create a shield, did so, dismissing it as I looked at him expectantly, though he was ready to pop it back up again. "Quick question, why do you always make your shields circular?"

"I. . . Uh. . . what?" he stuttered, looking to his mother for help.

"Listen," I sighed, "Even if I wanted to hurt you, _which I don't_ , I wouldn't be dumb enough to do it during an Endbringer attack. Yes, if you wanted to try squirm out of the restriction like a villain you could try to argue that the attack hasn't _technically_ started, but I'm here to _help you survive._ The PD's got a Thinker to give us some numbers and _without_ me coming here you die," I told him, the poor kid paling.

"As does your father, while your uncle suffers brain damage," I pressed, You guys are theoretically heroes, even if you did jack-all the last few weeks. Also, more than just fighting Levi, your cousin has asked that I come over here to help you all out. For whatever reason I don't think of powers like most people do, which lets me find new uses _very_ quickly. So. Why the hemisphere? I know you can shape it, since you make it a circle when you fly, but you flatten out the bottom on land. So, why a circle?"

"I. . . I don't know," he said, sounding on the edge of panic.

"Look, if you're not dumb then you're not going to die this time. So, make your shield, and then make it look like _this,_ " I instructed, tossing him the hollow piece of metal. He fumbled as he caught it, barely, looking down at it then up at me.

"You can do it!" Vicky told him, and he looked at her, then at his mother, who was frowning in thought. He looked down at the shape in his hands, holding one out, his blue shield springing back up around him, perfectly circular.

"Girls, you do the same. I know yours aren't as strong, but they should be strong enough for this," I instructed, casually taking a seat on thin air. That earned me some odd looks, but a crimson and purple shield quickly joined the blue, all three starting to ripple and shimmer, like they were made of glowing Jell-O.

Leaning back and Seeing their powers at work, it was fascinating. All three were working, but in slightly different ways, but for every bit of progress one made, the other two quickly followed suite. My own power wanted to go and copy all three, but I had a moment of indecision. On one hand, they were theoretically heroes. On the other, they sure as hell weren't _acting_ like it, which was really my metric, and I was already doing them a service. Combined with the fact that, despite my efforts, there was a good chance they'd die, made the decision easier.

Interestingly, I didn't copy _three_ powers, I copied _one._ Copying Shielder, I gained Kinetic Forcefields. Copying his mother's power, the power warped and changed, adding increased blast power, flight speed, and ability to shift focus between blasts and shields. Copying his sister's, it changed again, further increasing blast power and flight speed. Turning back to watching their progress, it was picking up, all progress anyone made copied by my power and then by others immediately.

Manpower, who was splitting his focus between myself and his family, offered advice to them to help smooth out the shapes, viewing them from the outside. Meanwhile Flashbang was talking to his daughter, who seemed happy, though she did send me an annoyed look when she saw I was looking at her.

Okay, blasting her mother off at the speed of sound was probably _not_ the best of ideas, but having been on the end of baseless accusations, and seeing firsthand the damage a crazy or malicious person could do (' _obviously if there's smoke there's fire, people don't just make things up out of **nowhere,** after all **'**_ , being what most people think, which is _exactly_ what the liar counts on), it was _quite_ cathartic to lay her out. I hoped that once she realized the power gulf between us, and that, now that I'd _explicitly told her_ , she didn't have any special protections, that she'd cut it out. I was aware that that was unlikely.

As the shapes were firming, I stood up. "Good, now, do you know _why_ I had you make those shapes?"

Manpower shared a look with his wife. "They're aerodynamic, like an airplane's wing. It'll make it easier to carry people when flying. Providing lift from moving forward instead of having to lift yourself up."

I nodded, not actually having thought about that. "While true, it _is_ an aerofoil, that's not why it's important to know _now_. You are going to be fighting against Leviathan, who's all power and very little finesse. Shielder, could you make your round shield please?" I requested, walking to put the ocean behind him as he did so. I smoothly unholstered my pistol and shot it in a place that wouldn't hit anyone if it popped. The kid grunted as he tanked the round, but it held steady. Ignoring the glare from his parents, and the exasperated sigh from Glory Girl, I nodded. "Good, now the shield I showed you, pointing the front towards me."

He did so, watching the gun in my hand in apprehension. Aiming again above and to his side, Lady Photon raised her hand to create a shield but Manpower shook his head, watching me closely. I fired again, the bullet deflecting off the shape and flying out over the bay. "Easier, right?" I asked, holstering my weapon.

"Um, yeah?" he replied, surprised.

"Can you please not shoot at my children again?" Lady Photon asked, visibly annoyed.

I looked at her and cocked my head in disbelief. "You're sending him to participate in an _Endbringer fight_ and you're worried about bullets? Fine, whatever." Turning back to her son, I explained, "Now Levi works with streams and waves of water, so you'll always want to point it in the direction the water is going to hit, as while it'll be easier to deflect it, anything hitting the flat planes of your shield will be _much_ harder to deflect then it would with the normal bubble configuration. Furthermore, as your dad said, the shape will provide lift, allowing you to get to the surface in a hurry. Levi rarely crushes people that are on _top_ of the water, but he's done so to people _under-_ water with impunity."

"Bring people with you if you can, but if you have to make the choice between a smaller, stronger shield and saving more people, choose the stronger shield every time," I instructed him seriously. "You _aren't_ responsible for the ones you don't save, as they would've died without you anyways. You _are_ responsible for those you can, and if _you_ die, anyone you might've saved in the _future_ is likely going to die as well. Okay?"

"Okay," he echoed, looking to his parents who nodded in confirmation, their expressions both complex. I got sadness, resignation, anger, and a few other things I couldn't really recognize.

"Laserdream," I said, turning on my heel to face her. She blinked, surprised, with a definite deer in the headlights look. "You and your mother can do similar things, though your shields are smaller. I'd suggest you don't try to carry more than two people and always keep your shield tight. _Your_ strength lies in your blasts."

I slipped out my 'sword' handle, forming the blade, covering it with a shield, and filling it with Darkness as I flicked the switch on, 'activating' it. Holding it up the 'blade' expanded, forming a matte-black shield. "Hit me as hard as you can."

"Are you sure?" she asked hesitantly. I nodded, and she shrugged, holding both hands forward. The space between them glowed a bright crimson, her power gathering the energy, before it was shot at me in a solid beam.

It struck my construct dead center, pushing me backwards slightly, my own crystalline shield straining to hold. She continued pushing it for several seconds before it cut out, my own shield breaking in the process, leaking Darkness everywhere. Dismissing it, I nodded. "Good, but could be better. Focus the blast more, concentrate it. If I can tank it, Levi'll be able to shrug it off, though he'll act like he's hurt."

"Act like it?" Manpower asked.

"Endbringers don't have blood," I told him. "Levi fakes it to draw people close. If he's pretending to be injured, _run._ He'll try to hit you as you do so, but you're a lot more likely to survive than if you get close. Hit hard, and get away."

I looked around at them, "Unless you're a Triumvirate-tier threat, or just below, you can't go toe to toe with him, and even then all it takes is a single mistake for him to capitalize on. First time around Legend got taken down, but Levi was driven off before he could finish the job. None of you are that strong, nor are you likely to be anytime soon. However, that doesn't mean we can't give you some claws."

"Flashbang, are you immune to your own blasts?" I asked, knowing the answer.

"Yes," he replied, without hesitation.

"You have three hours, look up shaped charges. Also, how long do your grenades last?"

"A couple hours, but if they get hit, they go off," he revealed, heading off my next question.

I nodded, "Shaped charges are your friend. Also, figure how much you can concentrate them and their range when you can. Point blank blasts might deflect an attack, but don't count on it. Your power would make a good 'throw and run' ability, but to be honest you _really_ shouldn't be in this fight."

"It's my home," he shrugged, and I couldn't really argue that.

"Manpower," I said, facing the seven-foot-tall blonde man. "This is either going to blow your mind, or you've already thought about it."

He crossed his arms, looking down at me. "Go ahead."

"You control electromagnetism around you, right?" He looked at me for a long moment, before nodding, slowly. "Good. Railguns."

He stared at me for a long moment, looking slightly down at me, eyes slightly narrowed. "How," was the entirety of his response.

"Do you know what Lorentz force is?" Another shake of his head. "Okay, how far from your body can you project your field?" Looking at his shard, I knew the answer was a meter.

"Two and a half feet," he lied.

"More than enough," I smiled, continuing to explain the principals of a rail-gun, how the contrary rotating magnetic fields interacted with electricity being run through it. When trying to create the free-standing electricity was beyond his current skill level, I nodded, grabbing the quiver.

"I thought that might happen. In that case, let's try a coil-gun instead." This was far easier, just requiring a him to create a series of magnetic fields in sequence. Copying his power for myself helped me get a better sense of what he was doing, tweaking it until the concept worked completely. While doing so did create some recoil, most of what was visible in the form of a back-blast of air, a small fraction running through the larger man's arm which he easily shrugged off. For the force of the ball bearings he was firing over the bay, a _sizeable_ amount of the recoil was missing, but I had to assume his power was absorbing it.

"This'll only work on ferrous materials, as opposed to Railguns which are anything that can conduct electricity," I said, handing him the quiver. "As such, I figured this might happen, so here you go. Give one of these a shot."

Manpower took the extra-large quiver, extracting a three-foot-long iron spike from the two foot long case, and giving me a questioning look as another spike popped up in place of the one he'd just removed. "It's bigger on the inside," I shrugged. I'd had the idea of it a few days ago, when I was considering how to use Momentum Infusion without obviously creating projectiles with Kaiser's power. It took a bit, but I was able to create a spring-loaded assembly inside a space made bigger with Armsmaster's secondary power. I couldn't use it for this fight, but that didn't mean I couldn't give another version of it to a different persona later on.

Taking to the air, I reformed my sword, growing it into a tower shield I could completely hide behind. The others, who had been working with their powers, all quieted down as I yelled, "Give it a shot!"

Able to see through my own shield, which was an opaque, inky black to everyone else, I saw Manpower look to Flashbang and Lady Photon. Flashbang looked to Glory Girl, who said, "It's fine. He does stuff like this," before he nodded back to his brother in law. Lady Photon looked up at me, before nodded back to her husband.

Giving a 'well, if you insist' shrug he raised his right arm, pointing it right at me. Dropping the spike over his arm, it stayed there, hovering and slowly rotating as it sparked with golden lightning. His power pulsed and fired, the spike accelerating in an instant as _god_ knows how much energy flashed through it.

Crossing the distant between us in a flash, it left a burning line between us, but I was more focused on the impact. It broke my reformed crystalline shield to pieces and striking the construct it protected. The bolt, glowing hot from the firing process, ignited the shield in an explosion which sent Darkness in every direction as I was thrown backwards through the air, the shield on my chest breaking as well, though my armor and my face shielding held firm.

Tumbling up through the air, I stabilized myself, laughing as I flew back to the Pelhams backyard. A pigeon teleported nearby with a burst of wind, and I waved it off. "That was what I wanted," I told Mick, who nodded and disappeared with a matching gust, going back to wherever he'd been hiding.

Landing, I clapped, an irrepressible grin on my face. The rest of New Wave was staring at Manpower, who was looking at his own arm as if he didn't recognize it. "Now _that's_ what I'm talking about!" I crowed. "Not bad for a first test. So, Glory Girl, what would you say that clocks in at. Blaster eight?"


	128. Deadline 12-3

**Deadline 12.3**

Wrapping up with New Wave, I left with a warning that even _that_ wouldn't be enough to seriously injure Leviathan, just knock him back. That might be overestimating the Endbringer's toughness, but I'd rather have them be pleasantly surprised then be overconfident. I returned back to base to complete the last of my preparations, still ahead of schedule. My normal weapons wouldn't so much as annoy Levi, so I traded out my pistol for something that'd only taken Theo a few hours to whip up.

With the only requirement being 'semi-auto, magazine fed, and requiring a Brute rating of one to fire', he'd gone a bit overboard. Slipping the oversized pistol out of its case, I grabbed one of the five magazines it came with, each holding five twenty-millimeter rounds he'd personally made for it. The rounds looked, _off._ Normally there was a certain ration of bullet to cartridge, but these things were 90% projectile, 10% everything else, allowing them to fit in a magazine smaller than a textbook, further shortened by a bit of Armsmaster's secondary power to allow the thing to be a minor extradimensional space, resulting in a bar of metal that was four inches long, 1 inch wide, and one inch deep.

Trying to fire an anti-material round with a pistol would've broken a regular person's wrist on its own, but with the Speed Zones lining the barrel, even _I_ needed to enhance myself to use it. If I hadn't been able to reinforce my joints with projected metal, I'd have needed to discharge a shield every time I wanted to fire the damn thing. After testing, I'd had to have had Theo repair the gun from the stress of firing, which had then turned into a redesign of the entire assembly to work with the speed zones contained within, which had only taken him another _hour_. Tinkers, with proper support, were _bullshit._

Holstering the weapon, and my four spare clips, I tried to think of what else was left. I could make melee weapons with Metal Creation if I needed to, and there wasn't much else I could do with my powers. Vejovis' build _really_ didn't lend itself to Endbringer fights. Glory Girl's power was a good enough base, but Bug Control, which was practically useless, combined with a bio-manipulation power that I didn't dare use to it's fullest extent meant that, while he was good in small circumstances, he was _completely_ outclassed in this situation.

Cheating subtly with Aerokinesis, Speed Zones, and _maybe_ Spatial Manipulation would help, but getting through the day without outing myself was going to be a bitch and a half considering I couldn't just act as support, I was going to _have_ to throw down with Leviathan to fulfill the terms of my. . . choices? My contract with Abaddon? I wasn't really sure how to frame it, but in the end it didn't really matter.

I could lean more heavily on Metal Projection if I needed to, use Size Manipulation to shrink projectiles, and use Momentum Infusion to 'throw' things, but anything more than I'd hold in reserve. If I _really_ needed to, I could say 'fuck it' and let loose, throwing suns, creating Hard Light tentacles, and blasting with Light while hiding in Shadow, but there'd be _no_ coming back from that.

I'd live, and I could, if not defeat Levi, fight him to a standstill that way. That wasn't even counting in the powers I was about to grab. If they were heroes, and they lived through the fight, I wouldn't use the copied powers. However, given how the death toll of these things, if I didn't grab _some_ of these powers now then I never would be able to.

Speaking of which, I called upon the powers I'd just acquired. Kinetic forcefields blazed to life in my hands, not glowing but seeming to burn with Purple & Red Flames, the same flames that burned when I covered an air-blade with a weapon shield. _Fair enough,_ I thought. Given how they were color coded, I'd expected that to be the case, though the flames were an odd touch. Flipping over to Manpower's ability, I brought it online, only for it to. . . bounce?

It wasn't like trying to use Night or Fog's ability, I could mentally grasp it fairly easily, but as soon as I tried to use it, it wouldn't click. It was an odd feeling, like trying to turn the key in an ignition, only to find there was already a key there. A key that started an entirely different car. It wasn't the best metaphor. _Is there a limit to how many powers I can copy? Have I hit it?_

 _No,_ I thought, _I copied it, I just can't use it._ If there _was_ a limit, then it'd make sense that I could copy, but not use, more powers until my Unlimited Shard Works grew in strength (as all Abaddon Shard based powers constantly did) to handle them. I could add them to my repertoire, just not grasp them to use yet. I'd finally hit the cap with Lady Photon's power, and with time I'd be able to handle more, I'd just need to be more careful about which ones I activated from now on.

That was assuming, of course, that it wasn't something _entirely_ different, as, if I was being honest, I had _no_ idea what was going on, but it could wait. None of my plans required me to use newly copied powers, so I'd still try to keep copying, even if I wasn't able to utilize them. If I _could_ use one, it'd be Manpower's, since the methods of his strength and toughness would likely stack with Glory Girl's, creating, if not a multiplicative effect, then at least an additive one.

Flechette _definitely_ jumped up in priority, however. I needed to copy her power from her, and to save if I could, but this didn't change my short-term plans. I needed to survive, I needed to keep Taylor, Amy, & Vicky safe, I needed to keep my true powers hidden, and I needed to keep this fight from turning into a bloodbath, _in that order._

I couldn't remember where everyone gathered the first time around, but I arrived twenty minutes early at the convention center that was serving as a staging ground for the heroes before Levi made landfall. The place was abuzz with activity, _hundreds_ of parahumans milling about outside, so many that I couldn't pick out any individual power. The Flames and Auras overlapped each other, giving me a headache when I tried to pick them out individually to See them.

Before I stepped into the building proper, I looked for one Flame in particular. Noting an area that had been set up near the entrance, with tape blocking it off from foot-traffic except for one section with a tape arrow pointing outwards, I waited. It took a minute, but there was a warping of air and suddenly there were a dozen parahumans. I knew Strider was male, but other than that I didn't know who to focus on, the Flames and Auras of everyone's powers stacking up and muddling any cursory read.

A man in black and blue, with a lightning bolt jacket, suddenly disappeared, the air twisting around where he'd just been. _Right, gone in a flash, like a bolt of lightning,_ I mused, waiting. He was back a minute later, and I got a better look at him, able to See the Silver & Black Flames of Area Teleportation among the mess of other powers, though before I could get a good read on it, it collapsed in on itself in a blazing vortex and he was gone once more. The six others he brought walked off, and it was another two minutes before he arrived once more, with three more, all of which seemingly in cold-weather gear. My power reached out to his, but it couldn't get a good handle until the power pulsed and he disappeared once more, leaving behind a single, glowing ember of power which was carefully pulled back to me.

It blazed to life but, having _no_ idea how it worked and not wanting to accidentally use Striders power _in front of everyone else,_ I didn't pull it up. That was assuming I could even use it in the first place, and I hadn't been correct about hitting my limit, or that, like Trickster, something about me disallowed teleportation, or that something entirely different was happening entirely. There was nothing I could do now; I'd deal with that later. Having already stood outside the door for nearly ten minutes, and starting to attract a few looks, I moved through the doors into the lobby of the convention center. If I'd thought there were a lot of parahumans outside, I was completely unprepared for what met me inside. There were _hundreds_ of parahumans gathered here, their Shards overwhelming me as I had to wrestle my Power Sight down before I walked into something, or someone.

Blinking my eyes clear, I tried to find a familiar face. New Wave was here, Manpower's quiver slung across his back. Victoria was over with Dean, the other Brockton Bay Wards gathered around them as they spoke quietly, along with what seemed to be the Wards from other cities. They turned, almost as one, and stared at me. Their expressions rang the gamut from impressed, to dismissive, to evaluative. I gave them a solid nod and continued to look around. Feeling Taylor's presence, I glanced over and saw her and Panacea off to the side, a muscular guy in what looked like a He-man costume talking to them as they both looked like they wanted to be _anywhere_ but there.

'Help' Taylor wrote in bugs in a vent, and I rolled my eyes as I walked over, hearing the tail end of what the guy was saying, "After this we should spend some time together. I'm the _Apotheosis_ of humanity, after all. You won't be disappointed."

"Everything all right?" I asked, getting twin thankful glances from the pair. The other guy noticed and turned to face me, his expression annoyed but quickly shifting to an aggressive smile.

"Haven't seen you before. You must be new. I'm Apotheosis," the man said, offering his hand.

"Vejovis," I replied distractedly, taking the hand as I focused to See him. Screened as he was by powers I already knew, I was able to get a glimpse of what he could do. He wasn't wrong, I supposed, he had an Aura of Peak Physical Potential. It was hard to get the details from his power, but it seemed similar to Peak Condition, just inferior to the version Herb, Charlie, or I had.

His grip was unusually firm, and it took me a moment for me to realize he was trying to crush my hand. I let go, looking down amusedly as he squeezed harder. "Sorry, I don't swing that way. Can you please let go of my hand?"

He scowled and did so, moving to walk away, bouncing off as he tried to shove me with his shoulder. He recovered and strode off, muttering under his breath about cockblockers. "Villain?" I asked the other two.

"I wish," Taylor replied, shaking her head and looking up at me, tense anticipation radiating off of her. "This is really happening." I nodded, not really sure what else to say. "Okay," she told herself, nodding in return. "Okay, we can do this."

Panacea expression was hidden behind her helmet, but her body language seemed to indicate indecision before she put a hand on the bug controller's arm. "We'll be in the back. We'll be fine." I'd never really noticed how much shorter than Taylor Amelia was, the bug controller having a good six inches on the Biokinetic, but the gesture seemed to help.

"You've done this before?" Lady Bug asked, turning to look at the her.

The healer nodded, "You're with me, so we'll both be safe." She turned to look at me, "And you'll keep Vicky safe." It wasn't a question as much as a command, but I didn't mind.

"Even if I have to pull out the stops," I promised. Mollified, she pulled her hand back, crossing them once again, the armor under her robes making the gesture awkward.

Falling into an uneasy silence, I looked around, trying to spot heroes that were stand apart to See their powers. It was a wild mix: Matter Absorption, Coral Creation & Manipulation, Ammo Tinker, Laser Form, Bubble Blasts, Hardening, Imperfection Bestowment, Personal Velocity Manipulation, the list went on.

Scanning the Wards, I Saw several powers there, Bullet Form, Weapon Empowerment, Mist Binding and others, before I spotted the one I _wanted_. Dressed in purple and white, her power blazed in the same colors, the intensity of the flames nearly making my eyes water. Unlike the other powers, I didn't get a description, but what felt like a name in my mind.

This was **STING** , and it could be nothing else. Even looking at it made my head hurt, but I new for sure I'd be able to pick it out if I needed to later on. She was talking with others, and hadn't noticed my staring, likely due to my turning my face to the crowd as a whole as I Saw her out of the corner of my eye.

 _Actually that might be a good idea._ Looking around the room, I tried to spot another power of similar strength, as this pre-meeting gathering would make for a _great_ scouting opportunity. Sadly, none of them seemed to jump out at me, each of them muddled and screened by all the others. I could focus in on people individually, with powers ranging from Terrakinetic Whips to Inertia Cancelling, the latter with a cooldown that scaled with the force cancelled, but nothing really stood out in power.

A familiar Burnt Orange & Bright Yellow Aura caught my eye, and I told the girls, "Be right back," as I made my way to the crowd towards Sundancer. She was leaning against a wall in her old costume, holding her left arm with her right as discomfort and nervousness practically hummed through her stance.

"Sundancer," I called as I got close, causing her to jump in surprise.

Her expression was unreadable behind her helmet, but the way she said "Vejovis," caused me to smile.

"I hadn't heard from you since the Truce ended," I greeted her warmly. "How are you doing?"

"Good," she offered half-heartedly, looking around. "Are you sure you should be talking to me?"

I shrugged, "I don't see why not. We're all here to fight together, just like before." I moved to lean against the wall next to her, looking at all those gathered. "Besides, you're not one of the bad ones."

She was silent for a long moment, before muttering so quietly that I would've missed it without my powers, " _Yes I am._ "

"Wanting to go home isn't a crime, Marissa," I murmured back, my words only reaching her. Her head snapped over to me, as she went completely still. "You aren't the only one far from home. Superheroes, . . this is all absolutely insane, and to them it's completely normal, and now we're going to fight _water Godzilla._ "

She stared at me for a bit longer before relaxing, looking back out across the crowd with me. "At least this one doesn't have atomic breath," she quipped.

I blinked in surprised, before I shook my head, ruefully. "I think you're the first one here that's gotten my references. Have you looked at the tv they got? It's superhero _everything._ It's just boring after a while."

"And their games suck," she agreed, joy in commiserating taking her mind off what was coming. "They don't even have. . . they suck," she trailed off, and the silence, for degrees of silence in the busy space, rested between us. "Do you miss it?"

"I've been here a bit over a month, and I've been _kinda_ busy," I pointed out without malice. "You?"

"Seventeen."

It took me a moment to understand she meant she'd been here for seventeen months, and I did a bit of mental math. "Madison then. Thought so. Don't worry," I reassured her, not moving, "I'm not going to tell anyone. The only one of your group that seems like he might've been Ziz'd is Trackstar. Genesis, Ballistic, and Normal Boy seem fine."

"And. . ." she trailed off.

"Noelle?" I asked, and Marissa stiffened, slowly nodding. "I'm honestly not sure. I want to believe I can help her but sometimes powers can change you to the point that you're no longer. . . _you_. Any help after that wouldn't be restoring you, but making you into what the person trying to help _thinks_ you were. She's strong, holding out like she has. A year and half and still sane? That's a girl who deserves a happy ending, if I can give it to her. Question is, is she _her_ , or is she just the power that thinks she's her, like the clones that she makes?"

The silence stretched again before Sundancer replied. It was quiet, almost pleading, and only meant for my ears. "I just want to go home."

I looked over her, ruthlessly repressing the urge to give the poor girl a hug. Now wasn't the time, she might react badly, and it'd draw far more attention than either of us wanted. Instead, I told her, "If we don't stop this place from going crazy, we might not have a home to return to. When this is all over though, not just today but all this craziness, come find me. I can't send you home now. Not won't, _can't_ , but once the fighting's over and the dust's settled? I'll find a way."

"And if I wanted to stop . . . _travelling?_ " she asked, hope poorly hidden in her tone.

"Then there'd be a place for you with the Penumbral Defenders," I promised, passing her my card. "All you'd need to do is ask."

"I'm not," she shot back, almost reflexively, taking the card and quickly storing it in in a pocket. "I just. . ." she trailed off.

"Wanted to keep your options open?" I suggested.

"Yes. That," she agreed.

I pushed off the wall, moving back into the crowd, calling behind me "I look forward to working with you again, Sundancer. Stay safe." She didn't reply.

Returning back to my teammates, Taylor was still looking at Marissa while Amelia asked, "What was that?"

"Recruitment," I replied, moving to stand back with them. "You know the girl I told you about, who had a bad Trigger event and was branded a villain in defiance of the law?"

Lady Bug glanced between us as Panacea glanced back over towards Sundancer, the healer's body language softening. "Same thing?"

"Worse," I replied, making sure our conversation was private. "She and the rest of the Travelers got pulled through from another dimensional at the tail end of a Simurgh attack. They Triggered _during_ the attack, and despite her _not_ being turned into a Ziz-bomb she and her friends found themselves attacked by all sides, in a strange land, where superpowers were suddenly a thing. She has no secret identity because, in this dimension, she has _no_ identity."

"People don't Trigger during attacks," the healer argued, not with enough malice to be outright calling me a liar anymore, just pointing out the common perception.

I shook my head, "We really need to sit everyone down and go over what's going on. The Travelers, after being dumped on Earth Bet, stumbled across something that let them artificially Trigger. The only one who was actually messed with by Ziz was Trickster, and the others just want to go home."

"How do you. . ." Amy asked, trailing off as the announcement came for everyone to gather for the briefing. She shot me a look that I was starting to understand meant 'We'll talk about this later' and we followed the tide of para-humanity into a large room, screens set high on the walls showing the Triumvirate, who were floating above a Dais at the back of the room, watching as everyone filed inside. Taking a seat near the middle-left, Panacea and Lady Bug sitting on either side of me, I focused on the big three, straining to See past all the other powers in the room.

Resisting the urge to open the eyes of my mask to get a better look, I focused as hard as I could, barely able to make them out. None of them where what I expected.

Legend, front and center, was wreathed in the restless Silver & Faded Blue Aura of Absolute Territory. The power had an intensity that rivalled Theo's, but looked weak, almost worn. His power created a beam that allowed him control over what they struck. That was. . . _incredibly_ overpowered on the surface, though I was sure there were all sorts of details that I couldn't make out, having to peer through the haze of all the others to See even that.

Regardless, it should be enough for my power to copy, as his flight was him using his power to effect the air around him. While the man _was_ the best of the Cauldronites, he was _still_ a member of that group, and thus I had no compulsions copying his power in the pursuit of his stated goals. Reaching out, his flying was indeed enough for me to grab a bit of his power, though something odd happened as I did so. When it touched his power, instead of skimming off a bit like normal, it seemed to sink slightly into the man's Aura. Some of the my Flame seemed to dissipate, subsumed into his power, but as it did so the glow of his Aura strengthened slightly, and it was from a bit of _that_ strengthened Aura that my power pulled his.

Legend lifted up slightly, a flicker of surprise flashing across his face before his previous, confidant smile replaced it once more. Alexandria leant forward, but he gave a minute shake of his head before she could say anything, murmuring something to her. The strengthened portion of Aura spread across him, diminishing slightly in intensity but filling the rest until it was a uniform glow once more, the faded blue looking a little more vibrant.

That was. . . _odd_ , but worth it for access to his power. Bringing it online, to see if it came with any sensory effects, I found that I _couldn't_. Just like with Manpower's ability, there was that sense of blockage, of trying to activate something that was already on. Either way, I probably shouldn't be attempting to figure it out in a room packed to the gills with PRT, so I ignored it, turning to his compatriot.

Alexandria, to the left of Legend, had the Grey & Faded Black Aura of Personal Temporal Stasis. I was confused, watching her, trying to figure out how the hell _that_ worked out to flight, super strength, and everything else she was supposed to do, but as I stared it started to fall into place. I wasn't sure _how_ it worked, but her strength was her moving but not able to be moved in turn, though how that turned into _flight_ I had no clue. I supposed not moving with the earth as it travelled through space might do that, but it'd only be in one direction, and not be the thing that allowed someone to _hover._ Her power too, looked weakened, though not to the extent that Legend's was.

Reaching out, once again a bit of my power merged into hers, strengthening her Aura, though she didn't appear to notice. However, when I tried to take a bit of power for my own, it just slid off hers, lacking anything to grab onto. _Oh come on!_ I thought. _She's **flying** , how is that **not** using a power with a visual effect!_ However, my power disagreed. As much as I tried, I couldn't copy it. _At least I've seen it,_ I comforted myself. _When she's using it to fight, I'll see her power in action._

That just left the Big Kahuna, Eidolon.

His power, unlike Legend's, which seemed ready to blast off at a moments notice, or Alexandria's, which held tight to her body, almost like a shell of power, was spread out, roaming over the crowd as he did. . . _something._ It was intense, but the Aura of Dark Blue & Faded Green resisted my attempts to identify it. He likely had some sort of Thinker ability active and was scanning the crowd with it. _Endbringer Truce my ass,_ I grumbled internally, not really surprised that he held to the rules as well as the villains did. I reached out to grab his power, wondering what I'd get.

I'd Seen his power, which was what was required, even if I had no idea what he currently had active. Hopefully I'd grab his method of flight, and I could figure out what the hell it did later. With any luck I could stack it with Vicky's to up my flying speed. Reaching out, my power brushed against his. As with the other two, a bit of my own power flowed into his, strengthening his Aura. Trying to pull a bit off, I started to get it, before his own power lashed out, wrapping around my own and trying to draw it in further.

Mentally pulling back, I found I couldn't nor could I separate the tendril of power I'd extended.

"Shit," I swore under my breath, having _no_ idea what the hell was going on.

I wasn't the only one, as Eidolon bobbed once, letting out a panicked "Fuck!" as he started to fall out of the air, only to be caught by Alexandria. His power pulled harder on mine, taking in more and more, and I started to _hurt._ It wasn't a pain that came from anything in my body, it was a lance of agony that went to my soul and arced through my brain on the way there. The migraine from hell instantly sprouted and then only intensified while I wasn't able to do anything to stop it, the feeling spreading through the rest of my body. Muscles spasming and straining, it felt like my eyes were on fire as I bit down on a cry of my own, sitting ramrod straight to try to hide what was going on.

I dimly heard the girls on either side of me whisper something as others looked up front at what was going on, but even when the guy in front of me stood up, blocking my line of sight to Eidolon, that didn't sever my connection. No one payed any attention to me as they all tried to spot what was wrong with the Triumvirate, but that was the silver lining on this _fucking_ _hurricane. What the fuck did I do? What the fuck **do** I do? _Feeling Amy's hand gripping mine, I desperately pulled the material on my hands back hoping she could help, the drain increasing as my attention momentarily slipped.

Fighting it, my power gripped his firmly, pinning it in place to try to strip it off even as it sunk hundreds of draining pincers into my own. Splayed out like it was, I͘ ̯͙͖c̲͔o̘̗̙̜̜͟ul̖͔̭̻̝d̰̼̺ ̤̤ _f̵͎͉̯͍̭i̛͖̪̗̪̺na͉̦̤̩̪̫̳l͕l̛y̟̟̣̼ ͚͚͍̱̙͕ͅ **S҉e̮e͖**_.͉͇̜͎̗̣̯

E̤̬̙̩͍i̝͇ḏ̸͕̟o͇̮̜͎̼͇͞l̬ón̳̮̤'̙̩̺s̖̟̮͖͎̞ ͍p҉̼̳̯o͉̻̙̳̜ͅw̥̤̲͍̼͟e̮̟̜̬r͍͢ ̹͉̗̯̱w̲̟a̖̖̮̪͇̦͞s̜͓̠͚ ̳̥͙̫͓̣̟͜s͇̰̼o̘ ͘ì̪͈̰̦̻̮n̸̪̙c͙̳͎̗̭͟r̛̪e̗͈̰d͉̬͉͖͇̪̕i͏͍̬͈̙̭bl̳͖̥̙̟ͅͅy͓͚̝̞̜̯͟ͅ ̯̳͞s̵̲̜͔͚im̧̼̤p̮̱̞͙̖̖ͅl̬e̕ ̻͍͖̠̭t̛͇̼̪͎̟h̤a̭̱̩̲̲̬̺̕t͞ ͎̭͉̘͍I̬̦̺ ̳̦̮̯ha͎̟̹ḑ̠̹̝̱̟̯ ̤̫̼̫͕̺̬͘t͕̣̪̻͝o̺̮̩͖̣̩̖ ̯͙̮l͙̳͉̲ͅa̡͉̣̠͉̼ų͕̮̘g̰̩̠̞̼h͖̲͙̕.̸̟̲̙͙̲͈͚ ̳̠͓̀ͅI̙̯̖̺͓ͅṯ̣͎̤͇ ̨̞̭ͅw̞͇̳̘͍̼̭ḁs҉n̖̱'̜͇͠t̘̥̳̮̝͘ ҉̫̯͉̳'̴a͙̥ny̩͔̲ ̙̦̳͈͉͞t̶̳̯̗h̝̻͓ͅr̻͈͓̹̳̺e͇͎e͓̞̺ ͖̖̺͟p̻o̩͓̣͓̖w̜̲̘͚e̵̼ŗ̰͚͖̜͇̲s̘͓͟'̙͙͢ ̣̪͔̙̜͠i̢̬̙̺͓̝̗ͅt҉͎̪̖̰̘̫̼ ̬͙̻͉wa͖̞̭̝͚s̘͙͇̹ͅ ̵͕̠̰̬̞̙̗ _I͏̮͔̤̯n̛̙̜̩̖͙̼̭t͞er̷̗̝̘̻̘ͅf̠̣a̰̞̱̫͔͎͖c̡͙̣̙̬e̶̱_.̗ ͔͇̳ͅH̗̥̹̺̯̝e͈̘̙̮̜̹ ̵̤wa̛͙̜͇̘̮s̳̞͖n͕̻̻̹̙͓̹'͖͘ṱ̖͉̭̩͉ͅ ͏͚̟̩̪u͔̤̭̝͖̮͘s͓̹͉͖̝i̮̯̠̲ṋ̠̙̟̱͍̹͟g͖͟ ̪́h͍́i̥̹̥̬s̴̺̯͉͕ ̝̬̹̺͉̘͍̀p͓o̤w̼̩̺̻̣͚e͠r̳̬̖ͅ ̣̺̹̺̪͓he̖͖͔ ̵w̥̳̜a̵͈̜̠͎̰̩̹ś͕̞̫̻ ̦̝͇͘u͔͜s̺͍̺ị͈͖̼n̺̰̱̱͈̝̭g̺ ҉͔̹̰T̙̙͎̭͔̯ḩ̱̱̼e̻͔͔ ͔͓̳̺̺͓ͅT̥̲͍h̹̯̺i̱͓̙nk̩̫͎̺̭͕e̵̳r͟'̘̠̲̭̼̜s̟̞͉̱͕͢!͙̠ ̧̠̤͈͚̝͍B͙ut͔̻͍͕̪̹͔ ͇̜̭̣̠͢ͅh̟͈̮̟̻̝e͎̟͇ ̭̝u̠̯̟̹͉͕ͅś͈͖̪͔e̸̮̺d͈͖̠̠͎̱̫ ̳̺̯̱̠̺͡t͚͖͓͓̟h̟͎e͏̠̮̟̳͔m̷̻̭͎̱͕̯̟ ̩̯̜̗̪͙̀a̧s̗̟͕͓̳͖ E̡͚̤n̠̝̰̬t̗̼͎̙͍̟i̬̯̻̯̤͇t̟̜͖̗͜i̧͉̹e̷̱s̩̼̞̤͍̯͢ ̭̲ḏ̵͓i̛̹̼ḍ̨͖̟̝̗,̟̺͙͕̟͓͠ͅ ̥̣̻̘f̨u̹̟͖͚̥͟ļ͚l̵͚ ̱̫̱̯̥̤͎o͕̖̭͍͖͇̠f̼̭͇̻͍͙̹ ̫͖̘̣͝s҉ò̠̘u͇̲̣̬͖̥̣͟n̸̦̣̯͇̙̹ḍ̬̰̣ ̪̱̩͙͓͝ą̱̝̙͓̘ͅnd ̻f͘u̟͕͙̺̫͢r͕̪̬̠̮y͎̬͕͈̯͢ ̤̼͈a̰͉̣ń̩d̷ ͕̬̜̹̼͍́w̳̫͇̱i͖̮̘̘͎̼t̻̥̕h̛̫͕͉ ̗̞̫͚̺̝n҉o̗͖̳̲̗ ̼̘̺̱̤̯̪th̸̲̘ǫ̳u̫̙̭̗̻̫̥g̶̭ẖ͈̤̝͈̻̲̀t̰̪͙͇̭͎ ̶̬̖͓̲̭̬t͈̰o̤̖̻̦̫ ̣s҉͚͚̣̱o̤̪̟m̮̟̤e̷͎̰̠̯̩͚t̴̖͔͇͕h̻̳͚̜̙in͙̘̩̲̪g͓͈ ͍l͎͢i̛̬͔̦̞̪k̰͙̤̞̻̟̩e̛̯͙͈̬̗̯ ̗͎̤̪̺͚͢ş͕u̺͙s҉̭͔̙̣͈t̸͖̫a̰͍̖̭͍͍͝in͍̣̻̞̙̯̠a̰̩͇̭̮b̴̖̤͔͙i̫̯̥͎̰͉l̷͍ị͇t̙͉̠̫͇͎ͅy̺͍̠͓̭̩ ̙̜͍d͢e̱͍̟̦̱̦s̶͚̟̟̜̖̩p̰̺̩̰̞i̺ͅt̤͖̟̻e̘̣̺̪ ͉̲t̫̥̪͎͎͡h͎̱̳͎͈̙͝e͓̼̺̦͉̙i̩̤r̡͇͍͍͓̗ ̴̼͕̰̮ͅg̠̯̞̟͍̯̀ͅr͕͙̣̱̟̮a̗̞̟̺͙̣n͏̹̯̥̼̺d ̯͓̣̥͇͈e͙̱̩̭̹̺ͅx̯͎͓p͏̯e̻̞͙̠̹̘̳͠r̷̜̯̳͕̖i͖͡m̢͚̱͉̖̰̼̗ȩn̵̟̙͉̺͖ͅͅt҉̙̖!͉͟ ̙̠͔̺T̲ḩ͎̟͔̼͉e҉̞͈y̫͈͇ ̶̠h͟a͈̣d̸̗̪̙̯͇̗ ͎̲̯͉̖̳̰B̹͔͟i̡̱l͏͇̝̫͍͈͙̤ĺ͚̣̪͓̝i̟̗̣̝ͅơ̗̖̤̙̞ṇ̨̝s͟ ̛͍͎͕̦̙̪̙of ̤t͈̥͍͇͘h̤͠e̡m̡̝ͅ,̙͚̜̲̦́ ̪͍͝e̱̻aś̬͙̦̪̙̪̻i̺̣͈͇͖̹̻ly,̝͡ ͖̝̩͚͍͝u̩͢s̼̣̼͍̞̠͞i҉̱n̤̭̲͔̘̳g̢̦͙ ̳̞̬t̶̰͍h͍̼̞̦̤̬e̯͠m̯͖̭̖ ̮͍̲̱i̴͈͈̰͔͙n̫͉͚̗ ̵̬̦̗̯͙̞su͙ch͍̬̻ ͠a̦̭ ̻͖̟f͈̬͍̝̫̹a̝͉͙͖s̠h̨͍í͕̱̤̝o̳͓͍̲̠̟͝n͕͎̜̺̻ ̦͍̥̲͜w̴a͖̮͚͕͉̹ͅs͝ ̟͇͙̟͟s̼̤͇i҉͈mp̬l̟̙͖̻̩̞e̢̮̮͚.̻̘̕ ̵̜͕͖͖̬̖H̝ẹ̱̬ w̗̦̠a̜̟s̮̮̻̦͖̯ ̩̞̘c̗̱̗͜o̺n̳̤͓͉͈̲ͅs̝͈͖̺̩̮ͅt̳̻̩͇̥̜̮a̸̝͙̭͕̰n̤̦t͚̰̟̥l̶y̮̣̼͉̮̯̻ ̮̗h̹̺͎̬a̻ṿ̡̘̘͎i̱͉͚͓n͇̳̖͠g̝̠ ̨̹̰ͅt̜ǫ͚̝̖̺̫ ̦̳͖̻̝͘m̭̲̟̮ͅo̶̯̪͇̣̯̲ͅve̫̟ ̼̬̤͍ͅo̫̼̦̱n̘̰̝ͅ ͙̙̳̙͉̣ś͕̪͔̝͖͙̥ì̜̞̭̭͕͖n͈͇̰̮̪̙͠c̢͈͕e̥̣̜̗̮̻ ̼̦t̤̗̰̫̪͢h̜̦̗̻̩͉̰͟ey̬͍̘͡ ̫͓̫͝ͅd̟̝̳͇͟i͈̳͈d̥̞̳̞n̜͓̘'̣̝̕ṱ̵̻̮̟ ̖̯̦̫̝͉̬h̥̻a̬̳͙͉͚̗̜͜v̥̖̼͉̞̫͇ę̣ ̢̘t̮̪̪͉̺͈ͅh͏̬̟̺̣͓̻e ̖͠re̴͉̞̦s̮e̛rv̼̣͍o̦͙͓̗͖͈̗i̷r͚̰̗̹s̝͕͉̭ ̱̤̖̼̯͕d̟̫̟̲̹̺̬e̠̹̲͕̼͉t̡̯̹̝̳̦̪a̧̼̘̺̮̙c̭̣̩̠̦̞̭h͈̬͇̘͙ȩ̞͔̰̫̯͇͈d̵̬̯̩̘̣ ̯̮śͅh̖̙̮̥̰̕ar̷̩̼d̗̠̞̩͙͚̺͡s͕̞͞ ̹̲̜̳n͚̬͍̙̥͎͕o̦͎r̬m̼̜̞̹̺̀a̷̲͉l͢l̥͘y̫̮̭̫͓̫̩ ͚̼͘w̲̭̕e̳͉̜̜̟͕̗͟ṛ̳͎͔è͉͕̬͓͈ ̘̯̟̥a̞̼̟l̖̟̮͟l̵̲̦ò͙͖̹̮̫ͅt̛̼͖t̮e̞͍̝̻̻͍d͙̼̝͜,́ ̶͚̬͓̻͖̰̪b̸̟̹̟̯̗̟u͓͎r̗͙̻͓̰̲ṋ̲́i̵̝̮̩n̢̝̫̬͕̪g ͍͇̭͡ṯ̘̭̤he̫̣̱̩̮̕m͇̱͔̱͚̠̹ ͎̗o̙̠̼͇u͖̦t̗̟͇̝͙͈̮ ̩̠̠t̯̲͞ͅơ̺̥͉͓̝͈̗ ̢̯̺͇͍̺t͚h̹͎̝ͅe̵̹̮̻ ̻̱͉p̢o͈̗̤i̝̦͔̭̣͞n̮͇̫t̖̬͡ ̷̘̝̫͈̳̳t̡͇͓̱̱̰͎̗h͍͉͉͚͝e̺̠̖͉̮̙y̪̼̹̜͔ ̠̠̪̟̩̜̺h̼̭͚̺̝͔a̴̫d̥̣̱ ̴͈̻̣̟͇̗͎t̺̙̩̫̺̼o͚ ͇̻͍̻̫͚͟ͅd̵͎̬̫͇i͕̦͚̮̭s̡͎e̮̖̹n̡͔̗̟͉̺̪g̫͚͈͖̬̜͞a͏͓͈͓͕ͅg̡̖̲e̳ ͈̗̫̱t̯̲͓̮̮̼͍o̷͖̥ ̥͇̱̝̀r͚̦̥̟͖͡e̢ͅf̦̻i̶̹l̢̳̬͚ḽ̫̞̰͔,̮̭ ̙̮̺̠̤̘̭t͈h̸͚o̺͈̻̱̗̘̹s̨͓͚̬̠͖̱̲e̟̬̣̗̣̕ ͎̦̼̞̳tḫ̗̥̹a̵̰͇̭̣͓ͅt ̰͉̙̹͙̀w̜̟e̹̟̹͙͖̫͚ŕ̹e̢͍̫͇̱ ̣̜͕̦͎͙ͅn̥͎̼͍̘o͓̺͕̥̫t̥ ̱͍͓͕͠b͓͍͔̜͈u͇͔̘r͡n̪̳̼̙t̫̩̹̫̦̝͙ ̘̙͈̣͔͡o̹͈u̬͉̳̥̠ͅt̕ c͔͖̖̮̳̙o͇̟̝̟͚ͅm̥̮p҉̥̮̬le̢̱͔t́e̶͔̣l҉̲̠̦y̴͖.̰̹̯

W̛̼̙̯͢͞i̧͎̼t̛̖͙̪͞h̝̗͘͘ ҉͍̹̲̙̬͔a̵͉̕ ͏̦͎̹̲̟̜͟Ć̡̥̙̥̼̪͕̼͝ò̸̼̖̤̩̫̥͎͇r̸̖̰̬e̸҉̱̥͕ ̹͈͉̟͖̖̞̜S̸͍̹̜̖̥͕̤h̩̞̮̳a̵̢̗͈r̡̟̮̫̖̼d̩͔̤̦̻͇̥ ̵̶̹̟͍l̻̱̜͓̩i̛͏̼̝̫̯̪̮k̬͞e͓̟̣͚͘ ̷̧̻̫̭͔͟t̹̞̱͉̱̤̯h̢̙̟̙̩̙̱͕i͓̤͖̫̖͈̜͜s̜,̸̣̺͉̲̯̣ ̵̴͈̘̺̞̜͡i̶̡̭̰t̛͓̱̺̯̥̱̱̕ ҉͇̪͈̥͈̹͢w͇͎̤͢a̧͇̤̺̭̘̳͟s̨̙̯͟͠ ̶̷̣̙̺͕̺̞̲̦ͅn͙̺̮͞ò̡̟̞̭̠̦̖ͅ ̖̜͉̹̤̮͍̺͝͠w͎͓͖̤̮͇̖ờ̸͓̟̗̝̭̻n̬͇͚̜̩d̦̻̹̼̼̭̥͙͢e̱̞̦̜̮̙̕͠r̶̨̙̮̖̠̼͉̞̼ ҉̖̳̠̬t̡̥͓̞̗̟̦̝̬͎̕h͖̠̰͖a̻̣̱t҉̤͚̗̼̹ ҉̯͙͠U͇̮̬͍̦̭̘̮͘͘s̜̦̗̰̦̫e͙͚̯͔̗͎r̹͎͉̬͚̱͘͝/̨̘̣͔͕͡ͅͅH̞̯̺̹̱͘o͚̜͔̖̮͚̹͠s̝̱͓̝͕͚̕͠ṯ̶͔͇͎̲͕͚̼̀ ͓͎͕̫̘̝͕̭͜h͇a̢̨̘͈̱̠̣͕d҉͎̟̜̪͖͕͎ ͚a҉͏̱͎̲̜̳͍͜p̨̤̣͝p̸̝̥͓͓͍̙è̗̯̦̭̪̬͍͔͢͟a̯̟͍͉͝ͅr͉̺͈̦̫̦̕͠e̸͖̙̱̩͢d̡̻̬͇̱̘̱̖͈̱͠ ͝͏̹̣͉̖̹͈s̺͖̣o̡̡͎̫̭̝̬ ͈̮̟͚͔̜̫͚̮͢p̢͇͙͟͢o҉͉͖̟̹̪̘̲̰̟w̰̣̠͡è̫̫r̢̢͙͖͚͖̦͈ͅf̧̢̪̞͓ự̪̻̘̹͖͍͎͢͜l̘̜̹͜͞͠,͙͖̤͎̟̙̼͢͠ ̷̙̣̦̱͎ḏ̵̸̥̹̪͍͔͙̙͍e̩̘̟̖͚s͏͏͔͖͚̮̖͉͙ͅp̘̦̩͘͡i̴̭͉t̵̡͔̟̮̖̯͜e̸҉̫̲̳͞,̣͓̗̟̜̲͓͈͘͝ ҉̡̜͖͚i͕̰̰̝̫͎̟ͅr̢͔̰̀o̧͝͏͖͚n̸̯̮̙͍͟i̧̧̘͍̯͖c̡̱̳͟a͙̬̮l̹̘̗͙̹̪͓ḽ̰͈̀͘͞y͕̰͜ͅ,̷͕̲̦ ͙̙̝̥̬͘͟b̨͙̩͘͟e҉͘͏̥̹̟͈i͔ṇ̵̳̩g̢̺̬̱̻͢͜ ͙͇a̖̙b̸̛̭̗̰ó̤͍̦̳͉͚̟͖u̶̖͈̺̮̮͝t̺̲͟ ̖̭a̶̱͈̟̼͖s̷͕̝̳̦̪͢ ̵̢̭̥̦̖̰c̵͈͉̞̞̤̼͟͠r̙͓̮͖͚̳̹͟e̸̱̙̣͎͙͙̝͉a̷̫̲͡t̶̗̪̹͜i̶҉̮v͈͜e͢҉͔̦̗͖̲ ̢̟̦́a͏̭̖̱̯̙̜̝͡s̮͎͢ͅ ҉̪̙͢t̰̬͙͕̖̝͓̤h̴҉͔̬̭͉̘̻e̼̬͔͢͞ ̶͍̪̣͔͇̲Ę̵̴͇͚̘͈ņ̷̵̭̥t̡̜̻͕͇̕͞i̧̬̼t̴̤̭͕̙̪̲͕ͅy̴͕͈̠̻̭ ̡͙͎͚͠h̴̸͏̤ḙ̛̮͢ ̛̛̹̞̥͍w̯̘͓̖͍̦̥͘ì̛̻͉͔̼s͈̗̳̳̟̦͚̦ͅh̴̪̯̫̪͚͈͕͟e̢͙̗͍͍̘͡d̢̘̘̞͎ ̥͉̰̱͇͝ͅͅt̮̯̟o̱͇̤̺̙͕̗̗ ̕҉͚͍̯͇̜̮̬̫͜k̸̗͈̫͚̻͘i̡͖͞ḽ͖̯̀l̜.̨̜͓̤́ ̸̺̫͎͇̰͍̮͞ͅI̶̜͙͕̙͘ͅt̸͖̳͔̮͎͔͞ ̢̙̪̣̳̮̪͚̤̩l̨̙̩͠á͎̙̱͚̫̥̠͕͉̕͠t̸̝̳̠̰̮̘͕͡c͏̨͔̭̀h̗̩̺̼̫͉̀͠ę͓̞̳ḑ̴̧̼̱͇̝ ̧͕̹̞̗͞o̗͖̠̞̰͕͜͞n̘͉͉̭̼̣͡͞ţ̷͙̘̼̟̖͜ọ̞ ̷͇̲͓̕͟ͅḶ͇̥̀͘e̡̻͖͖̗̥̠͙̠͞͠e̫̞͖̭̣̬̞͜͞'̲̙̘͖́͜͞s̙̥̭̗̺̦ ̵̹͙̬̞͔̟ṕ̜̙̟̝ó̢̙͇̗̗̺͓͜ẃ̧̙͍͕͖̲̫̭̰ͅȩ҉̫̠͜r̵̵͓̗̘̼ͅ,̴̲͙͝ ̱͓͓̗̹̣̥͙͝l̘͇̟͇̝̹̞į̞̬͍̯̠͡͡k̝̬͉̹̭̮e҉̤̺̝̝ ͏̸̙͇͕ą͉͎̲̕͜ ̥̰͇͓͇͔̜̤ͅm̡̩̰a̶̩̩̣͇̺̦̟̳n̳͇̠͕̙̕͡ ͎̭d́҉̝̭͇̣͇͘y̧̦͙͉̮͘͠i͕̲̗̩̺̥̻̦͖͟n̜͉̩̖̗͜g̜͟͞ ̢̫̺̘̠ơ̗̮̝̘̕ͅf̦̟̖̬̝ ͏͓͡t̶͞͏̪̩̪h̨̼͈̦̩͈̀i̠̘̺̺̩r̸̴҉̜̳̻̹͉̟̰̗s͏̜̝̫͇̘̙̥̤̠ţ̘̫̗̲̪̫͚ ̤̱̀f̷͖̱̻͙̣͎i͕͞n̨̙̤͍̪͜d͓͚̼͘͜i͈̩͖͓͎͍͢ņ͖̩̻͙̬̞͜g̪̟͓̺̼͓͝ ̝̤͎̜͚͈͢ͅa͏̗̲͖n̷̝͙̣͉̣̟̥ ͏̗o̭͎a̵̜͚̟ş̯̝̳̯̙̞̺̬̘i̼̲̟̱̘͡s̛̻̺̙͙͖̱͇̺,̖͈͉̝̩̫ ̳̜̠͈̟̩̝̞͉̀b̶̨̖u͕̳̳͔̣̰̬͇͎͢t̟͠ ̛̘̖͚͚̯̥̕t̶̴͎̭h̻̬e̢͚̼͖̪͡r̨͔̣̻̞̪̩̮̺͢e̳͍͇̩͕̫͘ ̵̗͕ͅw͓͕̱͝a̮̫͡͠s̙͉ ̨͉͇̦͕̖̮͉̣͈͠á͓̟̱̬͚͇̟͕͡ ̠̭̤̖̤͉͔̗̫́͟͟ḓ̠̳̤̖͇̠̪̕͢a̡̜̬̤̦̣̖̲͇̕̕ń̷̜͈͙͓͇̫̬͘g̴̯̳̦̰̮͘è̛͙͔̹͓͟r̠̻̤̮̥͞ ̶̻̭͍̣̳͇̘͎͟t̷̨͈h̡͎̤͘͡e̙r̼͙͚̤ę̦̦̯̤̭͞͠ ̛͉̜̜̮̳͖̰̜ḁ̶͈̬̺͚̥͞s͕̹̪ ̧̯͍̙̤̗̠͝͠w҉̼̟è͇l͎̠͕͡͞l͏͚̻͖͓̹͖͚̭͙.̧̡̪̙̳͉͞ ̴̱̱͕I̧̪͎͕͎͓̻̺̯n͔͔̪̯̼͉̜ ͝҉͕̪i̡̲̞̳͓͔̫̻t̛̥̞͢s҉̡̳͔͉͈̮͎͢ ̤̘̟̗̱͈͢ͅa̙̗̖̻̱͠t͈̫̙͇̫̠͚͢t̶̥̝̟̩͖͍̱́͞e͖m̤͟͝p̢̝͎̹͖͍̱͈̮t̶̹̲̕s̘̺͔̗͠ ̧̝̞t̵̝͞o̷̧͈͈̥̪͜ͅ ̣̩̬̬̫̱̪̝͝ḑ̬̹͇̮̪̰͢ͅr̬̺̗̤̗i̵̩͕͙̪͕̟͜n̵̖͕͚ͅk̪̩̀ ͈͕̺͚̪͇͝t̨̤̻͉̟͢h̞̻̞͡e̪̝̝̪͜ ̛͔̦͕͘o̶͉̙͙͓ͅa̴̧̧̙̟̜̮͎̳̜s̥̪̗͇͚̞̫͘i̝̟̖͎̹͢͡s̭̀,̨̖̤̬̱̯ ̯̭̘͎̮̙̀í̢̧͔̩t̘̤͡ ̨͇̻͍̤͔̖̞̳͓m̷͎̮̥̙ͅa̟̣̪͟͝y̛̬̤͈̯͇͉͟ ̲̩̜v̢̥͘ę̼̠̭̥̻͘ŗ̯̜̠̗̲ỳ̩̳̞͞ ̸͇͇̦̣̥̝͙͞w̛̥͙̲̖ę̻̼͙͕͘l̮̲l̨̝̀ ̸̺̥̜͈̳͈͉͟͝ḵ̬̦̭͜͞i͉l͖͕̩̮͘l̷̢̜̰̭̤̦͙̹̘ ̧͙͖͙̤͔̗̳̩̖i̡̛̱̲̹ͅͅt͏̘̦s̷̛̰̺͍̖̻͘é͓̪̭̙̣̖͘ͅl̛͏̭f̴̺̬́,̵̭̘̺̼̺͈̣̺͝ ̞͚͉ͅa̺͈n̶̴͎͇͝d̕҉͚̠͍͔̜ ̢͓͇̫̯̯͓̯̰͘t̥̜̤̱̀h̡̯͈͉̘͝á̢͇ṯ̡̬̜̗̪̭͔͡ ҉̴̞w̛҉̱̖̮̦́ͅơ̡͇̻̩͔̙̞͘ù̸̡̙̥̼ļ̘̹d̶̢͍͈͎̼͔̦͠ ̶̵͈̲͉̼̪̫ͅn͏̨͎̝̩͚̪̫̩o̲̰̹͜t̵̪̰͙ ̧̣̝̜͎̹͝ḇ̺͙̱͚̮̘̭̀ͅe̢̜̠͙ͅ ̳̟͔̜̬͠a̧͇̹̪͉͇͓̪ͅl̗̖̩͕̺̬͎͘l̷̪̗̪o̧̻͓̟͕̥w̛̪̪e̸̦͙̕d̴̪̝͇̫͇͇̰.̵̦̞͙͓͖͘ͅ

K̡̖̗̗̗͉̲̼͎̝̀͜͝ͅn̸͟҉͈̫̞͙̼̱͙̥̙͓̦̜͎̝o̪͚̺̱̠͖̫̤̣̖̬̥̫̬̗͟͠w̴̧͏̷̟̠̱̖͕̞͍̟͟ͅį̕͏̰͖͙̥̙̝̪ͅn̵̶̨̧̥̮͖̠͚̺̗̖̤̯̬̖̫̖͇͢g̢̙͍͈̩̥͖͈̪̠̻̠̝̻̹͘͠ ̵̨̨̣̭͕̹̙̲̼̭͉̥̖͍͇͓̘̯̻̕ͅw̩̲̫̰̠̝̪̳͙̣̟͘͟͟ͅh̨̭͉̬̣̫̻͔̦̼̞̗̤͕̦̹͠ą̸̷͖̺̰͈̤͓̻́t̛͚̮̘̞̟̝̯̻̮̠͚͙̱̩̤͟ ̷̤̤̝͔̹̥͚̠͍͔̞͔̫̮̤̯͘͝͞͝t̷̶̯̰̩̙̀͘͡ͅo̧̲̤͙̙̣̹̹̱̕ ̧̘͖̣̯̻͉̲̰̥̞͇̀͡͞d̴̨̟̳̞̹͇̦͕͘͡͝ͅơ̡̦̬̻̣̱̙̻̜̬̻̙̭̻̜̲̲͙͟͠ͅ,̸̥͙̫̜̰̺͔̦͓̘̞͈͉̻̭̥̯͠͠ ̳͈͚͓̫́t͏͠͠҉͈̤̙̙͈͕̲͍͚̯̱͈͡h͟҉̷̱̯͇͖̳̳̭̣̗͜e̶̶̷̬͈̹̯̜͙̞̲̯̙͙̬̩̹̼͚͢ͅ ̸̨͓̠͍͈͔͈͇̲̗̬̰̖̪̯̭B̷̞̥̣͖͚̯̖̝̜̗͎͕͠͡e͏̨̦̫̪̖̟̗̤̪̼͈͓͠i̷̴̗̻̲̻͚̘̫̹͍n̕͏͟͏͚͍̜͎͚̗̯̣g҉͏̸̡̭͙͈͚̮̺͚̯͉̣̠̠̦̭̫͓̞͟ͅ ̸̨̛̮̬̘̫͈͔̪̹̟̘͕̀̕ͅͅt̵͚̯̰̼͇͈̰̘̕͘͢ḩ̷̜̮̱̮̗͍̲̳͈̫̗̭͎̲͙̻͢͝ͅͅa̶̺̬̦̞̲̥͎̜̣̫̟̭̻̞̼̰̱͘͠ͅͅt̶̶̴͙͎̰̣̜̞͔̩̟̻̪̞̺̣̯ͅ ̯͉͎̺̗̥͓͠͞w̵̶̡̻͚̤͙͙͔̮̕͡a̵̡͔̹̱̱͎̰͎͎s̛̪̫̳͓͙͕͖̹̯̠̹̗͔̜̣͞ͅ ̸̱̘͓́L̵̹̜̦̼̪̖͓̙̯̗͖͎͖̥̹̦̩̺͘͘̕͡e̵̡̡̛͔͚͕͇̙̖̯̝͉̼͖̜̩̲͙͕̣̩ͅè̴̸̠̗͈̤̱̤̤̬͇ ̵̧̹̬̗̦̰̣̰̙͕̙̖́͘ͅí̴͜҉̷͍̟͖̬͖͔͚̻̭͕͔̯̖̙ͅń̩͓͉͇̱̳̳̬͜͡ ̸̸̩̼̫͇̣̠̳̯̀͝t̢̨͟͡҉̱̫̖̱̮̳͔̹̘̯͚̻̩̳h̷̲͎̗̪͡ę̱̭͖̫̞̲̞͙̲̦͎́̀ ͏̢̛̩̠͕̬̫̤̞̟͙̫̣̙̟͙̺͎͜G͚̘̼͖̺̳̻̫̩̳̬̠̹̙̝͘͜ͅu҉̴̷̢̖̝͖̝̝̮͙í̴͚̮̗͈͍̦̫̩̜̙̜͍͜s̸̵̡̛̗̲̰̱̟̦̩̘͍͇̰̤͢ȩ̴̼̳̜̫̺̪̠́͠ ̷̴͝͡҉̻̘̟ó̧̻͇̳̥͖̭͉̝͇͎̙͘f̷̧̬̼͚͖͚̗̘̖͙̤̻̩͕͓͕͉̠͜ͅ ҉̧̯̳͈̺̤̱̪̟̼͓͍̟̩̦̤̕ͅV̶̢̢̞̟̩e̵̴̛͉̞̳̺̮͇͡͠j̴̛͉̰̞͎̪̯͍͔͖̗͕̺͓̰͍͙̕͢ͅͅǫ̖̝̖̺͓̗͢͝v͢҉̵̭̘͙̞̬͙͕̣̦͕̞̼̬̜͔͚͘ͅi̸̡̙̳̯̠̳̬̰̖͎̗̙͔̝̞̳̱͕͘s̨̨̹̪̙̯̣͖͍̩̳̟͍̺̪̪̩ ̵̶̴̶͇̣̱̻̺d̶̷̝͉̠̪̞̻į̵̨̙̞͖̫̣̩̹̯̼̣̰͔͎̗̀s̨̲̠̣̬̪͚̺̥͖̫̰̣̦̝e҉̡͈̺̼͓̟̼̘͍̖͖̜̪̫̜͉͉̗́͝ͅṉ̨̨̮͉̳͎̤̩̲̬̩̬g̶͏͎̲̞̱̪ą̸̠̜̬̫̥̤̘̱̹͚͖̩̣̣̳̣̬̕͝g̶̡͠҉͔͈̺͎͖̞̼̮͎͈͢e͏̵̡̛͏̮͔̳̺̪͚̻̤̯̞̠͚̭̳̹ͅd̫̲̫͖̬̱͘͟͞͡,̴̨̝͎̥͔̺̞͉͇͎̳̺̖̪̞͟͢ ̶̧̟͉̭̙͚g͉̼̼̙̮͖̯̱͖̫͈͉̫͘͘͠ȩ̵͏̷̞̲̥̫̮̪̙̱͇̪͞n̸͏̡͓͙̬͇͈̪͎̺̯t͜͜͜͠҉̯͕͔͉̮͓l̕҉͏͈̳͖̠͉͚͕̗̣͍͔͙y̧̩̠̣̳̜̭̕,̴̨̨̢̢̙͓̞̲̲̬̱̘̯̱̬̣̤͚͉̼ ̛̣̰̼̱̝̘͔̼̘̘̳͎̜̳͘ṱ̢̟̤͉̤̻͙͖͎̳̕͞ͅh̶̨̡̜̺̣̮̭̮̰͓̭̜̤̤̥̙é̛̝͉̺͈̞̳̪͢͢ ҉͙͓̯̫̦͍̫̰͓͔͇͙͉̥͙ṕ̡͇̦̠̺͎̪̝͇̩̺̹̜͢ͅe̶̬̬̼͈͇̲͈r̶̴̨̪̮̼̗͎̠͎̕͞s̡̀҉̰͇̳͈̦̣͙̯̩͉̗̣͝ǫ̷̧̪̮̥̜̙̰̖͕̗͚̠̦̜͚̙̹̟͘͠ͅn҉̛̮̫̣̟̞̖͉̬̦͙̺͎̲̝͈́͜a͇͚̥̘͝l̛̦̥͈͕̣̤̣̫̩̞̥̣͟ ̢̤̪̰͙̠͍͉͞a̶̡̛̞͈͚͇̹ļ̡͇͔͔̥̠̹͉̼̟͚̤̞̣̥̮͙̝͟͡͞ͅͅl̶̵͍͎͎̱̱͍̪̭͚̼̳̟͙̗̺̯̙͜ͅǫ͕̯̦̖̻̤̝͉̠͕̦́t̡҉̸̫̥̻̰̜̟̯͚̥̹̺̫͢ṃ̷̧̨̟̥͎̻̮̤̰̥͓̗ẹ̸̦̥͎̥̱̳̤̱̖̯̺͚͝ͅn҉̲͈͉̬̰͖͢ͅṱ̨̘̘̩̘̬͈͞ ̧̢͙̟̦͙̬̩̲͍̺̥̠̺̟͎̜̪̻͘̕ͅo̢͜͏̳͚̟̪͍̀f̢̮̖̻͟ ̸̴̨͕͚̤͎̻̲̘̜̳̪̤̀͡e̡҉̧̻͍̥̥̙̙͍͔̙͔n҉̳͍̺̻͍̹̩́̀͢͡ę͕̞̰̰͓͜ŕ̷͈̱̲͇̻̻̫̩̝͕͕̟̪̬̖̞͢͝g̴̛̲̭͚͕̗y̫̪̭̝̗̱̝̬̱̕̕͢ ̸̸̡͓̲͕̹̤͙͕͎̲̬̱̩̕͝ͅį̷҉͉͍̰̮̙̜̟͉͇̬̀ͅͅt̶͈̜͎͕͘͝͞͠ ̷̶̷̼̳̫̰h͝҉̝̖̼ͅa̷̗͔̦̹̗̤̪̥̳̪̣͙͟ḑ̩̱̰̺͓̙͕̫̰͘ ̵̛̤̦̘͉̀b̵̮̰̻̪̼̬̯̮̩͉̠͈̼̬͟͡ͅe̷҉͕̣̪͕̰͙e̵̼̥̱̺̫͠ͅǹ̷̡͙̘̟̗̳̮͚̯̮̰̦̠̮̣̬̘̦͘͞ ̵̵̵̬̝̺͇̺̘̖̥̤̘̲͚͔e̴̡̡͚͇̣̩̱̮͈̦̗̮̼͇͉̳̭̯̞̘͘x̵̧̳̫̮̤̱̬͖̫̥̜̪͚̲̫̪̝͠p̀͜͡͠͏͈̗͍͓̹̼͙̺̭ͅȩ̵͎͇̠̣̭̳̥͕̲̣͙̯̥̀̀n͏҉̸̛̰̤͉͔̹̙͇̫̹̯̯͝d̵̢̳͍̱̭͚̟̦̳̳͈͎͓̥͓̥̦ͅi̶̵҉̤͇̗̗͍̝̩͓̭ͅn̩̻̖͇͟ǵ̛͎̺͙̪͞ ̧̨͕̤̼̮̪̰̲̰̬͉̘̬̪͍̤͜t͞͏̙̮͓̪̕ͅo̷̱̺̞̠͓̭̰͘ ̨̬̺̮̝̰͕͚͎̖̥͖̳̬̯͕̬́͝͡c͜҉̖͇̫͉̘͓̬̞̮̫̝̳̹̦͍o̢͟͡͏̳̦͖̜̱͙̲͈̩͖͖͈̠̤͚͇̝͘n̵̵̶̻͙̫͕͉͈͎̫͓͙͉̤̗̱̯͎̙͕t̨̳̯̟̞͙̯͙͕̜̯͙́̀͟í̴̡̢͈̻̥̞̖̠̙̭̙̭̝̞̬͕͔͢ͅn̸͎̞̹̼͙̞̰̟̗̳̬̫̙̖͙̪̲͚u͢͏̬͎͙̹̜̤͕̼̫̮̲̫̳̹̻̠͈͓ͅe̵̱͚̫͍̭̜̪͔̜̰͓͚͎ͅ ̸̴̫̮͇͉̺̜͖̱͝͝t͟͏̤͕̟͍̥̣̫̮̲̖͇̜̙̗̮̜͠h҉҉̵̜͖̮̩̭̦̯̫̳͡ͅe̕͏̼͎̘̤̗̗̪̬̞̮͍͙̻̗ͅ ̡̛͞͏̻̬̖̞ͅp҉͈̖̖̳̦̻̖̯̼̲͓͜͡͡͝ͅr͉̖̰͈̖͈̥̖̣̫̩̭̜̯̬̪͜͞ͅo͉̠̻̤̭̱̰̙̘̭͍̲͢c̶͏̶̫̤̠̝͙̰͖͍̠̣̳̖ȩ̫̪͉͍̀͜s̢̢̧̩̥̥̯̼̦̦s҉́͢͠͏͍͕̲͎͔̹̝̻̟͖͉̝̖̺ ̴̧̦͈̟͉̞̖̰͖̼̞̱̪͙̲͉͘͠ǹ̨̜̺͉̮͇̘͙͞͞ḛ̡͙̣̲͔̱̱̲̦͓̺͈̠̖̗̯̝̕ͅa̢̗͖͈̳͓͍̪̜̟̯͚̘̮͘͢͝r̶͝͏̗̭̜͎̺l҉̧͖͈̲̣̱͇͔̭̱̭̳̤͎̭ỳ̢̮̜̹̭̜ ̗͇̹̱̲͓̖̩͇̪̼͔̯̙̕͢͢r̷͙͖̞̩̦͙͓̗̠͔̫̝̭͇͕͘e̷̢̟͓̖̼̤͎̭͙͎̘̜̥̤̳͉͈s̵͇̗̫̱̲͚̩̖͔͍̲͎̰̘̞̹̥̞͠͞ͅt̴͎̖̟̻̦͖͔̼̩̱̹̰͍̯̩͘ͅo̕͠͏̫̘̩̖̭̠̦̼̗̫͙̫͚̥̺̠̫̟r̕҉̜͇̤̼̺͔̻ȩ̧̛̦̳̲̱̖̘͚̥͇̥͔̼̼̻͉́͘ͅd̖͔̜͈̘͖̗͇̦̤̕̕ͅ ͔͇̩̳̮̠̯̀́͞a̵͕͉̙̦͙͎̼̻̯͖̗̘̱͕͘͢͢ͅl̡͟҉̣̻̙͇̺̦r̷̵̝̬͖͖͖̕͜͠e҉̴̱͈͖͍̦̬̼̰̺̕̕͞a̸҉̗̠̖̼͓̥͔̤̥ͅd̵̢̢̛̪̤͚͚̯̺͎̤͉̖͍͓̹̪͍͉̜͟y̷̵͓͍̠͇̜͓͇̩̱̞̹̞̕͠.̦͇͔̰͔̩̪̩̼͓̦̘̜͍̼͘͟͡ ͙̯̤̬͚̭͉̘͔͎̤͖̀͜͠Í̫̲͚͚̲͠t̡̮͉̙͇̥́͠͡ ̸̡͓̝̱͖̮̟̀͘ͅẃ̴̗̜̪̩͕̞̲͉̞͙̣̯͎͢͞͠ą̴̵̡̫͇̣͉͓̤͓̝̘̱̝̤̪̮̯͉͘s̴̵̡̢̗͓̦̭̯̰̯̮̹̲̰͇̻͚̞͍͕͟ ̷̛̘͓̳̥̟̲͔͕̳̭̙̺̗̟̭̖̣̥͜ą̼͈̞͍͎̣̬͕̭̙̼̗̹̭̳̖̜͜ ̨͘͟͝͏͓̣͇̗̞̤f̸̪͉͔̣̝̫̘͕͔̼̬̻͉̜̫͇̜͟͡ͅa҉̸͈̱̥͔̣̞̤į̲̝̞̯̣̰͓̱͓̀͟͠ŗ̴̗̣̳͙͔̪̯̮̤͇̖̞̱͉̰͓͚̣͙͡ ̡̢̛̜̝̠̫̰̰̹͡͡ṱ̸̣͎̦̳̪̫̠̼̤̹̟̯͈̙̝͚̼̥́͝r̴͖͖̣̦̰̼̕ą̢̮͍̬͖̫͇͈͕͝ḑ̷̷̱̝̙̥͕͇͔̜̖̰̬̮̫̮͉̳͙͞͞ͅe͟҉̴̸̰̻̳̙̖̝̟͚͚͡ ̧͝͏͍̜͍̟̮̯̟̟̼̜̱̥̬̠̦̝̤̲ţ̛̝̜̮͉̱̗̙̝̝̤̝̝͓̲̲̲̰̀͜͞ͅo̴̻͓̥̻̱̹͠ ̸̤͚̘̳͉̼̺̻̳̣̮̤̝̣̤̖̩͘̕͜͟ͅͅt̛͈͍͎̯̞̫̤͎͔̱͙̯̫͢͡h̺̟̥̭̺̀͞e҉̸̷̮͙̣̤̪̠̝̣̤͍̖̖̺͓͢ͅ ̮̪̜̫̫͞Ś͕̳̫̝͓̗͕̝̻̩̝͟ͅh̛̛͖̹͍͕͔̻̮̙̤͓̼͡a̗̗̯̺̫̗͙̟̭̝̥͈͟͟r̵̖̩̘̦̱̝̥̗̻̣͔̰̖̜̜͓d̢̛̪̰͖͇͉̮̫̗̻̯̖̹̤̩̠͡͝ͅͅͅ ̸̡̯̺̗̜̩̘̬̞̜͕̖͎͘͠ơ͓̫̝̘͍̭̼̯̟̗̹̟̬̳̹͡f̴̛̫̪̩͇̳̮̠̀͘ͅ ̨͕̻̠̝̘̱̫͚͍̙̹̞̞͢͡I͔̻̲̝͈͕̫͎͇͘͢͡n̶͢҉̙̣̼͕̳̩̪̟̬̰̰̺̤͚̞̙͎t҉̠̤̺̗̬̤͚́́͡͠e̵̜̱̰͙͈̲̱̺̻̤̜̣͍̦͈̪͇̲r̸̛҉͍̺̪̦̮̙͍̰͖̤͔͖̤̻f̜̰͙̖̹̠͜͝a̸̡̬͔͎͓̦̮͕͙̣̝̼͓̗̠̲̦͜ͅc̵̴͉͔͚̼̬̖͇͚͚̹̘̹̗͙̙̝͘͜͡e̶̶̛̞̘̦͉̲͓̮̭̱̰̻̻̱̱̻̟͉ͅ,̱̗̹̺͇̫̜̼̀͠ ̴̧̲̳̱̗̬͙̦͇̩̲͉͠͝c̡̡͖͓̫̞͕͈̗̦̬̬͘o̡̕҉̼̻̘̠̺̲̬̟̱͜ͅp̸̸̙͇͍͔̼̦̀͘͞y̢̨̱͓̜͚̰̠̫̞͝ͅi̡̧͍͔͚͍̼n̶̺͈̯̟̤̯̻̙͚͚̩͎͚͇͕̙̗͍͞ͅg͍̳̰̤̞̥̯͕̰̝͕̟͍͘ ̨̀҉̶̺͚̳̥͇̜͔̗̬̻̺̰̳̭̰̹̞̰i̶̢͖̬̘̹̘̟̹̰̣̼̱͓̮̥͖̻̼̤͝t͏̛̜̲̣̝̞̦͓̻̠͚͇̜̞̳̻̙̲͈'̶͢҉̵̡̟̳̳̲̹̞͈͔̞s҉͓̺̤̻̺̫̹̖͇̜͝ ̢́҉̴͚̘̦͙̬ͅp͘͏̲̘̦̖̟͎͉̳̟̥͙̲̤̺̺̪̀͠͝ͅa̢҉͈̺̩̘̼̯̺̲̺̻̲͕͕̱̟͇͚͈͇͘͞t͎̣͇͖̟́͟͢t͘͜͏̧̮̦̰̟̬͎̳̟̪͔̭̝ͅe͏̪͔̣̼̗̥̯̞͕͎̬̞̦̺͘ŗ̵̵̧̠͈̹̫̼̱̘̭̳̥̦̬͘ͅņ͉̫̙̤͕̖̜̜͎̺͙̮̲̩͢͟ͅͅs͢͏͜҉̫̭̻̙͈̜͙͓̳̖̱̤̫͍͖ͅ ̢̛̱̼̣̣͜ͅḁ̶̣̮̭̬̝͈̹̰͍͖ń̷̶̺̩̥̲̤̻͍̯͜ͅd̡̘͚͈̘̯̬̫̰͈͟͢ ̸̧̼̠̝̝̙̘͕͖͔̤̲͔͙͔̖̰̫͍̀͜͞m̵̢̦̟̹̠̩̠̜̩̤̹̯͙̱̞̀̀͟e̵҉҉̨̭̳̟͚̻̭͍̩͇̥̺̞͇̯̤̙̙͟ͅt̶̥̻͍̯͉̫h̨̘̹͓̟̠͔̺̞́ớ̶̬̠͙̤͙̯̙͕͓̼̟̱̗̮̤͜d̴̴̻̲̩̹̫̥̣̩̱͕s̨̨̯̼̩̺̮̯̮̺͇͇̩̣̭ ̛̛̝̼͎͖̪̖̱̮̤̰̗f̸̯̩̼̫͍̭͓̱̮̤̰̘ọ̢̜̮͇̟̠̻̘͠͠r̶̥̪̭̳̻͎̲̣̰̱͡͞ ̶̨̛̘̥̣̘̻̯͍͈̘̲̟̫̮̦͚̲́͘Ĺ̖̟̟͓̗̠̻ͅͅe̴̶͖̝̬͔͓͕e҉̥͙̲͔̯̘̲̪̞͓͓͔͞'̢͏͇̼͙͇̯̰͖̳̟̯̪̲̲͚ͅs̶̸̨̧̘̤̻͓̹̭͍͚̩̀ ̷͎̬̫͇̞̱̩͖̟̯̰͈ͅó̢̞͇̠̭̝̩̲͚͟ͅw̛̪̲͕̗̤̬͉͈̩̕͟͞ņ͍̥̹̞̼͎̺͚̫͘͢ͅ,̵̴̧̥̟͓̰̤͕̯̝͝ ̴̵͇̩̙̣̭̪̙͖͈̤͇͖̘́͢͝ț̶̖̟͎͍͔̰̦̮͇̘͉́͠͠h̶̛҉̰̯̠̠͓̘̭̹̠̻̞͉͇̪̟͚̫ǫ̢͕̜̳̠̪͈͔͟͠͝u̷̶̡̲̙̘̗͍̱͟g̡̦͕͔̯̭̬̼̠̞̟̥̜͘͘h̛͞͏̷̢͙̘̞̖͙͔̥͙̞̞ ̷̶̷̡̪̗͕̹͇̝̭̜̙͘ḿ̴̨̧̝̺̱̝̖̳o̧͕͈̝̻̙͞ͅd̛̛͈͉̝i̸̭̻̰̫̠̫͙͚̝̭̻͝f̰̠͔͉̜̹̻̤͕̫̙͚͈̣͠͞͞ị̸̶̢̩̖̗̙̠̦͢͢e̡̻̩̪̬͉̳̟͞d̵̴̤̗̟͎͙͕̖̀́̕ ̷̶̻̻̹̲̕͢ͅt̴̜̭͎͘o̙̭̻̝̖̻̫͎̟̲̘̬̲͟͞͠ ͏̧҉͚̘̜͈͚̝͖͢b̨͚̼̠͔͕͇͉̟͇̱̫̜̬̫̘͢͜ͅè͏̨̱̻̥̟͍͙̹̫̙̗̱͠͡ͅt̢̯̪̫̹͙̳̱͇̝͎́͜͡t̡́͘͝҉͈͎̝̬̭̗̞̰͉͖̤͖̹͇̼ȩ̶̨̪̖͖̮̘̙͕̼͔̠̠̺̩̗̳̬͓̠̩́͟r͈̭̦̻̱͜ ̞͖̯̠̖͜͡f̴̷͟͏̸͖̱͇̙͓i̡͜҉͕̥̱̺͈̻̦̠͇͖̩̹͍̟̹̲́̀t̵̲̫̗̻͖̠͖͠ ̷̭͎̙̼̘̲̫̫͖̗̖̻̣̞̜̕͟͝͠h̠̲̹̣͕̼͍̹̘̜͔̺͍͎̮̬͉̰́͟ͅi͢͏̜͇̰͖͍̟̙͓͙̹̮̱̯̀͜͡ͅs̶̛̮͕̳̹̰̤͚̙͉̦̩̭̺̩͜ͅ ̨̻̱̳̼̕p̸̺̭̝͠͝ͅr̴̠̜̮̩̦̼̞̰̪̩͖͖̖̱̘̬̟͢͝͝͝ȩ̛͚̜͔̮̜̟̖̥͈̣̜͘͢-̶̷̳̠̙̻͓̺̯̥̝̻́̕ͅę̷̶͇͚̳̗͉͕̳̯͞x̵̵̭̹̻̤̹̣̟̰̱͕͖͓̤i̶̲̠̫̥͜͝s̴̨̨̨̬̣̻̜̠̠͉͍̰̯͔̕t̴̩̟͙̥̘̭͉̯̙̣̲̗̼̼̻̬͚ͅͅi̛͕̼̱͠n͉̯͙̤̘͈̣͢͜͝g̸̜͔̝͎̙̰͇̘̱̝̥̥͢͝ ̧̳͕̞̖͚̥̥͎́̀͞ş̱̮͈̼͇͖͉͉̤̗͚̦͡ͅt̛̟̭̼̫͙̣͉̮̮̲̲̙̭̬͘͠y̸̟͚̪̦̰̩̪̭̪̺̬̹̗̮͘̕͢ĺ͉̬̳̝̰̼̙̘͠é̶̷̤̫͖̳̦̙̣͝͡ͅ.̷̷̹͚̥̠͙̀ ̧̝̪͖̦̜̞͟͡ͅĮ̷̛̼̟̻̱̩͜͡t̶͇̭̲̩̰̘͇̹͈̬̰̳̥̘͠ ̸̢͕̳̖w̕҉҉̢̩͓̙̠̲̬̼̠͚̮̯̖̝̬͍̀a҉̝͚͍̰̬͕͕̯̤̭̞ͅs̸̨̲̣̘͚̣͈͢ ͏̛͔̘̣̞̺̖̠̞̫̖̪͉̫͡n̼͚̩͙͇͈͉̞̮̤͓̙̖̗̳̪̝͟ơ̸̧̞̞̭̰̦̖̳̭̣̞̦̘̕ͅt̵̵̢̘̹̲͕͙̦͇̤̟̙̘̪̘̯̙͍́ ̸̣̺̞̪͎̰̀̕͝ţ̼̼͓̟̮̲͓̫̪̼͙̹̬̯̥̟͇͡h̸̩͔̖̳̫̪̬̀͟ą̶̴̧̬͔̭̻͓̲̮̤͉͇͍̖͍͚͎̹̻͍͈͞t̵̡͍̝͇͔̗̭̹͎͖̖͘ ̡͕͔͉̱̬̺͇͎͚̠͈̗̰͓̥͕͘ͅd̢͉̗̦͓̪̖̟̠̺̱̪̼̼̺i͏̬̱̩̩̫̼̟̠̘̱͚̪̪̩͇͟f̶̧̮̫̩̼̲̖̺̥̺̝̱̤͕̀͘f҉͢͞͞҉̳͙͈̥̠̦̼͎̪̞̻̫̬̜̘͉̼í̢̛̯͈͙̠̹̱̝̩̖̱͈͙͈̀ͅc̛̼̺͓̪̦͍̘͇̩̫̰̥̹̮̗͈̙͓̠͜u̵̷̥̪̫͇̬̳̘̮̟̩̜͚͡l̵̴̜͚̮̭̙̬͜ͅt̡̼̞͙̞̘͓̹̻͚̖̼͞ͅ ͡͏̡̦̪͖̰̠̘̟̺̤̺͇͈͚̪̙͈͕͞ͅͅa̴̷̧̠̰̟͇͘n̷҉͇͇͎̪̫͔͚̜̞̣͕̱͈̪̣ḑ͎̻̝̗̥͈̱̀̕͢͠ ̳͓̙̱̘͔̟͚͇̥̀͢͟͝a̶̵̷̵҉͓̬̼̮̦͍̳̫̣̝̩̙̟̣͙͎̬̻l̵̡̨̛̯͚̭̥̥̱̼̘͔̥̭̹̰̝̦̭͚͠l̸̶͇͙̼̬̤̙̹͔̻̟̟̻̯̟̥̹̩̤̩ ͇̯̻̣̩͙̖̫͚̗͇̙̻̹̩̦̕͟ţ̞͍̦̮̦̻̞̦̹͈̥͘͜͝h̨͙͕͙̜͙̭͎̲̭̜̝̝̦͕̘̥͇͈̭a̸͢͢͟҉̘̻̟̹̠͎̹̱t̴͏̨͖̫̗̺̭̼͖͉̣̟͓ ̡͠҉̗̮͓̖̰̰̮͔̹̱ń͖̳̟̣̰̮̮̰̹̠͉̩̜͇̲͎̙̱̩͢͝ę̤͇̫̼͔͟è̘̩̝͙̼̥̯͔͈̙͓͔̦̜̳̕ḏ̴̼̦̫̘̭̟̭͔̥e̷̡͖̼͔̗̹̱͖̤̙͓̯̮̪͢d̷҉̶̶̧̲͔̭͕̰̫̭̼͓̙̹̰͖̞ ̵̛̝̟̖͉̻̝͖̻͈͈̟̣͎̠̖̪̬̤ͅţ̰̰̻̪̗̭͎̀͝o̶͏̡҉̪̺̝̪̱͈̦̰͙̳̳̳̞̜ ̷̨̲̯̻̫̻͍̦̱̲̣h̴̭̲̪̻͎͉̼̬̠̻͎̘͇̗̟̤̀͜a͏̢͕̦̩̟p̲̻̣͙̼̥͙̰̥̜̹͘͟͡p̜̬͖͈̹̫̦̞͖̦͈͕͈̺̞̩͎̩͘e̵̢̢̱͎̼͕͕̼̗̱̦͓̭̫̥̫̮͟n̴̴̶̡̮̬̙ ̵̵̭̬̬̀͠w̨̛̤̻̪͚̞͓̮̫̩̰̘̖̲͈ͅͅa̧̨͙̤̙̤͕͕͎͕̦͍̦̜̥͝͞͠s̵̨̘̟̝̻͕̦.͠҉̳̘̬̟̘̞͇̀͜ ̀҉̦̭̮͔̞͉̬̙.̢̛҉̧͙̞̦̦̰͓͎̜̳̭͟ ̨̡̞̬̹͖͙̗̞̭͉͓͚̫̯̜̭̯̖ͅͅ.̶̭̗̦͎̥̺̞̼̤̦̪̼͘̕͝͡ ҉͏͓̜̙̪̖̯ẁ̖̣̦̗̯̪̟̠̲̩̠́͜͝͠a҉̷̢͎͙̯͕̣͍i҉̟͇̠͓̰̦̬̺̪͇̫̠̟̼̘͕̠̠͔͢͜͠ţ̪͍͓̱̣̩̫̬̭̭͖͕͍͚̀͟͝͡,҉̛̘̱̘̣̟̯͓̪̀ͅ ̵̶̢̡̘͍͙͕͍̹̰̖͓̝͔͜w҉̶̠̩̟̟̤̬͇̹̹͘ḥ̶̡̢͉̜͙̗͈̞u̶҉̯̻͕̼͎̰̠̘́͡p͟͏̮̺̤̯̘͕̹̬͚s̴҉̟̭̹̲̜.̸҉̷̨̼̣̜̠̰̫̦̯̝̲͍̲̼̺̖͉̙͢ͅ

* * *

Blinking, not really sure what happened, I found myself sitting in the chair in the convention center, a thin warmth to my right, propping me up while cold, soft hands pulled on me from the left, the two ho-people keeping me upright.

"Brain activity is stabilizing," Amy whispered, barely covering restrained panic, "I think he's okay."

I blinked again, I sat up fully, tasting Crimson Satisfaction while I smelled Orange Worry. "Fuck, not again," I groaned quietly.

"What do you mean _again,_ " the healer hissed while I looked around, noting that her helmet was off, and that Taylor had removed the bottom part of hers as well. I'd need to remind them to keep suited up in the field, even if they were just healing. There was a commotion at the back of the room, grabbing the attention of everyone around us, so whatever the fuck had just happened had slipped by the others.

I had grabbed Legend's power, then couldn't grab Alexandria's, and then I tried to take Eidolon's and then. . . m̠̘͚̞͟y̖̩̠ ҉̼̜̘̺̣̪̀͠f̖̟̰̥͜i̛̖̗͘͡n̡͝͏̗̦̞̥͍̩̫͍ǵ͕̤̞̘͘e̶͉̹̮͎͉r̶̡̹͍͞t͖̯̝͎̬̫́͟͜i̻̤̼͍̮ͅp̶̡̡̜̙̳ş̞̖ ̹͙̀f͡҉͉͕e̵̼͉̦̞̱̬̗͓͢l̡̨̨͙̻̟̗ͅt̼͉͝ ̰͈̮͠s̨҉̶̯̤̮̹̙̥i̯ͅć̱̝̞͚͙̥̳̯́͞k͙͘ĺ̸͔̖̮͔͇̼͓̳͠ͅy̹̭̤͚͖̪͢ ̨̮̰̮̮̫̬̟̖s̩̯͓̦͖̥͠w̡̡̳̳̥̻͎͟è̘̖͔̥e̛̙̳̯̮͘͢t͕̬̩̩͔,̣͍̱̣̹̬̳ ͏̝̣̼̳̞g̺̩̙̳r̪̦̖͎̱ͅạ̸̠͇̙̯̙̦̲s͏̰̯̥̲͔̕p̭̺͟i̶̵̸̠͖̻̫͎̼n̻͉̘̪̬̼̜͠g̶̵̸͔͇̖͍͓̲̤ͅ ͍̣̟̙̺a҉̸̫̼n̛͍̼͔̗͙̮̫͟d̵̳̜͍̬̰͎͇͙ ̸̧̙͉̫̪̞̬̣̪̱͜i̼n̤̬̯̭̙͔̲t̸͙̭̱e͏̟̻̞̮͓̳ͅŗ̹̪̯̺͙͟t̢̯̯͞͡w̶̠͔̝̻̠͇͚͈͟͟i̸̙̰͖̮͘͞n̼̥͞e͍͚̮̦͡d̥͖̺ ͔͔̝͇̗̯̩͔́̕͜w̶̗̙̩̗̞i͔̳͖̙͍t͙̘̼͇̼̹̙̟̝̀͡͞h̲͔ ͡҉͏͓̫̻̼͎S̗̣̞͈͓ḥ̸̗̣̩͇͓͕̞̕a̯͎͕̻p̣͖͔͕͞e̗͉r̙̬̗̻̞͉̣͎'̮̻̩̟͖̤̱͟s̵̘̙͙̙͍̟͎̀ͅ ̢̟̰̜̗̖̬̞͟ą̭͎̦͖̘̕s͏̭͙͓͙͙͚̬-̴̡̣͚

 _Oh fuck no,_ I thought, dragging myself back from whatever the _fuck_ that was. A few days ago I'd tried to focus on what'd happened with Dean, and promptly passed the hell out, waking up no closer to an answer. While Amy being here might help, now was _not_ the fucking time!

"Sometimes when I try to use my core powers things go. . . awry," I whispered back, reaching out with Acoustokinesis to keep the conversation quiet, only to have the power in question fail to engage. _The fuck?_ I tried again, and it still didn't work. "Give me a sec," I whispered, ignoring Amelia's objections as I closed my eyes to try to visualize my powers.

Instead of the collection of purloined flames that I normally saw I was greeted with nothing. Nothing at all. Tamping down my fear, I tried to reach for a power, _any_ power, only to come up empty.

 _Are you fucking kidding me?_ I raged internally. Leviathan was showing up in _two hours_ and I was back down to my base powers? I was going to fucking _DIE!_ Controlling my breathing, I wrestled my emotions into place. _Okay, test to see what you **do** have_. I couldn't exactly injure myself to test my healing, but there were still a _good_ bit of low-key, on the spot powers I could test.

Coming back, I found _both_ my hands were now held, having dropped more deeply into my own mind then I meant to, or had ever been able to before. _Not a good sign, but no time to investigate._ "Are you okay?" Taylor asked, concern saturating her tone.

"I'm finding out," I told her, my own tone neutral, which was about as much as I could without lying or throwing up a Sound Bubble. The obvious thing to test would be my Power Sight, but that seemed like a _bad_ idea, so I tried a different tack. Focusing on the boots of my costume, I tried to change the color of my boot. At first, that wouldn't work either, but I had a half second where I felt like I was falling, reflexively gripping the girl's hands, before it darkened from blood red to an impenetrably deep black. Shifting it back I blew out a long breath of relief.

"We're going to be taking a five-minute recess," Legend announced loudly, his confident voice carrying and giving no hint of the panic he was likely feeling as. . . I wasn't sure why he'd be panicked, only that he was. I _hated_ this. "Please take your seats and we'll be with you shortly," he commanded and those around us grumbled as they started to sit down.

"Amy," I whispered, interrupting her inaudible muttering, "Tell me what's going on with my Shard." She looked at me, confused, "Corona something-or-other."

"Pollentia and Gemma," she corrected, frowning as she hadn't let go of my hand. "What are you _doing?_ " she demanded a moment later, panic shooting through her tone once more.

"Other than being a bit confused, nothing, why?" I asked, worried, only now noticing how much I _hurt_.

She looked at me, then back down, like she always did when she was looking at someone's biology. "It's going _nuts!_ " she revealed.

"Nuts _how?_ " I pressed when she stopped there, which didn't do _anything_ for the panic now twisting in my gut, my muscles aching from having been strained and a migraine threatening to descend on me at any moment.

"I don't fucking _know_ ," she whispered harshly, panic growing, "I don't exactly know how all of this works. It's just like you're. . what the _fuck?_ "

"What is it?" Taylor said, leaning over so far that she was practically in my lap. My headache worsened, and I had to keep from gripping either of their hands too tight.

"It's changing shape," she hissed, looking at me fearfully. "They're not supposed to _do that!_ "

"I'm weird, you should've realized this," I quipped weakly. "I'm. . . I'm just going to close my eyes for a moment. Wake me up when he gets past the '1 in 4 of you will die' part of the peptalk," I told the two, eyes drooping. I felt _tired,_ more tired than I ever had before in this word, the panic of the moment passing. Even when I passed out, I was more confuse than _tired._ If anything, it was like how I'd felt after the second Raid, but less mental, somehow. It didn't matter, if my Shard was changing, I couldn't exactly do anything to stop it, and maybe a nap would-

"Oh no you fucking don't!" Panacea hissed, and I was suddenly wide awake, my heart racing and thudding in my ears. It was like I'd pulled two all-nighters then drank half a dozen Red Bulls, that exhausted kind of energy coursing through me.

"The _fuck_ Amy?" I hissed, Taylor looking between us, expression unreadable behind her mask.

"You are _not_ going to sleep with some weird power-concussion!" she hissed right back.

She had a point, but so did I, "And I'm fighting _Leviathan_ in _two hours._ I'm not so sure _why_ I'm so tired but maybe I _need_ the nap!"

"Um, guys?" Taylor asked, unsure.

"You need to be _conscious_ , and you can't fight him if you're in a _coma_ ," she replied vehemently.

I scoffed, "Okay, then you could've done _whatever_ the hell you just did _then!_ "

" _Guys_ ," Taylor insisted, a bit louder.

"What?" we both asked.

Taylor glanced around, and only now did I notice that some of those around us were staring. Taylor had let go, but I was still holding Panacea's hand as we argued. Taking it back, I gave a quick "Sorry" to those around us before taking a deep breath. "I know you're trying to help Amelia," I whispered to her, "but _ask_ before you fill my bloodstream with stimulants, _please_."

Taylor shot Panacea what I'm sure was a scandalized look as she leaned slightly over me, "You _what?_ "

"He was gonna sleep with something happening to his _brain_ ," she whispered back, leaning towards her, and fully over me, as well. I pressed backwards into my chair to get out of her way, and the hero on the other side of Amy, a larger man wearing a cowboy hat and a domino mask who burned with the Orange & Red Flames of Personal Pyrokinesis shook his head at me commiseratingly. I had no idea what he meant by that, but a moment later I realized I could _See his power._ Focusing on the person in front of me, her power sprang to light, the Green & Gray Aura of Glass Form playing along her, and _only her_.

 _Okay,_ I told myself, ignoring the small healer almost in my lap. _Power Sight is working. . . only it's different._ On a whim I tried to grab the power of the person in front of me, only to feel an odd ache and for my own power to not extend. Feeling a finger poking me between my armor plates, I realized that both girls were staring at me, and Panacea was doing the prodding.

"Don't do that!" she whispered, and I just shrugged as I realized she'd once again grabbed my hand, the only part of me that was exposed.

"Sorry?" I asked more than said. "My power's just on the fritz."

That got concerned looks from both of them. "Well it's doing _something!_ She whispered, leaning close enough so only Taylor and I could hear her. Glass Form glanced backwards and shot all three of us a reproachful look, the brunt of it focused on me. I stared back, a 'what do you want?' look on my face. After a moment she huffed and turned back to face forwards, and I was poked again.

"Stop ignoring me, let it be, and _don't mess with it,_ " Amy commanded quietly. "It was starting to calm down until you did whatever you did!"

"I was going to do just that and take a fucking _nap_ when _someone_ messed with me," I couldn't help but point out, but she was right. While I was still unnaturally awake, I didn't feel _nearly_ as tired as I had even a few minutes ago, though a nap _still_ sounded nice.

"I'm not apologizing," she stated, sitting back in her seat and folding her arms in what I'm sure she thought was a strong gesture, but just looked to be a mix of adorable and bratty.

Before I could respond, Legend's voice rang out across the space, the Triumvirate once again flying in the air, a slight blue distortion hanging around the floating Eidolon. However, he did not begin with the speech I half remembered.

"Thank you for coming, everyone," Legend said. "Today, we are going to reach for the stars. With the forces we've gathered, the preparations we've made, and the time we've had to plan, we're going to try to do something that many have thought impossible." He looked around the room, and his next words sent my thoughts crashing to a screeching halt.

"Today, we kill an Endbringer."


	129. Deadline 12-4

**Deadline 12.4**

At Legend's words, the room erupted in an outburst of replies. Some of it was fearful, some skeptical, some worried, but far, far too much of it was hopeful at the prospect of _killing Leviathan._ None of them knew that doing so would make things _much_ worse, and there was nothing I could do to stop them. I could tell them about the precognitive 'vision' I'd been given, but the chances they'd believe me where so close to nil as to be effectively zero.

"Through the efforts of Protectorate Thinkers, we have an unprecedented opportunity," the most heroic of the Triumvirate continued. "In most confrontations with Endbringers we have no time to plan, no time to even warn those who wish to fight of the fact that one in four will usually die in the attempt. This time, however, we have all that and more!"

He looked out over the crowd, expression serious. "Those that fought before were whoever could make it at a moments notice, usually no more than two hundred in number. Gathered here we have over _ten times_ that amount, and with ample time to plan, to get civilians to safety, and to prepare for the oncoming storm."

 _That's the problem_ , I couldn't help but think. If Leviathan attacked like normal, if he hadn't been holding back this _entire_ time, they'd have a good chance of doing just that. However, if Levi upped his game to meet the challenge, this was going to be _bad._

"Leviathan is the middle child of the Endbringers, the second of three to arrive. While not possessing Behemoth's brute strength, nor The Simurgh's cunningness, he has both in equal measure, making him _more_ dangerous, not less. I'm sure you've seen the videos on television and on the internet. You know what he is physically capable of. Despite the image that he tries to convey he is _not_ stupid, and will display a level of cunning and tactics that can and _will_ catch you off guard if you're not careful."

"What you _may not know_ from the videos is that he feels pain, he _bleeds_ , but most attacks do little more than scratch him. He is like his siblings in that respect." _And there's the rub,_ I thought. _You just praised his cunning, yet are being actively deceived by him._ It wasn't necessarily a mark against the man, if I hadn't been from a _different dimension_ where I was given incredible insight into what was going on, I'd probably be fooled as well, but the irony was nearly palpable.

"What sets him apart is his focus on _water_ ," the man continued, "You're likely aware of his afterimage, his 'water echo'. This is no mere splash of water. At the speeds Leviathan can move, surface tension and compressibility make the water he leaves behind harder than concrete. He also has a crude hydrokinesis, the ability to manipulate water, and there _will_ be water on the battlefield. We believe that this is what lets him move as fast as he does when he is swimming. Faster than he is on land, far faster than any speedster we have on record."

I tuned him out, having remembered this part of the speech before, and idly noting all of the things the man was _not_ mentioning. Leviathan's tendency to strike out with his tail, any kind of directed water attack, his ability to force water into the ground, turning it into mud through which to disappear into. It was very big on _large concepts_ and almost completely lacking in _actionable intel._ Levi's major victories were recounted, with no notes on _how_ they were accomplished, and how to keep it from happening again. Levi's end-target, the aquifer underneath the city, was outlined on the maps displayed above us.

"To that end, though, we've designed strategies to better handle this confrontation. To those of you who've fought before, this won't be the chaotic, desperate struggle you're used to. We've designated teams depending on your general abilities," he said, and I perked up. _This is new._

"Dragon and The Guild have developed communications technology that will allow them to better coordinate our efforts. Given the limited numbers, they have been given to those in command, who have been briefed on the specifics of our plans," Legend said, and was tossed something by someone in the front row. "These armbands will allow us to communicate and coordinate our efforts. Enough were created to handle those that normally fight, but we have _much_ more than normal."

 _Okay, no Armband. It'll make it harder to track Levi, but I don't have to worry about Dragon eavesdropping,_ I thought. Before I'd just planned on wrapping it in a Sound Bubble, but with my powers on the fritz that was no longer an option. I was _very_ glad that I'd insisted on my people getting their own communication network.

Several people had stood up, moving to stand on the dais, and Legend pointed to them in turn, starting with the seven-foot-tall mech suit, which contained no shard at all. "If you are confident you can take a hit from Leviathan and get up afterwards, or you can produce expendable combatants, we need you on the front lines! You will be directed by the teams commanded by Alexandria and Dragon!"

Next was a man in gold and silver armor, styled to look medieval, and a woman in leather armor, two bandoliers of iron balls criss-crossing her chest, and wearing an Australian hat. "If you believe you can hit Leviathan and do damage, but can't take a hit yourself, we will work to make sure you can deliver your blows! You will be directed by the teams commanded by Chevalier and Boomerang!"

I noted a distinct pattern as he pointed to the next pair, a man in plate armor and an older man in more modern looking armor, A large amount of it protecting his back, who leaned on a metal staff. "If you can create physical impediments, be they forcefields, telekinesis, whatever your power, if you can interrupt Leviathan's movements or help reduce the impacts of the waves, you're battlefield control! You're with Bastion and Mr. Turtle!"

The next pair didn't start with a man in old armor but fit the medieval leitmotif as it was a man in what were obviously wizard robes and a younger man in modern, streamlined looking grey armor with purple accents, the protections particularly heavy on his legs. "If you're a Mover, this means runners, jumpers, fliers, or teleporters, we need you to get injured people to safety and to move the slower fighters in position! You'll be with Myrddin and Rebound!"

 _Not Strider?_ I thought, confused before I noticed a _distinct_ pattern. _Every single person in charge was in the PRT._ Dragon had thrown me, as she was technically part of a different organization, but this was _definitely_ a PRT endeavor. That. . . actually made a lot of sense. Part of me wanted to rail against the obvious favoritism, but if they'd spent the last several hours, while the evacuations were taking place, briefing all of their members on the plan, it followed that the people who'd had time to prepare would lead. I'd normally tell the PRT to go pound sand over this kind of thing, and would still if they tried to get me killed, but this? They had a plan, were doing things _intelligently_ , and I was wholly in support of it.

They were going to fail, and fail _hard,_ but at least they were _trying_.

"Long-ranged attackers! You are all with Eidolon and myself! If you have a support power, be it Thinker, healing, or something else you're with Afterimage and Parabellum!" he said motioning to a pair that I'd never seen before. One was a guy my age, who seemed to take after Miss Militia with his desert camo uniform and balaclava, while the other was a middle-aged woman in an embroidered dark green business suit, a simple domino mask covering her face. "If you're unsure, please find a Dragon Mech and tell her your power, and she will direct you to where you can do the most good!"

On the wall behind him, a list of categories and room numbers appeared. "Please go to the room your group is meeting in for further instructions. We still have over an hour before we start, and we all need to do our part if we're going to succeed this day!"

With that, the Triumvirate left, the team leads following them. Everyone else got to their feet, slowly making their way out. "Eecee," I said quietly, the word that activated the mic on my communication device. "Okay, Purity, you obviously go with Legend. He's overconfident, so stick by him and watch his back if you can. Gallant, Glory, Vista, stay together and go to the Mover group."

"I've been told to go with Legend," Dean replied.

I snorted. "Yeah, _no_ , go with the Movers, stay as a group. I don't care what you were told to do, the three of you are staying together so you _don't fucking die._ You might be long-range, but you can't even make Levi flinch, not really. Getting benched for a week or three is better than being _buried._ "

"But we have a plan- No, they,- _okay_ ," Gallant sighed, Vicky likely yelling at him without turning on her own mic. "Okay, Movers it is."

"Good," I nodded, the movement automatic as he wouldn't actually see me. "Raida, you're with them. Raida?" I asked when I didn't get a response.

"Forgot the word," she said after a moment. "Okay, what about Boo?"

"BookJack, attend the Brute meeting, but watch out for her," I commanded.

Taylor, who was in front of me, glanced back. "Who's Raida?"

"Eeem," I said, muting the connection to Eclipse. "It's Rune, but with a new Identity. Not sure how the E88 would react to me recruiting one of their _active_ members." Taylor nodded, and I felt someone poke me from behind, glancing backwards myself to get a raised eyebrow from Amy. "Later. Eecee, Break, Tyrone, Curtis, you're with Boojack and myself at the Brute Squad. Mick, sneak into the Mover meeting."

"Will do." "You got it dawg." " _Already there, V._ " "Yes." Came the chorus of responses.

"Æonic-" I started to say, only for him to cut me off

"Striker, _obviously._ He's fast, but no-one's faster than _time._ "

I rolled my eyes, "Sure man, whatever. Just stay safe. Lady Bug, Panacea, you're support, and just like G, G, and V, _stick together._ While the PRT wants to kill Leviathan, everyone's job here is just to _survive._ "

* * *

Break and his Replicants were all sitting together in the Brute's meeting room. Tyrone, the replicant who'd appeared in the last week, waved me over, motioning to a free seat between himself and Herb. The newest replicant (who'd wanted to look like a young Richard Roundtree, whoever that was, but with a heavier afro and a full beard) gave a wide, closed-mouth smile as I walked towards them. Herb gave me a nod, Curtis rolled his eyes, and it appeared that BooJack was taking a nap. Sitting down, my partner looked over at me. "What's up?" he asked seriously, and the attention of the other three was suddenly fixed on me, even Boojack opening one eye.

"You know the thing with Dean?" I whispered, keeping my expression nonchalant, getting a nod from Tyrone and Herb. Boojack kept staring while Curtis feigned disinterest. "Okay, Zilla, subvocal connection to Break, Boojack, Curtis, & Tyrone," I commanded our base's AI, realizing that, while I couldn't make a Sound Bubble, I had other tools available. "I accidentally did it again, but with big green," I said so quietly it couldn't be heard in the noisy room, but the communicator still picked it up and broadcast it to those I'd named.

"Well?" Tyrone prompted sub-vocally as well, "did ya get it?" I nodded. "Isn't this gonna be breezy?" he smiled broadly, his expression fading as he glanced between me and Herb.

"Last time it messed you up," Break pointed out. And I nodded. _"Shit-fuck,_ " he swore under his breath. "You're still. . . _you?_ "

I shot him a confused look. "I'm always me. Not sure what the hell it did though, only thing I have right now is Sight, Amy said something's going on with my Shard."

"Oh, poor baby," Curtis sneered. "Now don't go gettin' yourself hurt. You're my prey, not anyone else's."

I started to answer, but something niggled in the back of my head. I _needed_ shields, more than I needed practically any other power, and I held up a hand as I closed my eyes. Trying to picture my power-sets, I still couldn't see them, but in that darkness there was a _depth_ there wasn't before. It was like an abyss in the back of my mind, shadows of Purple & Red beyond my sight, and I reached into it. If I could have _one_ power right now it would be Glory Girl's _Personal Shields_.

A White & Gold Flame burst into being, filling the void, and I could _feel_ the power, on a level that I never had before. The shields unfolded across my form, shifting to the previous configuration I had them in before. as if they never left. However, this time I could sense them, almost like they were another part of my body, instead of having to focus on each individual one. Mentally trying to move them, I found the process much easier, able to move several at the same time, though the rate they changed shape didn't seem any faster.

"And now I've got it. Name a different one," I instructed. I received only silence from the replicant who was staring back at me, his own slitted pupils glittering prismatically as he focused on me not, blinking.

"Aerokinesis," Break prompted, ignoring his replicants as he stared into my power as ell, searching for. . . something.

Listening to my friend, I refocused back to that mental space, alight with Victoria's Flame. I blindly tried to feel around and pull Stormtiger's to the forefront of my mind. I could feel _something_ behind the first power, but it wouldn't budge. Trying to push down the shields to make room, as if I only had one active slot that I could fill with a power, didn't work either. The Personal Shields were up, and they refused to power down.

"No, I only have the one and I can't disengage," I told him. "What do you see?"

He shook his head, "I don't know man. It's like a bed of snakes in there."

That didn't help _at all._ "Shields are back, and maybe stronger," I offered, trying to see if that would help him understand what he was seeing. "Eidolon's shard wasn't 'any three' it was _Interface_. He was queuing up things from The Thinker, not using powers himself."

As I said the words, I knew they were true, but I didn't know how I knew they were true. _Another thing to look into later,_ I decided. "I grabbed that, but, if I had to guess, it messed up my _own_ ability to interface with my abilities," I put forward, having _no_ real Idea what was going on. "Amy said it messed with the structure of my Shard. Hopefully I'll get access to more soon, it's only been half an hour."

" _Fuuuuuck,_ " Boojack swore under his breath.

"Can you turn it off?" Herb asked for a moment.

I shook my head slightly, "I already said I couldn't switch it out."

My friend looked confused for a moment, before he shook _his_ head for a moment. "No, not switch it out, turn it off. Then try to switch it. Like switching a light bulb 'fore you unplug it."

"Who doesn't switch off. . ." I started to reply, but that wasn't the point. Concentrating, I _could_ keep the power from manifesting, but while I could suppress it, I couldn't truly turn it _off_. "Okay, toggle it yes, kinda, but I can't turn it all the way off."

"Worth a shot," Herb sighed. "So, one slot right now, maybe more later?"

I nodded, and Boojack snorted, shook his head, and took out a blunt, lighting it up. When the person behind him, a woman who became tougher the faster she moved cleared her throat in irritation. He glanced at her, and ignored her. When she said there was no smoking, he took a deep puff and blew it in her face. "Bitch, chill. We're fighting an Endbringer." The man beside her, with enhanced physiology and the ability to turn to Magma, snorted, ignoring the woman as she hit him, continuing to glare.

BooJack took another puff, letting out the smoke slowly as we all looked at him. "Bitch, please. I dare ya. Go ahead. Stand up for your ho."

I had _no_ idea what he was talking about, and from the expression of the other two neither did they. I ignored him, turning to the others. "So, what do I go with? Biokinesis? I'm not sure that'd help here."

"Honestly bro, pick the things you think'll work," Break shrugged, being no help at all.

I nodded anyways, used to having no assistance when I needed it and having to come up with the answers myself. It wasn't unexpected anymore, and his refusal to aid me was more annoying than hurtful. Mentally going over my power list, I was faced with a dilemma. _Which did I go with?_ If I was _keeping_ my powers, then Aerokinesis, then Momentum Infusion, then Space Warping, then. . . I wasn't sure. No, I needed Metal Projection for defense first, then the rest. Either way, I wouldn't slot the next power until I _needed_ it, just in case.

Okay, I could work with this. Maybe. Hopefully. _Not like you have any choice,_ I told myself. With Glory Girl's power alone, my costume, and Power Sight I _might_ be able to pull it off. Assuming this was the canon fight.

 _God I'm screwed._

Alexandria and Dragon, who had been at the front of the room, conversing with each other and a few people who had walked over to them, straightened up, the meeting obviously about to start. "Thank you for coming," Alexandria's voice rang out, the textbook definition of strong and commanding. I wondered if she'd studied how to give speeches. "Our mission here is to engage Leviathan, to take the fight to him and keep him from his goal. Others might strike at him, or trap him, but only we can meet him force for force."

"That does not mean you should absorb blows merely because you can," she warned, Dragon silent beside her, though behind her as well. The positioning spoke volumes, and with Alexandria I had to assume it was intentional. "You are seeking to maximize the time he must spend fighting you, and every blow you dodge is a blow he has wasted." A screen above her turned on, and it showed footage of Leviathan fighting. The first thing that struck me was that I'd been picturing him wrong.

I'd gotten the 'I always skip leg day' top heaviness, but I hadn't pictured his _tail_ correctly. I'd mentally attached a lizard tail to him, but that was wrong. It wasn't tapered, nor that proportionally short, but was instead nearly twice as long as his entire body and uniform except the very end, which sharply narrowed to fine point which looked as if it could pierce like a spear. It simultaneously gave the impression of a snake as it moved back and forth, and of a scorpion's tale with how it arced over the Endbringer's head.

"Leviathan's strength and speed are not to be underestimated, nor the sharpness of his claws. Furthermore, the water he leaves behind hides his movements, and he can, and will, use it to push you off balance, striking you when you can't defend yourself," she continued. "Listen to members of the Protectorate around you. If told to break off, _retreat._ Do not hold him still, that is not your job, just keep his attention. If we say to leave, it is because Legend's forces are about to strike, and you do _not_ want to be caught in the crossfire when that happens."

"As for Chevalier's teams, you are to keep Leviathan's attention on _you_ , allowing them to strike. If you need to take a hit to keep them safe, do so. You will survive. They won't," she finished looking around the room with what I'm sure was a stern gaze behind the plate that covered the top half of her face.

"Wait, that's it?" I asked incredulously, not even meaning to. My voice carried _far_ too well in what I'm sure she meant as a moment of strength. A moment I just ruined.

"Is there something you'd like to add, Vejovis?" the Triumvirate 'hero' asked calmly, but disapprovingly, and half the room turned to look at me. Without meaning to, I was in the spotlight, and I was forced to choose. Did I say no, shrink down in my seat, and reduce the attention being drawn to myself, or did I do my best to help these people _survive_?

I knew the smart choice, the cold, calculating choice, the choice that would let me continue flying under the radar would be to say something that would be attributed to my inexperience and return focus to Alexandria to continue her briefing. I had the people _I_ wanted to save, and _they_ knew better. I didn't know these people, for all I knew they were as bad as Armsmaster, and if they were dumb enough to accept what Alexandria said at face value, they deserved what they got for trusting the system. I personally had nothing to gain by standing up, and could very well make things more difficult for myself by speaking out to try to help this room full of people who I may very well might have to fight someday.

The choice was clear.

"Yeah, yeah I think I do," I told her as I stood, hating myself for doing this, but I'd hate myself _more_ if I didn't. "Leviathan is so much more than that. To start with, there's his tail. He strikes with it just as easily as he does with his arms, and does so to greater effect since people see human _oid_ and think _human._ Then there's his control of water. Levi doesn't have the finesse that Ziz does, thank _Christ_ , but he patches it with _power._ He's more than just _waves,_ he can create high pressure streams of water, the kind that can cut through _steel_. If you're underwater, he can crush you to paste. I mean, he did it to _Newfoundland_ , why the hell couldn't he do it to _you?_ He can agitate water in the ground and turn it into mud and quicksand, only to dive underground and _disappear._ And you say speed? The asshole can practically _teleport_ , but can hit you as he moves like that Kaze chick in the Birdcage. And that's not even getting into his tactics!" I listed, gathering the attention of those around me.

"Legend said he's cunning, but that doesn't really _help,_ " I said, trying to impress the importance of what I was saying to those around me. "Levi likes to pretend to be injured to draw you in, only to kill you when you think you have the upper hand. I mean, the guy doesn't even actually _bleed,_ he just fakes it. You know, the asshole who can _control water._ "

Despite having her eyes hidden, I could practically feel Alexandria's glare. "Those are a great deal of unsubstantiated statements. Why do you think any of that is true?"

"Well, some it's just _obvious,_ but for the rest I've access to Thinkers who've figured out some of the rest," I shot back.

"And the reason you haven't shared this before why?" she demanded, though her tone wasn't angry, just dismissive.

I opened my arms. "Because it's fucking _obvious?_ " I replied derisively. "I mean, you've _seen_ the tail thing, just because _you_ might not think it's a big deal doesn't mean the same is true for us squishier mortals."

"You aren't the first to make such claims about Leviathan's hydrokinetic abilities. I've fought him over a dozen times, and I haven't seen any such uses," she stated, brushing me off. _Because you haven't tried to kill him you dumb bitch,_ I wanted to say, but she continued. "I'm aware that Endbringers can be frightening, and that fighting them can worry anyone, but do not spread false information, which spreads fear and weakens us. You haven't fought them. I have. Defer to my expertise."

I just stared at her for a long moment. _Is she really using the 'listen to your elders' argument when **superpowers** exist?_ I'd managed to _severely_ underestimate the sheer _depths_ of this woman's arrogance. I wanted to believe she'd prioritize _her own mission_ , but then again keeping these people alive _wasn't_ her mission. Killing Leviathan wasn't even her mission. Killing _The Warrior_ was, and as a Cauldronite she'd stained her soul with the mantra of the ends justifying the means, no matter the cost. I should've expected this.

I was about to point out that _yes, I've met one,_ but mentioning that I'd been close enough to The Simurgh to wave hello was likely _not_ going to help me here. Looking around, most of those looking at me either had their faces hidden, or seemed dismissive, but a few at least looked contemplative. "Fine, whatever, but is that the end of this 'briefing'? I asked back.

"If you'll take your seat, I'll continue," she replied, with the air of a teacher talking down to a particularly slow student.

My first instinct was to tell her to go fuck herself, but that wouldn't be helpful either. Instead I sat down, folding my arms. She let the moment drag, the bitch, before she continued, telling us to arrange ourselves in teams and spread out across the city, in designated zones near the aquifers, so no matter where Leviathan went, we'd be there to intercept.

That was it.

It _was_ the framework workable plan, assuming Leviathan went where they assumed and _didn't_ have a beef with Herb, Noelle, Charlie, and me. However that was just it, a _framework,_ lacking in any nuance, any of the filling details required to actually work. There was no more discussion of tactics, nothing _substanative,_ and when she told us to form teams I got up and walked out of the room, not bothering to deal with this _bullshit_.

Herb and his Replicants followed me out. "This is so dumb," I sighed to myself. "She's going to get them killed. What's that stupid saying 'Generals are always fighting the last war?' It's the same here, the stupid, time-locked, _asshole!_ "

"What do you mean?" a voice called, and I turned to see that half dozen others had left as well.

I glanced around, then sighed. "Okay, so I've looked into Endbringers, what little is available, and _man_ is restricting info on them dumb. But the thing is, their powers _don't make sense._ How could Leviathan sink Newfoundland by _cracking the continental shelf_ with water pressure but not be able to crush a person? _None_ of their powers seem to be Manton Limited, so the only explanation is that the Endbringers, who _no one_ knows the motives of, only that they seem to coordinate their actions among themselves, are _holding back._ "

That, along with the complete seriousness the Replicants had in the face of my statement, seemed to shock those into silence. Hopefully it was a silence where they'd be more open to ideas, not internally justifying why I _had_ to be wrong, because they didn't want to face the possibility that I was _right_. "If it's business as usual, then _fine,_ we'll be able to fight him off no problem, but what if it _isn't?_ Yes, fight him, keep his attention off of his task, but the way they're talking about it. . . it's as if they've already won."

A woman in a sand colored dress stepped forward, all of her covered in fabric except for her eyes. Her Sand-Form power was wrapped tightly around her, its Flames held close as they added an extra dimension to her costume. "Then what do you think we should do?" she asked, half challengingly, half curious.

I considered the issue, and what was _really_ bugging me about this entire thing, to the point that it had distracted me from the problems I was having with in my own powers. "It's the. . . this plan lacks teamwork."

A person in power armor cocked their head, and when they spoke their voice was modulated, but still recognizably female. "They have us teaming up," she pointed out.

I looked at the flames of the Armor Tinker, and tried to put the difference into words. "Yes, but we're teams of _Brutes._ Having teams of similar power sets moving like this, it's like how they normally approach these fights, everyone doing whatever, just with more people, each group acting like how heroes would individually act before. We all have Mover capabilities," I said, waving to myself, Herb, and the replicants, "but for those who don't, teaming them up with one would increase _both_ heroes effectiveness."

I _wanted_ to say that it was like an adventuring party. A group of all fighters, or all rogues, _could_ work but if you grouped the Brutes and Strikers _together_ then they'd synergize, covering each other weaknesses, which only improved with a wider team. However, I felt that comparing this to a game would hurt more than help. "Imagine if your football team was composed _solely_ of Linemen and _nothing else,_ or a band where everyone played the drums, it might _work_ , but not _well._ "

I sighed, "And when you have a few minutes of warning, _if that_ , I understand why simplistic tactics like that might work but they've had _hours_ to figure this out. You," I addressed a larger man standing near the back, an Aura of Retributive Damage glowing around his form, "what are your powers?"

While the top half of the man's face was covered, his surprise was apparent from his body language and the hint of a grimace his mouth formed. He hesitated, before saying, "I'm tough, and anything that tries to hurt me gets hurt more."

"Does it scale with armor?" I queried. At his look I added, "If you're heavily armored, so when you're hit you don't get hurt, does the thing hitting you still get hurt like you weren't armored at all?" He nodded. "Does it work on ranged attacks, like if someone shoots you, do they get hurt like they've been shot."

He hesitated again, before shaking his head. "No, only if something hits me."

 _You mean strikes, not hits,_ I mentally corrected. "And lastly, does your toughness extend to what you're wearing? So does your armor get tougher because _you're_ wearing it?"

He nodded, obviously more comfortable revealing a strength of his power instead of a possible weakness. "Yeah, this stuff's bulletproof," he bragged, tapping what looked like converted Anti-riot gear.

I held up a hand. "Eecee. Mick, grab the spear from the base, Zillah will know where it is, and please bring it to me."

"Will do," was the clipped response.

"Eeem. Right," I continued. "So, consider the weapon part of your armor, it might make a difference to your power, might not. See if anyone can get you kitted out with better armor, but nothing energy based, so no shields. I'd pair you with a Mover, maybe a Striker. At range you're only slightly tougher than a regular person, so you need help to get in close. If you want to go with Alexandria's plan, fine, but talk to the Striker team near wherever you are. Engage him in close combat, and watch out for his fucking tail, but what you _really_ need to be worried about are water blasts and being caught underwater. Avoid the last one at all costs."

He stared at me for a long moment, before nodding slowly. "Never needed a weapon before. Never been in an Endbringer fight before, though."

The woman in armor added, "I might have something. It won't be full coverage."

The Retributive Brute shrugged, "Better 'en nuthin' miss. . ."

"Brigandine," she said, holding a hand out.

He took it, "Name's Smackdown."

A blazing trail of Purple and Gold Fire blasted down the hallway with a sound like that of a power saw. Mick, in the form of a hummingbird, pulled himself to a stop for only a second, as those around me jumped at the noise. His form flickered and he was off like a shot back down the hallway, the titanium spear I'd made previously springing into existence, the golden flame-designs glinting in the fluorescent light of the convention center's hallway.

"Dude, the fuck?" Herb asked as I caught the weapon, a sentiment the others openly shared.

"It was Mick, you know, your cousin," I replied, handing the weapon to Smackdown. It took a second, but the glow of his power spread down the shaft of the weapon, empowering it. _Bingo._

"How'd he?" my teammate asked, making a dropping gesture. I shrugged.

"Ask him later," I said, turning to nod to the Dragon-bot walking down the hall towards us with a box, the robot the same model as the one inside with Alexandria. While humanoid, it was obviously a robot, as the hips were too narrow to hold a human's frame, and like the rest it was draconically themed. "How can I help you Dragon?"

"I've been instructed to give each you one of these," she replied, voice maturely feminine, like a woman in her mid-thirties, and not sounding artificial in the slightest. I accepted the armband she offered, activating it as Herb looked at me inquiringly.

"With how bad I've heard these fights getting, it might not survive," I warned her. "Though, with the Endbringer Truce, booby-trapping these would be the _height_ of stupidity, so I see reason to say no."

That got me a few confused looks from the other heroes, and, as expected, Dragon only had the body language she wanted to show, but Herb took the proffered armband, as did Tyrone and Boojack. Curtis waved his away without seeming to care, though he paid close attention to the one he was supposed to receive until the sand-woman took it instead.

A dragon appeared on the armband's display, which turned into a map of the city, an arrow pointing southeast, as Dragon said, "You have been assigned to Alexandria's group. Do you need Mover assistance?"

I wanted to tell her that I didn't want to be anywhere near Alexandria, but having a member of the Triumvirate there when Levi first arrived would likely be helpful. "No, we're good," I told her. It seemed obvious, but I double-checked, "So this tells us what building we'll be meeting on top of?"

When Dragon replied, her voice was carefully neutral, "You are meeting at the intersection of Cypress and Warren, not on top of anything."

"Doesn't Leviathan start _every_ fight with a tidal wave? Doesn't having everyone on street level make that. . . kinda dumb?" I had to ask.

"Ensuring mobility was deemed more important, over my objections," she replied, a bit of frustration in her tone, giving me a slight nod. "Good luck out there."

I returned in kind before she walked off, "Same."

* * *

Herb and I arrived our designated location, the others having split off. Boojack had left to go track down Raida, Tyrone to go shadow Eidolon, and when asked Curtis just smiled and said, "Wouldn't _you_ like to know?"

Before I could respond that, _Yes, I would. That's why I asked,_ he was off like a shot, having turned into a pure-black lion, a second pure white one, his Stand, seeming to jump out of a nearby alley and keep pace with him.

Herb and I dropped down at the intersection, cars still parked on the side of the road, and found ourselves to be the only ones there, the rest likely still in conferences or doing the entire meet-and-greet thing. If we were sticking to Alexandria's plan, that's where we should be as well, but that wasn't what we were doing.

When Leviathan hit the shore, we'd be on him. I'd take his attention, letting the others respond, while Herb acted as support, fast, but not strong or tough. As the fight progressed, he'd take a greater role, but in order for his healing to work he needed to _be_ strong enough to hurt Leviathan in the first place. We'd talked it before, and if he was able to copy Leviathan's Hydrokinesis then Herb would only use his version to cancel out Leviathan's, instead of trying to out-finesse the thing which had been _created_ with the power in mind while keeping Herb's contributions deniable. The plan was for me to do the same, but that was looking increasingly unlikely to occur. Herb kept watch as I tried to meditate, floating in the air with my legs crossed, turning my gaze inward.

Personal Shields were still there, sitting in the back of my mind, but it wasn't the same as yesterday. Before It had felt like I'd held the Flames of my copied powers in a space between spaces, bringing them forward and interweaving my own with it, my own power almost puppeting it, but always separate. Now, it didn't feel separate, but almost grafted to my own power, the point where my original abilities ended and the one I'd taken from Glory Girl began blurred to the point it seemed indistinguishable. I felt myself start to slip, but with a force of will held myself on the edge of what felt like an a̷̫͉b̜̣̠͙̹͎͍y͔̩͉͞s͏̘̱̬s̯͔̯͎͈͢.

I̺͟ ̞͎l̘o͎̹̹̩̮o̺̖͖̖k̶̼̯e͇d̪̹̞̬͎̮̩ ͖̠̪͎̞̯ͅin̬t̷͙̭o̠̬ ͏͇̲̬a ̬͔̙̝͙S͏͈̬̯̜͓ͅe̩͖̫̩͇͘a͚ O̫̙f̤͕̣͡ ̠̗͔͖̰̥P̝̦̥u̖r̙p̗̯͖̀l̶͍ẹ̙͎̤ ̛̱͍̝̗̮͙&͈̟̼̖̘̩͕͜ ̙̤̱͇̠͖̬͝Ṛ͖̰̫͚̻̞ẹ̸̖̼̪̯̣͕d̨͓̮̼̟̜̭͉ ͚͙̩F̲͙̼̰l̯a̭̫̭m͔̥͚͖̣ẹ͎̜, ̞͙̜͎̰̝f̱͔̞͟l͇͉͙̹͖o̘̘̻̤̻w͏͖̱̬̟͇̝i҉͉̝̫̪̜n̲g,̟͇͍̱̠̠̰ ͔̺͚͚͔ͅb̛̘ú͍r͈͉̫̼̗͈͜n͔̦͈̲̳͓ing̻͎̭͕͕̹͈,̱̼͔͇̰͝ à̦͚n͝d͎̜ ̴s̠̠̱̀p̪͕ͅi̹͈͉͡n҉̳n̡i̷̫͉͚̼̣̗n̨̺̯̥ǵ̙ ͔̫i̡̼̲͇n̢͔̮͇̙̙͖ ͖̞̬͖͕̀w̰̱̲̠͞ͅa̘̞̩͙̮̬̦͘y̖̺̥s̮̯̟̲ͅͅ ț͇͙̤̬h̗͙͕͎͇̼̭a̗̬͉̯͕͍t͉̻ ̤̬͍f͚͎̲i̭̯̬̝̱͕͡r̖̥̰͓̯e͕̮͍ ͞s̺h̷̪̭̩̦o̻̺̥̹̭͈ul̵d͕͍̠ ̹̞̮̲̲̘n̫͖͉̟ͅo̺͖͖̮̤̺ṱ̷͔.̞͟ ̣̟̀I̻n ͙͎͓̀t͟h͢e̷͎ͅ ̼̩͞ò͎͈̜͕͔ͅͅc̲͈̹͙̣e͉a̶n̶͈̳͓̲̪̝̻ ͡o̸f̮͖ ̼̘̹̲̳͚͟ͅi͙͓͍͙̫͙͓n̯͠ç͚͇̯a̷͈͉̞͖͚̬͇n͏̗̥̱̙̪d̦͇͕̻͕̹ę̟̲sc͇eṋ͇̥͎̘̤c͕e̝̮͡, ͇͔̳̫̤a҉̳ ͔̰̹̭͖͠b͏̰͔͇̜o̮̱̥̟n̟̫̜̤̝f̴i͇̳r̲̣̹̭e̖̝̩̮͕̤̳͡ ҉͉̗̟̮̩ͅo͔̼̱f͏̱͖ ̗̼̰̩ͅW̶̙hi͇̬̫̭t̵̬̼e͏͕̱͔̲͚̳ ̪͢&̥͖͉͚̼̙͜ ̷̩G̸̫̯͓͚̬̟o̴̼l͇̝̜͕͇͇̦d̰̱̖͈͡ͅ ̘̭̀b̬̳̭̫̝̗̫͝u̼͞r̗n̮e̟̖͕̣̬d̜͖̹͔̺,̴̺̺̫̬̞̝ ̫͇̫̬̙͘t̸e̟̮͕̤̙n̻̥̬̱̝̦̹ḍ̟̳͙͔͕ͅr̴͖͉̹̼͓̭i̵̠̻l̪͍̥̞̫͇͕̕ş ̩o̖̘̮f͏̦̖ ̟͓̤͚́i͖͍̬̱͟t̢͓ ̞̟s͎͚͔͚p̴̙̖̼̠͓r͍ȩ̲͙͍̰̦a̦̭̬d͔̼i̫͕̰̭͘ng̹͔̪͙̦͔̮ ̨̻̥̹̫͉o̫̤͞u͜ţ̟̦̗̖͕ ̛̭̮̪̲̪̜̲a̯͉̩̳͓͜ͅn̢͈͖̗d͙̗̀ ̡͇̩͇̱m̗̱̖̼̠͡i̛͙͍͔̱͓̱xͅi̗̣͕̞͝ͅn̸̟͇̼͖g ̛̜̰ẃi̺̦̲̜̘̟̣t̪̳̘̖̗̪h͉̝͎̭̦̻ ̸̭̳̗̬̼͕̝t҉̩̫̬̬h̷͉̭̹̺͕̩͈e ̳̹̣̱̖̝͡F͏̜̗̝̘ḽ̥̜̯̫̗̪a͉̪ͅm̴͈e̴̼̼̠̳s̮ ̻̯̝̹͙̺a̮̗̖̫̭l̼͖͔͎̼̖l̯̲ ͇͚͉̟͘a҉̬̳̫̙r̬̰͙̳͔̝o̬̝͓̼̟u͓̘̳̭̫͞ņ̮͍̤̱̗͇d̯͕͝ ̮̞̖̣i͓̣̝̪͉̼t̞̦͇̭,̰̺̦̼͇ ̸͚a͙̻̫͚̣̮̱s̻̦̗̱̫ ̟̤̺̻͔̤t̨̙̠̪͉̭̻̙h̻̻͍̯̖͈o̳s̼̞̘̥͝ͅe҉̼̮̹̪ ̲͙̥͙̥̱̥͞s̝͖͉̜͚̙͔a͔̜̙̲m̘̪̮͞e̢̘͓̪̗͕ ̢͍͚̟̼̱̟̖F̨̺͍̪̝l̵̦̘̘̯ͅḁ̸̼m̜̪̀e̖͖͕͈͖̣͉s̴̱͖̻ͅ m͖̺͖̲̣á͕de͕͓͙͕̜͔͝ ̰̪̥̘͓͞ͅr̝͕͘o̘̺̪̲̜̩̥o̖̤m̰̻̞̮ ̧̖̩͓f͇͙͍̩͓̥ͅo̬͔͖̭̫̼̺r̸ ͚̙͕͇̗͉̮i̳̮̻̮͉̻t͖̣̙͙̯̳ ̞̹̬́tọ̴̥͚͕̜̜ ̜͉̫̜͙ͅs̢͍̗̻̰̳͉͈p̛̺̼̪̣ͅr̪e̢̩̥̬̬̣̻̤ad̡,͖̭̠̠̯͠ ̹̬͉̰to̜̱ ̱̲͔̖̫f̬̞̪͍͜loͅẉ̴͚̪̹,́ ̫̻̩͇͘t̻̞̬̲o̵͚͔͔͍ ̠͙͎̼̳́ͅg̜̥̣̰͉ŕ͉͎͈̖̙o̘͚̘̤̫͍̬w̡͇̩͉̞.̪͎̻͜

A͙̪̣͝ṣ̠̱̹͟ ̠̹͕̟̱I̴͍̥̫͕͎̮ͅ ̠̣s͖͔̟͖̖͢t̜͇͘ar͇͍̖̠͚͞e͇̞͎͜d̙ ͍͈i̘͇͎͠n̖͍͈͙͉̝͡ţ͚̩̤o ͓͇̩͇̗͎̹t͓hơs҉̬é̫̹̮̘͉̪̺ ̵̦͙f̙̮l̩̖̝̱̪͖̖a͕ͅm͔e̵̠̫̲s͔̺̳̯̗͓̞,̡ ̘̗̥̳̣̳ͅa̮̞t̵̺̙t̳̭̯̲͓̭e͇̜̦̙̣m̠̠̲̗p̯t̮̘͈͎̪ḭ̴̺̫͕̖̠n̗g̰͔̦̜ ̖͙͕͇m͖ý ͈̀ow̗̰̥̳n͏̱̙̪͇̗ ̲̭̦͎͚͇͓b҉͎͇̝ṛ̵a̷͓̜̥̼̰n̮̗ḓ̡̱̣̦̠ ̙̜̮̹̝͇͟of͙̹ ̖̬̯̱͝p̢͕y̮͡ró̬̯̖̦m̨̳͓a̢̹̦̥n͉͕̖ç̘̝̪͍̱̱y̫͉͚,͏͙̹̘̥̜̤ I̞̤͓͟ͅ ̘̫̼n̢̯̳͍̜̻o҉̞̹ͅt̹̻̝i͏̙c̖͓̦̩̼̤̰e̛̬̘̣̬̥ḓ̳̼͍̫ ̡͍̳͕͍̼̟s̥̭̲̯͠o̧̤̼̩̲me͖͇t̥̱̳͙͟h̘̝̯i̼͔̳̗͙̲̻n̩͖̻̟͓̝g̛̩̤.͖̼̹̺̣̪̺͡ ̸.̹̼̳̪̺̥ ̦̮̕ͅ.̢͍̝͔ ̡͉̙i̹̻̮̯͉n͎̲̪̯͕͔̰̕ṯ̲̟͙̲̲e̬̱̰̝̞͝r̵e̴̖st͔̳̪͕i͚n͏̙͕̱g̖̹͚.͍̥̞͙͙̺̫ ͡I̛̠͙̤̯̪͓t͍̙̯͖̻͓͎ ̝͔͝w̸̼̙̫̮a͉s ̥̠͔̙̟̞͙̀o̩̗̬̞̹͡n͕̩͕̫l̨̼̱̺y͏̝͉ ̧̭̬̜̲t̵̤̻̜hr̛̯̤̫o̯̞̝̗̯̩u̵̻̥͎͓̖g̲̠̗̖h͏̣̙̝͓̤ ̝̼̼͖̗͠w̨͉̪̬̮à̫̺̯̻̙͚̙t̯̘͚̯̳̩c̸̻͈͎̣̥̠̙h̠̼͠i̛͓̪͙n͏̻̙ͅg͏ ̗͖̯̖̙̰̝t̬̟̙̟̥́h͇ȩ͈m̯̪̳, ̴̟̲̤̜t͙͔͎̱h̶r̸̠͍̘̺̟o͔u̙͍͙̹͟g̶̼̜̼͉͚̜h̤͈̙̣̮̞͉ ̻͈̥̰̭̤̀t̨̯͉̜̰͎̹͔a̟͙̼ͅk͚͉i҉̯͇̦̭̩͉͖n͇̣ͅg̱̲͟ ̜̩͇ͅin͙ ͕̬t̲̼̫̠̩͟ͅh͏̲͎̰e ́e̦̣̫̖̫̠̱t̰e͇̘͉̩̩͕̦r̦͉̝͚n͕̗͚̺̥̻͘a͍̬l̫̦l͖͖̞̟̬̘y̦̺̲̦̘̖͇ ̜ͅș̟̱̤̙͍̩pḭ̞͈͉̮͢ͅr̼͍͙͙a̧̫̼̞̝̰͙͙ĺi͇̘n͎̠ͅg͓̲̝̠̠̤̠ ͈͇͙͇ṯ̪̺̞̗ò̺̭͔̰͖ṇ̨̯̱̬̭g̖͙͈̫͘u̻͉̙͉̗̦̕ę̲̯̖͔̜s͍ ̞́ọ̻̯͙̥̪f̳͓̘̱͙̱ ̙͎̦̙̭ț̥h͎͔͙̲̝͙͔e̹̥̜ ͍̣f̡͖̪͍̯l̤a͉̰̻̖͈̺m̨̯̳̞͈̞͚̫e͡s͍̮̩̞̥͖̠ ̝̝̩̫̮̹̹t̜̖̜̗͙͘ͅͅh͎̻a̹͇̩̦t ̜͈̫͢b̠͍͎̟͚̰̀u̱͈ͅr͔̜̬͚̟͟ne̤̲̹̩d͔ ̨̣̙̻̻̭a̯̦͙͕s͜ ̖̲͠f̵͉̜̮̠̼̬a͕̫̩͎̱̹̠͘r̸͓͕̬̪̗̭ ͘a̬̱̯̼s̸̤̪ ҉͇m̼͙̻̜y̵̹͚̤̳͎̝̯ ̶̞̻̝̤s̶͕͓̦̼̝̘̗i̻̼̺̬̪͉͇͜gh̠̺̞t̟͖̲͎͈̦ a̞͔̼̺̹̗l͕̜l͙̹̬o̼̦̞̙̝̹w̡e̷̘̜̞͕̦̭̗d̹,͏̭ ̫̼̩̦̫̼̱̀ṭ̥͉̦̟̣h͇̙̗̫̱a̼̮͕̳͍͙t̻̙͔͠ ̴̣̟̘͇͍̪͕I̢͙͖̱̥̻͙ ͙͇̯̼n͓̪̫ot̳̳̰̻̮̟i̼̠͇̝c̭͔̙̰̹̳͔e̶̝͍͓̗d҉̼ ̕p̡̤͔͖a̪̜͍̙̞̝̣t͚̫̳̜t̜̠͍̀eŗ̫͇̙̻͈ͅṉ̸̭s̞͙͙̺͠ ͙̩̺͠ͅṣ̱̖͙t̫a̗̟̠̙̺r̪̬̟̞̘̤̀ͅt͙̟̣̝̜̰̺i͎̟̲̠̼̳n͜g̖͖ ̠͝t̤o̮̝̭̩ ͎̣̟e̳̺̥̺͖̪͖m̶̜e͉̩͎̟̤̲͔r̡̻̟̹͙̱̰̻g͇͚̭͓̭ę̗͍̥.̥̻̖͕ ͉͙̭̫W̡͕̖̼̟̙̰͚hi̮̗̠̻͇ļ̖̣̭̳̪̗e̵̘̲̘͉̟̙͉ ̭̲i̷͕̯͈͔͇̗n̵͓͓̠͚̦ ̶̠̻̜̫̘c̗͇͔̦̻̙͍o̰̻̪̺͇̺̕n̳̗͕̖̪͖̜s͏̥̜̭t̷͇a̶̮̳̯n͏͇t̢͙̫͙̦̤̰ ͙̬̳̗̟m̀ọ͚̳̳̱͈̗t̢̹̲̣̤̲̤ͅi̟̹̞̕o̺̲̞n̡̺,̢ ̨s͖̼̝̪̹h͕͟a̼̹͎͚̹̜͍p̙͓̯̼̪e̪̙͕̤s̠͔̞ ̳s͎̪͔͢ta̱̰r҉̱͇̪t͕̹e͖̫ḑ̠̜ ̸͎̺̺̫̫̙̦a̩͙͙̰͚p͈̯͠ͅp͍̖͙̹̮e̻͠a̙̦r̶͕̩͖̫i͍̥̙͈͉n̩̹̼g̜̭̪̥̺̪.̙ ̪̻͠C͕̖͝o͝n͜s͇̮̙̱̀t̫͓̳̦ŕ͈͕̳̪̙̮ù̫͈̰c͕͎͓̼̱͓ͅt͉͖͈̲̦̲͓s͕ ̨̰̰̟͔̝o̡̭͕̯̫̠̣̞f̭̬̻̱̲̣͜ ̮͍̰͍͍͉F͍͘ĺ͓͚̩͓̠̘a̞̪͡m̦̮̪̤͔e̝̣̹͕̖̜̠ ̵͔t͈h̯̥̙̜͉̬͠a̼͔̹̩ͅṯ̗͇̖̥͜ ̛̼̪̲͙͓͍c̰̣̤͍̰r͠e͎͇͍̭̩͙͘a͓̝t̙e̝d͔ ̰̠c̛̝̻͖̘͖a͍̦̲͚͍̟̪v̺̳̙̼̩̬͚͡i͓̝̥̝͕t͔͈̳͍̣̭̱i͎̦͖͖̙͍e͏͈̞̯̩̺̳̲s̠̠ ̟̲͓̞̦̬i̜ń͓̫͙̟̝͕͇ ̵̬̝͙̩̮t̴͕̳he̶ ̱̫͇̟͔̀c̢͕͔e̵̙͓a͇͝s̢̻̰̖̯e̵̠̮̪̙l̯͚͚̜͇ͅḛ͈̺͝ss̡̪͓̤̳͓͓ ̠̟͔̗̹̼͟c͈͚̗̗̭̞o҉̤̯n҉̪̹͔fl̤͟a͏͈̹̣̼͚g̙̫͙r̜̼̤̹̹͍͡ạ͔͕͙͎͠t̖̳̮i͚̲̲̰̘̞o͜n.̢̪̰ͅ

̀M͕ͅo̴̺̣̼̤v̨̱i̤̼͍̗̜̱͝n̩̣̦̬̞͕ͅg̱̞͚͝ͅ ̗̮̟͍̼b̯̫͍a̼̮͎̗͢c̸͓̰k͈̝͎ ̞̮͍̥̳t͖̟̙̯̭͟o̸͈͉ ẁ̥̠̳̤̲h̨̘̺e̖̩͈̪͍̫̳͜r̗e̪͔̮ͅ ̤͉͕͎͞ͅP͉̪̬̟͕͢e̢̘̜̠r̶̜͓̭̼̗̩͚s̟̥͇̤̰o̸n̛̳͍̖̰͕̦a͇͎̩̫̼̱͓̕l̴̺̝̳̹̩ ̩̥Ś̖͉̼h̰͙̤̰͉i̟͕͉̹̼e̼̪̱͇̮͇̳l̺̘̪͖͖̙ḓ͇͉̬̥͙͖i͈̘n͚͚g ͉̭w̻͉̰̠a̰̙̟̗̗͎s̲̣̺̙͙ ̗r̶͖̯͎̲o̶̙̹͚͎o̡͕t̢̲͙̬̰̠e̹d͉͢ ͎̗͍̖͉͕́i̧n͇͈t̶̙o̖̞̬̜͇̟͍ ̗͈͎͠m̼͎̺̫̬͡y ̯͍p̦͕̩̬̤̩o̪̼̜w̰͟ȩ̝̦r̟͍̘̹,̛̼̠ ̡̝I̲ ̫c̜͈o͍̭u͎ḻ͟d̛̗̪̠̣̘ ͙̭ḅ̨̺a͠r͚̦͠e̯l̳͈̣y̯ ̸̦̳̼͓̭̯m̺a̷̲͓̘k̭̩̹͖̜e̶̘͍͓ ̫͔̞̼͝ͅo̗̖͎̺̩͡u̶̖̠t͓̳̥͍̳͖ ̺̻͎̬̖͔͔̕s̮͍̙̫͡i͎̱̳̣͔̱̗m̼͇̘͍̗i̱̱̦̝̯lar̙̩̰ ̹C̵̼͎̘o̠̫͈̯̱n͕̦̖̺̗̳s̢̰țr̟̺̟̘ͅu̶̬̱c͈̯̜͕̦͉͝t̛̩̞͉͔̖s͙̻̦̮̩͖͡,̱ ͉̠̜h̫o̯̦͚͝ͅl̸̮̭̠̪̯̪di̢̯͖͉͚̗̮̹ǹ̦̦g̬͚̰̘̘ ̫̝͓̲͉̳̳͜i̮̗t̶͚͕̼ ̛̭̖̹̬͙̝į̲n̤̘͇͜ ̘͈p̢̣̱l̛̯̥̖͍̩à̳͍͈̩̙͍ͅc̥̥͙̞̯̦e̴̻̯ ̢͇̭̤̰̯̻͓a̼̻̰̲̗̯͇͞n͉͙̯͙͍̞̕d̙ ̨g̥̫̯i̙̯̯̳͘v̬̩̬̣̮͚i̛̪͇n͎̺͓͖͎͔g̦͕͙̗͎̱ ̕i̡̬͖͙̟̲͚t̢͖̞̝͖̩ ̡͓̜̥̫̮a̡̩̪̣ ̡̗̬̠̥̖f̷r͕̙̘͓͔̯a͔͞m̺̩̹̙̲̟e͚̬͈͙wo͏r͏͕͓̟͍̙̙k̰͕̱̮ f̗͓r̲͔o͎̟̫͢m̱̜ ̢͕w̤̞͚̥̯̣̤h͏̩̭̺̗͉̘̘i͘c̨͖̱͍̰̮h͍̠ͅ ͏͇̖̞̳̬͔t҉̮̪͉͈ͅo̟̬̺̮ ̴g̴͈̝r̗̹̥̣̦̠͝o̥̮͍̻w̵̠̗̮͔̖̲. ̥̖̯̩͕̯̜͟I̵̳͉̦̹̗͍̳ ̙̥̺̱̪̜͚p̨̙̫̱̟̱u̢̩̙̫̙l̡͙̫̻͎̞ͅͅl̵̖͍͖̬̞̳e̴d̺͚͈͜ ̥͙b̪̗͎̣̖̱a̰̣͉͓͇̰̱̕c̳̥̻̜̝ͅk̴̘̰ ̴̤͉̰̘̰͓͎t͖̤̲̩̻́r̯̠͖y̭̬̳̬ͅì͕̳̯̞̣̪n̢̖g̬͓̩̺ͅ ̴͙̟t̷͓̦̻̭͔o͙̭̹͞ ̠̪t͚͚̼̦͔̞̺a͏̖̗̣̞̤͚k̭͈͎̕e̖̳̰̠͇̘͕ ҉a̡͇͓ ̨̻͔̠̟̲̩̰w̸̠id͉̤e̪͓̥͔r̫̫̣̞͞ ̛͕̪̰̮̘͖̜v̝͉̺̭̝́i͉e͏̜̯w̬̠̗̲͖͎̦͢ ̥͈̙̝͍̖͝o̼̳͠f͔͙̳̩ͅ ̲̭͈͢w̳̟͖̻̪̘ͅh͎a̶t̪͓̥̭̳̟ ̷͖̬̰͙̫̮s̞̹̗̘͍e̡͔͕̟̥e̡̳͓̱m̜̹͙̲e̳̞̠̟͉̩͓d͕̦̣̖̙ͅ ̲̤̫̰̀ḻ̥i̥̰̞͙̻̯̼k̻̯̳͇̲̲͠e̞̰̟̰̪͚̻ ̸͔͉͓̟a̝͔̱͙͍̣̪̕n̢̪̜̭ ̙̙i̳͙n̲̞̰̣f҉̙̖̱̗̯̠i͈̖n͕͘i̫̹̦̥̤̪ͅt͎̩e͈ i̫ń̪f͔̟͕̦̳̀e͈̗̲ŕ̺n̠̼̙o̷̪̰̞,̛̦̗ ͜t̤̭͢ryi̘ṉ̟̟g̷͓̲ ͉t̫͍o̖̠̘ p̶̜̠͉͕̥ͅi̜̪̪̤͎͈c̞̖̱͕̼͜k͙ ̤̬̠̘̟o̬̬͉̟͇͟u͚̬̤̖̫̕t̸̩̜̬̖̖ ̼̫̙̭̘t̬̮̣̙̙̤h̗̪̮̪̦̤e҉̙̬̦̙̟̹ͅ ̻̹̭͈̻C͈̲̙͓̤o͡ṇ͎͕̳ș̡t̥̯r̥̫̗͚̣͙u͎̖͈̰͇͘c̻͢t̷̲̬̰̣͎̟s̝̜̼̜̯ ̺̘̲̻̣f͖͉̰̪o̟͎͎̰͕̞r̶̝̱m͈͝i̟̲͕͈̭n̻̥̘͙̙̺͎g͓͈͚̭̬͇ͅ ͚̼̯̞̳̗i̡̭̬͕n̢̺̯ ̤t̤͕h̵̰̯͈͈̙e̴̲̯͖̖̳̞ ͇͇̙͉c̫͙͙̻̟h̝͙͉u̸̼͓r̳̩̼̗n̙̺̪̕i̸̳͉̫͎̜n̮͈͖̘̹̕g͏̬̜̗̳ ̥͇̳̟̤e̖̲̰̩̙̲x͈̟͔̞̤̦́p̧͍͔̞̺̝̗e̵̼̤̩͎͙n̼̥̹̤̕ṣ̛̦̦̖͍̱͈e̢͉̦̮̣͚ ̞of̮ ̭̲͕̘̯̠̤F̟̰̗̺͙ḭ̹̮͖͎͖r̩e̙̤̝̺̣̲ ̛͚̲Ị̝͔͉̬͎̬ ̸͙̪̩͖w̝͇a̗s̖̪̜̝ ̢̹̠̙̥̮ͅͅa̯̼̗̯͙̜bo̗̞̟͘v҉͈̺̙̫͕e,͏ ̡̝̜̰̬w͖̱̬͕ͅͅi͇̘̣̺̩̖t̜̣̹̺͍͍͔h̭̗̠͕̳͜iņ,̷̺͔͚ ͇͉͘a̪̪̼͈̱̤ͅn͎̤̗̘d͏̭͕͖̲̱̣ ͈͕̩̭͍̖͠ͅc̙̤o̮̗̫̲̻̜͢n̨̝ṯ͕a̺̠̣̦̼͓i̢͈̜̟̞ͅn͖̝̰̳͓e̡d̺͍͝ ͜a̹͙l̹̦̼̥̤͓͞l͇̼̹̱̀ ̟̺̻͚̼͍a̷̰t͓̱͟ͅ ͝o͝n͕̜̤̣̥̟ͅc̘͢e̯̲̗̣̞̬̬.̧

͕T͚̲̕h͓̰̰̼o̶̭̪͇̤͉s̨̗̗̱e̮͍͖͘ ̨a̙̳͠r͕̬̥͎o̥̤͍͍̺͠u̹̦n͍̦̞̲͇̖ͅd̢͕̘ ͔̲t̜͟he͖͕̲̮̯ ͍̯͖̪͟W̴͔͙̙̹h͓̥̞̘̰i̟̫̱̱̙̯͍͡ṯe̦ ͇̱̭̞̘͈́&ͅ ̝͉͕ͅG͔͖̞̫̳ó͈͕̞̰͎ͅl̹̦͖̘̱͔d̩̤͇̜͚ ̸͕͔̯̪̱̗F͉̼̥̩͖l͍̳̭̪͝a̷m̘̬̮̘̮͚e͙͇̯̥͝ͅs̞̞͖̖̬̗ ̴͎̰̱̱̱̦w̺͚͍̞͕e͞r͎̹͓͓e̴͉̟͎̠͕̻ t̥̳͚̰̬̞͝ͅh̰̘e͖̝͕̩ ̦̗̹̱̟̥͡ͅm̺̰o̯̖͡s̱̬̙ţ͎ ̞̮̳͖f̛͉͖̲o҉̺r̜̣̜̘̝̥̙͟m̮̮̮e̫̣̮͎d҉̱̝̪͖,̻̱͉͙͇̞ ̞̩͢o͍̖̼̭̱̞͕n͘e̶ ̻͟a̛̠̞̰̹̣͕l͍̣͍̝̫m͖̟̗ò͓͍̤͉̦̯s̡͚̳͖̠͕͇t͉͇̭̳ ̞̥̪̦c͉̮͖̼̻̗͞o̸̠̲͕͚̲̣̟m̳̮̟̰̜͟p̗͈̝le͇̭̺t̩e̫͎̝̘̗̕ͅ, ̜̲b̟̞̗̘̪u̗̱͕̹̣̦ͅt̼̀ͅ a̘͓̤̫̰s̡̯͓̖ ̕I̵̠ ̜̣̪̱͟c̹͢a͚͎̙̞s̰̯̫͈͞t̳̖͢ ҉͓̖̠͍m̪͝y̠̥̮̘͎̪͠ ̟̱̺̥͜g͈̥a̵z̥͇e̯̝͎ ̷̬̤̱͓f͎͘u̻͍̰̹̻̘̥r̳͔̣̺̹t̶ḫ͓̦̳͉̙̞e̯͇͖̟̞̟͝r̸̼̬,̝̗̰̠͟ ̹͕I̧̜̺̣̘ ̹̟͖̜̤s̟͉͡a̳͞w̞̟̠̝͈̥̥ ͉͜d̹͈̟o̤z̤ͅe̯̰̤n͕̦̬͢ș͕̼͓̪̫ ̴̣̮m̫̯̠̣̮̭̀ͅo̹̪r͏͕e̫̱̹̤̩͘ͅ,̡̟̺̤̭͖ ̩͔͇̀t͚͉͖̼͠h͔̰e̠̺̞͚̠͙̻n̪͎̙̦̝͉̦ ̳͖̳͖͢ͅh̸̟u̢͎̝̫͚n͉̩̳̝̲̕d̖͕̻r̲͎̤̫̻e͓̠̗̠̱͈͚͢d̸͙̫͙͔s̶̮̖̟̬̳̖,̡̣ _ţ̨̯͔̫͎̳h͏̡̰̯̭̳̣̯̕o̵͎͍̹̝͇̞̩̲͠ư͈͚̺̗̕ş̗a̸͚̩͎͓̯n̴͖̥͟d̵҉̰̭s̙̯̙̰,̙̥̩͙ **m̴̧̺̙̼̺̲͍̗̱̯̱͡ͅi̶̧̢̧̙̟͉̥̜̹̩̜̗̫̹̳̞̫̯̩͡ͅͅl̶̞̦̭͕̮̠̞̙̠͚͓͍͙͎͓͇̲̫̗̕͢͞l̛̜͇̲͎̮͍̖̝̖̝͟i̴̺͇̲̫̬̞̖͕̞̗͙̱̕͜o̴̴̡̖̥̼̖̰͍̘̬͎͓̭̜̦͟͢n̴̵̩̦̝̗͓̪̖͇͚͟͝s̴̫͎͈̘̪̰̲̲̤̘̹͜͟ͅ.̶̨̨̛͚̝̖̺̼̀ͅ**_

͈A̺̕t͓̲̙͈͉ ̼t̜̹́h͙̬͈̜̗̣̻e͖̜͝ ̤͖͎̱e̷̗̯̘̗̫̯d̗g̜̣͙̜̼͓e͕̤̖̫ o̥͈̖̯̯̖̲͘f̝̭̺̳ͅ ͓̫̺̪̖m͎̱͕̳͔̹y͎̣͠ ̲͉̘͙s̬̠̖̕i̜̝͠g͕̜ht̖͇̯̹̘̱̕ ̘͙̬͚̪͕I͏̠̬̤ ̖͉̩̘͘s̴̤̮͉͎p̤͖o̷̦̯̘t̨̥t̺̜̥͓̟̣e̼̱̗͇̖͓d̨̘̫̥͕̘̫ͅ ̸̝a͟ ̞̘w̮̰̱̦͇ḥ͉̘̫͕̥̕a͔̩̦t̤̤͉̗̝͙ ̻̗̥̥͙͓̮̀s̥͈̳̪̭e͎̠e̢̬͔͇̣̫m͚̰̞̟è̱͉̝̘̼̙͕d͚̘̞̖̟͘ ͇̳̘ͅli̻k͖̟̳̱̥̞e̡ ͇̱̝̥̠̯̠a̧̪͍͈ͅ ҉̩bl͉̟̩̼͕̜̝ac̀k͇̦ v̼͉̼̦̺̠a͎̪̫̮͚̺c̯̻̘̗̜͉͜ụu̶͓̜͇͉m̬̣̣ ̧̩̤̞̦͔̬o̯̹̤f̦̟̱ ̝V̺̜̲̺̭͟o̥͎͚̪̦͙̠ì̤̟̘d̶ ͇̻̳̻̰t̲͖̣̟̗̭͉h̲̳̤at̢̘̠̳̲̹̞͕ ́s͙̘tr̖̖̰u̞c̬̝k̴̗̲̖͉̗ ̕m̵̱̝̤̯̟̝e̵ ̲̯͈̝̰̦a̟͕̩̹s w̴̖͖̭̱̱r͙̜̲̮̰̤o͎̭̞̙͕̭ng̣̹͓̬̩̣͚.̥̭ ̝͖͈̠̬̭I̛̺ ͙m͙̮̼̱ọ̭͎͕v̜̹e̶̟̭̪͔̻͖d̪ ̸͔̟̱͉t͙̜͈̦̣̻͠o̧̭ ̪͚̲̪̪͝i͓t͠,̸͍̝̠̤̯̬ ͠oṟ̳̯̪ ̣͙͚̥̲̰i̞͓̟̭̤͈̻͘t͏̦͔ ̺̰̙͓͕͙̀m̬͙̺̠͞o̟v̻̼̲̯́ḛ̴̦̖̙̳d̸̰͙͚ ͔̠t̶̙͎̲̜̩͉ͅo̵ ͖̰͖̩̘͍̺m̻̩̳e̴,̶͉̣͈͔̫̬̯ a̛͍̣n̜d͡ ̦͈̪̱I̟̺̥͇͞ ̛͇g̻͇ạ͖͔͕̝̲̩z̛e̛͎̦d̷͈̤ ̡̗̩i͏̮n͚̤͕̘͘t҉͙̫̻o̗̜̪̝̲͜ ̖̟t͉h̡̫̞̙̮̹̳̙e͏ ̜̜̰̕b҉͚͇̬͓͚l͇̠̮̠̤̺̯a̞̱̞͟ͅc̲̟̖͚͎k͚̗͎̥̟̦̮n͕̫̩̙͖̠̜e͘s̬̲̭̪̘̪̻s̘͡.͈ ̠̱̖̪O̵̫̭̯͖n͇͈͔̤̬ļ̘͈ỵ ̡͙̗i̘̳̟͖̮͠t̼ ̠̠͇͇͠wá̝̮͔͉̬s̨ṋ'̷͈̫̫̞̖̮t̞̬̙̘̬ ̩̳̟̪͉̳͘b̰̜̮l̩̭̦̝̘a̻͖̬͙̝̤c̙̘k̡͇̺ͅ,̟̺͡ ͕͕̘̠̜ͅͅṱ͚͎h̘̲̩̀ͅḛ̟̟͖͈̕r͓̖̥͈e͖̟̖̪͕̬͕͝ ͓̺̤̮̖ẉ̗h͚̫̰͉̤̕e̗̦͝r͏͔̦e̸̥̹̪͉ ̝̭͚̺͕͉̭b̤͕̰ar̺̗ͅs̖̦ ̨̠̠̣͉̹̠o͖̙̤̲͖̗͘f̖ ̦̮̼̗̳̠P̺͈̦ù̻̰̘̰̟̗̣r͚ͅp̗͈̣̳l̼̱̣̲̠̗͎e̫͚ ̱̳͔͙͞&̤̭͟ ͓̖̼̦̝̥́R̦̻̝̩̮͜e͖̮͜d̵ ̨̮͎̣͈̙̙F̭̠͎̼̪͎̗l͚̜̼a̵̫̼͉̦̰m̫͚̥̱͙̰̪ȩ̝̖̖͔͕ͅ,̺̥͔̥̘̗̞͠ ͈̭̜̮͡f̴̗o̪͙r̸͈̼̠̹̻̝g̀e̪d ̩̱̰̪̕s̭͈̯͍̳̤͖o͔̗̱̝ͅ ̯͈̳̯͢ț̙̻̕i̡̥g̩h͈t̰͕͚͚̪̰ly͕̱͚̦ ̸t̯͖͉̦h͎̀é̟̬y͏̩ ͓̬͠Ģͅl͇̗̤͟ó̤͍͍w̶̖̥͍̮͔͚e̜̥͚̮͓̘͘d̷̤̳̜̭ ̫͍̮̟͠m҉̮̣o̧̦̯̭r̴̗̤͈̠̣̬̩e͏ ͓̦͉̪̫̫t͇̻ḥ̟͇̦͓a͖͚n͍͓̖̤̕ ̷̥B̮̹͉̰͙̤͞ur̳͓̲̼̫̙̖n͟e̻̦d̼̲͢,̭ ́m͚̕a͓̫̩͉ķ̰̫̲̞ͅi̲̮͈n̜̳͉̤̳̘͟g̴̬̞ ̧̩̥̦̮̘̰a͙n̘͠ en̮̥o͓̝͓̗͢r͔̳̪̙m̨o͓u̵͈̜̣̗̭̥̥s ̳́C͔͓̼̯̺o̫n͏s̪̦̭͡t̴̞̟̫̯̤̗ŕ͙u͏c̷̼̣͙̝̳t̹̟̩̱͚̦̕,̸̞̼̹͎ ͈̼̬̙͝e͇̮̗̜̠͇̮a̪s̮i̟̺̱͖̹̬̟͟l͔͍͉y̜ ̛͔̺͖̤a͉̪̪͝ ̥͟h͇̳̻̠͔̻u̩̣̩n͉͍͓͓̣d̜͚͎r̛e҉̠̹̳d̩̲͖ ̣̹͖ti̫̪me̴̪̼͙͔̮ͅs̲ ͉̘̪̗ͅt̪̪̦̺̪̞̙h҉͎e ͏s̗̹͖̖͞i͚̠̥̭̞ẕ̵͍̥͎ͅe̟̼ ̱͍̟̯̤o̫f̡̞̫͍̯͚̝̣ ̬̜̜̺̠̬͡t̢͔̲h̭̰͈̦͕̖͓͟e͚̻̭͚̻͔͡ ̻̙̗͔̕o̠̖̱̫̙̱̟t̬h̝͕ͅè̲r͚̪̗̘s̬̺̩͓͈͖͇͡.̺͖̥ ̵͕̩̖̖̯I̫̫̗̠̹͔͘t̥̩ ̧̯̳ͅt͎̬o̜̕ó̺̺̻̙,͍̟̗̩͔͈ ̶͓͔̖̹w̧a̜̫͚͍̯̗̕s͚͔̭͈̮̘͓ ̛͚͕͈á͖̺͕l̲̺̳͖͚̼͈m̰̥͎o̵͔͇̳̗̺s̵̖̩͙t̠̳̹͚͓ ͉͔̪͉̭̩̟͝c̳̱͉͇o̤̹̜̬mp̬͉͙͓̙͔͝l͓͚̹̱̩̦͠e͏͕̻͍t̷̰̮̜͉̲͚̹e̷̤̰͉͖̭̳,͔̮͈ ̞̟̖̖̀t̹̣͖͙͟h̭͖̱̣̘̳̤e̙͜ ̵F̞̖̘̮͔̝ͅl̷̜̜a̭̙͈͈͍͠ͅͅm͇̯̺͙̙̺ȩ̱s͚͓̬̺͎̹ ̩͎̥̪̥̙̗a̭͕̞̪̩̤͝t̰̞ ̬̺͍͖̳̣͕ṯ̥͕h͇͖̩̪̩̹͠e̘͎̜̬̙̭͍ ̻e̝͚̙͉͔̩͓d̷͎̻̤̖̙̹g̡̻͇͕͚͎̺e̷̙͎̠̳ ̩̟͎͙͍̜c̸̞̩o̡n͜d̻͍̙̖͎e͈̗̜̭n̬͡s̵̫̲̥͎i̦͜n̥͕̠̹͈͢ͅg̪̯ ̤̼͚͠i̹͔̤̤̝n͈͔̻̲̺͙͖t͙̟̺͇̠o͔̖ ̙̖̙̮̼͍̭t͏͓͇͎͓͙h̼̜̹̖e̴͍̹ ̜̩̰̟f̡̟̟͙̪̺̤ͅi̜n҉̪͚̗a͎͈̬̳͞l͉̦̫̀ ͎̻̝͍͡p̠̘͍̼̤i̪̟̤e̳͇̭͓̭ç̭͓̹̗̖̺͍e̬͓̭ͅs.͍͙̮̘ A̝̺̫͢s̪̣̤͙͖͇̕ͅ ̡͖̺̗I͏ ̰͉͈͓͉̣l̖oo̧̘̘̠͖͕̼k͉͚͚͙̺̕e̜̱͉͔̹̥̯͠ḑ ̘̭̜͈̻͘fur̙͕̰̮͎͙t̠̰̩̬͖hè̲̖̭r͈͎͕̠̼͢ͅ ̫̙̺̫a̳̯f̩͎̣̰̩̲i̩̦̭͖͚͟e҉̟͚̼̗̫̺̦l̹̗͕̰̪̞̱d̷̬̙̦̹, I̩͙̭ ̗̲̦s͓͕̖̗̩͓͠a̵̳̟w̡ ̧th̺͕̗̳̞̲ḁ̺̰̫̹̙͍t̡,͇ ̲͢w̵͎̖̠͓̯͖h͏i̲̞̰͙̙͙͉l̫̲͉̣̮e̫̳͉̞͎̻͘ ̧͍i̦̥͠t̢̫̠͍ ͏w̱̠͖̩̯̩̳͢á̪̥̘ͅs̻̳͞ ̗̞̖̭͇̭̲͘t͎̝̯̪͘h̺̭̹̜e̷̠͙̳ ͕m̱͔̰̻ͅo̟͉̮̞̟͟s͚̤̱t͎̼̮̬̼ ̳̖̻̯̘̫̲͘c̗̦̫͉͘o̢m̡̞̘͍̞̠̪p̖̻̰̺̳̘ḷ̜͉̯͙̤e̖̦̞͍̜͢t̘̞̦̣e̯̮͈̳͉,͇̥͙ ̺̗̥̩̹͘i̲̤̱͖̭t͎ ̲̥̖̭̖͈̕w̻a̦̦̞̥̰̰̝s̹͚̙ͅn̞̠̭͉̯͍̺'͔̠̩ṱ ̞̖̬͖̥̖͞t̩̩̰̞̫̝̮ḥ̢ͅe̺̳͕̫ ͕̱̭͓o͕͉͓n̡l͟ỵ̼͚̮͖ͅ ͇̠͔͓̩̞on̵̫͕͓̤̫͚e̞̮̼͉̼.͏̗̺ ̫̬͉N̘̙̦̺͍̱o̩̼̹̞͕t̳ ͉̩b҉̱͇̦̪y͉̲̜̤͍͙ ͉͓̭̠͢a̖͙ ̷̤̦̹̻l̦͉̯̱̥̟on̶͈̺g̸̙̖̗̖̙̹͉ ̵̹̘s̢̖͔̤̹̣̳h̨̤̼̪̣̮̪͈o̤̖̜t̪̰̜͝.̛̥̼̰͕͔͕

 _They're sockets_ , I thought, letting out a deep breath as I pulled out of myself to look around. It was raining slightly, to the point that it could be brushed off as a summer shower, if one didn't know better. Other Hos- _parahumans,_ I corrected myself, shaking off the last of what I'd felt before, putting both feet firmly on the ground, metaphorically _and_ literally.

Other parahumans had arrived, easily two dozen, some glancing over to me as I stretched. Stretching and standing, I felt better. I'd get my powers back, it was just a matter of _time._ I'd spent. . . I checked my armband, which had a timer. _Nearly an hour? Fuck._ Regardless, I had twenty minutes before the fight started.

"You done?" Herb asked, nervousness and excitement vying for dominance across his face.

I nodded, "I think so. It's just a matter of time."

He snorted, looking around. "That's not something ya got a ton of."

I gave a shrug, "Better than not at all. I should have enough." Even as I talked, another construct finished, forming another slot. Mentally reaching and trying to slot in Aerokinesis, just like I had Personal Shields, it wouldn't fit. The sensation was similar to trying to walk through the doorway of a dollhouse, while technically it _was_ a door, and you could theoretically fit a few fingers in, moving through it just wasn't going to happen.

Without gazing inward, I couldn't feel my copied powers, but I could get a sense of _weight_ to them. Personal shielding was light, its limited nature resting lightly upon my power, as was Anthropod Control and Lightform. Aerokinesis was _heavy_ , dense, and full of possibilities, as was Biokinesis and _Absolute Territory_.

"Eecee, final check in," I said subvocally as I Saw the powers around me. They varied wildly, from Tectonic Aggregation to Paperform. "Things are good on my end. The issue's been solved, Panacea, will correct itself fully with time. Once we start, unless you need assistance, spot Levi, or have vital intel, keep off the line. This is gonna get hectic, _fast_ , and clogged comms help no one."

They chimed in, one after another, including Herb. "Are you sure you're okay?" Amy asked, her concern evident even over the airwaves.

"Just installing new updates. Takes a while, but some functionality is still accessible after the first bit is done," I replied, trying to obfuscate if someone was still able to listen in. Acoustokinesis was a denser power, though given it's limited _subtle_ combat uses, I likely wouldn't have slotted it anyways. "Everyone focus on their tasks. Break's cousins are out and about if you need help, as are Break and I. You all can handle this, and with any luck we'll all come out of this with nothing that Panacea or I can't heal. Eeem"

The others agreed, and the comms went silent, the rain starting to pick up. Break elbowed me and pointed as Alexandria dropped down into the intersection, a bus-sized quadrupedal Dragon-bot carefully landing on a rooftop.

The Cauldronite didn't land, moving over to hover near the two of us. "We need to talk, come with me," she commanded, turning and flying back upwards. I wanted to stay right where I was, but shot Herb a questioning look instead.

"Couldn't hurt," he shrugged, turning to a pterodactyl and following her.

I joined them on a nearby rooftop, several buildings away from Dragon but still in eyeshot of the team gathered at the intersection. Joining the other two, she asked without preamble, "How do you know what you know about the Endbringers?"

"I thought I shouldn't say anything, and defer to my _betters?_ " I riposted blandly, crossing my arms as the rain increased to a steady drumbeat.

She looked me over, body language loosening slightly. "There is a great deal of difference between informing those in charge of vital information and undermining a briefing. Tensions are already high; what you did didn't help. If you have intel that can help, however, I would be grateful," she stated, sounding sincere but firm.

I glanced over to Dragon, "Aren't you worried about her overhearing us?"

Alexandria gave me a flat stare, or what I assumed was a flat stare, as the metallic half-visor that covered the top half of her face made confirmation difficult. "I doubt there is anything you could say that would require that amount of privacy."

I knew I shouldn't, but I couldn't help myself. I was nervous, had dealt with one crisis already, and was about to fight a fucking _Kaiju_. My patience for this cloak-and-dagger bullshit was nearly non-existent. "If you say so, Becky."

Alexandria, real name Rebecca Costa-Brown, blurred into motion. In an instant, hand flashed down to her belt, manipulating something, and a barely audible buzz joined the slowly intensifying rainfall. I waited, as if she _really_ tried to kill me, I could slot Shadowform and be gone in an instant. "What do you know," she demanded, far more a command than a question.

Herb glanced at me in concern, but I already had a story ready for this, on the off chance that Alexandria wanted to talk because she worked with my teammate. "I received an incredibly complex, incredibly focused accounting of what was going to happen in this city from a month ago until two months from now, with spotty information after. Things have already changed and improved to the point that only things that were true _before_ the Thinker's account, and were only revealed during it, are still reliable. You got outed, though the method of doing so will likely not re-occur. No, I can't get another, the means to do so are beyond the capabilities of anyone I'm aware of. Maybe Ciara, but likely not, and getting to her in the Birdcage makes it a moot point."

She went perfectly still, considering this new information as thunder cracked over the bay. When she spoke, her voice was void of anything other than commanding authority. "What else do you know?"

"A lot, though I'm not sure what you already do," I shrugged. Technically it was even correct. As a Cauldronite, she was privy to a good deal of the secrets that would make me dangerous, even if that wasn't what she was asking. "I know Endbringers don't lose functionality when injured. They're crystalline, made of layers, and the closer you get to their core, the tougher they get. You guys managed to skeletonize Behemoth in August, when he attacks India, and it wasn't enough to even slow him down. It was on the news here. When he _was_ killed, he would've nuked half of India if The Warrior hadn't thrown his ass into space. It's why I know this is going to _suck_ , because they've been holding back, and near the end Behemoth _wasn't._ "

"You knew Leviathan was coming for a month and only told us today?" Alexandria challenged; cold accusation wrapped around the question like a viper as the rain thundered around us.

"If I did _nothing_ and The Simurgh, who coordinates them, didn't notice anything that we did? Probably?" I shrugged. "Think of all the things _you_ did when we told you, which could've changed the result. It's why we waited for independent confirmation, from a resource the PRT didn't originally have access to, before telling you," I stated, Herb nodding seriously.

"They can be killed!?" she demanded urgently, the rain having increased to the point where it was becoming hard to hear her. Lightning started flashing faster over the bay, the peals of thunder coming with unnatural regularity.

"And if you can't get them into _low Earth orbit_ as they die, they'll wreck everything in a fifty-mile radius, or at least Behemoth would've," I argued back.

"They can be killed. That's all that's important," she stated as if that settled things, already mentally sacrificing this city. She turned off her jammer and flew down to those in the intersection who had started to move uneasily, many of them activating their powers. I quickly copied the ones I could, grabbing them almost automatically. I'd need to find some way to go over them later, but now wasn't the time. Short of something amazing, like **Sting** , it would be better to stick with what I knew then try for the next 'best' thing.

I felt something finish, deep inside my mind, and I had a second slot open for powers. It was _vast,_ a gaping maw in my soul that called out to be filled. _Speaking of the next best thing._ I could slot in Legend's power, _Absolute Territory,_ if I wanted to, the question was, should I? If it was anything like Aero, Acousto, or Biokinesis, the three Major powers I'd had before, it would be _incredibly_ skill dependent.

More than that, unlike two of those, it appeared that that particular was going to be _incredibly_ flashy, and probably distinctive to boot. If I had had an extra day to prepare, or even a few hours to train, I might've gone for it, but I needed something I could use _now_ and _wouldn't_ light me up like a Shard-powered rave.

As the White & Black Flames of Aerokinesis locked in place, it was like opening a pair of eyes I didn't realize I'd closed. I could _feel_ the air all around me. Almost automatically, I stopped being rained on, the drops diverted all around me. I mentally repressed that function, not wanting to stand out as Herb looked over at me and laughed.

"Air?" he asked.

"Air," I agreed. "With room for one smaller power. Keeping it open, just in case."

He gave me a searching look before shrugging, smiling broadly, "As long as you're gettin' 'em back."

I'd considered keeping the Major open for Leviathan's Hydrokinesis, and that was _definitely_ going be a Major power, but while more subtle than Legend's lasers, the issue of skill was still a relevant one. Mentally creating a dozen blades on the rooftop, out of sight of Dragon, to make sure I still could, the process was incredibly easy. Where before I needed to concentrate on the exact composition of the blades, now I just need to call them, and they'd appear.

If anything, it was _too_ easy. _Is this what it's like for everyone else?_ I had to wonder. None of my active powers were what could be called 'user friendly', anything more than the most blatant of copying requiring attention and precision, forcing me to examine the mechanics of the powers in detail. My own inquisitive nature, _or being to nosy for my own good_ , meant I'd pick them apart anyways, but the ease of use was surprising.

Making them dance, their presence was given away as rain splashed across them, creating small rain explosions as I unmade them. I hadn't considered how the precipitation would reveal them, but fuck it, I still had far more skill with them then I would've with anything else. Skill that this new interface boosted tremendously, like exercising while wearing weights. If I could-

"Vejovis?" Theo asked over the comms, breaking me out of my train of thought. "Um, You might want to see this."

"Eecee, what is it?"

"Um. . . the shore's kind of. . . gone," he replied.

I lifted up to get a better look. Alexandria had taken the position in the center-right of the city, only a dozen blocks away from the Boardwalk, and on a straight line from the bay to the edge of the underground aquifers. The monsoon that had arrived mad eit harder to see, but Theo was right. The shoreline had retreated nearly a mile backwards, leaving a wide-open expanse of sand, rocks, and flopping fish almost hallway to the Rig.

I knew _just_ enough science to realize what that meant.

"Fuck!" I swore over the comms. "Everyone, get airborne. Leviathan's coming in hot!"

"Right on. . . _time,_ " my brother quipped, and I immediately regretted giving him an earpiece. He was correct though; it was one seventeen in the afternoon. That wasn't the problem, however.

"Glory, get high enough you can see the shore. Vista, I'm probably going to need a power construct," I commanded.

I strained my senses, trying to spot Leviathan coming like a hunting shark, hidden among the rain and the waves. I shouldn't have bothered.

The sea on the edge of the horizon looked. . . _off._ It was like it was higher than it should be, but only out over the bay. The ocean to the south, stormy as it was, seemed normal, but the horizon seemed to slant upwards, continuing in a generally straight line, then back down, like a distant, flat hill. On its own, it would've been interesting, but with the _insane_ amounts of drawback the shore had, it meant one thing.

Scanning the top, my eyes _burned,_ and I could _See_ him. An enormous geyser of Black & Green water flowed up over him like a gigantic Liquid tree. The branches extended up into the clouds, gathering, filling, and agitating them to create the storm. The roots spread throughout the water below him, controlling the wall of solid sea upon which he stood, urging it forward.

Leviathan was not going to send a small tidal wave into the city first, to soften up the opposition, setting a 'timer' of ever-strengthening waves of water. He wasn't going to sneak around stealthily, trying to achieve his goal while playing a game of cat and mouse with the parahumans trying to defend the city.

No, Leviathan was proudly riding a twenty-five-story tall tsunami, the kind that would destroy the city in its entirety. Leviathan was telling us openly that, while the parahumans were preparing _, so was he._ Leviathan saw the defenses that had been raised against him, and decided to match the pot.

This was going to suck.

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.

.

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AN: As there have been complaints about the corrupted text (Which won't pop up again for at least four more chapters), here's the original version for those who don't wish to decode it themselves.

I looked into a Sea Of Purple & Red Flame, flowing, burning, and spinning in ways that fire should not. In the ocean of incandescence, a bonfire of White & Gold burned, tendrils of it spreading out and mixing with the Flames all around it, as those same Flames made room for it to spread, to flow, to _grow_.

As I stared into those flames, attempting my own brand of pyromancy, I noticed something. . . _interesting._ It was only through watching them, through taking in the eternally spiraling tongues of the flames that burned as far as my sight allowed, that I noticed patterns starting to emerge. While in constant motion, shapes started appearing. Constructs of Flame that created cavities in the ceaseless conflagration.

Moving back to where Personal Shielding was rooted into my power, I could barely make out similar Constructs, holding it in place and giving it a framework from which to grow. I pulled back trying to take a wider view of what seemed like an infinite inferno, trying to pick out the Constructs forming in the churning expense of Fire I was above, within, and contained all at once.

Those around the White & Gold Flames were the most formed, one almost complete, but as I cast my gaze further, I saw dozens more, then hundreds, _thousands_ , **_millions._**

At the edge of my sight I spotted a what seemed like a black vacuum of Void that struck me as _wrong._ I moved to it, or it moved to me, and I gazed into the blackness. Only it wasn't black, there where bars of Purple & Red Flame, forged so tightly they Glowed more than Burned, making an enormous Construct, easily a hundred times the size of the others. It too, was almost complete, the Flames at the edge condensing into the final pieces. As I looked further afield, I saw that, while it was the most complete, it wasn't the only one. Not by a long shot.


	130. Deadline 12-5

**Deadline 12.5**

I allowed myself a single moment to take in the sight before me, and to panic appropriately. In addition to the monsoon he always brought with him, Leviathan wasn't sending in a small tidal wave to soften us up. No, Leviathan was standing proud atop what looked like a three-hundred-foot tsunami that stretched the length of the bay. I could See his power, a Black & Green tree of Liquid that extended upwards, creating the rain, and extended downwards, controlling the wave he rode, keeping it together and accelerating it _far_ faster than it would ever go naturally. I had, at most, three minutes before it hit and _destroyed_ the city. Leviathan wasn't coming to fight; he was coming to _kill **everyone.**_

A moment to panic was deserved.

Trying to copy Leviathan's power, my own skidded across it, finding no purchase. I'd felt a similar thing my first day, with the Simurgh, and with more experience in trying to copy powers I could feel that it was somehow protected. While I could _See_ his power, it lacked a certain. . . _realness_ that I normally saw when I observed a parahuman. Off the top of my head I could think of at least half a dozen reasons why that was the case, none of which helped me now, so I took solace in the fact that I could at least See what he was doing, likely before he did it. That was, of course, assuming I could keep track of the fastest of the original three Endbringers.

Yep, this was definitely going to suck.

Shaking myself out of _that_ fatalism, I got to work, doing all I could to mitigate this coming disaster. There were sounds from below, but I ignored them. This was going to be. . . _difficult._ " _Warning, Tidal Wave Incoming,_ " Dragon announced, unnecessarily, through the armband I wore.

First, I slotted in the Green & Yellow twisting Flames of Space Warping into the free slot in the sea of fire that was my own powers. While not as much of a change as Aerokinesis, I could vaguely feel the groups of people far below, but likely only because the rest of the city was effectively empty _. Thank god for small favors_ , I thought as the original holder of the power I just gained spoke over the comms I'd passed out, the ones connected directly to Eclipse. "I see it. What do I make and where?" Vista asked, her young voice tense but deadly serious.

"The entirety of the Boardwalk, from the exposed shore to, _fuck_ , let's say about three hundred feet up?" I guessed, shooting for a worst-case scenario. In canon, Leviathan had come with a standard, no-warning swell type of tidal wave. The kind where the sea level just rose for a few minutes as everything flooded. Quick and stealthy. This? He was eschewing subtlety for all out _destruction_. "Make the distortion rotational, not shrinking, otherwise it'll just delay it. Take the top and curve it around to feed it into the bottom going the other way. Copy and reverse it inwards so the bottom middle twists and feed back out the other way out of the top middle. It should be like two halfpipes on top of each other running in different directions. It'll make one hell of a turbulence and should bleed off some of the force Levi gave it."

"I. . ." Missy hesitated, sounding suddenly unsure. "I'm not sure I can do that. Sir."

"It's clear of _anyone,_ so you're at full power; if you don't, half the city will be destroyed, _at least;_ and powers get stronger when you're life's in danger, _and this fucking counts,_ " I rattled off quickly, looking around for her. "Eeem. Zillah, where's Vista?"

"North, Northwest of your position, eighty feet above you," the Virtual Intelligence replied instantly, and once I had a direction, I was able to pick out the two Flames and one Aura I was looking for. Vista's power was stretching out towards the empty expanse of what was the shoreline, billowing ribbons of Flame twisting to try to create the monstrous construct of power that I'd ordered. She was failing miserably. If she'd had more time, or more practice working on this large a scale, she _might've_ been able to do it, but Leviathan was moving at well over two hundred miles per hour and _accelerating_.

Calling Space Manipulation to the front of my mind, the working the young Heroine was trying to make glowed with brilliant light to senses I didn't have a moment ago, outlining exactly what she was doing. She'd set up the basic underpinnings of it, though she was struggling to hold even _that_ together. Stopping myself from reaching out to her physically, I gathered my power mentally. Instead of trying to help complete it, not knowing where to start, I poured my own power into hers directly. It was only from the hours working with Panacea that I knew how to do even that, relinquishing command of the ability we shared and turning the reins over to the younger girl.

She gasped over the comms, a sound of overwhelmed surprise, before she took what I offered. Power poured from me, through her, and into what she was trying to make. It still wasn't enough. I pushed it, turning the stream into a torrent, feeling a slight drain. It was similar to, but only a fraction of, what I'd gone through when I'd. . . when I'd. . . I didn't remember _what_ I'd done, only that I'd felt worse and I knew how to do this _now_. I pushed that problem to the back of my head. I'd deal with it when Leviathan was gone.

I could hear Vista grunt with the effort, along with Glory Girl's "What the fuck?" but the construct started solidifying, ready to stop the Endbringer's opening move. Leviathan hurtled towards the construct, pushing his wave even faster, hunched down as if he was ready to burst through a barrier. Despite it being invisible, the Endbringer had seen it, _somehow_.

 _The raindrops,_ I realized. He'd likely felt the raindrops warped by the construct and was trying to rush it, to barrel through it in the hopes he'd break through. His tsunami struck the Rig with a tearing sound that could be heard above the storm and the progressively loud thundering of the tidal wave as it advanced. The shield holding the Protectorate's base in place blazed to light, a bright shining marble that quickly disappeared into the dark wall of water rushing towards all of us.

The construct finished mere seconds before Leviathan's wave hit it with a thunderous crash, like a hundred waterfalls all stacked up on one another. The top still spilled over, but it was a bare ten feet of liquid that crested over while most of the wall of water churned itself to foam.

Leviathan, thrown forward, rode what was left of the wave to the ground, his long, sinuous tail stretching out behind him into a perfectly straight line, like a demented horseshoe crab. His power curled around him, tightening on the water that poured off him as he moved forward. Before I could try to understand what he was doing, he launched himself upward in a leap that did not stop, the water he created behind him as he rose forming a mid-air river as he moved higher and higher, lifting high above the city. His power ran through the water he created, holding it in place. More than that though, it was concentrated around his tail, gripping it and. . . _Motherfucker._

Leviathan could _Fly._

He created water behind him, which he then tightened and pushed against his own tail, kept stiff behind him, lifting himself higher and higher in the sky. He looked like an aquatic comet, leaving a long trail of water that hung in place in the air behind him. Without being able to See his power, it would look like he was flying effortlessly through the air. It was crazy, it was _ingenious_ it was. . . unlike anything he'd ever done before.

Suddenly, something smashed through the construct that Vista had made, and my attention was wrenched over to it as water poured out a hole in the wall, accompanied by what sounded like an enormous car crash.

The Rig had been carried forward until it struck the warped space, enough people still inside to weaken Vista's power, allowing to burst through in a torrent. I was still feeding Missy power, though not enough to drain me anymore, and she had it handled. As I turned to try to spot Leviathan again, he was easy enough to See. His power spread throughout the storm and dangling below, like a giant jellyfish. I was so wrapped up in trying to figure out what he was doing that it wasn't until Herb's muttered, "Oh, that ain't good," that I noticed it had _stopped raining._

No, that wasn't exactly accurate. It still was, but the water was gathering high above us instead of falling down. The river that Leviathan made was also pulling itself up as well, quickly rising into the sky. As I Saw Leviathan, his power held it all tightly, having, while not relinquished, but greatly slackened its hold on the wave still straining against Vista's construct, circling back around only to crash back into it in an endless cycle.

Leviathan's power swirled in thousands of whirlpools over the city, gathering the water for _some_ reason. Opening the eyes on my costume to See better didn't help, whatever was keeping me from copying Leviathan's power also obscuring its true use from my Sight. Closing my mask to protect myself, I could tell he was compressing the water, but there wasn't enough of it to make a 'ceiling' to slowly lower on the city and crush it. Maybe he was-

"Barrage coming, get to cover!" Æonic yelled over the comms, and I sprang into motion as he finished his first word, trusting my brother even if I didn't understand _why_.

Divebombing towards the group that Alexandria led, over two dozen capes all standing and gawking like I had been a moment before, I echoed my brother as I screamed, "Get to cover!" while I created layer after layer of air walls above the parahumans assembled below.

Dragon spread her mechanical wings over those around her and a half dozen shields of various types sprang up above us in an instant, but most of the heroes were still looking at me in confusion as the heavens opened up and rained down destruction.

Spears of pressurized water, held intact by the Endbringer's power, slammed down on the city in the thousands in an aquatic artillery bombardment. They ripped through my defenses, the first two dozen projectiles expending themselves on the air walls, and the next dozen blown slightly off course as the walls dissipated, but more followed them.

I tried to pull on Space Manipulation, but I didn't have the skill to create something new on the fly like this. I might've been able to brute force a solution, but most of the power was tied up repairing and sustaining the construct keeping the tidal waves at bay, leaving me the dregs, and it was all I could do to continuously create a small shield of air above myself and the four parahumans I'd landed next to.

Herb was next to someone who could make shields of fire, copying and strengthening their power as I did with Vista, protecting another dozen heroes. Dragon's shield flickered and held, as did several others, while Alexandria was blasted backwards into a building, but was otherwise unharmed. Some had jumped inside buildings, which provided a small amount of cover.

The rest?

They died.

Those who lacked sufficient defenses, or weren't protected by others, were pierced as water with enough pressure to cut steel impacted punched through their bodies. I hoped to god all my people survived, but I had to focus on the mission, or this would be the Gala all over again. " _Heavy Casualties, please wait,_ " all of the armbands said at once, barely able to be heard under the constant hammering we were experiencing.

As soon as the bombardment let up, our side responded in kind.

Lasers, lightning, flame, energy bolts, and so much more streaked up towards Leviathan as the rain stopped again. Leviathan let go of the water around him and dodged the bolts, zig-zagging far above us as he did so, the rain falling once more. His coloring blended in with the nearly black clouds, only visible to the naked eye because of one very determined laser that chased him across the storm-filled sky.

 _"Losses are as follow,"_ our armbands chirped in unison. "A-Train, Achaman, Aesthetic, Air Raid, Andaria, Anemia, Animal House, Arsenic, Athena, Autopop, Aviary, Ax-"

I tuned out the list which seemed _specifically_ designed to hurt morale as I glanced around, seeing that about one in five of those gathered were now dead, with maybe one in ten badly injured. Flesh had been pierced with such force that the only ones that survived a hit were the changer brutes. I spotted holes punched through a woman made of paper, another made of glass, and what looked like an anthropomorphic car.

Focusing on my foe, Leviathan made a ninety-degree turn, arrowing downward, dodging a glowing blue trident that almost pierced his chest, a piece of rock shot through with lava striking his shoulder and spraying lava behind him to seemingly no effect. Another dodge to the left, then downwards once again, his tail working like a rudder. The pressures it would need to be under must be enormous, but with an Endbringer's durability the damage would be minimal.

 _"Kaleidoscope, Keymaster, Kid Win, Kilimanjaro, Kimono, Kom-"_

Currently lacking any significant ranged capabilities, all I could watch as it jetted across the clouds, responding with a few water spears, but seemingly never in one place long enough to gather more than a dozen at a time. Having Seen what his power was capable of, as it still dragged at the ocean in preparation of another tidal wave and as it sustained the storm which still dropped a torrential downpour upon us, I knew that wasn't true.

 _"Pandemonium, Perium, Pied Piper, Pink Panda, Plaster, Puck, Py-"_

Tracking it across the sky, I could See its power sweeping large parts of the city, just like Eidolon's had, as if it was looking for something. On a whim, I used what little Space Manipulation I had that wasn't tied up to shift the rain so that it wasn't falling us, which caused those around me to give out shouts of surprise as the brought up their defenses once again.

It took a moment-

" _Sand Shark, Scalder, Sentry, Sere, Sh-"_

And as its power swept over our position it stopped, focusing on the minor vector shield hanging above our heads. "Incoming!" I warned, getting ready as Leviathan, who was already moving along at a good click, accelerated to speeds Purity would be hard pressed to match, abandoning all pretense of dodging as it accelerated directly towards us.

From across the city, Blasters of all types fired as they finally got a bead on him, but the Endbringer slipped between most of the blasts like they weren't there, the few that did impact him glancing off without effect as he barreled towards.

Alexandria launched herself off the ground in a blur I couldn't hope to match, cape streaming behind her to intercept the Endbringer mid-air, but Leviathan had other plans. He reached out like he was going to meet her raised fist with one of his own, only to twist and curl around her as he passed, inches away, and blasted her point-blank with the water he left in his passage. He shot down to land on an eight-foot-tall man wearing heavy plate armor, which folded like paper under the impact, a torrent of water pouring down on us and pushing back those still on the ground.

Not stopping, Leviathan struck out with both hands, gutting one man while a woman threw up barrier of webbing, which Leviathan slammed into, breaking it apart but battering her backwards instead of piercing her with his claws.

Twisting around in a circle, Leviathan's tail spun tightly around itself, the water it left behind accelerated and condensed by his power into a cutting blade four feet off the ground in every direction.

I lifted off the ground as Herb yelled "Duck!", the blade missing my feet by inches. Some blocked the attack, which sped off in every direction, with shields, armor, or their own innate toughness. Some dodged, either by listening to my teammate or jumping as I had. Some did neither.

One of the people I'd sheltered from the barrage, a woman with the power to freeze things in ice with her touch, was beheaded, and several others were cut in half.

From landing, until now, had been less than five seconds.

I charged Leviathan, along with Herb and over a dozen others. A woman whose hands glowed with energy slashed at his leg, leaving hissing gouges that were only an inch deep, and as Leviathan turned to slash back at her his arm was grabbed by metallic tentacles by a man on his other side, who was yanked off his feet but gave her enough time to scramble backwards.

The man was dragged towards Leviathan, but, before the hero could be impaled on sharp claws, a blast of concentrated lightning slammed into the Endbringer from behind, fouling his aim once more. Leviathan's tail slammed down towards the man who sent it, only to be deflected by an orange crystal bubble, which shattered on impact but faded to nothing before the shards could hit anyone.

A man with a sword made of black mist slashed at Leviathan's legs, distracting the Endbringer enough for me to strike it in the chest, discharging one of my normal shields.

The Endbringer's scales broke under my strike, and seemed to bleed a dark ichor, but the damage was superficial at best, forcing the creature to only take a single step backwards.

It turned to that step into a spin, and I flew back and up as it released another cutting circle of water, but instead of flying outwards the pressurized blade of liquid slammed harmlessly into the ground around the Endbringer, doing nothing as Leviathan was blasted by a glowing beam, a ball of condensed air, and a ghostly spear, none of them doing significant damage.

Leviathan's head snapped to look at Herb, standing behind him, as the Endbringer casually gutted a woman who was charging him, his claws tearing through whatever supernatural toughness she might've had with ease. The Endbringer launched himself at my friend, who was only twenty feet away from the monster, only for Alexandria to blur between them, catching Leviathan in the face with a punch at the last moment.

Scales cracked and flew as the Endbringer was knocked thirty feet backwards, the water he'd generated blasting down onto the three heroes below him, killing one instantly while forcing the other two to the ground. Leviathan flipped in the air as he flew backwards to strike out with his tail at Alexandria like a scorpion. A metallic shield flew in from the side, embossed with a large eye, blocking the blow for an instant before dissipating into smoke.

Pressing the advantage as the buildings around us collapsed, Alexandria and I flew forward as Dragon jetted past Leviathan, dodging it's arm and the blast of water it sent at her as she dropped something that exploded into intense flames. Whatever it was seemed to burn the Endbringer as it thrashed for a moment, as if it were in pain, as it's outer layer burned away.

It's motions quickly covered itself with water, which tightened around itself, extinguishing the flames as we closed in on it. Alexandria struck him dead center, but it rolled with the blow, blasting her upwards with the water as it flipped onto all fours and jumped for Herb once again, twisting around me to dodge my kick as it did so, the water blast that hit me not enough to break a shield.

A knight in living armor, the same woman who Leviathan had casually gutted, launched herself up and met his leap with a gigantic bone greatsword, cutting into its outstretched arm and knocking it off course.

Leviathan slashed his claws in her direction, sending out three blades of water that turned to mist as Break, in ankylosaurus form, smashed into Leviathan's side with his clubbed tail. Leviathan tried to blast him with the water pouring off its form, only for the fluid to be shoved right back in the Endbringer's face as my partner copied the Endbringer's power.

Launching himself forward again, Herb tried for another tail strike only for Leviathan to copy the motion, responding in kind. Mildly enhanced bone met crystalline flesh and lost, the bones splintering to pieces as Leviathan dodged under his own tail to pierce Herb's body with his razor-sharp claws.

I was too far away to stop the Endbringer, but the water, which had started coming off Break's form as well, hardened into a shield around him, taking the blow, but not able to negate the momentum imparted by the strike. My partner was shot up into the sky like he was fired from a cannon.

I kicked the Endbringer in the back of the head before it complete its follow up attack on my partner, now that he wasn't in copying range, draining another shield as I knocked it forward, the cutting crescent of water it sent after my friend striking a building instead, glass shattering as it carved into steel.

It turned to strike me as Alexandria struck it as well, knocking it back further as a gurgling voice yelled "Firing!" and a coruscating beam of energy came from the destroyed building to my right, blasting Leviathan back even further back, the attack digging a good foot into his chest, and slowly burning deeper.

Glancing over as I flew after Leviathan, I saw that a Hero had gathered the rubble into herself, like Golem, and her power broke apart and condensed the matter until she shot a high energy beam of molten matter. Leviathan strained against the beam, shoving water into its path to lessen its effect before slipping out of it entirely, the last of it firing down the street and carving out the fourth floor of a building, causing it to collapse as well.

Alexandria blurred behind the Endbringer and struck him, sending him flying towards me. A touch of Space Manipulation caused its claw to miss me by inches, allowing me to slip past its guard and meet it with a flying kick to the face, draining the shield on my other leg as I virtually clotheslined the Endbringer.

As it was nearly flipped over from the blow, mid-fall, it slashed at me with its tail from below, the appendage blurring nearly to invisibility with the speed it moved, stabbing me in the chest with the tip, trying to pierce my heart. Instead, it discharged my chest shield and launched me upwards, my own flight fighting my upward momentum.

As I slowed, I spotted the Flames and Auras of Heroes nearing as the others converged on Leviathan's position. More importantly, I saw the ever increasing amount of water on the street Leviathan was fighting on, not an issue for fliers, had reached four feet in height, and it was only now that I was far above could I see that Leviathan was keeping the water he was creating from leaving the area he was fighting in, the next block over having only an inch of flooding.

A blast of what looked like paper arced towards Leviathan, cutting it slightly, and it replied with a blade of water which cut the source, a woman made of the same paper she was throwing, in half to seemingly no effect. Slowing to a stop, I started flying back down as fast as I could, several hundred feet up in the air.

Alexandria tried to attack him from behind again, only for the Endbringer to twist around in a blur, for a moment moving just as fast as she was. _Even now, he's still holding back,_ I realized with horror. Leviathan grabbed her with one massive clawed hand, shoving her under the now five feet of water that covered the street.

I poured on the speed as Legend and Purity blasted by, raking the Endbringer with their attacks. Leviathan didn't even turn around, its tail flicking out and retaliating with a blade of water that might've struck Kayden if I hadn't nudged it out of the way as I dropped down, pushing my flight to its limit.

The Endbringer took the more blows that opened up deep craters on his broad back, holding Alexandria under the water as he reached out with his other hand, taking firmer control of the water in which over three dozen heroes were now standing in, trying to fight while almost being submerged.

The Endbringer's clawed hand opened wide, and I could See what he was preparing to do. Just as he had before, to Japan and Newfoundland, he was going to increase the water pressure to an insane degree, and crush everyone submerged in the water he'd made sure to pile up across the street.

Pulling the material of my costume off of the back of my knuckles, revealing the orichalcum gauntlet beneath, I twisted space to shorten my descent and to twist space so at the end of my path I would not hit him downwards into Alexandria, but down the street, I strained my own shields as I tried pushing myself forward with air like Leviathan did with water, my feet feeling like they were caught in a vice.

The world blurred slightly as I entered the tube of warped space, bringing my fist forward to strike with the full force of one of my precious crystalline shields. The world spun and I was in Leviathan's face, the Endbringer's tail already coming up to strike me, but either I was too fast or it was too arrogant, because I was able to strike it dead center in its chest.

The world slowed, just for a moment, Leviathan staring down at me as my fist hit flesh harder than diamond, and the metal of my gauntlet creaked in protest. Then, with a thunderclap, Leviathan was gone, hurtling down the street as fast as he'd batted away Break, claws outstretched and tearing furrows out of buildings while his tail ripped up the street below him all in an effort to try to slow himself as he left a river of water between us, which blasted towards me with a vengeance.

I spun a vector shield in front of myself, backed by a cone of air, directing the high-pressure torrent around me. Leviathan's attack struck the buildings on either side of me instead, the water hitting with enough force to tear the masonry apart. What little liquid that pushed itself through the shield struck the cone, which destabilized and forced the water back into the vector shield, and out, leaving me untouched.

Leviathan stopped, three hundred feet away, a fist-sized dent in his in the depression that'd already been burnt in its chest. He stared at me for a moment, the first time he'd stopped moving this entire fight, before he blurred, taking off running to the side. Legend and Purity, far above me, gave chase as he headed north, followed by a stream of others trying to keep up.

The water below me, no longer held in place, drained out in every direction, sending heroes to their knees as they struggled for breath, while some didn't move at all.

Alexandria was one of those struggling, vomiting up water as she slowly floated upwards, looking all around us. After she finished heaving, she straightened up and all signs of weakness vanished. Her outward appearance was completely calm, but the fluctuations in her Aura showed her true emotions as she fought off panic and centered herself.

"You might be nearly invincible, but you still need to _breathe_ ," I told her, still processing what just happened myself. I looked around as the Armband continued to call out names, ready for Leviathan to return at any moment.

" _Hardcore deceased, BD-6. Requiem deceased, BD-6. Weevil deceased, BD-6. Furrow deceased, CD-6. Class Clown deceased, CD-6. Gru-"_

"It wasn't like this before," Alexandria stated, staring at me. "But you knew."

I shrugged, noting that somewhere in the fight I'd gained another space for a minor power, and it felt like I was well on the way to a second major slot, though it wasn't yet ready. "I guessed. They seem to meet the force presented. You got more warning, had more time to prepare. Is it any wonder he'd be going harder?"

Alexandria turned to cough up more water, and when she spoke again her voice held the promise of violence, "We will talk when this is over."

"Maybe," I replied, not feeling charitable as I looked at the dead around me. "But first we need to beat Leviathan."

" _Kill_ Leviathan," she corrected coldly.

 _"Gawain down, CB-4. Watchdog deceased, CB-4. Young Buck Deceased, CB-4. Wallman Deceased, CB-3. Dreamer deceased, CB-3. Je-"_

"Keep telling yourself that," I told her as a dark, small shape dived towards us.

Break shifted back to human form, glancing around at the dead and injured. "Fuuuuck. Sorry, had to fly back to the city," he apologized. "What's the plan?"

"You at Lung levels yet?" I asked him, and he shook his head.

"Like, half," he admitted. "Maybe third?"

I sighed, slotting in Metal Projection. I'd need every bit of strength I could muster, and I grimaced as the invasive feeling of metal threading harmlessly through muscles, bones, and organs spread across my body. I was down one Crystal shield, but the rest were already back.

 _"Victorious Deceased, AC-3. Hydra Down, AC-3. Guesstimate Deceased, AC-3. Shadeblade Deceased, AB-3. Journey Deceased, AB-3. Lig-"_

"Plan?" Break prodded, somewhere between eager, nervous, and fearful.

I sighed again as I considered the situation, Alexandria darting off into the storm without another word. If I had enough time, if I had intel, if I could get people to _listen_ , I could make this work and turn things around. I was good with tactics, but I needed to stop thinking of this like a general, or even a team lead, maneuvering other to win in the best manner possible. I needed to think like a warrior, _ironically_ , and lead from the front. Others would help, but against this Endbringer speed was _everything,_ and that meant command networks _wouldn't work_.

General plans wouldn't work either. Leviathan was too fast, too unpredictable, and there were too many factors at play for any workable strategy other than the obvious. One we could only pull of because of how strong we'd become. Even weakened as I was, I could at least hold my own, though I'd need to get _creative._ I hated doing things this way, too many things could go wrong for too many reasons, but I wasn't necessarily _bad_ at it. "The plan's simple. We get in his face. We beat the shit out of him. We don't die. We both get strong enough to kick his tail back to the god-damned ocean that he loves."

Break grinned, and it was a savage, joyful, feral thing. "Works for me."


	131. Deadline 12-x

**Deadline 12.x**

Chris was nervous. He'd never been in an Endbringer fight before, he'd never been allowed to be, but he was old enough and it was attacking _here_ so it wasn't like he had to go ask permission, but he wasn't sure he wanted to fight in the first place, but he didn't really have a choice anymore.

At least Piggot had let him get out his alternator cannon, which he was checking over for the fourth time.

"If you keep playing with it, it might go off," joked Dennis, waiting next to him. Clockblocker had paired up with him, and Chris was glad he was here. Dean was supposed to be working with him, but he'd apologized and ran off with Missy and his girlfriend on a skiff that Chris _really_ wanted to get a look at, and Miss Militia had been _pissed_ but Dean had just apologized and left anyways.

She'd stuck around the two of them instead, a backpack full of _something_ on her back as they stood in their intersection, the rain slowly picking up. Leviathan wasn't supposed to arrive for six more minutes, and from the way the other heroes and villains all gathered together had talked about it, knowing the exact time was _weird_.

It made sense to him though. They had Tinkers, and Chris _had_ helped Armsmaster a bit with his prediction program, so of course they figured out a way to predict Endbringer attacks! Getting it down to the minute was really impressive, and just showed how far he had to go as a Tinker. He _was_ annoyed that they hadn't given him any credit for it, but if they hadn't even mentioned _Armsmaster_ then he couldn't really complain.

"Kid Win, focus," Miss Militia said, prodding him from his thoughts. "It's time."

Looking around, the rain was getting _really_ heavy, a constant drumbeat on his gear. He was glad he'd been warned with enough time to make it all waterproof, or else this would be _really_ bad. "Is it going to be like this the entire time?" He asked, looking around.

"Yeah, it is," said a hairy guy in jeans, a leather jacker, and a domino mask a few feet away, as he absently created and dismissed balls of lime-green light. "Sorry to _rain on your parade."_

He laughed while the woman next to him groaned, looking over at him in amused annoyance. "You're still making jokes?"

"It helps me _weather_ the wait," he replied, eliciting another groan.

"She's right, this in an Endbringer fight," Clockblocker objected, and Miss Militia started to nod in approval. "They're _snow_ joke!"

The hairy guy laughed, giving Dennis a thumbs up as Miss Militia sighed, the rain picking up even more. "You, I like!" he told Dennis.

"Please don't encourage him!" the woman, who was wearing armored spandex and a half helmet, implored.

"I-" Dennis started to say, but was cut off as the Armbands they all wore spoke at once. " _Warning, Tidal Wave Incoming,_ " Dragon announced, those gathered tensing as they looked east, towards the bay.

"What should we do?" Chris asked, looking to Miss Milita.

She hesitated. "We wait for our orders," she told him. "We may not be in its path, but get ready."

He nodded, bringing his cannon fully on-line and boarding it, settling into its cockpit. Clockblocker hesitated before running over to the striker team and Miss Militia reached into her backpack, pulling out a large spindle shape with a long tail, her weapon forming into long tube as she loaded it in. _She makes her own ammo, why would she need to do that?_ he wondered, focusing back on his Alternator Cannon as he rode it higher into the air. After what'd happened at the bank, he'd added a shield around the cockpit, which meant he'd have a harder time getting out, but it should stop a villain from jumping on it and hitting him. Again.

The rain was tremendous, making Chris very glad his Kid Win costume came with goggles if he had to get out, which synced up with his weapon, and with the Armband he currently wore. It gave him a location for Leviathan, and he swung his cannon to face east south-east, ready to fire once he got a targeting solution. He frowned at the data, wondering if there was a bug in the system. According to this Leviathan was moving _fast_ , but he should only do that when completely underwater, and the readings stated he was _above_ it, but way too far above it.

Lifting himself higher, Miss Militia called for him not to go too high, so he stopped when he was only forty feet above the street, just high enough to maybe shoot over the buildings at Leviathan. . . who'd dropped down below sea level.

Kid Win was not prepared to see a tsunami twisting in the air, foam like a root beer float building up on top. Leviathan, down on the shore, though he didn't remember the shore being that far away from the Boardwalk, jumped in the air and Chris snapped into action, getting ready to hit the Endbringer when he came back down. Except he didn't.

He pulled his cannon upwards, trying to track the Endbringer as it jumped into the sky, trying to get a firing solution, but it was moving too fast and seemed to disappear up into the clouds. He only had so many shots, so he didn't want to waste them, but shooting an Endbringer out of the sky would _definitely_ get him mentioned!

He wished it wasn't raining so much, as it was actually interfering with the LiDAR his cannon used, and, as far as Leviathan was and as fast as he was moving, Chris'd probably miss. The universe seemed to be listening, as the rain stopped like a switch had been flipped. Getting a lock, Chris smiled, flipping off the safeties and preparing to fire.

"Got you now," he said, pulling the trigger.

The blast was beautiful, cutting through the sky and blasting Leviathan in the shoulder, tearing off a large chunk of flesh. Before Chris could really appreciate it though, _something_ hit his cannon, tearing through the center of the barrel, and he wanted to swear. He'd need to repair it to fire it again, but it should be a quick fix, though that went out the window as the shield around his cockpit flared to life as something hit it hard enough to make it flicker. Then everything went to hell.

He wasn't sure what happened, but his cannon was getting beat to hell and back, systems damaged and going off-line as Chris panicked, even the flight systems failing. As he reached for the emergency eject, the shield failed and something blasted through the cockpit, missing him by inches but destroying his console. Before he could do anything else, however, the choice of what to do was taken away from him as his precious Alternator Cannon, the best thing he'd ever made, exploded, and the world turned to pain.

He came to, laying on something, as his left leg burned in agony so fierce it drowned out the rest of the pain in his body. "Wha'?" was as much as he could ask, the world still spinning crazily. "Stay down kid," a gruff voice called, a lime-green glow above him.

Chris sat up a little, trying to figure out what was going on. The hairy guy was floating above him, long, glowing green snakes growing out of his arms and looking around, while the woman he had been talking to was holding a hand that was on fire on Kid Win's Leg.

What was left of it.

Everything below the knee was _gone,_ his armor sheared off in jagged edges, steam rising as the woman burned the stump. _To keep him from bleeding out,_ Chris noted, remembering the emergency medicine course he had to take as part of his Tinker training. Bits of metal were embedded into his armor here and there, over a dozen lodged into his chestplate. His left arm hurt where a piece was stuck in his forearm, probably impaling it, but the pain didn't really seem to matter anymore.

There were others on the ground, some in. . . some dead. Clockblocker was hunched over, but unharmed, and Chris felt a giggle escape a bit. Dennis took the same stupid pose whenever he froze himself, and Chris felt angry and deliriously happy that his best friend was okay.

"It's bad, but you should live," the woman said, straightening up, the flames from her hands expanding out into bird wings, an eagle's head made from fire starting to expand up and over her head.

As it started to fully form her chest exploded outwards, long claws piercing her as Leviathan was _there._

"Vicky!" the hairy man cried out, sending the glowing snakes after Leviathan who was reaching back to kill Chris.

The snakes latched on, but Leviathan took a step back, water pouring off his form. The Endbringer grabbed the snakes, and pulled the man towards him. He was yanked forward, shooting another snake to the side and grabbing a building, trying to twist himself away from Leviathan's claws, halfway succeeding.

Instead of being impaled on claws, missing by a good foot, the Endbringer brought its hand back and back-handed the man, who went limp, his snakes disappearing as he was sent through a window. There was a crack of something being fired and a swiftly expanding globe of electricity exploded on Leviathan's stomach, causing the Endbringer to leap backwards, its flesh glowing red with heat and cracked liked baked dirt, oozing dark fluids.

Leviathan's tale speared a hero that was charging him, flicking the arm not holding its stomach at Chris, the water shooting forward into a two-foot-wide spear of water as it turned and ran.

Before it impacted a white shape jumped in front of Chris, taking the blow for him. "You okay?" Clockblocker called, once again in frozen armor.

"You need to be medivacked," Miss Militia stated, reloading her rocket launcher.

Something impacted the ground next to Chris, and when he looked over there was a lanky black man wearing street-clothes, another thinner black man who sprouted feathers behind him, looking around rapidly. "I got him," the man said quickly, carefully picking up Kid win.

"Thank you. Who are you?" Miss Milita asked, frowning behind her bandana.

"Mick," was the entirety of the man's reply as he jumped into the air, _high_ into the air, the other man turning into a bird and flying underneath him, catching Mick and carrying Kid Win to safety.

Chris wasn't really feeling his best, so the question of "Is that a thunderbird?" just kind of slipped out.

"Prehistoric. Argentavis. Not Mythical," was the entirety of the man's reply.

Chris nodded, feeling lightheaded. "Oh. Okay then."

* * *

Ethan was getting a little worried. As Assault, he'd always been the funny guy on the team. Every team needed one, or else they cracked, and between Halbeard, Miss Shoots-A-Lot, Puppy, Silent-but-deadly, and Sparky, that fell to him. It also helped that he was good at it. However, even his (self) admitted comedic talents were being stretched to the limit with the current situation.

He'd fought Leviathan before. Dude was a complete wet noodle, but he didn't shout in your brain or fart lightning like his sibs. All he did was move, either himself or water, and movement was something that Assault had down pat. Even his new tricks, nasty as they were, were something he could handle, which he would, even if it made Puppy mad.

"I don't need you to protect me," she growled, adorably, as they looked at the damage done by the shelling Leviathan had done to the city.

"But if I don't, some new, stronger cape might do that," he replied, with a smile, not at what she said, but by the fact that she could say it. "And you might go all 'hello new hero, would you like to go get coffee? I'm sure there won't be any lines right now, since the city's kinda empty.'" He fluttered his eyes as if he were a damsel trying to woo a brave knight.

"Ass," she said, hitting him, no longer paralyzed in shock by what'd just happened. _Mission accomplished!_ She stepped over the circle of foot-sized holes he'd put in the asphalt all around her, both of them willfully ignoring the droning of their armbands.

 _"Pandemonium, Perium, Pied Piper, Pink Panda, Plaster, Puck, Py-"_

He followed, walking past the depressions he'd carved in the ground while blocking the water-spears. Pressure was another kind of movement, and while his hands ached a bit, it was easy enough to shunt the force down into the ground. Stepping over a body, he was _very_ glad he'd stuck next to Jaime. He wasn't sure what he'd do if he lost his puppy, and he didn't want to find out.

"So, fearless leader, what next?" he asked as they walked up to Chevalier, his ornate silver armor dented but already straightening out, whatever he combined it with having some kind of self-repair function. Maybe a lizard?

Chevalier held up a hand to say heard them but was listening to something else. After a moment he nodded, helmet lifting up at look at the pair, along with the others that'd survived. One in ten of them were dead, with injuries here and there. It was bad, but with the deaths rolling in, it sounded like they got off easy here in the southern end of the city.

However, as soon as the long list ended, it started up again, this time listing locations as Leviathan tore through a large group near the center.

 _"Knightmare deceased, CC-5. Dealer deceased, CC-5. Overture deceased, CC-5. Bear Arms deceased, CC-5. Cold Shoulder deceased, CC-5. Tonnage deceased, CC-5. Masochist de- Masochist down, CC-5, Ra-"_

It was a _lot,_ though the announcement of _"Break Down, CC-5,_ " did make him feel a bit better. It was hard to put in words, but back in his days as Madcap, Ethan had learned to figure out which capes were trouble, fast. Break was one of those that didn't do violence because they had to, they did it because it was the easiest way to get what they wanted. More than that though, him and Vejovis had an air about them. If he was pressed, he'd call them 'believers', while Puppy would probably bust out the big words and call them _Zealots_. They had something they were fighting for, and everything else came after that, including the lives of others.

They were the ones who'd kill the guards to make sure the mission went off smoothly. The type who'd never call off a job when it looked bad because they 'had' to succeed and couldn't come back and try again later. The type that would say anything to get what they wanted. The type that was _worse_ than villains, because they thought they were the good guys, and would do anything to keep thinking that. He'd been on both sides, and with villains no one really expected anyone to be _good._ There were certain things you still didn't do, but that's because they led to bad things, not because they thought they were better. With believers, _anything_ was on the table.

Puppy didn't see it, but as much of a snake in the grass as Halbeard turned out to be? They'd be _worse._

"Leviathan appears to be using hit and run tactics," the leader of the Philadelphia Protectorate announced, breaking Ethan out of his thoughts. "We're not sure why, but he seems to be ignoring the aquifer completely. Command thinks with his tidal wave held off, he's after something else, or trying to find who's responsible."

Battery, who had been looking around, glanced towards Chevalier. "Do we know who it is? If we know who it is. . ." she trailed off, glancing at Ethan.

"We could set a trap," Her husband finished. "But that only works if we can. Any idea why he doesn't fly again? Be faster."

"Leviathan's using the buildings as cover," Chevalier explained as he seemed to think about it. "Legend's having trouble keeping up. He- _Incoming!"_ the man yelled, pulling up his signature sword.

It wasn't Leviathan, but from around the corner came what looked like a wave, flowing down the street and pushing aside cars. Ethan glanced at his wife who nodded back before he leapt to the side, grabbing the kid who looked like he wasn't a day over fifteen and converting the force of his fall to launch the teen up and onto the roof of the third story building next to them.

Battery had gone completely still before blurring into motion, like she always did, grabbing the other kid and jumping up to drop her off with the first one. She was back and ready to catch the third, and last, surviving Ward in their group as Ethan tossed her up, right before the ten-foot-tall swell slammed into him.

The orphaned wave's energy was transferred deep underground, leaving Ethan unharmed, though he did get a little water up his nose. He was surprised as, for a moment, it tried to crush him while it pushed past him, but it wasn't that strong and that energy, too, was shoved deep underground, leaving him unharmed.

It passed, and he looked around. A woman in giraffe patterned leather who'd been fine a moment ago was dead, her neck snapped, and a few others were nursing broken limbs, but most were fine. Bits of crushed plastic were strewn across the road and a crumbled trash can rolled down the end of the street, barely able to be heard over the heavy rain.

" _Crysmal deceased, CB-4. Hotfoot deceased CB-4. Wash down, GC-4."_ The armband read off, and Ethan noted that Dragon was talking about his neck of the woods. Glancing over, he could see the water blaster in question nursing a broken arm, and beside her was her partner- " _Wear down, GC-4,"_ who was nursing his ribs. _"Savannah deceased, GC-4. Big Dog down, BA-3. Lash deceased, BA-3."_

Jaime dropped down from the roof, her husband easily catching her and putting her down next to him as their group gathered. He felt like someone was watching him, a trait he'd picked up back in his inglorious youth. Glancing around, he thought he spotted someone peering out from the alley, most of the figure hidden in the shadows.

Looking back, he was gone, but Ethan knew that didn't mean that he'd been wrong, just that there was a Stranger nearby. It happened in Endbringer fights, those who wanted to help but didn't want to be part of the crowd. He'd been enough of these things to know that being on your own meant you likely didn't survive, but because of their powers it was hard to tell how many had snuck in and died.

Ethan considered inviting the Stranger over. He'd looked like he might've been a kid, but he hadn't gotten a good enough look to call it. "That wave try to give anyone else a hug?" Assault asked instead, getting a few glares from those caught in it, but most just nodded. _It was just common sense, if you can't take a hit, avoid touching anything weird,_ he thought to himself, hoping the kiddies were okay out here. "So, that's new."

Chevalier nodded, "Leviathan is fighting harder, we believe in response to actually being threatened. There's reports of three of those waves wandering the city. New plan is to make smaller teams and spread out. Support each other as normal, but Leviathan isn't stopping to fight like he used to. We need to tie him down long enough for our heavy hitters to arrive. His not going for the aquifers will work to our advantage, giving us more time. If you don't think you can take him on, just delay and keep eyes on while we set our trap. Fight well, and hopefully I'll see all of you at the next one."

As they split up, Ethan checked quickly with Dragon, an idea for a team forming. Normally he was laid back, letting Puppy take the wheel, but this was looking _bad_ , like the worst of his jobs as Madcap. The ones where the score took a backseat to survival, only this time he knew he couldn't run, Battery wouldn't come with him if he tried. He smiled broadly when he found that half of those he'd asked about were here, and since Samantha was one of them, he could have the crew assembled in minutes.

"You okay?" his wife asked, concerned in a way that always made him happy to have married her.

"Yeah," he replied automatically. "Why shouldn't I be. Other than obvious," he added at the flat glare he was sure was hidden behind her visor.

"You were smiling."

He opened his arms, smiling broadly. "I smile all the time, Puppy. It's you who's the sourpuss, remember?"

"You were smiling like you used to," she corrected, and Ethan felt his own smile slip a little.

"Boss-man said to team up, and I've got us a team," he explained simply.

She regarded him with (deserved, if he was being honest) suspicion. "Who?"

He shrugged, starting to walk to where Dragon was sending his new team to meet. They might not be the nicest people, but they were good at what they did, and they'd help his wife survive this. "Some old friends."

His wife stared at him before grumbling to herself, "As long as it isn't any of your exes."

He stumbled slightly.

"E- _Assault,"_ she growled in the adorable way she always did when she was mad.

"Eh, not _exes_ exactly," he said quickly, putting a bit of spring in his step to get there faster. "Besides, I only have eyes for you, Puppy!"

She zipped past him at super speed, turning to glare at him. He had to admit the azure sparks she was sending off helped with the effect. "That wasn't a no."

He bounded past her. "Wasn't a yes, either! Come-on, slow-poke. Times a-wasting!"

* * *

Jessica did not want to be here, but her family needed her. She stood at the ready with her twin sister, ready to protect their uncle. She wished the Schmidts were there to help, but they still hadn't come back yet, so it was just her, her sister, and their Uncle Max here out in the storm.

When the attack had come, her and Nessa had grown and covered him. Leviathan's attacks, shrunk as they were, still pinged off their shields and stung when they hit skin, like pinpricks. They'd drawn blood, but that was all, and she wondered how the others were faring.

Leviathan dropped out of the sky, and Max had nodded to himself, striding forward, his armor starting to grow and unfold as he called upon his power. He'd announced to the E88 that, while they should seek cover, "I, Kaiser, shall show those lesser parahumans how the Empire faces any who would challenge their rule, even the Endbringers themselves!"

Those gathered had cheered, but Jess couldn't help but glance at her sister at that, wondering how this was all going to turn out. When Kaiser, who was technically their cousin but old enough to be their uncle, had taken them in, he was the only family they had left. More than that, he'd been in control of an organization that controlled half the city and the pair, who'd taken up the names Fenja and Menja, had only been two of a dozen parahumans. Now, it was just the three of them, and the city was being attacked by an Endbringer. Some places rebuilt afterwards, but they were never the same. Other than the bonds of family, which she had started to suspect Kaiser didn't care about nearly as much as he said, what reason was there to stay?

Now, in the pounding rain, she could no longer quiet those thoughts.

The ground beneath Kaiser rippled violently, metal rising all around him, as he placed the suitcase he'd brought along on a raised platform of iron before him. He was carried upwards as well as more metal grew in complicated patterns below him. Opening the case and pulling out a harness studied with glowing lights, the metal grew up and around Kaiser, hiding him from sight.

Whatever he was making grew taller than her and her sister, the two of them pushing themselves to their full height to compensate. Even once they were thirty feet tall, whatever he was making still grew above them, broadening into a thick mass of metal sheets and wires.

A deep thrum emanated from the tower, easily audible even over the storm raging around them, and the individual pieces of metal began to move, interweaving into something else entirely. The metal sheets slid across the outside, the wires underneath attaching themselves to hooks she could barely see.

The mass shuddered, part of the base ripping itself out of the ground as it took a step outward, a leg quickly forming, the sheets moving to cover the writhing wires in armor. With a screeching sound the other leg came free from the ground, the sides rising into arms as more plates grew out of the first few, slowly forming the same regal kind of armor that Kaiser wore.

The fifty-foot-tall metallic man held its giant hand out, the street below rippling, sending water splashing in every direction. From the ground slowly grew an enormous spear, the shaft two feet in diameter and nearly as tall as he was, the wide tip inscribed with swastikas.

"Come Fenja, Menja," Kaiser called, his voice booming from his creation. "We hunt."

Nessa immediately followed, looking back to her sister, who sighed, unsheathed her sword, and followed. As they walked, they could see flashes of light that weren't from the storm to the southeast, Kayden easily visible despite it being early afternoon as she and Legend flew after what must've be Leviathan.

The twin streaks of light flew across the city, zigzagging and throwing blasts down, Leviathan hidden behind by the buildings between them. The glowing pair were moving fast, faster than either her or her sister could run even at their full height, and far faster than Kaiser could. His giant metal man's movements were slow and labored, still fast with how big he was, but not nearly as quick as either of them. Here, without anyone to hear, Jessica felt comfortable speaking up. "Kaiser, how are you going to get Leviathan to fight us?"

She knew he hated being questioned, but she couldn't see the plan. She didn't want to fight Leviathan, but this was the city her uncle controlled, so she'd help him. The metal head turned to glare at her, the eyeholes of its helmet dark and pitiless.

"It will come to us," he told her. "Now do not question me again. I shall put this creature in its place, and all shall see the true glory of the Empire!"

As he turned to continue his walk, Jess shared a glance with her sister. Uncle Max had always talked like this at events, but there was no one around to hear him. She was reminded of how he'd hid during the fight against the Asians, leaving her and her sister to die. He'd told them afterwards that he was sure they could handle it, how he'd protected himself to free them up to protect themselves, but he hadn't seen how badly they'd been hurt.

Even now, Jessica felt weaker than she had before she'd been hurt, not back to fighting fit, but she couldn't leave Uncle Max to fight Leviathan alone.

Speaking of whom, by Kayden and Legend's flight, the Endbringer had gone north, far away from them, near the railyard. The two glowing spots in the dark storm split up, moving back and forth, and she felt a spike of worry as they seemed to lose track of the Endbringer.

A sound like a cannon going off a few blocks over drew their attention, followed by distant screaming, and the combination of unnatural sounds that meant parahumans were fighting. Kaiser turned around with a worrying amount of difficulty, his metal body groaning. He'd strode past them, his slow steps still eating up the distance, when there was a flash of dark green ahead of them. Four streaks of light green light cut across the street as _something_ ran across the intersection, a river appearing in mid-air behind it, the water falling and splashing out in every direction.

 _Leviathan._

It returned a moment later, water still pouring off of it as it looked at the three of them. Kaiser, half again as tall as Fenja or her sister, shifted his stance, pointing his spear down the street towards the Endbringer. The other two took guard positions behind him, unsure of what to do, but ready to do it anyways.

Leviathan cocked its head in confusion, the head rotating unnaturally far, like a birds.

"Know fear, beast, for you face K-" was as far as he got before the creatures ran forward at blisteringly fast speeds. Truck-sized spears shot from the ground and buildings, but the Endbringer twisted around them, grabbing one as it shot for its heart and spinning over it, using it as a handhold to launch itself towards Kaiser.

The leader of the E88 jabbed his spear at his foe, the shaft suddenly growing as it shot forward, catching the Endbringer in the throat. The force of the impact forced Kaiser's creation back a step as it dug in its feet, forcing Leviathan back and down to its knees.

Spears shot up from around it from the street and the buildings on either side of Leviathan, piercing the creature's flesh. The wounds bled freely as it thrashed in pain and panic, sending water in every direction. Kaiser firmed his grip on the spear, trying to press it deeper into Leviathan's neck but having trouble forcing the tip any deeper.

Faster than she thought possible, Leviathan's tail shot up over its shoulder and pierced Kaiser's helmet, the end sticking out the back. Jessica's breath caught as she stood, dumbfounded, unable to believe that her Uncle had died.

A deep, booming, imperious laughter came from Kaiser, "And that is why you lose, beast!" The metal of the helmet rippled, dozens of spears forming and stabbing into the tail that pierced the head of Kaiser's construct, growing out to form barbed clamps that held the Endbringer's tail in place as it tried in vain to pull it back. More spears shot up from behind, further piercing the creatures flesh, the spear in its neck inching slowly deeper.

"Fenja, Menja!" Kaiser called out from wherever he hid, "Put down this dumb creature. We were denied the opportunity to kill the Asian, but this makes a better trophy!"

Jess moved forward, standing by her uncle as she struck out with her sword, opening a long gash in the Endbringer's side, its blood pooling around her ankles. Whatever it was made of was incredibly tough. Her sword, which could slice through buildings when she was this size, failed to cut more than a few feet into its flesh.

Her sister's spear did slightly better, but got stuck, forcing her to pull it out as more blood then should fit inside Leviathan's body, large as it was, poured out with increasing speed. With how much was pouring out, she wondered if she'd hit something vital, though there was nothing where she hit on a person that should bleed that much.

More spears struck Leviathan from behind, but this seemed. . . _wrong._ Leviathan was struggling less, but to believe they'd done it. That they'd killed an _Endbringer?_ The thing's blood, which had reached mid-calf, flooding nearby buildings, started to constrict around her legs. It climbed up her body reaching her knees and she looked up at her sister, yelling "Shield!" as she pulled back from the pitch-black grasping goop.

Her sister followed her lead, both of them raising their defenses as Leviathan stood up from its kneeling position easily, water blasting up around it and slicing through the spear shafts as if they didn't exist, only Kaiser's main weapon not breaking.

Blades of water rose up around it, blasting outwards and cutting into the shields they hid behind, the blasts of pressurized water that slipped by gauging their armor and exposed flesh. Leviathan twisted its arms, twin spears of water shooting out to either side, hitting each sister dead on in the shield, breaking their defenses and throwing them backwards.

Kaiser tried to summon more spears, but the water below Leviathan shot up in matching 'spears', catching and breaking their metal counterparts. The Endbringer twisted its tail back and forth, still caught in the head of Kaiser's construct. The water created by its movement sheathed the limb, the force of it cutting into the metal trapping it, freeing the tail. It pulled back, shaking the metal hooks out of its already healing flesh.

Trying to push his weapon forward, Kaiser found himself unable to press it any deeper in, the end of the weapon covered in a sheath of water. He tried to pull it back, but it was stuck. Kaiser was forced to abandon it as Leviathan's tail whipped up, slower than it had before, and almost lazily tried to impale Kaiser's construct through the chest, barely deflected by a metal arm.

As Jessica struggled to her feet, the broken remains of her shield falling off her, her sister doing the same, they saw Leviathan reach up and pull the spear from its throat, the tip only a third of the way into its flesh which started to close up before their eyes.

It held the spear, looking it at it considering while its tail continue to batter at Kaiser, who was barely able to deflect the blows as more armor formed on his torso. Leviathan pulled back and threw its spear at Kaiser's metal man, shearing off one arm at the shoulder, preventing Kaiser from blocking as it tore through where the constructs heart would be. It missed Kaiser once more, as the construct struck forward, a sword growing out of its remaining arm, which was caught and broken with ease.

Jessica and her sister charged the Endbringer, trying to save their Uncle as his construct stumbled backwards, starting to turn around to run, but Leviathan shoved its hands upwards and the water beneath their feet surged upwards, throwing both sisters backwards. Jessica was hurled into an apartment building as her sister was tossed into a convenience store. The building collapsing down onto her as she struggled to her feet once more.

The Endbringer pushed his hands forward, the water, still hanging in the air, shooting towards Kaiser as he fled, curling into three separate streams that struck the shoulder and hips, the force of it slicing off his remaining limbs but leaving the center untouched. Spears shot up towards Leviathan, who ignored the metal piercing his flesh, an ever-increasing globe of water gathering around the metal torso that started to grow metal plates in every direction.

Her sister charged, only for Leviathan's tail to slam into her armor, throwing her backwards as it gouged out the breastplate. Leviathan opened his hands, curling them towards each other, and slammed them together to the sound of screeching metal.

The water surrounding Leviathan collapsed inwards, the metal plates buckling under the pressure. Something inside exploded, causing a brief flash of pearlescent light that lit up the street as it shown between the cracks in the metal, before it all compacted to a quarter of its size. The water dropped and flowed down the street, Leviathan no longer holding it in place, as the metal crashed down, cracking the road.

Jessica had freed herself, but wasn't sure what to do. Uncle Max was dead, and Leviathan was staring at the metal ball it'd crushed him in, as if it was waiting for something else.

"Die!" called her sister, uselessly charging Leviathan and Jessica found herself running before she realized what was happening. She wasn't running to try to kill the Endbringer though, she was running to save her sister.

Leviathan turned its back on Jessica, facing her sister and easily catching the spear in one monstrous hand, the other reaching out and breaking the weapon in half. It's tail whipped up to strike the now defenseless woman, only to be caught by Jessica, who was yanked forward by the force it contained, turning her momentum into a blow to sink her sword into the creature's back, cutting into its spine.

The creature turned fast, too fast for her to block, and sunk one clawed hand into the armor covering her stomach, claws piercing it, the other hand arching up and plunging completely into her chest, through the window in her armor that Kaiser had left open. She gasped, coughing up blood as it pulled its bloody hands back.

It turned to attack her sister, who was watching in horror, but Jessica caught the creature's arms, pulling back with all her strength and slowing it down, the water it created making it hard to keep her grip. "Run," she coughed, feeling as if she was drowning as her lungs filled with blood, her strength draining out of her.

Leviathan's tale whipped up, stabbing her through the back, but she held on tight, rasping out, " _Run!"_

Her sister took one last glimpse before fleeing. Leviathan struggled against Jessica's hold, the water he created cutting and digging into her flesh like a thousand razor-edged worms, but even as she started to shrink, the world darkening, she held on. She had to. Leviathan's tail struck once again, cutting through her wrist and breaking her grasp by removing her hand. It twisted forward in a roll and threw her into a building, but she barely felt it.

She fell to the ground, the world growing bigger as it darkened. Lights flickered across her vision, as she felt an explosion of heat caress her face. The world slipped away as a wave picked her up, carrying her away to the next life.


	132. Deadline 12-y

**Deadline 12.y**

Legend didn't know what to do. When he'd found out from Rebecca, it'd sounded too good to be true. The largest problem of the Endbringers wasn't their strength, it wasn't their toughness, it was their _spontaneity_. Yes, they attacked every few months, but all that meant was that tensions ratcheted up slowly for days, sometimes weeks, before they struck. If what this new recruit offered was true, it would give them time to prepare, time to evacuate the innocents, time to fight an Endbringer with their _true_ strength.

It had been.

And Leviathan had responded in kind.

He flew after the dark shape of the Endbringer as it ran between buildings, sparing only a moment to glance towards the shore, and at the wall of water that still churned incessantly, ready to slam into the city as soon as whoever made it let go. It could be any of a dozen parahumans doing it, though from the scale it was likely several working together, and he just hoped they'd keep it going.

A bright white blast arrowed past him, missing Leviathan by inches as it neared another team, who Dragon had hopefully warned. It was all that Legend could do to keep up with the Endbringer, feeling himself slipping into the form he used when he went the fastest and pulling back on the speed. When he pushed himself and became a laser, his senses dulled, and it was hard enough to keep track of Leviathan as a human.

Allowing himself just a moment of acceleration to get ahead, he slowed down and turned around to see the Endbringer barrel through a barrier of coral, slowing down slightly as a blast of water hit it. The blast did nothing but slow it down further, but that was enough for the group to attack.

A giant man in dark green armor stepped forward, a sword glowing with green wisps trailing off meeting Leviathan's claw and knocking it back, some of the wisps sticking to the creature's claws and eating, ever so slowly, away at its flesh.

Gigantic clockwork hounds darted forward, clamping onto its legs as Blasters shot the Endbringer, Legend adding his own blasts to the fray as Purity bombarded it from behind. Leviathan rocked back from the blows, the water it left in front of itself as it did so, weakening some of the attacks.

The Endbringer bent down and with its sharp claws beheaded the knight before continuing the motion and leaping upwards, grabbing a flying cape who'd been coming in to punch the Endbringer and crushing him, landing on a man in brass armor made of gears before running off once again.

Legend curved his blast and hit Leviathan anyways, burrowing though the water it left behind, while Purity's shot detonated against the liquid harmlessly. The Endbringer sped up, moving even faster, reaching out a clawed hand a few blocks away from the group it'd attacked and tearing at the side of a nearby building, which seemed to explode into a fountain of gore. Leviathan didn't stop, didn't break stride, but dove forward towards something else, the sounds of screaming distant.

 _"Gawain down, CB-4. Watchdog deceased, CB-4. Young Buck Deceased, CB-4. Wallman Deceased, CB-3. Dreamer deceased, CB-3. Je-"_

Each name was a condemnation, another black mark against Legend's name for organizing this disaster. Yes, he'd warned them. Yes, they'd volunteered to fight an Endbringer, but these fights had _never_ been like this.

Legend took off in pursuit, Purity dogging his heels. He'd told his group to stay in their location and passed command to Astrologer, but Purity had followed despite his commands to stay with the rest. He'd read her file, he did for anyone with a threat rating over seven, just in case he was called in to fight them. What he didn't understand is how she was still keeping up with him. She was supposed to be fast, but not _this_ fast.

Leviathan entered the railyard that occupied the northernmost section of the city, an area completely devoid of either civilians or Parahuman teams, and Legend wondered what the monster's game was. The Endbringer turned a corner and when Legend flew high to spot it, the creature looked. . . _off._

A thin bolt of light, trailing its distinctive double helix, hit Leviathan, dead on, splattering it across the road. The dark water that composed the rest of the clone's body dispersed, the ruse no longer viable. _"Shit!"_ he swore, looking around desperately as he flew back to where he was sure he'd last seen the Endbringer, but there was no sign of him, the tracks the creature dug into the asphalt as it ran following the clone's path exactly.

"Try to find Leviathan!" he called to the woman who was following on him like white on rice, or supremacists.

She seemed to understand him, peeling off and trying to find the Endbringer, but neither of them spotted anything, Dragon's new device had lost track of it, and there weren't even any reported injuries to go by.

"I don't see anything!" she called as she flew back to him.

Legend repressed a snarl. So much of this fight was just _wrong._ Leviathan never came in leading the charge, it didn't _fly,_ and it didn't _hide!_ It'd outrun his pursuers, but it was always to engage someone else, and the lack of any reported losses, as grateful as he was for it, meant the Endbringer wasn't doing that either. Legend was at a loss what to do next. All he _could_ do was wait, keep an eye out, and run towards the fighting. In the meantime. . .

"Why are you following me?" he demanded of the Nazi, hoping to answer at least _one_ question.

"I'm protecting you!" she replied, not looking at him as she kept searching.

He was expecting. . . he wasn't sure, but that wasn't it. "What? Don't you hate gay people?" he asked without meaning to.

It was hard to look at her directly, but he was fairly sure she glared at him for a moment, turning her back as she continuing to search. "My orders are to protect you," she stated, which wasn't a no, but created even more questions.

"Why does Kaiser want you to protect me?" he asked, re-checking his armband. Still no sign of Leviathan. The Endbringer could be destabilizing the aquifers _right this moment,_ but they'd posted teams and cameras all across the area, and as soon as they spotted the Endbringer Legend would be there in an instant.

"I don't work for him," she snarled, and Legend was taken a bit back by the anger in her voice. "I work for Vejovis!"

". . . Who?" he asked, the name not ringing a bell. Did she mean Vesuvius? He was African-American, and worked out of Tamps, so he must've misheard.

"Vejovis, of the Penumbral Defenders!" she snapped, confirming the name, at least.

"Who the hell are they?" he snapped back, finding even _more_ things he was lacking information on. "That doesn't matter, I don't need your help!"

She flew away slightly, and he tried to focus on more important things. However, she'd left to get a better look at something, as she returned a moment later. "I'm still going to follow you," she pronounced arrogantly.

"How are you keeping up with me?" he demanded, trying to get at least _one_ question answered if she refused to leave him alone.

She shot him another glance before continuing to search. "Is that really what's important right now?"

 _"Victorious Deceased, AC-3. Hydra Down, AC-3. Guesstimate Deceased, AC-3."_

Legend was off, pushing himself to full speed until he reached the coordinates, looking around. A burning Tinkertech vehicle had crashed onto a nearby rooftop, those below struggling to get up. A man with green snakes coming out of his arms held a dead woman, one of many who'd died already; a dark shape watched him from a window, probably a civilian who hadn't evacuated; and what looked like a Ward being picked up by a man who leapt into the air, an enormous blue vulture appearing out of no-where and ferrying him at tremendous speeds towards the medical area.

However, Leviathan was gone, and no other deaths were reported. He stared into the storm, looking up, down, and around for any hint of the Endbringer. A streak of light heralded his glowing shadow, who flew by him and yelled "AB-3", turning around and blasting off in that direction.

Legend followed as soon as he understood what she meant. When he travelled quickly, his body disappeared, so he hadn't received the call. Unfortunately, when they arrived it was to find another group with several dead members. When they asked where Leviathan went, Revel just pointed back the way they'd come.

Legend gritted his teeth, feeling useless as he looked around. "There!" cried Purity, blasting off. He caught a bit of fading prismatic light and followed the Nazi, making out a flash of blonde hair that looked far too close between two buildings.

Pushing past her, he could see a gigantic woman hanging onto Leviathan's back, though she was quickly shrinking, other fliers coming in from the other side in a pincer move on the Endbringer. Its tail flashed upwards and her gauntleted hand went flying, the creature tossing her into a building as Legend and Purity fired on it, concentrated blasts of fire and something that exploded hitting it from the other side.

It turned on them, flinging a hand out towards them despite their being far too distant to hit, but a flicker of movement below him sent Legend dodging to one side, Purity mirroring the motion as what appeared to be spikes made of water shot up below all of those present, one gutting a woman who flew on wings of crystal, another piercing a man who's lower half was composed of flame, and a third stabbing through the leg of a woman made of air, the last flowing around the water, unharmed, even as the spikes that hit all exploded outwards into fragments that turned a survivable wound into an instantly fatal one.

" _Crysmal deceased, CB-4. Hotfoot deceased CB-4. Wash down, GC-4. Wear down, GC-4. Savannah deceased, GC-4. Big Dog Down, BA-4. Lash Dece-"_

 _How is he killing other across the city?_ Legend wondered. That was The Simurgh's Modius Operandi, or, Behemoth's, but never with this _speed_. He blasted Leviathan, who'd been standing perfectly still, once again, causing it to stagger backwards, turn and strike out with its tail. It was still out of range, but Legend dodged out of habit, or instinct, and thus missed the condensed spear of water that blasted past him, formed from the water left behind as Leviathan pulled his tail back.

The names stopped coming, whatever focus the Endbringer had broken, but that didn't bring those this monster had killed back.

Legend could do nothing for them, but needed to try to pin down Leviathan before it could do anything _more_ , sending out lasers that struck the Endbringer and tried to hold it in place as Purity brought her hands together and let out a pencil-thick beam that seemed to burrow into the creature's flesh. _That wasn't in her file_ _either_ , was all the thought he allowed himself as the others continued their assault, other parahumans starting to gather on Leviathan's position.

They'd been fighting the Endbringer here for half a minute, if that, but others were already gathering and adding to the bombardment. A trio of light beams, red, blue, and purple, lanced down, digging furrows into its leg. It threw a river at them with crushing force, but the trio who'd attacked threw up overlapping shields that took the blow, the rooftop below them obliterated from the deflected attack, leaving them and the others they'd brought with them unharmed.

A man who looked to be half lion leapt down at Leviathan from a rooftop, grabbing an arm and seeming to drag it down, while another man, this one in bright blue spandex, ran across the top of the water, ice forming below him, before latching onto the Endbringer's leg, freezing it in place.

Leviathan's tail swung out, only for metal tubes to shoot out from the ground like segmented tentacles, fouling its aim before wrapping around the appendage, dragging it down as well. Actual tentacles, complete with suckers, even if they glowed odd colors, grabbed Leviathan's free arm. They sprouted from a glowing circle in front of a man in robed who stood on another glowing circle, seeming to be reading from a book and chanting.

Before it could kick out with its remaining free limb, flaming metal chains wrapped around it, the woman they were coming from holding them fast, her form obscured in dark red flame, though it appeared she was only a blackened skeleton underneath her armor.

The Blasters poured on their fire, the Endbringer's durability enough to stand before their barrage, but the injuries were accruing quickly and it no longer had more than a foot of unmarred flesh in sight. They'd taken losses, but there were hurting it, its dark blood flowing freely, pressing against those holding him in place but not able to dislodge him. Things were turning around.

Until another Leviathan made of the original's blood stood up and ripped the tiger man in two.

With its hand free it ripped the tentacles as a second clone made from its blood pulled itself out of Leviathan's back and launched itself at the ten foot tall man who'd been attempting to cut off Leviathan's tail with an axe, the blade passing harmlessly through the dark fluid as it ripped the parahumans head off.

While this was happening the first clone went for the ice creator, dodging a blast from Purity which blasted against the real Leviathan's chest, further wounding it. The Ice creator froze the clone's hands, which just meant it used the newly formed ice claws to rip him to pieces.

The blasters concentrated their fire, A bird made of lime-colored lightning striking Leviathan in the back, and the clones' forms destabilizing as they flowed into a protective circle around the Endbringer, along with the near lake of blood at its feat.

Instincts flared and Legend yelled "Cover!" as the rain stuttered in place around them, turning into a beam of light and dodging as the blood exploded like a bomb, sending tiny pieces of Endbringer in every direction.

As the building in every direction crumbled as one, the taller ones blasted backwards, Legend understood what had happened. Every piece that was torn off of it, every fragment that was blasted off, every injury it'd suffered had been with a purpose. Endbringer flesh was crystalline, and unbelievable hard. It couldn't control its own flesh, but it could control the water it created and, when cornered, its own blood.

It'd gathered them all up, arrayed the parts of itself that it'd lost all around itself, and _pushed._ It was a fragmentation grenade, large enough to take out a city block.

Dropping back to his normal form, Legend shot once more at Leviathan, who looked badly injured, its tail only connected to the rest of itself by a thin core. His armband droned on, but he barely paid it any attention.

 _"Liger deceased, CB-4. Chill Out deceased, CB-4. Woodsman deceased, CB-4. Pipelayer deceased, CB-4. Eldritch down, CB-4. ECM deceased, CB-4. Penitent, deceased, CB-4. . . . losses are as follows. Ada-"_

The monster had been advancing on a small group of survivors, a flickering blue shield the only thing between them and the Endbringer. Legend's blast provoked a swish of the tail, but the damage robbed the action of any strength and the water spear that was created lacked cohesion.

Leviathan leapt forward and the blue shield flashed to life for a moment before it popped like a soap bubble. Legend shot forward to try to help the survivors, only for a thunderous crack to go off and Leviathan to hurtle back like he was punched by Alexandria at full speed, a glowing line of brilliant fire appearing only for an instant, it's only evidence a quickly fading spot as Legend blinked.

Whatever they'd done, Leviathan wanted no part of, as the Endbringer turned and ran northwest, towards the docks.

Legend wished he could stay, but with how fast Leviathan was moving, and how badly it took to being pinned down, he couldn't spare the time. A white comet took off after the Endbringer, Purity giving chase. He didn't know how to feel that she'd managed to survive when so many others had died, but followed after her as Leviathan moved even faster than before, actively avoiding other groups as it stopped bleeding, the enhanced healing all Endbringer shared already starting to reverse what those heroes had given their lives to do.

Legend didn't care, Leviathan was _hurt,_ almost as bad as it'd been at Seattle before it'd been driven off. If they just pushed a bit harder, did a bit more damage, it'd flee, and they could try to save those who still survived.

Passing in and out of his other form, he and Purity barely managed to keep up with Leviathan as it zig-zagged down the flooding streets. When it stopped to face them at the docks, its deepest wounds had filled in, but it was still maimed. They'd have to be careful about pinning it down, and nearby the ocean lapped up over the piers, giving it another attack vector, but they while they might not be able to kill it, they'd be able to fight it off in record time. Then they'd recover, review, and re-work their plans for _next time._

Both he and the Nazi lanced out with attacks as soon as the Endbringer stopped. It tried to dodge, but it's leg buckled and it took Legend's laser in the shoulder as Purity's missed its head by inches. Moving with the injury, it rolled down, coming up and dragging its arm across the sky, the water left behind compressing into an arc that Legend flew over, while Purity flew under, both replying with shots of their own.

Raising an arm, a shield of water formed, detonating the double-helixed projectile but not able to stop the laser, which punched through and struck deep once more. As the Endbringer scrabbled backwards, it tore open its wounds, which started to bleed once more.

Legend knew the damage that blood could do, Leviathan somehow able to control it better than the rain that still fell around them, but its presence reassured him he could do this. Dodging Leviathan's blast, he let Purity go first, concentrating on a larger blast than normal, hoping Leviathan, cornered and panicked, would focus on the more immediate threat.

It did, barely getting out of the way of her blast, only for the foot-wide beam Legend fired to blast it through the injured leg, blowing a completely circular, three-inch-wide hole through its calf. While not as crippling as it would be to a human, it still forced Leviathan to crouch down, trying to run on three legs as it dodged Purity's next attack.

A second Leviathan formed from the real one's blood, but a dark shape blasted past the pair and the clone exploded outwards, a Tyrannosaurus Rex taking its place.

"Break," Legend said to himself, surprised to hear Purity echo him, though with relief the situation didn't merit.

"You know him?" Legend inquired, firing a laser which curved around the dinosaur as it jumped over Leviathan's tail swipe, Purity asking "How do you know him?" at the same time, her own blast causing the Endbringer to abort its swipe at the T-rex's side.

"He's my teammate," she said, following Legend as they moved to the Endbringer's other side as the T-rex shrank into a Triceratops which darted forward, goring Leviathan before it disappeared entirely, appearing above its foe a half second later.

He hadn't met the man in person, but he'd looked over the file of the person who'd provided them the information for today's defense. "Isn't he black?" he asked absently, firing another blast as the Triceratops shifted to a Stegosaurus which started to somersault so fast it would've blurred a little to a civilian, it's bladed biting into the Endbringer's back.

Purity shot low, her blast catching Leviathan's side as it was forced downwards. "NOT THE TIME!" she yelled angrily, and Legend forced himself to focus on the fight.

Leviathan, one arm hanging uselessly, stood up using his tail to support himself and struck out at Break, the bloodied water around him surging forward and blasting into the now-Ankylosaurus with a lot of force but very little focus, picking up and throwing the hero out over the ocean so fast he left a trail in the rain.

With a clear target and a _heavily_ injured Endbringer, Legend charged forward, closing the distance and bombarding the monster with everything he had, trying to force it to run, or even better, to fall and keep it down long enough for everyone else to arrive. Alexandria could hold it down, and Eidolon had said he might have something that could kill it for good.

Purity followed directly on his heals, throwing down helixes of light faster than she had before, every blast hitting as it tried to protect its head, one of the four lights that served as its eyes out and another faint.

Legend struck out with pinning beams, opening it up for Purity to pound into it with her own attacks, only for the woman to hesitate and break off, still firing at it but keeping her distance. _She's getting worried now?_ Legend thought incredulously, having assumed a Nazi wouldn't have trouble taking down an Endbringer, given how easily they attacked others, but if she wouldn't than he would.

He closed, gathering up for a blast, the Endbringer's limbs pinned down, including his tail. He ignored her "No!" as he came close to its head, ready to end this, dodging the feeble blasts of water it sent up at him, unable to direct it with its arms trapped.

Bringing down a beam stronger than any he'd used before, he blasted downwards at the beast only for Purity to come down and slam into his side the instant after he fired, too slow to stop him from taking off the Endbringer's head.

He turned to look at her, to rebuke her for trying to _end_ this, only to pale as he saw the Endbringer's tail where he'd been a moment ago, the creature sitting up easily and staring at the pair of them.

Effortlessly, it stood up, breaking the beams holding it down and moving smoothly, fluidly, and as it was completely uninjured. The hole still in its calf was still there, but it didn't seem to care as it sprung for them, blurring through the air without any of the buildup it'd needed to fly before.

Legend fired at it, but it twisted smoothly in the air, closing on them in a second. Lashing out with a claw, Purity burned with light and struck out, a sharp crack emanating from her and sending her hurtling backwards into Legend, Leviathan reeling back as well, one of its claws broken.

It twisted around, as if on an invisible axis, and lashed out with its tail, only for Purity to flare once more, knocked to the side as she blew the tip off in retaliation. Legend flew after her as he sent more beams, which were dodged, trying to stay near her, though for who's sake he wasn't sure.

Sending out a latticework of lasers, some impacted, digging into the Endbringer's flesh, but it neither flinched nor bled, giving no sign it'd been injured at all. _None_ of its wounds were bleeding, he noticed, not sure what to do with this information.

He wanted to run, get the others, but if he did they'd lose track of Leviathan once more, giving it time to heal, and he'd be leaving Purity to die, which wasn't something a hero would do. Instead he flew next to her, Leviathan landing on another building lightly and holding its hands up.

The rain stopped, hanging in the air, and Purity yelled "Behind me!" her voice strained. Legend did, sending out another laser which struck true in the creature's eye, only to be completely ignored as it threw its hands forward.

The raindrops accelerated towards them as one, the first splashing harmlessly, the next few striking like hailstones, then thrown rocks, as Legend watched Purity burn like the sun, a wave of pure white pouring off her as she was pressed back into him.

The sky tore with an explosion that left his ears ringing, but her blast countered Leviathan's attack, the rain starting again as the warehouses below them collapsed, riddled with holes to the point it was nearly unidentifiable.

Purity's light dimmed and she slumped, exhausted, as Leviathan charged forward and Legend grabbed her, trying to escape when a black-clad figure slammed into Leviathan's side, knocking him off course and into a different warehouse.

He almost cried as he saw his friend, Rebecca, flying there, staring at the structure as it collapsed on the Endbringer. Letting go of Purity, he zipped over to her.

"It's bad," was the first thing to come to mind.

"I know," she replied, stoic as always when she was in a fight.

 _Mission critical information,_ he told himself, thinking of everything they knew, or they _thought_ they knew about Endbringers. "Injuries don't seem to matter to it. I put a hole in its calf and it had no problem standing on it."

Alexandria's slight glance to him might as well have been open mouthed shock. "Shit."

Legend, bruised and tired, but not very injured, had to stop himself from staring at her. She _never_ swore in costume. "Anything you can tell me? Why is this fight so much worse?" Getting information out of her was like getting blood from a stone sometimes, as she only told people things when she thought they neede-

"Leviathan stopped holding back," she informed him.

". . . what?" he asked, hoping he'd misheard her.

"They've been feeding us false intel," she explained, staring down where Leviathan should be, the lights of other parahumans coming in towards them forcing her to cut this short. "We have enough preparation and strength to kill Leviathan this time. He's fighting seriously."

Legend tried not to think of what that meant, but he didn't join Cauldron to turn away from unpleasant truths. That meant every time they'd fought Leviathan, he'd just been playing with them, just like he'd been playing with Legend. He didn't fool himself, with all of his power and concentration in his attack, that strike would've killed him if it weren't for Purity.

"The others too?" he asked, and she nodded. " _Shit_ ," he agreed. If the others had been holding back, if _this_ was what they were like when they truly fought, then humanity as a whole's chances were _far_ worse than they'd first thought, even without having to worry about the Entity.

"It's been down there too long," he said, changing the subject. Sending beams to probe and pierce the wreckage, they met with no resistance.

Changing his beams to blast open the area, the concrete floor of the warehouse, broken by the impact of the Endbringer, had a twenty-foot-wide, fifteen-foot-long section of pulverized concrete, mixed with mud and churned into a slurry. Leviathan, who'd _always_ travelled on land or under water, could not only fly like the Simurgh, but dig like Behemoth as well.

They both stared at where Leviathan had started digging downwards, Legend jumping slightly as Purity echoed the them as she stared at the hole with a " _Shit,"_ of her own.

* * *

Charlie Rycroft, Æonic to everyone in this dimension, was having a fairly good day. He'd trained his people well enough that they didn't question him when he ordered them to close up the base, and the awe they'd shown when the PRT had warned of Leviathan's attack several hours _after_ he'd told his own people was _awesome_.

Gnomon's insistence on going out and fighting was annoying, but he was a recruit, not one of Æonic's lieutenants, so his loss would suck, but it wasn't the end of the world. At least Tattletale had agreed to stay behind and in the command center. Megalith had done a great job with the base, and he was glad he'd given her the Embankment vial. Getting Déjà to stay behind was a pain, and the fact that Post-cog was pulling up everything from nothing happening that day to the city being entirely destroyed except for his and his brother's bases didn't really help him figure out what to do.

He hummed the Song of Storms under his breath as the downpour continued around him, the capes he'd saved before sticking close, which was probably a good idea on their part. That first bit had been nasty, but the shocked looks after he'd caught the javelins on the edge of his bubble, desiccated them, and then resumed time had been _hilarious._ He'd had to keep his precognitive power up for a while to stop laughing and keep his calm, collected persona, but seeing them all frozen mid-shock that had made it _really_ hard to stop.

To them he'd yelled a warning, time stuttered, and the buildings around them had been destroyed. Panini, or whatever the woman's name was, started to get pissed off when he'd stopped time perfectly, the water weapons only a few feet above everyone's head, and her noticing them had been great too. He wasn't stupid, she was obviously in the same group as him to try to gather intelligence, and possibly counter him if he 'tried' something. It'd be what he'd ask his lieutenants to do to the other heroes, if he'd been willing to risk them in this fight.

 _Wait. . . if they died, they'd just respawn back at base,_ he realized. He'd _completely_ forgot about that. He'd picked that power for all of them because what was the point of having minions if they'd _die_ on him, but he'd forgotten they'd be fine. He shrugged to himself, _oh well._ He hadn't actually _told_ them they couldn't die, it'd be a nice surprise, and they'd been weirded out by the fact that they all had a normal power _and_ were all Tinkers so throwing on pseudo-immortality on top of that might've been a bit much.

~From your research, it is agreed upon that those with Tinker-class abilities do not possess any abilities from the other categories,~ Centari, the AI that ran his Shard, informed him, the image of her appearing in the top left of his vision. He really liked the hot English secretary look, which is probably why she chose it to begin with.

~I didn't actually read anything, Tari. I just scrolled past the pages like you asked,~ he replied internally, having to keep his hands from moving. He liked to gesture when he talked, and that'd caused some. . . concerns among some of his minions at first.

~The research was completed by you; thus, it was your research. I merely viewed your visual feed as you did so,~ she reposted, unwilling to take credit for anything, as usual. ~Regardless, informing them of their tertiary power would be optimal for ensuring their peak performance.~

There was a crack of lightning, and Panner's armband started to read of names again. " _Guesstimate Deceased, AC-3. Shadeblade Deceased, AB-3. Journey Deceased, AB-3. Lightfoot Deceased, AB-3. Ger-"_

He tuned them out again, the kaiju nowhere near him. ~But think of their reactions when they're all like 'what do you mean we can come back from the dead?' and I'm all like 'You think I would let you die?' It'll be awesome. Besid-~

Time froze as Tari informed him, ~Death threat. 137 degrees to your right, 67 degrees upwards. Water based.~

Time resumed as two of him turned and shot the fake-Leviathan made entirely of water as it jumped down at him from what would _theoretically_ be his blind spot. He blew it to nothingness, one blast taking out the top half, the other the bottom half as someone else started to scream. He didn't miss a step, continuing his stroll down the street as the other hims pulled back, the real him not firing the cannon and thus not using up his ammo.

Tari had given an entire explanation on 'quantum energy states', 'forcing finite potential wells', and 'expressing macro-scale probability densities in set dimensions', but he'd only been paying attention enough to get the gist of it. Probably.

His power laughed to herself, ~Indeed.~

The fact that she could read his thoughts he was still getting used to though.

~Oh. That wasn't a joke?~ she commented, shaking her head, though she was still smiling. Projecting a smile. Same thing. ~Regardless, sir, I believe the woman with the bi-dimensional ability is attempting to gain your attention.~

He split off his attention in three directions. He was still getting used to doing so, and could think in three at most so far, four made him feel like he was texting while driving, but Tari assured him he'd soon grow to utilize more of them.

Primary him looked over to Pan. . . something, and apologized in his best 'House of Cards' voice, "Sorry my dear, I was thinking about something that engaged me fully. What can I do for you?"

Secondary him picked up the conversation he was having with Tari, ~They're my minions, and besides, it'll only matter if they think they have to sacrifice their lives for me, which they won't _actually_ have to. Then I'll either find out they're disloyal, so I can try and find some way to _make_ them loyal, or get rid of their powers, or if they do go through with it then I'll find out they'd die for me, which is pretty cool.~

Tertiary him looked over his gun, just to make sure it was okay. It's not that he didn't trust her word, but super-science stuff was supposed to be _weird_ , and she _had_ said if it'd used quantum effects then what he was doing might mess it up, but that she'd see it messing up with enough time to escape, as both his precog and time-stopping worked differently than his multiplicity power.

"How did you know that was going to happen?" the woman demanded, way more upset than she had any reason to be.

~You cannot account for the plans of the Primary in his attempts to eliminate The Warrior,~ Tari chided the second him at the same time as the hero was demanding his secrets. ~You have done little to assist him either.~

His Power simultaneously told his third self ~If quantum irregularities were going to result in a cascade event, they would've done so already, Sir.~ All three of her informed him at once ~She's been trying to ask you that question for several seconds, and my study of human psychology indicates that your ignoring her would likely result in the anger she is displaying, though there may be other factors at once.

Primary him stopped walking, the other two hims stopping as well, and he turned to regard her directly. "One merely must pay attention to one's surroundings. It is a lesson every parahuman should learn, though sadly few do."

~I'm helping him by taking over the city,~ secondary him argued. ~I know him, and if I _didn't_ he would. This way he gets to worry about the _actually_ bad people, I get to run my own empire, and we all have a power base to use to change things later on. That's _totally_ helping!~

Tertiary him called up his base's comms, "Anything interesting?"

The hero he was talking to took a centering breath, her nerves obviously frayed. "I'm sorry, it's just that. . ."

Time froze once more. ~Lethal threat, directly above, three seconds.~

~I withdraw my objection,~ Tari gave to his second self. ~The fact that he attempted to assist you in that endeavor gives credence to your claims.~ She read his confusion and sighed. ~He gave you advice on how to run your crime syndicate, so he wants you to complete that objective.~

Tattletale replied to his third self, "Other than you having precog?"

"It's just what?" his primary self asked, not

~Then why didn't you say that in the first place?~ his secondary self asked, smiling internally.

Him three didn't really know how to respond to that. She wasn't _wrong,_ but admitting it seemed like the wrong thing to do. He could stop time while he looked at possible futures to think of how to respond, but doing so always threw him off when he split like this.

Quart. . . Quat. . . a forth him pointed the desiccation cannon straight up, destroying the water javelin that shot down from above and rejoining the rest of hims. Thinking took effort, shooting was easy.

"Would you stop doing that?" Pancake pleaded, having flinched when he'd moved. ~Her name is Paninla,~ Tari chimed in.

~Forgive me if I am attempting to assist you in expanding your vocabulary,~ Tari sighed to his secondary self.

"Ha! Knew it!" Tattletale laughed when his tertiary self didn't respond. "Kaiser just died," she added.

~I don't really care,~ the first him replied mentally as he said, "Stop Leviathan's attacks upon us? I was under the impression that I was here to _stop_ people from dying."

~You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him talk good,~ him two replied.

"I appreciate the intel, assuming it's valid," he told Tattletale, not commenting on her accusation.

Paninla's armband started up again, stopping her reply. It sounded. . . _bad._ After the first few, when you had to start listing losses alphabetically instead of chronologically? It usually meant you were _losing_.

Tari gave his secondary self a flat stare.

"Of course it's _valid_!" Tattletale complained. "Who do you think I am!"

He listened to the losses with her: _"Adagio, Bellerophon, Bionic Boy, Dudette, Hell's Bell, Iron Falcon."_

~Is this really the time for this?~ second him asked.

"I think you're amazingly correct, _most_ of the time," he shot back thirdly, not budging an inch with her. "It's the _most_ part that's the reason we check your intel."

The losses continued to roll in, and the two of them listened in, not saying anything. " _Jotun, Mellifluent,_ _Peace Pacer, Penitent, Prometheus, Sacha, Scandal._ "

~You are correct,~ His power told the second him, who combined with the primary him.

"I'm right when it matters," Tattletale muttered to the third, now second, instance of himself. She didn't say anything else, so he folded that him back down to the primary as well.

 _"Train-man, Ultimatus, Vitator, Woah-man, and Wombatller"_ ended the list.

He had to stop time for a moment. ~ _Wombattler?_ Is he a manslughtering marsupial? A combat Wombat? Who the hell names themselves 'Wombattler?~ he asked no one in particular, laughing internally.

~No one, as they are likely dead,~ was Centari's reply. Not judging, _exactly,_ merely impartial.

~I guess,~ he replied, using his ability of the future to look around at those following him. Looking back in real life wouldn't help him look cool, but possible futures didn't happen, so they didn't count.

The group of parahumans around the two of them looked unsure, many of them scared, and all of them dispirited. The rain probably didn't help if you didn't have a Tinkertech helmet like he did, nor the energy shield which also actively repelled the monsoon. It was probably the shield that helped the most, now that he thought about it. It wouldn't be enough to stop something big, but it'd absorb a little bit of small arms fire, and he appreciated Riot's contribution.

"I need to go help," the woman next to him announced, deciding something. "Staying around you isn't going to do it."

"And you're going to be able to catch up to Leviathan _how_ exactly?" Æonic asked dryly, laughing to himself that he was probably the only one who _could_ do something dryly in this weather.

"I don't know, and I don't care," she told him, turning and walking away. "It'll be better than just waiting around with _you._

That hurt, though it really shouldn't. He didn't really care about her, but keeping on good terms with the local heroes was _probably_ a good thing. And he might've overdone the arrogance a little.

Tari gave him a skeptical look.

Okay, a _lot_ , but it was part of the performance! It was _cool_ , dammit!

He reached an apologetic hand out to the heroine, who was already fifty feet away, nearly jogging with how fast she was walking. "Pa-" was as far as he got before the world froze once more.

~Death threat from below,~ Tari said, all business. ~You'll want to see this.~

~Remind me to apologize to Paninla,~ he instructed as well. The last time she'd been this serious Coil had tried to have him assassinated with a bunch of mercs, two sniper teams, three bombs, and a guy with fire-snakes coming out of his back. It hadn't worked, _obviously_ , but the they'd killed some innocent people and the snake-guy got away.

 _The ground below him split open, an enormous, dark claw piercing his stomach as Leviathan lifted him high, pulling itself up from below the street. The strike instantly guaranteed his death, as even if he stopped time the only thing holding his guts in would be Leviathan's hand._

He rewound the future and tried different strategies.

 _He stepped aside as the strike came, but Leviathan moved as well, striking true._

 _He activated the jump jets he had hidden, rising in the air, but Leviathan rose with him. The claws missed, but the tail did not, piercing him mid-air as he was unable to dodge._

~Tari, I need a better way to move mid-air,~ he instructed, still frozen in time. The pain of the injuries disappeared as soon as he dropped that future, but it helped prioritize what mattered.

~Noted, sir,~ she replied.

 _He used the desiccation canon. Leviathan's dry claws penetrated flesh._

 _He jumped and used the desiccation cannon. Leviathan was slower, somehow, but, when the tail missed, Levithan blasted Æonic from behind with a javelin of water._

 _Same as before, desiccating the backstab. Paninla threw up a shadow shield between them but Leviathan tore through it easily, using it to climb up in an instant, fast once more, ripping Æonic to shreds._

 _Desiccate the backstab, desiccate again right before shield goes up. Levi is slower and suddenly goes for Paninla. She dies as he starts to flee, another water javelin from above kills him._

 _Same as before, blast the last javelin, start to get away, Leviathan kills the others that were around him, five second limit reached._

That. . . worked. He wasn't happy about it, but it worked. These people weren't his. He didn't even think Paninla _liked_ him, though she distracted Leviathan long enough for Æonic to get away. It resulted in her death, and, hidden as her expression was under her veils, she seemed weirdly okay with it.

He didn't know the others, and they were only _starting_ to move when his Glimpse ended but her. . . her dying wasn't okay. Yeah, she could counter his 'power', but he was more than just the 'stop time guy', and, despite thinking she could render him powerless, she'd been. . . nice?

 _Dessicate the backstab while flipping over and jet around the dark barrier to get to her before Leviathan does. Not fast enough, then Leviathan kills her, then him._

 _Two of him flip over and jet. Same result._

 _Three. Same._

 _Six. Same._

 _All eleven of him simultaneously. Same._

Fucking momentum. If he used all eleven of himselves at once, he could probably go _stupid_ fast, but it took a bit to get going. He could cheat upwards by jumping, but not when he was in the air. _Then don't jump up_. He thought.

 _Jump to the side, Leviathan misses by inches, desiccation slows him down, he rips through the shadow barrier, then Æonic. Paninla shifts to shadow and survive._

Okay she survived _then_ but he didn't. Honestly, it was the worse of the two options, but why stop at two?

 _Fuck it. Stop Time. Paninla is out of range. Leviathan doesn't come up at al-oh there it is, killing her instantly._

 _Jump, wait for Leviathan to come to him, stop time. Leviathan's arm is caught, but he falls out of the bubble on his way down. Leviathan kills him._

 _Jump, activate the bubble so he has a space to land. Leviathan's hand is caught, it uses its tail and water constructs to kill everyone else as it stares at him, waiting. Desiccation gun doesn't work through stopped time, as he fires uselessly._

That didn't work either.

 _Jump towards her, stop time. Leviathan goes for everyone else. She's horrified._

Okay, he saved them both, but likely lost a _ton_ of good-will.

He thought about what he had. The desiccation cannon was in his hands, his pistol, strong as Déjà could make it, wouldn't do _shit_ to Leviathan. Or would it?

 _Jump, shoot, get speared._

No it wouldn't. He was strong, which was nice, and immunity didn't help. Wait. . . the walking stick. The walking stick with the weird Tinkertech sword inside of it!

 _Grab, unsheathe, get stabbed through from below before it's halfway out._

 _Jump, grab, unsheathe, get pierced as it leaves its scabbard._

 _Jump, grab, dessicate downwards, unsheathe, shadow barrier blocks blow, Leviathan rips-_

Okay that didn't work either. Wait. Lee'd said the metal made you hit harder. . . and he'd made the sheath out of the same stuff!

 _Grab, strike, claws are knocked slightly off, Levi tears off his head._

Double up.

 _Grab, strike, claws are knocked more off, Levi tears off his face._

Triple?

 _Grab, Strike, claws are knocked aside, second claw breaks his back._

That hurt like a bitch, but it was _progress._

 _Grab, strike down, turn and strike out, fall into. . . was that quicksand?_

Not fair, but what if. . .

 _Grab, strike down, jump and strike out, Leviathan follows upwards, get hit from above_

Noted.

 _Grab, strike down, jump and strike out, Leviathan follows upwards, fire above, get to Paninla, Bubble, hand trapped, kills the others, PR disaster._

Maybe. . .

 _Grab, strike down, jump **other** way and strike, miss the timing, gutted._

Right, it would take longer to get hit.

 _Grab, strike down, jump, strike follow up, fire above, land next to scrubs, catch Levi's tail. Paninla dies to surprise water blast._

 _There was no way to save them all_ , he thought despairingly.

~Sir, you could warn Ms. Paninla,~ his power chimed in.

. . .

 _Grab, yell, strike, jump, parry, fire, freeze, catch, **Time Limit Fucking Reached!**_

~If you were real, and I wasn't frozen in time, I would kiss you,~ he promised.

She gave him a cool stare, nodding once. ~I appreciate the compliment, sir, in the spirit it was given. Now, are you ready?~

He dropped the power, his primary self firing downwards with the desiccation cannon while his secondary, tertiary, and fourth self grabbed his walking stick, selves five through eight priming his jump boots while self nine, shouted, "Pan, Shade!", self ten fired above to eliminate the attack from that vector and self eleven watched where he was going, seeing the water-clone he'd missed before since it didn't hit him in the five second limit, nor did it seem like it was going to hit him in the next five seconds, since his power didn't go off.

He desiccated it anyways, stopping time and catching Leviathan's tail as it struck like a snake for his throat.

He paused time to yell ~Take that you motherfucker!~ in his head, resuming and keeping his stoic demeanor, looking at it as it struggled futily and giving a mocking bow.

Now that he wasn't getting _constantly killed by it,_ he got a good look at it and it was in pretty bad shape. It was covered in injuries, some of them a full foot deep. It even had deep hole punctured through its calf, though whatever had hit it hadn't gone all the way through.

An orange lightning bolt descended from the sky and striking The Endbringer in the back, bouncing off and turning into the green guy. Ideal-y.

~Eidolon,~ Tari corrected.

Ideal-y held out a hand, a blue beam shooting out and wrapping around Leviathan, holding him in place, which it already was because of Æonics _great_ planning, but it tightened, sizzling as it constricted, so that worked too.

It thrashed as-

~Eidolon~

It thrashed as _Eidolon_ , still giving off orange sparks, poured dark red into the blue beam, tightening it as the bonds bubbled.

Æonic was about to drop his bubble when Tari told him ~Doing so creates a death threat. It is about to explode.

And so he didn't, watching instead as the bonds bubbled faster before the destabilized, spraying in every direction before exploding so brightly that his helmet's cameras auto-tinted.

Time paused again as Tari said, ~Look down and left, sir.~

He did so, and he could see the shape of Leviathan, missing the end of his tail, one arm nearly skeletal as it dove to the side. Time resumed and Leviathan tore into the ground, disappearing, and Eidolon escaped the explosion in a bolt of orange lightning.

After the explosion cleared, part of the it was caught at the edge of his Time bubble, ready to continue as soon as it dropped. He looked around. The idiots he'd saved were fine, of course, but he couldn't see Paninla.

~Forty-three feet away, 24 degrees right,~ his power said, going through all the potential futures of him searching for her until he did.

Following her directions, he found the woman, partially covered in rubble, half her veils burned away, revealing melted armor underneath. Reaching to help had him putting his hand through her insubstantial form. She shuddered and moaned, obviously in pain.

"Hey," he said, dropping the persona for a second on reflex. "You okay?" She just moaned and he didn't even need Tari to tell him that'd been dumb. "Right, come out of there and be real. I've got a medkit."

She wasn't hearing a thing he said, and he debated whether or not he should do what he was thinking of. Did it work if he tried it?

 _It did._

Did it work if he didn't?

 _Nope._

He leaned down and called softly, "Althea Andrada, if you want to survive this, you need to let me help you."

Hearing her real name brought her out of her haze, as she rolled over, face looking rough, though it was hard to tell the damage as she was still made of shadows. "Wha?" was as far as she got before she shuddered in pain.

"Madam, I need you to be real if I'm going to get you help," he said in character, now that he had her attention.

Color returned to. . . _parts_ of her, though a lot of her stayed black. He wanted to believe that it was still stuck in darkness, and not burned, but he could practically feel Tari ready to correct him. ~Let me have my lies,~ he griped without heat.

~Not if they make you less effective,~ she replied kindly. ~The synth-skin spray Ms. Ahmed gave you is in your second left vest pocket.~

Primary him carefully reached down and picked Paninla up, careful not to put pressure on her burned flesh. Hims two through five worked to spray the Tinker-substance on her charred flesh, merging and re-splitting to use ten times the amount he carried of the substance on her. It was meant for covering up Cybernetics, but Post-cog had told him he'd be able to use it for burns without a problem.

 _But she can't see **me,**_ _so how'd she know?_ he wondered. _Who brings burn-cream to a water monster fight?_

~It is likely that Eidolon attempted that maneuver without your presence to attenuate the damage and prevent as many casualties,~ Tari suggested. ~To make it less ef-~

~I know what it means,~ he replied, his good mood gone as he made sure she was fully covered before bringing her into the Bubble, half of its outer edge still holding the explosion. Putting her carefully on a bench, the synth-skin, now that it was bonded to her, would start to heal her, though she'd look like she had vitiligo, since it was set for his skin color in case he'd been hurt or his. . . equipment was damaged.

You couldn't spray things in a Time Bubble, he'd tested, and now he looked at the twenty-three idiots he'd have to move out of the way in the next. . .

~Seven.~

The next seven minutes before it dropped and they were roasted alive by an explosion they couldn't see coming. He glared at the tip of Leviathan's tail, still hanging in the air, and glanced back at Paninla. If he couldn't bring them all out in time, he was making sure _she_ survived. It wasn't going to come down to that with so few people to save, and he'd have more than enough time to get them all out, but they'd done _jack_ to help so he still made the threat.

He gave one last glare in the direction that idle-man went off in before rolling up his metaphorical sleeves. This was going to take a bit-

Leviathan burst from underground, grabbed several cars, throwing them at the time bubble, before jumping over, ripping apart a building, throwing the pieces into the bubble from the other direction, each piece flying like it was shot out of a cannon. Its partially skeletal arm, already healing, worked fine and in the space of a few seconds it'd practically covered the bubble, closing off Æonics exit routes entirely. Its work done, Æonic could see through the cracks as it dived back underground, a bolt of orange lightning, buzzing past but not stopping to help at all.

~Asshole,~ Æonic growled, looking at the task and wondering if he could _actually_ move everyone out now. Did he break open a wall? Could he negate the momentum of the building pieces? He could walk through the fire himself, his immunity extended to his gear, but what if that wasn't regular fire? It'd burned a woman made of _shadows_ after all.

~Eidolon or Leviathan?~ his power asked him as he considered his next move, stopping time to give himself room to plan.

~Both.~

~. . . Agreed.~


	133. Deadline 12-6

**Deadline 12.6**

Rising high above the city, I tried to get a bead on Leviathan, but I had no idea where to start. The scanner on the armband gave me nothing, there didn't seem to be any serious fighting nearby, and there were dark flickers of movement everywhere, but, when I tried to peer through the storm to catch sight of him, nothing was there. That might've been for the best. If I fought Levi again, and I very much doubted that opening crazyiness fulfilled the requirements of my flaw, I needed an opening move.

The metal that ran through my body strengthened me, allowing me to take and give hits I couldn't before. Reaching back behind myself, I unholstered my sword handle and my hand-cannon, forming the blade as I stared out into the day so stormy it appeared to be twilight.

Herb rose in the sky as well, flapping his wings in Pterodactyl form as he waited for me to do something, ready to follow my lead. Looking out, fighting broke out seemingly everywhere, almost at once, the sounds, coming from several different directions, nearly drowned out by the tidal wave still trying to force itself into the city. The flash of powers contrasted with the flashes of lighting as the storm further intensified, as if god himself was angry at what was going on. The Armband showed several different locations Leviathan was supposed to be at, though they started winking out one by one.

I had a decision I needed to make. Having us together would make us stronger, but he was way faster than me right now, and the more time Leviathan had on his own the more people he could kill. My armband pinged, Leviathan was confirmed as being halfway across the city from us. It'd take me at least a minute to get there, but Herb. . .

"Go!" I told him as the armband started to read off, _"Liger deceased, CB-4. Chill Out deceased, CB-4. Woodsman deceased."_ He was off like a shot, only his power visible as he quickly disappeared into the storm.

I holstered my gun as I pushed myself after him, trying to curl the air around me to push myself forward faster with limited success. Maybe if I-

An explosion of water blossomed where Leviathan was supposed to be, the list of mass casualties starting to roll in.

 _"Adagio, Bellerophon, Bionic Boy, Dudette"_

I didn't have _time._ No, chasing Leviathan wouldn't work. He was too fast, and I didn't have the powerset to track him down. Boardwalk might've, but I had _none_ of the required powers for that persona, even if all three were minor abilities. I hoped.

A distortion in the air was all the warning I received as a compressed spear of water shot at me from Leviathan's direction. My Aerokinesis did what I'd trained it to and deflected the projectile as I twisted further out of the way, just in case. The spear missed me easily, careening off over the city, though I didn't follow its path, ready for the next attack.

Primed and ready, trying to See my foe, I waited. There was nothing there.

I could make out the distant flickers of Flame and glow of Auras that were parahuman powers, but not the Liquid that Leviathan's power registered as. Checking my Armband, Leviathan had headed north, and I wondered who the hell had tried to kill me. Cauldron? If so, _that was fast_. I'd only mouthed off to Alexandria fifteen minutes ago, and I didn't know they had a cape that could copy _Leviathan,_ though it'd make one hell of an assassination asset, if highly contextual.

Dropping down to just over the rooftops in case my mystery assailant tried again, I started to move the closest group of heroes, the one I'd been with having scattered when Alexandria left. If I had my full set, I'd be trying to distance myself, to better pull off the kind of power-combo BS that I'd been training. Stripped down as I was, I needed the distractions they'd provide while I gathered new abilities.

A thunderous crash, louder than the lightning by far, tore across the city as an area to the northwest lit up in an enormous explosion, grabbing my attention as my armband read _"Paninla down, AA-3."_

As I stared at it something _large_ burst out from the garage building directly below me, displacing the air and giving itself away. It clawed its way to the roof and launched up towards me in an instant. Looking below I was shocked to see Leviathan closing on me, his dark shape blending it with the buildings and his power-

Blasting down reflexively with air as I flew upwards, the shape rose towards me, rippling, lacking any powers whatsoever. The dark liquid clone of Leviathan destabilized as it flew upwards, obviously not the Endbringer I was hunting. As I dodged to the side, it quickly reformed above me and flew in my direction, ignoring anything so simple as _physics_.

It was fast, faster than I was, and _so_ bullshit it wasn't even funny, which cut down on my options _significantly_. Meeting it head on, its 'claw' blew apart as I struck out at it with my sword, the rest of its body surrounding me in a sphere that held me in place. The dark fluid wrapped around my body as I held my breath, the substance quickly covering me, cutting off all of my senses. I was forced to try to use my Aerokinesis 'see', and all that told me was that it'd made a perfect sphere, hanging in the air and absorbing the rain as it constricted around me. The tightening paused before I suddenly felt the liquid pushing against my lips, trying to force itself down my throat.

I closed the face of the clear helmet around my mouth as it shoved itself through my clenched teeth, sealing my suit. What little had made it into my mouth slackened, and I forced my tongue backwards, trying to seal my throat, the foul-tasting fluid pushing gently against it in disturbing ways.

I was almost thankful as the unnaturally dark water started to tighten around me, the liquid in my mouth going still as it went back trying to kill me with more _conventional_ methods. I tried to fly upwards, to escape, but the liquid hanging onto me held me in place. The increasingly crushing force slowing down in its tightening as it hung on, but not stopping.

 _Levi can't multitask at this range,_ was my best guess. If he'd been right here, I had no compunctions about admitting the fact that the Endbringer would've killed me in seconds. Trying to replicate what I'd done when I sparred with Brix, I couldn't get the space required to discharge a shield, the water sticking to me like tar. Metal Projection wouldn't help, as it was porous by nature of being tendrils, and that just left Aerokinesis, lacking any open slots power to try for something else, like _intangibility_.

Taking direct control of the air around myself, I fell back to my training, created dozens of Air Blades around the sphere I was trapped in as it slowly, inexorably, increased its pressure against me. Sending the blades inwards to try and cut myself out, the amorphous Levi-clone crushed down, destabilizing the constructs, but that worked too. As they unraveled, the compressed air blew gouts of liquid off the sphere, disrupting its grip on me as the increasingly painful crushing force weakened. Half of the water blown off me pulled itself back into the prison I was trapped in, the pressure spiking as it stopped taking its time killing me.

Shields popped as I frantically cut into the water surrounding me, detonating them in sprays of dark fluid, any globule smaller than my hand not pulling itself back into the mass of dark liquid. Still holding my breath, my joints started to lock up as the metal in my body formed a solid latticework, taking the load as my skin was gradually mashed and pulped, though it was a temporary measure at best. I was unable to move my body while it was maintained, but I didn't need to move to cut myself free.

Forming larger blades, I sliced them deep in the fluid, forming a circle around me, and detonated them at once. The metal in my body groaned as the pressure spiked momentarily to unbearable levels, almost all the water around me blowing outwards, reshaping itself into a half size Leviathan. What water still wrapped around me formed the long coils of a Levi's tail as it struck down at my chest with both claws, the crystalline shield covering my heart draining under the simultaneous impact of the points of pressurized water.

However, with most of its mass formed into a body, I had a target that _wasn't_ right next to me. I riddled the damn thing with dozens of air blades, slashing it to pieces and exploding the reforming fluid to rain down below me as I flew backwards as fast as I could.

Another water spear came in from behind me, which was diverted, but, turning to look, there was no-one there. Opening my helmet, I spit out the black, gritty, odd-tasting liquid, the solidness it'd had before gone. I took a deep breath and looked around in the darkness, flashes of light sending odd shadows in every direction, but nothing else seemed ready to jump out.

Shaking slightly, I flew higher, deflecting another water spear without really paying attention to it. Staring around, there were sporadic lights as fighting flared up here and there, but never for more than a moment. My armband was cracked, but still functional, reading out more names now that it wasn't muffled.

 _"House Rules down, DF-4. Rabble Rouser down, DF-4. Roll-Out deceased, BC-1. Geomancer down, AC-2. Awe down, CD-2. Shock deceased, CD-2."_

Glancing at my map, I was in DB-6, so whatever the hell was going on, it wasn't near me, giving me time to think about what just happened. That had been. . . _bad._ The only saving grace was that Leviathan lost control of that. . . _fluid_ when it was separated by my helmet. I was well aware that it could've done _horrific_ things to me if he could've forced it down my lungs. Regardless, I needed to warn the others.

"Zilla, send this message to everyone. Leviathan doesn't need line of sight to move his water, he's using clones, and he might try to drown you with them, so avoid direct contact if possible," I instructed. If one of those things caught Herb, it'd be bad, but if it caught Vicky? I didn't want to consider it, but I couldn't do anything to help, yet.

"Message will be sent when available," the base's virtual intelligence replied.

I started to make my way back to the nearest group. "What do you mean?"

"Designations Curtis, Break, Tyrone, and Æonic are currently unreachable. Message sent to Break, waiting on others," she informed me as I crested the nearest building. I spotted a dark shape without any powers watching me from a rooftop when I felt something coming towards me, dodging a car that was sent flying at me from the crowd below. When I glanced back, the dark shape was gone. Leaving it behind, I headed towards the gathered heroes.

"Sorry!" A young-looking guy in a white bodysuit covered with black arrows called as I descended. Glancing at him, the glow of his Uni-directional Telekinesis identified him as the one who tried to hit me, even if he hadn't apologized.

"No prob," I replied with forced calm, dropping down to the group of maybe four dozen heroes. "Who's in charge?"

"I am!" called a man in armor jovially, who I flew over to. What I first took as a Case-53 deformation turned out to be a sizeable gut. "Powers?" he asked, eyes serious but with a giant grin across his wide face.

"Mid-level Alexandria package, healing, bug control," I rattled off, despite only having one of those. "I can half-ass a forcefield, but they're not that strong."

"Grab-bag," he nodded, holding out a hand for me to shake. "I'm Chubster, we could-"

A water spear shot down from above, but surrounded as I was there was no easy way for me to deflect it without it hitting someone else. Letting go of the cape's hand I turned and caught the attack on my forearm, draining the shield there once again as the metal throughout my body allowed me to take the raw force of the blow without being knocked down. The Crystalline shields over my heart and right hand were my only shields that still weren't back, though the second had less than a minute until it recharged. I wasn't sure how I knew that, having lost track of the time when I'd gotten jumped by that water-clone, but assumed it was part of the Interface I'd gotten from Eidolon.

Turning back to Chubster, his eyes were wide behind his helmet, though he hid his surprise well. "That happen before?" he asked, half joking.

"Yeah," I nodded, looking around. "Bit of a whistle before it happens," I lied, mouth on autopilot as I waited out the clock until I could get another power. "You'd think I slept with his sister, with how much he doesn't like me."

"Ah-huh," the hero nodded, laughing to himself. "Sure ya did, sport. You take that street," he pointed to the north of the intersection the team was in, "They've only got one Brute."

"Yessir," I replied, flying over there, taking position next to the kid who'd thrown a car at me. "So, having fun?"

 _"Shredder deceased, BB-2. Solar down, ED-5. Thunderer deceased, BD-6. Odd Man Out deceased, EC-3. B-"_

"N-not really," the parahuman replied, glancing over at me before facing the same direction I was, not saying anything else.

"I know, we haven't even fought yet!" a woman with an animal motif costume on the telekinetic's other side agreed, grinning with a mouth full of sharpened teeth. "Name's Fierceling, stutter-bitch is Impel, the frost queen's Galacian, and that's wallflower's Faker."

She indicated the other two in the group I'd joined. Fierceling had a physical enhancement that scaled with her fear, which was already active, despite her attitude. Galacian was a dark-skinned woman in armor made of Ice and Faker had. . . _low level power copying. **Fuck.**_

He was staring at me, eyes wide behind the mask of the most generic costume I'd ever seen. He was likely copying my power-sight, though his own power created a far inferior version of the copied power, maybe 30% the original's power, and I could make out the edges of several restrictions that were hard to make out.

"Faker?" I asked, tapping my Aerokinesis to spell out 'reveal my secrets, I'll kill you,' in the air currents behind me, so weak that it barely diverted the rain but would be easily read with Power Sight. "What do you do?"

"I copy powers," he replied nervously. "I'm not as good with them, but I can keep six at a time."

"Think it'd work against Leviathan?" I asked.

He gave an uncomfortable laugh. "I need to touch someone to copy, so I'd rather not find out."

. . . Dismissing the message behind me, I felt like an asshole, but not an _unjustified_ one. Staring at him for a moment, I could see that he was right, though he could copy eight, not six. "Hopefully you won't need to," I agreed, turning back to watch the area I was assigned.

There were four groups, one for each road, with five people each, and a central group of close to thirty in the center, which was where Chubster stood, watching everything. Those in the center were doing all sorts of things, from watching the skies, to typing on wrist-mounted computers, to just waiting, calmly. The man in charged was carrying on a conversation with short person in armor as he looked around.

Meeting my eyes, he pointed in the direction I was covering and made a 'turn around' gesture, though it came off as reassuring instead of 'you've done something wrong'. Watching my area, I tried to check on the state of my main power. While the second Major slot was closer, I'd underestimated the time it'd take to be ready. It was more than 3/4ths of the way there, but I didn't really have any sense of how long that'd _actually_ take to complete emplacement. Since I'd fought next to Alexandria, it felt like it'd gotten maybe a third of the way through what was left, while another Minor slot would be ready shortly. Maybe two minutes?

Focusing on the task at hand I stared down the slowly flooding road. While the darkness held no secrets to my enhanced eyes, the heavy rain, flashing lightning, and flow of water made the street seem to subtly shift. It almost seemed like something was moving, though nothing Leviathan's size.

I went to grab my sword, only to come up with nothing. _Right,_ I must've dropped it when I'd gotten jumped before. _Fuck it._ Calling the powers together, the blazing Purple & Red sword formed in my hand as I pulled out my pistol once more. "This might be paranoia-" I started to say, only for Fierceling to cut me off.

"I see it," she pronounced, glancing around and muttering to herself. _"Oh that isn't fair."_

Faker nodded as I followed her gaze, water starting to gather down each of the four streets. Even in the dim-light that filtered through the storm clouds the gathering fluid looked too dark, a flash of lightning showing them to be mostly clear, not the same blue-black of the clone I'd tangled with before.

"Levi-clones!" I called out, shooting the one forming at the end of my street, the gun straining against the metal projected into my palm as the shot blew out a hole in the center of the mass of water, which quickly reformed. Other than losing a few inches in height, it was completely unharmed.

"Keep to your posts!" Chubster yelled back. "Blasters, you waitin' for an invitation?"

Galacian stepped forward, cupping her hands together and blowing into them, white vapor streaming out of her mouth. Throwing it forward, the glob of white mist grew out quickly, freezing the several inches of water covering the road, freezing the sides of the buildings as well, and racing for the water clone. I could feel the heat as someone to my right filled their street with fire, which my power funneled air into without any input from my end, growing the blaze into a raging inferno.

My assigned target leapt backwards, the Levi-clone 3/4th its true size, its vague form defining itself into the same shape of its creator. It leapt high above the white mist, which froze the street below it, landing with a crack on the ice before tearing forward towards us.

An enhanced bullet it in the now 'solid' leg caused it to stagger, despite these creations not needing to actually run to move. _Pretending weakness,_ I reminded myself, shooting it in the other leg and slowing it down again, but not stopping it.

Faker thrust his hands towards the water construct and a sizzling stream of yellow gas shot forward. I thought it would miss it, but the gas seemed to grow claws and hook into it, turning into a gigantic millipede that wrenched it backward as Galacian prepped another mist blast.

I could feel a full-sized Levi-clone sneaking up a side street, climbing the roof, and swore under my breath. As I opened my mouth another woman yelled, "More coming in from above!"

A woman in armor studded with lights knelt in the middle of the central group and put down a large device, doing something to it. A shape was fired upwards, forming a spiderweb of glowing yellow lines that hung mid-air twenty feet above us, over which a green dome of energy flickered into existence. The rain sizzled into vapor as it struck the light, the shield forming a canopy that protected us from above, but not from any side.

"Pull back, Brutes cover!" Chubster ordered. Moving to my left, Impel shoved his hands at a nearby car, twisting them as they glowed brown, the car glowing brown as well. It accelerated towards our target, skimming over the water as it picked up more and more speed. The Levi-clone tried to dodge but didn't make it all the way, the missile catching its left leg and splattering it's 'flesh' backwards, the water replica shrinking as it shifted mass to reform into 'Leviathan' once more.

A fully formed Levi-clone jumped us from above, landing on the shield above us with a hiss, the impact forcing the shield down slightly as it burned through the creature's body. The clone, seeming to have a sense of self preservation, leapt backwards, missing the bottom half of its legs, regrowing them as it shrank.

Sounds of tearing metal came to my left but I didn't pay it mind, nor the intoning of more names from the armbands of those gathered as I holstered my gun.

" _Dead Ringer down, BC-2. Horror deceased, BC-2. Nomu deceased CB-4, Alakaz-"_

The clone was almost on us and Fierceling started to charge when I shoved her backwards, launching myself to meet the clone directly. Hand-to-hand with these things was suicide if you weren't careful, and I didn't want any more heroes dead if I could avoid it. Closing my helmet, I pulled the air in to compress around me in a giant, amorphous mass as I leapt forward to stab it with my blade, the clone's open claw attack the exact same as the one who'd trapped me minutes before.

This time, instead of hitting it and expanding a shield, I struck took the strike on my shielded arm as I stabbed its chest with the blade, which I destabilized to force open a cavity in its watery 'flesh'. I forced the compressed air I'd gathered around myself into the wound, ballooning it outwards, but the constructs form held. The condensed air wasn't nearly as refined as the blade in my hand, but I wasn't trying to _cut_ this time around.

Surprisingly, the clone didn't lose form and try to imprison me, turning instead as it tried to run me through with its pressurized claws instead. Either way, I detonated the solid air I'd stuck in its chest, the gas violently exploding outwards and splattering the clone in every direction, the largest section starting to form into another Levi, this one barely twice my height, before a stream of white mist crashed over it, leaving it frozen solid, a flying trash can impacting it as it fell, shattering it to pieces.

Flying back, Fierceling snapped at me, "I had it!"

"Last one I fought tried to drown me in itself," I replied. "I didn't wa- Galacian, there!"

She followed my order throwing out a ball of freezing vapor that struck another clone as it darted out of a side street, freezing its head. I grabbed my gun and shot it, shattering the ice, but it reformed, smaller, darting forwards as another two leapt down from above, impacting the shield above us and forcing it down to a mere ten feet above us before leaping back to the rooftops.

The shield rose up to where it was before, but I could feel the heat of the glowing lines before they moved back into position. Glancing around, the street to the right was on fire, a big guy with glowing blue hands slugging it out with a Levi-clone that hadn't gone for the easy kill, just like the one I'd fought hadn't. As it reared back a kid in Japanese school uniform flicked his hands at the clone, thin wires slashing out and removing pieces, only the deepest cuts re-attaching themselves.

Behind me the street seemed full of glass, blue-grey lightning sparking between them physically holding back two clones, the energy shackling their limbs, while a third water construct grappled two ghost bears. A man with a glowing shield rushed the clone, bashing into it and sending it back to be ensnared as a woman with a car motif sent ribbons of deep purple energy to wrap around it, restricting it's movement.

To the left, two female Tinkers in matching costumes were laying down fire while Chubster stood behind them, reaching in front of them and going still as a water spear blasted harmlessly against his arm. A woman in stone armor slammed her foot on the ground, the asphalt cracking in a line towards the nearest Levi-clone before exploding upwards in a spike of concrete. The clone flailed, impaled, and didn't just flow around the obstruction.

On my end, Fierceling had moved forward to handle the small Clone while I looked around. She darted forward, attacking at an angle as she ripped off huge chunks of its 'flesh', Acrobatically flipping over and ducking under its blows. A tail sweep almost hit her, but a bit of solidified air slowed it down just enough to miss.

 _This is wrong,_ I couldn't help but think. These clones weren't _quite_ the same inky-dark as the first one that'd jumped me, but, even then, these things should've been _shredding_ the defenders. Another clone bounded past Fierceling, not even trying to attack her, and dodged Galcian's blast, as well as a manhole cover from Impel.

Meeting it head-on, I hit it with the exact same maneuver as before, ready for Levi to be ready and counter it, only for it to _work again._ I looked around, everyone holding their own, the fight almost reaching the one-minute mark as names continued to toll, but none from this sector. _We're winning,_ I observed with disbelief. From the grins of those around me I wasn't the only one with that thought, though I seemed to be only one of a few to hold reservations.

Looking upwards, _five_ of the clones jumped high above our heads, set to come down at once. I abandoned my post as I flew backwards to the Tinker who was maintaining the shield above us. I wanted to ask if this it was electric as well as thermal, but didn't get the opportunity as the water-clones accelerated downwards, impacting the shield and forcing it down onto those gathered. Someone called "Duck" as I reached up and grabbed the nexus of glowing beams as it slammed into my outstretched hands, breaking the shields on my palms as they hit with incredibly force, sizzling into my gloves as they did so.

The shields took the blow in its entirety, and it was lucky it did as there was no way I could've lifted five fully formed water clones, let alone taken the force their falling created. The clones leapt into the air, ready to come down again as I shoved the shield back up, yelling, "Get out from the shield!"

"No," countered the Tinker, "I got it!" The webwork twisted, sinking burning threads down into the asphalt as I moved to take the blow on my back if it didn't work, ready to lose that shield to give the others time to escape. The clones dropped and the entire web flexed slightly, but held the their position. The clones, now gone from the waist down, leapt backwards to return to the rooftops, retreating as they walked on their hands, legs slowly reforming as they shrunk.

The other clones retreated as well, disappearing back down side-roads and alleys. A ragged cheer went up among those gathered as the armbands quieted, as if to grant those still alive time to gather themselves. Even my own power seemed to agree, a minor slot opening up, ready to give me access to another power.

Taking a moment to focus on it, I saw my normal power list, along with a whole bunch of powers that I never remembered copying, like Cryogenic Mist, Wire-kinesis, Ursine Constructs, Paperform, and _dozens_ of others.

"Pull in and get ready everyone!" Chubster called out. "It's not over yet!"

Looking around, the others seemed confused, but did as he said, gathering underneath the shield as the Blasters kept their powers at the ready. As they did so, and our Armbands kept silent, I tried to figure out what I should go with. A power that'd help me escape, or one that'd help me fight? I didn't want to be obvious in my power use, but the line between 'out myself' and 'survive' was looking thinner and thinner, and Shadowform would let me slip away if things got bad. All it would take would be leaving those around me to die.

 _They would've died anyways; you need to survive no matter what!_ part of me argued. _Without you **everyone** dies!_

 _Unless running doesn't count as fighting,_ a different part pointed out. _If you fight Leviathan, and that counts, he'll move on and leave you alone. If you keep running, he'll just keep coming for you until he gets lucky!_

Another clone climbed onto a rooftop nearby, this one bigger than even the real Leviathan. Others noticed it as well, pointing it out as it looked around before leaping high into the air, just like the clones had before. It didn't make much sense to me. If _five_ of them working concert couldn't break it, what would one that didn't even have twice their combined mass hope to do?

The other clones, the ones hiding out of sight, went perfectly still as the giant water clone reached the highest point of its leap, it's watery tail straightening above it. The water that made it up was so dark as to be almost black, hiding most of the water construct's tail behind its opaque bulk, but it was a move the other clones had never used.

The heroes flinched as the giant clone accelerated downwards, even faster than the first clone I fought away from everyone else had, striking the shield with a thunderous crash. Half the supports snapped on impact as the water started to burn off, but didn't evaporate, seeming to solidify.

As we all stared up, I saw the liquid clone pull back to strike as I saw Liquid coming from the clone, reaching intangibly through the buildings around to where the other Clones waited, stock still. A moment of horrified realization dawned as the 'clone' struck down on the forcefield it stood on, pressurized water giving way to claws of crystalline flesh. Dozens of parahumans looked upwards, confused.

"It's him!" I yelled, turning and grabbing the twin Tinkers standing behind me and flying backwards as Leviathan struck downwards a second time, water burning fully off as its claws pierced the shield, ripping into the parahumans that stood on the other side as if they weren't even there, splattering the others around them with gore. My armband, which had kept quiet up until now, started up once more.

" _Zigzag deceased, DC-4. Saurian deceased, DC-4. Eyota deceased, DC-4."_

The parahumans panicked, some firing uselessly into the shield from below, further weakening it without ever touching the Endbringer above them. Some ran, like I had, getting out from under the shield, and while some stopped, others kept going, running or flying as fast as they could go. Some readied themselves, waiting for the moment to strike.

The Levi-clones sprang into motion at once, jumping those that tried to flee the battlefield, wrapping around them. The clones lost their form as they turned into spheres which crunched down on their targets, reforming and moving on, the bodies of their victims dropped to the side like so much garbage.

 _"Barometer deceased, DC-4. Jumpstart deceased, DC-4. Ranger deceased, DC-4."_

While this was happening, the original curled its claws around the bright lines of the shield, ripping them apart as the solid field failed and dropped downwards. Water poured through the net as Leviathan fell through it as well, its tail flashing out and impaling a woman who detonated in a ball of flame, burning all those around her. The glowing threads of the shield went wide, catching several parahumans in their incandescent strands and passed through flesh easily, the water instantly turning to steam as they hit the water. The screams of dozens of capes filled the air, burned to death by the steam or the lines themselves.

 _"Ms. Fahrenheit deceased, DC-4. Escutcheon deceased, DC-4. Boytoy deceased, DC-4. Fulguress deceased, DC-4. Miceal deceased, DC-4. Fierceling deceased, DC-4. Maul deceased, DC-4."_

I forced the air around them to move, shoving the steam down and away from the others, cooling itself on the cold ground and away from the lungs of the parahumans still alive. The attack before, that was just to soften us up, to give us a false sense of security. _This,_ this was the _real_ Endbringer confrontation.

 _Fight or run, time to choose._

Leviathan slashed downwards into the crowd, only for his claw to be stopped as it slammed into Chubster, who grabbed the razor-edged appendage that was nearly as big as he was and didn't let go. "Hit 'em!" the hero yelled, voice sounding raw. "Hold 'em here!"

Slotting Momentum Infusion, I felt the power spring to life as I grabbed a wrecked car, pouring the power into it as fast as I could, forming a thin, spiraled lance of force in my mind. The Tinkers I'd pulled out opened fire, and I shoved more and more power into the car. I wouldn't be able to aim this for shit, but if the arc of its flight was a straight line, that wouldn't matter.

A Levi clone leapt for Chubster, but was frozen mid-air by Galacian, cracking into pieces, one section the size of a car glowing brown and shooting forward, striking the Endbringer in the chest as its tail whipped up in a scorpion's sting. The impact threw off the blow, and Leviathan's tail, more rounded off then I'd remembered it being, gouged out the ground next to the overweight hero instead.

Rock spires shoved up to try and pierce Leviathan's chest, only to grind ineffectually against its skin. Fire from Tinker cannons ripped into it as well, blowing out small divots from its chest and arms, which had already healed from the first time I'd fought him, but their attacks did little else. Adding my projectile into the assault, I threw the car, keeping the line of momentum centered on Leviathan so it kicked off the moment my projectile left my hands. The wreck crumpled into a long, thin spear of metal, glass, and rubber as it blurred forward, striking Leviathan's chest with a crash, knocking the Endbringer backwards and off its feat. The Creature tried to regain its balance so it didn't fall completely, its other arm flailing as it used its tail to push itself back up.

While the arm Chubster held onto looked hurt, I noticed that Leviathan's other arm was nearly skeletal, thin green muscle covering dark grey bones. I knew that didn't mean anything though, and its 'flailing' created water which flew up into the air, forming water spears which struck down towards Galacian. I was able to deflect them, but that meant I just deflected a few into _other people_.

 _"Ysera down, DC-4. Heckler deceased, DC-4."_

Galacian hosed down Leviathan with her mist, freezing it in a block of Ice as Chubster bellowed, "Don't stop!"

I grabbed a pickup truck, carrying it with a Lift Field as I rose high, pouring more power into it. The Leviathan clones sprang into action and charging the heroes. One clone was impaled by a concrete spike, only to flow around it and grab the woman who'd created it, crushing her in her own stone armor, while a second was blasted into mist by a blond woman, a third water-clone dropping down on her before she could turn around and forming a sphere, her body deforming as it was crushed. A man blasted the clone with a glowing cone that vaporized the water and what was left of the woman's body, a spike of water coming up from the flooded street behind him, piercing him through the back.

 _"Connie-crete deceased, DC-4. Scream deceased, DC-4._ "

Faker ran towards Chubster with superhuman speed, his form blurring into four hazy shapes, and I let my truck go, blasting a clone that tried to jump the Trump to droplets. I burst into the fifth-story window I was next to, grabbing a desk and starting to pour Momentum into that as well as I returned to the fight.

The power copier grabbed Leviathan's held claw before he dropped to his knees, screaming in pain. Leviathan's power, a dark Liquid which flowed in every direction, was suddenly was matched by a second, thinner stream of Flame from Faker. The clones destabilized, becoming amorphous and slowing, letting the survivors blast them to mist, and for some to escape, as the rain started flying chaotically in every direction.

Leviathan retracted his control from the rest of the city, focusing it all on the area around us, the rain all arrowing towards Faker like a thousand tiny bullets. I tried to create an Air Shield to protect him, but it wasn't enough, and throwing the desk, which formed a spear that struck Leviathan's head dead on, had no effect on the Endbringer's Hydrokinesis. It was a losing fight, the air shields destroyed faster than I could replace him, the constant assault of bullet rain whittling down his defenses as Faker tried to stop them with his copied power, only blunting the barrage.

A Tinker with a large cannon fired it into Leviathan, blowing out a head-sized chunk where its heart should be, but Leviathan didn't stop. Impel hit Leviathan from the side with a lamp post while a man with a demonic horns hurled a bolt of dirty looking energy into Leviathan's back, but all that seemed to do was break the ice holding the Endbringer still.

Leviathan's body twisted in Chubster's grip, the water from its movement grabbing hold of the ice that had bound it, and it accelerated the frozen water towards the heroes that had surrounded it. Faker lashed out, sending the ice high over our heads, but had to stop trying to stop the bullet rain to do so. Leviathan wasted no time taking advantage of this opportunity. The unimpeded projectiles ripped through my shields and pierced his body in an instant, his power snuffed like blown out candle.

Unimpeded, Leviathan turned on Chubster, who held fast as the Endbringer's water crashed down on him, his Stationary Durability keeping him safe. However, Leviathan wasn't just hitting Chubster, but the ground underneath him. As the asphalt broke and the ground was pounded to mud, then silt, Chubster fell, and his defenses fell with him. Leviathan used that vulnerability to pick up the hero and spin him, further lowering his vulnerability, before slamming him into the ground with the force of a head-on collision, killing the hero.

" _Faker deceased, DC-4. Chubster deceased, DC-4._ "

Free to move, Leviathan spun, sending a circular blade of cutting liquid, though it was far enough that the others could dodge, only the horned man not able to move in time.

 _"Azazel deceased, DC-4. Delican't deceased, FB-3_ "

From there Leviathan turned and slammed a claw into the hulking figure charging him as I grabbed my pistol, shooting the Endbringer in the head. My shot staggered the Endbringer, who flicked a claw in my direction. I tried to deflect the water blast with my air, only for Leviathan to shove it back on track. The Endbringer blasted me in the chest with a pressurized stream of water that discharged that shield, slamming me backwards into the building behind me, discharging that one across my lower back as well.

Leviathan's tail flicked out towards Galacian, a woman with glowing white claws stepping in front of her and slashing off the regrown tip of Leviathan's tail. I flew towards the two of them, trying to help, and deflected another water spear as the Endbringer gutted the Brute he was fighting and jumping towards the pair, dodging a glowing spear and slamming its wielder with its tail, crushing the armored man.

 _"Turbolance deceased, FD-4. Mutate deceased, DC-4."_

It took fire from Tinker guns, not caring, as the Endbringer came down on the woman with the glowing claws. While her claws cut through Leviathan's like a hot knife through butter, the Endbringer took the blow to kill her, its longer claws ripping through her flesh as easily as she ripped through its. The monster's second hand simultaneously swung around to kill Galacian, who blew at it point blank and covered it in freezing mist.

It didn't care.

Leviathan broke the ice that had 'trapped' it before through strength alone, not even inconvenienced as it continued to reach for her. I pulled the trigger to try to deflect it, but my gun clicked, empty, as she was torn in half.

 _"Frey deceased, DC-4. Galacian deceased, DC-4."_

Trying an Air Blade from behind, it spent itself harmlessly on the Endbringer's torn flesh, my attack options pitifully small without a build-up time I could no longer afford. Holstering the weapon, I flew backwards, deciding it was _time to fucking leave,_ only for Leviathan to snap its head in my direction before it launched itself towards me.

Shoving itself at me with its power, I tried to dodge, pushing myself with air the same way it was pushing itself with water in addition to my own flight. It wasn't enough to escape entirely, but its claws dragged against my chest with bruising force, unable to cut through my armor.

It was _fast,_ faster than I was in the air, which meant I needed to go low to lose it. Dropping back towards the intersection, which was a flooded, frozen, broken mess, another water clone formed itself and tried to grab me, and I blew it to pieces like the others before it. However, the moment it took to do so allowed Leviathan to turn around and blast down towards me.

"Dude, I'm on my way!" Herb called and I almost lost focus, forgetting that he existed in this fight.

Leviathan dropped down and I met him with a kick, draining the shield but neutralizing the blow as I was forced downwards, the force dispelling the shield on my right elbow as I landed. Manifesting a sword, I swung as Leviathan struck at me, while its blunted tail struck out at the large man coming to my aid. My Air Blade broke in an instant, barely stopping Leviathan's claw as it struck my face, dispelling the crystalline shield protecting the front of my head as I was sent backwards.

Impel tossed another car at Leviathan as the large man, hand glowing blue, struck the Endbringer in the back of the legs. The blue glow transferred to the Endbringer's flesh, racing up and sinking into the dead-center of its chest, causing it to stagger for a moment.

Leviathan turned, grabbing the larger man who struck it again, ripping him in half as its tail struck out, sending a blast of water towards Impel. The water glowed brown before blasting upwards harmlessly. However, a spike of water shot up from the flooded street at his feet, skewering him completely, killing the telekinetic instantly.

 _"Oaf deceased, DC-4. Impel deceased, DC-4."_

Looking around, there were no more fighters, all of them either dead or fled, only Leviathan and I left. "Well, _shit,_ " I swore, as Leviathan looked at me, his power forming a clone behind me. Dropping down as the construct jumped for me, I filled it with Air Blades and detonated, the water blasting away before forming spears and coming down for me. Dropping even low to give me space to avoid the spears, the water below me formed into spikes that shot up in pointed columns that seemed oddly familiar but were easy to dodge.

As I did so, I couldn't help but notice the damn thing was _playing_ with me, but I spotted a dark shape in the water. Dodging a spike, I grabbed the arm-sized shape, realizing it was the tip of Leviathan's tail, the very end still blunt, which, looking at the Endbringer, was already half healed. Hell, the Endbringer's left arm was looking better than when the fight _started_.

Pouring Momentum into it, I stared at my foe, waiting for its next move, as it seemed to do the same. "Does this count?" I asked it, trying to buy time as I Saw its power. It formed spikes with water while I formed spikes with air, it formed spears of water while I matched those with ones of air as well. We waited, creating dozens of attacks and counter-attacks, before it launched its arsenal and I did the same. The two of us pitted our powers directly against each other, and found out who was stronger.

It wasn't even close.

While I was able to copy the constructs Leviathan made, the gulf in power was _enormous_. Its attacks blasted through each of mine, only my automatic ability to nudge projectiles keeping the attacks from hitting me directly, each blow a glancing one, but my shields drained in an instant, and I took a beating. While my helmet took the hits, thankfully protecting my skull, the rest of me was beat to hell, to the point where pain was so all consuming that it seemed to lose all meaning, my armor not breaking but each spear feeling like a sledgehammer blow to whatever it hit. Dozens, maybe more pulverized flesh as I lost count of the hits

I curled myself into a ball as the punishment rained down for what was probably only a few seconds, but the pain made it seem far, _far_ longer. The metal underneath my skin was beaten down, feeling like it'd fragmented in places, the force of it breaking bones and doing god know what else before it all, _mercifully_ , stopped. It felt like the only thing keeping me intact was my Metal Projection, and my sealed, armored suit was the only reason what was left of me wasn't dripping out into the flooded street.

As I tried to deal with the pain, escape it, if I was being honest, I delved deeper into my powers, focusing on them to the exclusion of all else. Through Aerokinesis I could feel as Leviathan strode, calmly, towards me. I hung ten feet in the air, my strength draining as I poured more and more and _more_ of it into my last hope.

As it reached me, it leaned down, like a cat checking to see if the mouse it'd been playing with was dead. I tried to say something witty, but all that came out was a wet gurgling as I directed my power in its direction. I couldn't throw it, but the power didn't care about that, only breaking the connection, which could be a mental process, as I'd discovered practicing on oranges with Taylor. If this didn't work, I'd never see her again, and that. . . wasn't something I wanted.

The fragment of Leviathan's tail, so full of momentum that I was glad the city was evacuated, twisted into a spiral spear and _moved_. I wasn't sure _exactly_ what happened next, but there was a _lot_ of noise and I was thrown backwards, slamming down into the flooded street, rolling bonelessly over and over before coming to an agonizing, wet stop.

Forcing the metal in my neck to twist, I turned my head to see what'd happened. Leviathan was gone, as was the building he'd been standing in front of. A skyscraper a few blocks back was collapsing, so. . . _yay?_ As my vision darkened, all I could think of was, _that better fucking count, Abaddon._

 _"Vejovis down, DC-4"_


	134. Deadline 12-z

**Deadline 12.Z**

He was many, he was one, he was _Gnomon_. Present throughout the city, his hundred eyes watched over a thousand fighters, while staying unseen himself. It was obvious that his power was effecting his mind, but he couldn't bring himself to care. If anything, he found comfort in it. He was spread out across the city, watching, waiting for the right moment. Leviathan had torn apart his body, but he had more, _so many more_.

He couldn't stand against the Endbringer alone, but he wasn't alone. He would never be alone again, no matter what the gaping, bleeding wound that was his heart told him.

It was a nice thought, but even thirty of him wouldn't do more than distract that monster. There were more of him out there than that, a _lot_ more, but they were spread out, ready to help if need be. They watched those who had no one to watch themselves, helping where he could. Sometimes it was simple, calling to someone so she saw a clone forming behind them, or bumped into someone so she stumbled, a water spike missing her, gone before she could turn around. Sometimes it wasn't. He couldn't stand up to Leviathan, but a dozen of him could delay a clone long enough for her to get away, or to blast it to pieces. They weren't _her,_ but it helped.

While he didn't have one of the armbands that those in charge seemed to have, twenty-six of him where close enough to hear them as they chimed across the city.

 _"_ _Rabble Rouser down, DF-4. Roll-Out deceased, BC-1. Geomancer down, AC-2. Awe down, CD-2. Shock deceased, CD-2. Sanitizer deceased, FF-3. Visage deceased, BF-4. Dire down, FD-2. Camp-"_

There were dozens of him, but it only helped slow down the losses, not stop them entirely. Leviathan was the worst threat, but his creations were just as deadly, and in more places than even Gnomon was. He knew he shouldn't blame himself. This was an _Endbringer_ fight, _damnit._ People _died_ in them, and it wasn't his fault.

It didn't stop the guilt.

Nothing truly did, but he was here, he could help, and so he did. He kept an eye on the younger ones. The Wards, the villains, and everyone in-between.

"Dude, what the hell!" Clockblocker cried as Kid Win was teleported in by Strider, along with several other parahumans. They all looked hurt, but ready to fight. Half of the Tinker's leg was made of glowing white light, through which the rain fell as if it weren't there.

"Couldn't leave you to try to handle this alone," the injured Ward replied, wincing behind his visor. "This'll last for a few hours, and I've still got some tricks if we need them."

Two of the other reinforcements had similar glowing limbs, a woman in red and blue had a glowing hand, while an older man in blue and green had his left arm, left leg, and part of his side replaced.

Miss Militia walked over to the Ward and told him comfortingly, "He wouldn't've been alone."

The Ward's smile dimmed, but he nodded in agreement, "I know, but I can't help if I'm stuck in bed, and from what everyone's saying, things are bad." He shrugged, looking to his teammate. "What kind of friend would I be if I left you here alone?"

Gnomon unmade the him that was watching, its presence unneeded, looking out across the city with the other hims. Leviathan clones were running rampant through the city. They were destroyed, but more replaced them soon enough. Every one destroyed was a setback, everyone they killed was a loss.

" _Solar down, ED-5. Thunderer deceased, BD-6. Odd Man Out deceased, EC-3. BFG deceased, CD-5. Ale-"_

A third of the groups were staying where they'd been assigned. Some were hiding, some recovering, and some standing their ground. Some had taken heavy losses, the bodies of the dead littering the ground around them, while others seemed practically untouched. One group could barely be seen inside a bubble of rubble, half of it covered in frozen flame, the other half in frozen water. Several people worked inside to break a section open.

Most of the surviving heroes were on the move, and he moved with them. Legend, Alexandria, and Purity of all people flew together, searching for Leviathan. An orange lightning bolt shot across the city, forming into Eidolon who glanced at Gnomon, a few feet away, and shot off once again.

A glowing group flew high in the air above the flooding streets. "We need to find Vicky!" a blonde woman in white and orange shouted. A man in white and green shook his head, carried in a blood red bubble. "She's doing search and rescue," he shouted back over the storm. "She's safer than she would be with us!"

A group of seven capes raced through the city, led by a woman with pure black wings. Behind her followed a woman made of blue electricity who seemed to float through the air at high speed, a grotesquely muscled man who moved in ponderous leaps, a slender man in red who bounded easily, a woman in grey who was riding a horse-sized cat made of ash, a woman with a circuit patterned costume who blurred as she zipped from place to pace, and a bird headed metallic man who flew behind them all. "Are you sure Leviathan's this way?" the circuit-covered woman - _Battery, Gnomon remembered, though it took him a moment and he had to throw himself in the path of a water spear to stop it from impaling a girl in a dress and porcelain mask, the moment of inattention almost keeping him from saving her-_ demanded _._

The man in red shrugged. "It's where he was. He'll either come back after people chased him 'off', or we'll save some people. Either way's a win, Puppy."

"Puppy?" the woman on the smoldering cat laughed. "That fits. She seems like a bitc-"

"You shouldn't be talking nicknames, _Ash-hole_ ," the man in red snapped, his unconcerned mask slipping for a moment.

The electric woman cackled as she crackled, "He's got ya there, Ash. But come on, there's no need to be _Mad. . . Cap!_ " she chided with a mock salute. "Still can't believe you weren't Caged!"

"We can talk later!" the fallen angel in front called, spotting another him down the street. He pointed behind the group, where a Levi-clone had formed and was stalking them. "We have foes to fight!"

The group followed the woman's lead as they turned to face their follower, who'd leapt towards them, knowing it'd been found out. They moved as one, except for Battery, who lagged a moment behind, as they met it and destroyed it in an instant. The leader gave Gnomon a nod of thanks as he unmade himself, already busy elsewhere.

Some were hunting, some were trying to rescue the injured, but most of the groups seemed to be trying to gather together, hoping for strength in numbers. Gnomon didn't know if that would work, but he had to agree with the idea. It was all he had left.

 _"Escutcheon deceased, DC-4. Boytoy deceased, DC-4. Fulguress deceased, DC-4. Miceal deceased, DC-4. Fierceling decea-"_

That many fallen meant it was likely Leviathan itself, and there wasn't anything he could do there. He moved, trying to stop deaths, but while he could save them two times out of three, it wasn't enough. A girl, maybe fourteen, who'd been alone now laid dying at his feet. He'd warned her of the first spear, and had blocked the second himself, but there was a third which had pierced her chest. She lay there, her blood mixing with the water of the flooded street, her expression one of despair as the blade she'd been carrying sizzling beside her.

She hadn't been wearing an armband, so he didn't even know her name as she took one gasp, expelling a gurgling breath and going still. Closing her eyes, he looked at the sword. It was still working, so it wasn't power created. That left Tinkertech. Using a Tinker's gear without knowing what it did was a good way to get yourself killed, but he'd already died a hundred times today.

Picking it up, the blade's glowing white edge dimmed to a shining blue, the color of a clear sky. The next him he made had the same blade, as did the one after that. It took a moment for him all to have it, and two of him jumped a Leviathan clone with them. It wasn't enough to stop it, but those two did more damage then the twelve of him had before.

 _"Faker deceased, DC-4. Chubster deceased, DC-4. Azazel deceased, DC-4. Mutate deceased, DC-4. Tur-"_

He wasn't there, but he'd gotten a sense of what the letters meant, though the numbers seemed arbitrary. Before, he would've only been a distraction. Someone might've tried to save him, only to get killed themselves. Now, he might be able to help. Making a him there, there was a crash that drowned out even the thunder going off around them, and the him there died instantly.

All across the city, Leviathan's constructs lost cohesion, water spears turning into strong sprays, clones falling apart, and the rain slackened off, though only for a moment. The clones were torn apart as they tried to reform, the rain started again, and the spears started to form before dropping with the rest of the rain, their targets now aware of their presence.

Making another himself near where the last one had died, he found a scene of total devastation. Buildings were torn apart, the street was barely recognizable, and bits of bodies were everywhere. The shadowed room he'd made himself in before was gone, as was the rest of the building. A slight movement came from one of the more intact bodies, the pure white and blood red costume seemingly untouched by the mud, grime, and blood that painted everything.

" _Vejovis down, DC-4,"_ Armbands spoke, and a dark, inhuman figure descended down from above, forming into a person as it carefully tried to pick up the sole survivor, whose costume deformed in ways a human body shouldn't.

The person leapt into the air and didn't come down, moving west, towards the medical area, though Gnomon didn't think it would help. While the body still had a humanoid form, the costume had moved in ways a human body shouldn't.

The rain strengthened, falling even harder, and more clones then ever formed, assaulting every group. Some held fast, some ran. A lot of them died.

A group that seemed lit from an unseen light above them was fighting off seven clones when a water spear arrowed down and struck a man in white robes who chanting in the center. He died and the glow cut out like burnt out light bulb. They group broke in an instant, some charging forward while others ran. No longer unified, even those who tried to stand their ground died.

 _"Cloister deceased, BF-3. Barrager, BF-3. Gentle Giant deceased, BF-3. Lagann down, BF-3. Apotheosis deceased, BF-3. Dr. De-"_

The suddenness of the change surprised him. Cloister must've been a Master, for his death to have that much of an effect. Other groups were under attack, holding better, their numbers letting them fend off the sudden attacks.

One group sped through the streets, all of them sliding over the ground like it was ice, a golden dome in the center carrying injured as over a dozen Levi clones chased them through rain-slicked streets.

Another group of forty was starting to fail, more and more clones forming around them instead of near the other groups, sensing weakness. Water spears firing downwards from above only to be countered by the shots of a trio of parahumans. A man in a golden suit rested his hands on the shoulders of two other as golden light streamed from him into them. The woman to his left held a canon that fired glowing green distortions that blew apart the spears, while the man to his right fired a pair of pistols that intercepted the spears that she missed.

Dozens of Levi clones attacked from around them, pushing them ever backwards. A group of five were cut off from the rest: A man in white armor with a golden lion helmet, a large Italian man, and three identical women. Three thirty foot tall clones surrounded them, one darting forward and gutting one of the women, who vanished in a flash of light. Another one struck for the lion man, the Italian man stepping in the way, taking the clones strike on his crossed arms with a grunt of pain, the clones water claws somehow not piercing his skin.

A man wielding a katana teleported behind one of the clones, beheading it as he said, "Nothing perso-" only for the headless clone to turn and rip him to pieces.

 _"Regicide deceased, DD-6."_

The lion helmed man roared, his voice blasting the clone towards the main group, only to be blasted to pieces by a ten-foot-tall case 53 whose body was made of stone, shot through with lava. Two more clones took its place, while a third moved to attack the rock-man, stopping him from helping the four people left.

The clones attacked as one, the Italian map grappling one while the other two attacked. Lion man blasted his own backwards as the two women tried to fight off their attacker to little effect, their strikes doing nothing. The second woman popped while the third almost dodged out of the way, the water claw cutting a gouging out her flesh from should to her hip in a spurt of blood. She screamed and staggered, unable to block the follow up blow as the clone's tail shot forward to impale her.

 _"Circulum Vitae deceased, DD-6. Prism down, DD-6. Irn Bro down, DD-6."_

The instant before it struck, lion man stepped in front of her, grabbing the clone's tail and trying to hold it back. It pressed downwards, digging through his armor into his chest as he slowly overpowered. Behind them two clones had teamed up on the Italian man with the impenetrable skin. One held him as the other shoved a watery, clawed hand down his throat, the man struggles quickly stopping as he went limp. When it removed its claw, the liquid was dark with blood.

 _"Lucas Caglioni deceased, DD-6. Full Metal Jacket down, DD-6._ "

The two other clones turned to the pair of survivors, the woman desperately spraying something on her wound as the man was slowly impaled, forced to his knees.

 _"Fiddler's Green deceased, DD-6. Triumph down, DD-6. Max-imum deceased, DD-6."_

The two clones started to move towards the lion man when Gnomon moved, having made enough hims to make a difference. One or two wouldn't help, it was only working together that he wouldn't fail. Again.

Dozens ran from the alleys, jumped through darkened windows, and fell down from rooftops, all with blazing blue swords. Attacking the Clones from behind, the distraction gave the defenders the opportunity to strike back, blasting the clones to droplets as they did so.

Four hims attacked each of the clones. The first him blocked the left claws, the second the right, while the third launched the fourth him high into the air. The clones' tails struck out in unison, only to be met by the fourths' swords which cut through them as if they weren't there. The third him of each pair cut off the clone's right arm before stepping forward and taking the right leg while the second, now free to move, cut off the left claw, turning grabbing the first and throwing them upwards.

The fourth of each pair came down dead center of their clone, cutting it in half while the third leapt upwards, cutting the right half in half once more, the first copying the third's movement for the left side of each clone, and the second removing the Leviathan clone's left leg, causing both clones to dissolve in unison, unable to keep together when cut into eight separate parts.

Simultaneously, five more Gnomons charged the clone who had impaled the lion man. The first sliced the tail, causing it to lose form and catching the golden-helmed hero as he stumbled forward, the force pushing him back gone. The other four swarmed the clone, dispersing it as well.

The Leviathan clones, finding themselves fighting a force nearly twice that of what they were a moment ago, fought to the last but did not reform there, the clones that pulled themselves out of the water a block away moving off to attack others throughout the city. The defenders gave a ragged cheer as Gnomon helped the two hurt parahumans back to the main group.

A woman in power armor approached one of him as she looked around at those gathered. "Thanks for the assist. I'm Reboot. We've got medivac coming, could you stay until they get here?" she asked.

He started to answer, but without Leviathan's forces concentrated here, the hims across the city were having trouble keeping up with the Endbringers creations even to the low-level he had been before. He started to unmake the ones here to re-make them where they could do more good. He didn't know if he had a limit, but there more of him there were the harder it was for him to handle. He shook his head, "Others to help."

Reboot's shoulder's dropped a bit and she laughed. Even processed through her armor the resignation came through clearly. "I understand, can I at least have your name?"

"Gnomon," he told her, unmaking all but the one hiding nearby, in case more hims were needed here again.

"No one?" she asked the space he'd just been in, shaking her head. "Strangers."

He considered correcting her, but he wasn't doing this for the reputation. Before he would've made sure those he saved knew who he was, how strong he was, how they _owed_ him, and to spread what he'd done. Now, it would just be wasted effort. After all, his reason for needing a reputation was gone, and part of him wished he'd gone with her.

* * *

Joe Shotgun was a simple man, with simple powers, and simple ambitions. He'd been workin' as a mechanic down in god's country, far enough away from Clarksville that they shouldn't have to deal with the ugliness that ran through it, but that hadn't been enough. A couple o' common criminals had come through, killed Eddie, and decided they were in charge.

Eddie hadn't done nothin' wrong, guy could just talk to plants so he was the local 'hero'. Didn't want to hurt nobody, bless his heart, but with him gone there weren't nobody who could stop them. Things had gotten. . . bad. One of them could turn to wind, and she liked ta play with people, suffocatin' them slow-like over the course o' hours. The second was a crack shot, could take the wings off a fly half a field away, and liked ta graze people. The third. . . Joe still didn't like to think about her.

He'd asked for help, they all had, but no one came. They were a little town, barely two thousand people, and no one seemed to care. Those three had run roughshod over everything, and everything had gotten worse, until they'd taken Joe's brother. Holdin' his body after they were done. . . sometimes a man's gotta do things himself, and if ya got a problem ya can't shoot, sometimes you just need a better bullet.

And by god did Joe have a better bullet. Dozens upon dozens of 'em, usin' things that had no earthly right to be in ammo, but Joe made 'em work. He hadn't the foggiest on how he could turn corn into something that could create a tornado, but the look on that poor excuse for a woman's face had been priceless. The sharpshooter had been a bit trouble, and the last one, what she'd turned into. . .

Joe'd won that day, avenged his brother and his neighbors, and the scars he'd picked up didn't bother him at all. He'd just wished he coulda done so sooner, but you dealt the hand you were played, ya didn't whine about the one you wished ya got. When asked what his 'name' was, he'd tried to just use his name. It's what his Pa gave 'im, and it wasn't like he had anyone left to worry 'bout. He'd been told that wasn't allowed, for some dumb Yankee reason, and 'Joe Schmo' was already taken, so he'd gone by 'Joe Shotgun'.

It'd fit, as you could get a lot more creative-like with a shell then a round, and that just made his holdout pistols a mighty fine surprise for the next poor soul who'd try to roll in like he'd owned the place. The government had pitched a fit when he'd put down that dog, but Joe didn't rightly care. Things had been good for a bit, he'd had more than enough time to get better, the bounty off those four'd been enough to let him make a lot of 'just in case' shells. He'd even had a thing going on with Caroline, but nothin' serious. Maybe in a few years, but he wasn't dumb. He knew how things ended up for capes, and didn't to make any more winders than the town already had.

It'd been about time for one of those big fellas to show up, and he'd made some plans for this. The ones he'd made for the big guy probably wouldn't work, but the Blindsiding Shots'd probably make that winged girl think twice. Leviathan though, he'd had more than a few ideas. Half of 'em weren't ready when the call came, but you didn't get to put off Game Day, and he couldn't rightly stay home and call himself a man.

So here he was, far away from his stompin' grounds, in the poundin' rain, shootin' uppity waves and trying to keep the people 'round him alive. He'd been glad he'd brought the sack of rounds, even if he'd gotten weird looks for wearin' a hikin' pack in an Endbringer fight. The look that one lady had had when she tried to tell him a shotgun wasn't gonna do nuthin' only for him to blast a water monster to bits with a blast o' fire as big around as a truck was the high point of his day so far, and he'd only had to restock his belts twice.

The group he'd been with had been hit mighty hard in that first barrage, Joe's counter-shot only protecting himself and the two kids he'd stood beside. They'd carried the injured back to the tents, which'd only been a few minutes away, thank god. The person in charge hadn't made it, so now he and the dozen others that had were waitin' around for someone to tell them what to do, and he was fixin' to go out on his own if they didn't get their marching orders soon. He didn't know a lot 'bout Endbringer fights, but from what he'd heard there was supposed to be fightin' a single thing. From the flashes of light, sounds, and hearin' the losses from the speakers, that wasn't happening.

As if called, a woman flew down to their group from above, covered in damp grime which glowed like the cinders of a dyin' summer fire. "We're putting together a rescue group, who's up for it?"

Joe stepped forward, "I am, ma'am. Goin' stir crazy waiting for somethin' to do, if I'm bein' honest."

The woman's eyes flicked to his arm. Not seeing one of the armbands the more 'famous' heroes got, she nodded, giving him directions. "Anyone else?" she called, looking around. When the others refused to meet her eyes, she gave a snort of disgust and took off, leaving a trail of wet, dark dust.

Joe couldn't blame 'em, that first hit'd been bad, and hearin' the death toll on the walk over hadn't been much fun. He left them behind, hopin' they stayed safe, finding a group of fourteen capes at the edge of the tents, most of 'em lookin' as nervous as he felt.

A nerdy lookin' fellah walked over to Joe, offering his hand. Joe took it, stiffening as he suddenly felt the others' presences in his mind. "Wha?" he asked, not sure what to do.

"Name's Crowdsource, I'm a Thinker that specializes in team cohesion and performance, If I could know your name and power I'll help find where you could help us the most in this endeavor, as my power works better the more I know about you, but it isn't permanent or anything so you don't need to worry about it, and, I mean, my power's teamwork, it's not like I could do anything bad with that anyways," the other man said in a long rush, leading Joe to wonder if he also had super-breathing.

"Joe shotgun, Ammo Tinker," he replied, lifting his shotgun to show the Thinker.

"Short or long range blaster?" Crowdsource asked, looking Joe over closely.

He shrugged, "Both. Got all sort o' shells, dependin' on what's needed."

"Guard then," the thin man nodded to himself, turning his back on Joe and walking back to two other capes who'd been watching them: A gal in a black bodysuit and a laid-back looking guy in a suit that'd fit Nashville more than a battlefield. _Number 1 & Playmaker, Precog fighter & Plan Thinker,_ he suddenly knew, though he had no earthly way of doin' so.

Chocking it up to Thinker weirdness, he looked around the group, learning who they were. _Slurpy (ice spit), Staccato (vibration Tinker) Agent (physical enhancement), Overlady (minion creation), Redirect (projectile teleportation), Ark (safe zone creation), Metro (mass movement) Candelabra (candle projectiles), & Pretty Pretty Princess (RAINBOWS)._

Joe had to stop at the last one, as he stared at the last one of their group, who was a six-foot two guy that could double as sasquatch wearing a frilly pink dress and holding a ribboned wand with a star at the end. _Takes all kinds_ , Joe thought as someone not in the group approached him. It was a young guy, who, when he got close, seemed to be covered in tiny, overlapping force fields.

"You're going out too?" the kid asked him. When he nodded the kid said, "Cool, I'm Foreskin!"

". . . You're what?" Joe asked. He'd heard of some odd names but. . .

"I'm Forceskin," the kid repeated. "Because I can erect a field of Force over people's skin. See?"

Before Joe could do more than blink, the kid had reached forward and tapped him on the chest, some of the forcefields flowing off the kid's arm and onto Joe's shirt, where they started multiplying quickly. "They only last for about ten minutes, but I've been giving them out to the rescue teams. Come find me when you get back so I can harden you back up!"

Joe blinked, watching as the kid went to introduce himself to someone else. For the life of him, he couldn't tell if the kid'd been fuckin' with him or not. Checking out the armor he'd been given, he could reach through it to grab a shell of his belt, but when he went to tap it to test it his fingers bounced off with a sound like he was tapping two rocks together. "Well I'll be," he muttered to himself.

He felt another member of their group approaching, looking up to see the dirty woman who'd asked him if he wanted to join, _Cinereal (Ash & Fire powers)_, fly down to them, followed by an Asian chick that seemed to be carried by a tiny twister. Crowdsource talked to her, and Joe knew that she was Jufeng ( _air vortexes)_ , and a guy who'd jogged after the pair was 86er ( _dissolving touch_ ).

Forceskin did his thing before heading back inside and Cinereal strode to the center of the group, commanding them to "Gather!" Joe could feel a gentle pressure to do just that. He wasn't controlled, directly, but he got the oddest sense he'd be letting his teammates down if he didn't.

He snorted, walking over, as he didn't even _have_ teammates, but if that's how Crowdsource got people to work together, it was good to know it. Their leader looked around them and opened her mouth to speak, an explosion of water to the west cut her off as the Armband started to read off names.

 _"Liger deceased, CB-4. Chill Out deceased, CB-4. Woodsman deceased, CB-4. Pipelay-"_

"Metro, move us, we'll talk on route," she commanded. The man in question, covered in bulky metal armor, stamped his feet and a lime green glow sprang up around the group's legs. They all started sliding along the ground out into the city, individuals weaving back and forth until they formed a rough rectangle, quickly picking up speed. It was almost like riding a train, except he didn't feel like falling over while he was standing.

Cinereal took off into the air, Jufeng following, and the pair kept pace with them from above. "We're doing search and rescue. Out job isn't to fight Leviathan, but get those who need it medical aid. If you run off, you're on your own. Am I understood?"

Joe didn't need the prompting to reply, "Understood!" in concert with all the others, turning to look out at the city as they picked up speed, flashing by buildings as they slid across the top of the water as if it were solid ground. A pile of debris blocked their way, but they didn't turn or stop. If anything, they went faster.

Trusting in the group, Joe was still surprised to see Candelabra and PPP slide up the ragged edge before disappearing down the other side. Following them over, Joe felt like he was on a roller-coaster. He could feel the momentum, but he was pushed downwards instead of flying off. He accelerated, moving past a few others before he got the feeling he should fire down an alley they were about to pass, or he'd let the team down.

Ready to do so, he aimed and pulled the trigger as soon as he was in range. It was good he'd already planned to do so, as there was a water monster mid-leap in that alley, a second away from landin' in the middle of the group. The gun bucked in Joe's practiced hand, the buckshot spreading out, connected by lines of fire that cut the monster to pieces, soaking the group but leaving them unharmed.

He was moved back into position, and he glanced back at the core of Crowdsource, Number 1, and Playmaker, who weren't even looking around, deep in conversation. Joe remembered that Number 1 was a 'precog fighter' and realized that she didn't _fight_ precog, she used precog _to_ fight. The group moved on seamlessly, Candelabra shoving a hand forward and a giant birthday candle appeared before her, the size of a crowbar, and blasted forward, lit end at the back. The flame was like a rocket, and it struck something high in the air before it struck something and exploded into fireworks.

They sped off into the storm, coming to a stop next to a group of capes who looked at them with confusion. "Injured come with us!" Cinereal announced, sounding like a drill sergeant from a movie. "Move it, the longer you take the longer it takes us to get to others!" she stated in a way that suggested she'd be holdin' them _personally_ responsible.

Three capes limped over, and four more were carried. Lime green glows sprung up around them and the group was off again. The worst hurt were gathered together. Ark, leaning down, looked like she was prayin' as a dome of golden-green light sprung up around them. The breathing of the injured seemed to speed up as it evened out, and it took a moment for Joe to see that there was some sorta time effect when one of them rolled over fast enough he should've hurt himself.

Getting the feeling he needed to shoot, he did so, blowing a spike of water that'd been arrowin' down towards Ark with a slug that warped gravity slightly, pullin' things towards it as it increased its own mass. It was completely wasted on the projectile, as his aim was perfect, but it'd become obvious that the three planners could only work with what they knew. Joe thought about explaining his shots, but they were busy enough.

Pretty Pretty Princess, slid to the back of the group, swirling his wand in the air as he boomed "RAINBOW POWER!", a solid beam of prismatic light blastin' outwards and catching a water monster in the chest, blastin' it into a building so hard it splattered. PPP moved back to the front as one of the still standing injured capes, an Asian girl who would've been as old as his brother, stared openly.

"Um. . ." she said trailing off.

"Yeah," Joe agreed, having seen it on the trip to get her. "Takes some gettin' used to."

The group turned down a street, coming to a stop in front of a pile of rubble. Overlady held her hands outwards and small, gremlin looking creatures popped into existence, moving to the rubble along with 86er. The latter touched the rubble, which turned to sand, while the former's minions dug it out. Staccato was working something with a display, while everyone else took up positions around the digging.

Cinreal directed her ash upwards, forming a loose dome that blocked out the rain as it thickened. Part of the dome dented inwards, then another part, then a third before it thickened enough that the rhythmic thumping impacts did nothing more than ring loudly.

As Overlady's minions pulled out the first cape, a bald kid, the Asian girl paled. "Know him?" Joe asked, keeping an eye out. Their precog would spot the danger, but it was good to be sure, just in case. Candelabra lit up a water monster that tried to charge them, and there were flickers of movement down the street that were too high up to be capes.

"Not really," she said, "That's Feint. He's a Ward in Anchorage. Met him once for team training."

The minions moved him to Ark, who made room in her bubble. "Well, he's still breathing. With the grace of god he'll live," Joe told her. As she looked at him, seemingly confused, he offered her his hand. "Names Joe Shotgun, Ammo Tinker."

"Um, Flechette. I shoot things," she replied. At his look she unholstered the device on her back, which unfolded into a crossbow, already loaded and ready to fire. Looking out at the darkness, she aimed at one of the shapes that was hiding behind the buildings and ran an index finger down the exposed, foot long bolt.

It seemed to become more _real_ , though Joe couldn't say why. She shot it, and the bolt pierced through the building as if it weren't there. He suddenly had the impulse to shoot, and did so, catching the water monster as it stumbled out. The cryo-slug froze it solid.

"Can you do that again?" Joe asked, staring at the crossbow. It was a nice little piece of tech, but not nearly as nice as what Flechette was doing with it.

She shrugged, muttering, "Not like I'll run out," and repeated the process, shooting another hidden monster through the building like it was paper. Candelabra got that one, but Joe wasn't paying attention to that, he was too busy thinking about what he'd just seen. He'd gotten ideas watching videos of other capes but this. . .

He fired without thinking when he was prompted, absently reloading as schematics and processes spun through his head. He was going to need a _lot_ of equipment, and materials, and so much Jack that it was practically a sin to not drink it, but he could replicate what he'd just seen. It'd take months of work, easily, but when he was done. . . He had armor piercing rounds, and super-armor piercing rounds, but these would be _reality_ piercing rounds.

It wasn't until he felt himself moving that he realized how much time he wasted cloud-gatherin'. Looking around, Flechette was leaning away from him, looking wary. "My apologies, little miss," he told her, "Just had an idea. It'll take a bit, but I think it'll be good. Thank you."

"You're welcome?" she replied. "I didn't really do any-"

She was cut off an enormous explosion from the north end of the city, Flechette's armband announcing " _Paninla down, AA-3."_

Reminded where he was, Joe didn't say anything else, keeping an eye out. The rain continued to pound down on them as they moved further west, moving in silence other than PPP's call of "PRETTY PULSE!" or something similar whenever he was called to hit something.

With no attack coming, Joe looked towards the center to see they'd pulled four more capes from the collapsed building, three of them kids like the bald one in purple. He shook his head, wondering what idiot brought _kids_ to this thing. He'd known he was putting his life on the line, knew what he was going to do, and why. At their age? He'd likely have joined just for braggin' rights. Someone shoulda been a parent and told these kids _no._

The girl next to him was keepin' it together, but barely, flinchin' somethin' fierce every time he shot an attack down, the monsters comin' in larger numbers. Joe reloaded his shotgun with a new loadout, emptying out his belts, and was wonderin' if he could take off his backpack and re-slot new shells when they turned a corner and he could see the distant light of powers through the storm.

Sliding in, they found a raised semi-bunker made out of bluish-purple forcefields. One end opened up completely, allowing them inside. Dozens of injured were laid out on floating forcefields, some with forcefields covering the stumps of missing limbs. The smell of blood was as thick as the humidity, and the sound of the rain wasn't enough to drown out the moans of pain.

Not getting any direction from Crowdsource, Joe lightly took Flechette's shoulder and moved her to one of the open windows. Despite all the wounded, there were only a dozen heroes manning the defenses. "Let's look out and give anythin' comin' reason to think twice," he suggested.

"Y-yeah. Good idea," the girl agreed, letting herself be moved. The fresh, damp air helpin' her, and the single woman already there glancing over at them, bone spikes at the end of her fingers. She gave them a shaky nod before looking back out into the storm. Taking a clearing breath, Flechette noticed that he'd taken off his backpack and was reloading his belts. "How many of those do you have?" she asked.

"When we started, hundred and thirty-four. Now? eighty-nine, I think." Joe dug around in his bag and considered the single, pure black shell that rested in its own latched case at the very bottom. Shaking his head, he left it there, going with a general loadout. He snorted as he looked at his 'stun' rounds. He'd brought everything he'd made, and those probably wouldn't make those water monsters flinch. Closing it up and tying the bag closed, he slung it back over his shoulders, takin' a guard position as he tried not to look like he was listening while he watched them from the corner of his eye.

"-saying is that there's more here than I can move," Metro said, "not without running them into things!"

"We can take the worst wounded, and be back for the others," Cinereal stated.

A chick that would've looked indecent if it weren't for her forcefields shook her head, the weird horn on her forehead making the slight motion almost exaggerated. "We're waiting for Strider to come back. He'll take the critical ones, and you can take the rest. We'll move to CB-4, and gather the heroes there."

Flechette prodded Joe's arm, pointing out into the dark streets. "What?" he asked, but he could kind of see what she was talking about. Just like before, there were monsters out there, waiting. Before he could say anything, Playmaker yelled, "Narwhal, Shields up!"

She did so, the windows slamming shut as dozens of water spikes came screaming in, more than enough to kill everyone inside. They slammed into the bunker like machine-gun fire. The forcefields started to break, becoming more and more translucent as Joe reading his Shotgun, ready to fire the moment it broke.

With a shattering sound, the shield covering his window did so, Joe getting the feeling he needed to fire the moment before it did, the plasma round firing and expanding outwards as it destroyed the last few water spikes. He didn't have time to pay attention to the others, as behind the spikes were a whole mess of water monsters, all charging the bunker. Joe realized they'd used the barrage as cover, and started firing as fast as he could work the pump-action, openin' up the flood gates, and layin' down destruction in front of him. Flechette tried to help, as did the bone-lady, but it didn't amount to a hill of beans as, suddenly, the water monsters didn't care if they were blasted clean through.

They _did_ care when they were blasted backwards with fire, lightning, Ice, buckshot that grew to the size of cannonballs, and birdshot the had bits of whatever they hit teleported twenty feet away. Unfortunately, his ammo ran out faster then green grass through a goose, and his gun clicked dry as more water monsters leapt from the alleys and streets, charging towards them.

Shimmering forcefields, the same type that made up the bunker, sliced four of 'em in half but they didn't care, just running forward and reforming. He focused on getting loaded as fast as he could, another forcefield springing up and blocking the street, slowin' the monsters down as they battered it to pieces, but not stopping them. He could hear PPP hollerin' 'PRINCESS BLAST', "FRIENDSHIP BEAM', and 'TASTE MY FUCKING RAINBOW! From one side, while there was a wave of heat washed over him from the other, the street they came down to get here an inferno.

The water monsters were almost on them when he lifted the gun, still a few shells short, and unleashed hell once again. The lead monster hit him, its claws stopped by the armor on Joe's chest long enough for his first shot to go off, blowing it to pieces, as well as the two behind him. He took out the newest batch and got the urge to run back and fire in the other direction, but he was out of ammo. Taking his holdout 12 gauge pistol, he threw it to Flechette, tellin' her, "cover there!" instead of doing it himself as he desperately reloaded. He'd be good for a while, but he only had so much ammo.

Ignorin' the feeling that he was letting the team down, he watched her move faster than he could, even with a hurt leg. Leapin' over the injured to get to the window, the guards dead or injured, the gun became more real as she did so. She got in position just as the first monster made it to the window, reaching in to gut her and everyone else, over a dozen more monsters behind her, the ocean behind them.

Firing the pistol flush with her power, his ' _oh hell_ ' round went off. More pellets then should've fit sped up faster than any shot had a right to. More than that, they didn't hit and flatten like they were supposed to, but tore through everything in their path as if it weren't even there. The monsters were turned to mist, the road ripped to gravel, and the buildings on either side practically dissolved.

Turning back to his zone, the monsters where almost there before he gave them a face full of super-frozen metal, freezing them and blocking the others before the second round, full of cutting winds, tore 'em all to pieces.

Unloading his entire action, he could see more forming, and sighed. He'd heard these things were bad, but this was goddamn _ridiculous._ Glancing back, Cinereal had take position next to Flechette, and was covering that street with burnin' ash as well.

More monsters charged, when a crash echoed throughout the city, from the south-center-ish area of the city. More than that, the monsters lost form, the rain cutting off for a moment. They tried to reform themselves, but Joe had more than enough time to reload, takin' 'em all out.

When no more came, Joe let out a long, low whistle of relief. The rain got a bit heavier, but he'd rather be wet than dead. The flames to the west died out like someone threw a switch, the only light in the street once again the forcefield bunker they stood in. Checking his chest, the scales of force were gone in a line across his chest, but the others seemed to still be intact.

"We're all moving," Cinereal declared. "Narwhal, you carry the lightly injured, we'll take the criti-"

There was a pop and a fellah in black and blue popped in, looking around with a low, "Damn. Who do I take?"

Cinereal started to indicate the worst off when Joe, along with everyone else in the group, felt a blaring feeling of _danger!_ Turning to fire, another barrage of spears pounded down, not in waves like before, but all at once. Joe blasted some, as did the others, but a few got few, all heading right for Strider.

A shimmering forcefield sprung up as Narwhal stepped in front of the teleporter, the hits tearing through them and breaking apart the shields covering her chest, the last one digging into her shoulder before it dissolved into a spray of water.

Crowdsource said what Joe was thinking, "They were going for Strider!"

The man in question paled. "Thanks for that," he said, quickly moving over to the heavily injured and disappearing in an instant.

"You alright, Ma'am? Joe asked Narwhal, who's arm was hanging limp.

"I'm fine, she replied, her arm moving up, unnaturally, her own forcefields twisting the limb back and forth as she suppressed a grimace. Moving her arm on her own, she flexed her fingers and turned back to Cinereal. "Same plan as before. Get the rest back, we'll support Bastion's group."

The top of the bunker disappeared, the rain pouring down on them as forcefields appeared beneath the feet of the heroes who'd been guarding it, lifting them up and out, following Narwhal as she flew off into the storm.

"Time to go, straight shot back," Cinereal told Metro, taking to the air herself. More water monsters started to form in the distance as the hero stomped his feet once again, a lime-green glow reappearing underneath their feet and carrying them off the platform and across the flooded street. Joe hurriedly slug his backpack back on as they moved, belts restocked, the bunker fading out of existence behind them.

They'd barely made it two blocks before the monsters attacked. The gunfire from Agent, shots from Flechette's crossbow, and other conventional attacks didn't even stop them anymore, but Joe's group didn't have very many of those. Vortexes of wind and exploding candles blew them to pieces, rainbow beams and blasts of compressed sound knocked them backwards.

The water bolts that got close disappeared, for a moment, reappearing as they were fired straight back at their enemies by Redirect, while the Monsters that closed were met by 86er, whose touch dissolved them, Slurpy, whose spit froze them solid, and Joe Shotgun himself, who blew them away. Overlady created minions from every direction that threw themselves at the Monsters, buyin' the rest of them time as they were torn to bloody pieces.

As they moved, Cinereal left a trail of thick ash, and when the monsters started to come up from behind, the street flashed into flame for an instant, evaporating the watery chasers in an instant. They were making good time, and were in the middle of downtown when they turned a corner only to see a solid wall of water blocking their way, half formed monsters along it's length, waiting for them.

The group fired as one, but, before their blasts hit, the rain froze in place in front of them, blocking the shots before it started to fall down again like nothing had happened. The streets to either side were blocked as well, forcing them to retreat. The flooded street behind them started to rise up, but was blasted away before they hit, reaching claws reduced to mist as Metro tried to take them around, turning to find a large wave coming their way, more monsters forming along the top, giant hands grasping in their direction.

They ran again, but it was obvious to Joe what was going on, they were being herded like a fox by water hounds. From the look on Cinereal's face as she looked around, she knew it too. They were forced south-east, away from their destination, and had been running for minutes when they finally could start to make it back, The armbands of a few telling Joe why.

Leviathan's attention was elsewhere.

 _"Geyser deceased, CB-4. Cruise Control deceased, deceased, CB-4. Garbage Man deceased, CB-4. Fearless Ferret down, CB-4. Derringer deceased, CB-4. Kickstart deceased, CB-4."_

Joe wasn't happy others were dying, but if it meant they could get these kids to safety, it'd be worth it. They were still bein' attacked by water monsters and water bolts, but they were making up for lost time. They were back into downtown, just a few blocks from where they'd had to turn back before, when they saw it.

At first he thought it was one of the darker water monster, the kind that moved a bit faster and took a bit more to kill, but the glowing green eyes said otherwise.

It didn't look right, right for how it was supposed to look, that is. It's left arm was thinner than its right, like those comics about guys who spent too long on the internet looking at it instead of going out and getting it. The end of its tail was stubby, not coming to a point but rounded off, like a worm's. Weirdest of all, was that Joe could see through it, a hole'd punched out through its guts, one big enough he could've put his arm through.

It was waiting, bold as brass, as if it had all the time in the world. He could barely hear Cinereal swear over the sound of the thundering storm as he and all the others got the command to fire, opening up with whatever they had.

Joe'd seen clips of Leviathan fightin'. You weren't supposed to have them, but the PRT was supposed to help towns that were being torn apart assholes you couldn't shoot yourself, so Joe hadn't given a damn. He took inspiration from everythin' he saw, and the Endbringers were no different. Leviathan was faster than the others, but he still kinda lumbered. He'd seen it fall, caught, and beat down before managing to slip away while killin' a few heroes.

This Leviathan couldn't trip if the instructions were written on the bottoms of its feet.

It sprang forward, twistin' mid-air 'round a rainbow beam while a water monster came up behind PPP, Jufeng's twister rippin' it apart. Moving in ways that nothing that big had any earthly right to, it dodged Cendelabra's shot and was on Cinereal before Joe could do more than lift his gun, claws piercing her straight through as it leapt over them, the water it left behind forming more monsters as it fell. They were blown to nothing by Joe's Gravity Reversing shot and an invisible cone from Staccato's canon before they could do more than look menacing.

"Cinereal deceased, CC-2. Cinereal up, CC-2," chimed Flechette's armband as the woman exploded up out of some of the ash she'd spread about as they ran, more coming off her in a torrent as she turned to face the Endbringer

Leviathan came again, but this time they were ready. PPP's beam split up into seven different ones, catching the monster in the chest, slowing it down enough for Candelabra to draw down on it, javelin-sized striped missiles impacting him in a stream that knocked it back.

It spun the upwards, turning what should've knocked it on its rear into a jump that carried it over the other shots, its tail lashing out for the golden dome, bouncing off it with a sound like a bell ringing so hard it was liable to break. A bunch of water bolts came down from behind, those that got through Joe & Staccato's blasts disappearing, reappearing as they were shot towards the Endbringer itself.

They turned right around and flew back at us as the monster charged, which was to be expected, and we met it, forcing it back again and again. Leviathan landed after taking a kinetically enhanced slug to the face while Jufeng drilled its chest with a sideways tornado, crouching low and ready to spring back when Flechette got a shot in.

Her bolt didn't glance off like Agent's shots had, but it shot through the Endbringer's knee as effortlessly as it'd gone through stone, forcing the monster to really stumble for the first time since they'd started. The Endbringer froze, the rain freezing in front of it and stopping Candelabra's attacks without it having to move. Its head snapped over to Joe, Flechette, and Agent, who'd all been standing together. In that moment Joe realized its stomach had healed enough that all that was left was a dent, its arms had evened out, and its tail had gotten pointy again.

It'd been playin' for time, and somethin' that Flechette had done had made it _stop._

The floodin' on every surface around it came alive, the waist-deep water draining as _dozens_ of clones formed in an instant, outnumbering Joe's group two to one, _countin'_ the injured. They started to move down the street, black with the now dry ash.

Cinereal laughed, finding somethin' funny about their deaths, before she reached out and snapped her fingers.

Joe thought the heat had been bad before at the bunker, but even soaked to the bone and with it over two dozen feet away he was pretty sure he just lost his eyebrows.

The street roared into the kind of inferno that Joe thought he'd have to fight _Behemoth_ to see, the water monsters vaporizing in an instant, great gouts of the stuff rising up off Leviathan. However, the monster didn't seem that bothered, lazily raising a clawed hand. The steam, likely hot enough to cook a turkey in an instant, stopped rising, and dropped back down, the rain that fed into the inferno addin' to the cloud.

It tilted its body slightly, turning its hand over and pointing a single finger towards them. The steam shot forward in a cloud of death, Metro tryin' to move them back but he was no-where near fast enough. 'Fore they could go more than a few feet there was a roar and a giant cat leapt onto Leviathan's back from behind, forcing it into a roll as claws as big as Joe's arm tore into the Endbringer's flesh.

Whoever the giant bobcat was, it didn't mind the heat, its fur not even scorching as it rolled right along with the Endbringer, tearing out ribbons from its hide before leaping away from it, landing twenty feet away, between Joe and the monster that was 'bout to kill them all. It took a moment before he thought to wonder what'd happened to the steam, looking around to see it shooting off into the sky in a solid mass where it couldn't hurt anyone but the birds.

"Get goin', little fishies," the bus-sized cat growled, the asphalt melting as the buildings seemed to sag from the heat. A tingle of fear ran up Joe's spine that even Leviathan hadn't gotten out of him as the cat's words resonated in his skull. "You're not worth my time. Leave the fire though, it's _toasty._ "

Leviathan darted forward so fast it seemed to disappear, the feline moving just as fast as it slammed the Endbringer into a building, knocking it back once more.

"Get out, 'less you want to fight me next!" it snarled, which was enough for Metro to get them moving, the two monsters blurring together as Leviathan leapt for Flechette, Joe, and Agent once more, only to be caught and thrown back _again_. A water monster formed and tried to jump down on them, only for its form to come apart as the cat, its man-sized saber-teeth glinting in the firelight, clawed Leviathan across the face, one of the Endbringer's eyes going dark. "You're fighting _me_ , Lizard. Not the weaklings you were before!"

They left the giant cat-thing to fight the Endbringer, even the rain letting up a bit, and Joe silently thanked it for savin' them, God love 'em. They'd made it only a few blocks before a howl echoed through the streets and the rain came down hard, feeling like it was tryin' to beat them down. More water monsters were forming, but they all seemed focused on his part of their group. Instead of the wounded like before.

As they slid across the top of the water as fast as Metro could make them go, Joe looked around. He knew if they stood and fought again, they wouldn't get to leave, and for some reason Leviathan seemed to have it in for the little girl next to him.

It was dumb, and nearly suicidal, but Joe never claimed to be a smart man. "Hold this," he told Flechette, handing her his bag.

"What?" she asked, nearly dropping her crossbow as she did so. Joe fired off the last rounds in his shotgun, blowing away a few monsters before they became a problem. Weapon empty, he opened his bag and started grabbin' some very special rounds, loading them in his gun, then his belt. He carefully, or as carefully as a man could be on a roller coaster in the middle of the end of world, reached to the very bottom, unlatching the case and pulling out his very best, very worst creation. Loading it into the twelve-gauge pistol Flechette had returned to him when they left that bunker by the sea, he holstered it, closing up the bag.

"How long does your power last?" he asked her, nearly having to shout over the thunder that blasted nearby.

"Not long. I can't make it much longer than a few minutes," she told him, not getting' what he was _really_ askin'.

"Good," he said, taking the backpack and throwing it around her shoulders, handing her his revolver. "Keep this prepped for me to take, then don't shoot anythin' 'till your back home safe, you understand?"

"No?" she shook her head.

"Don't matter, just do it and live through this," he told her, turning to Crowdsource, who looked back at him. Metro brought him over, and he told the Thinker, "Next time Levi shows, leave me behind. I'll buy time for y'all to get back safe."

The nerdy man, lookin' like death warmed over, nodded. "If that's-"

Both of them looked, getting the same sense of danger. PPP fired straight down into the ground, yelling "RAINBOW BRIGGH-" as he was gutted from below. Leviathan broke up through the street, tearing the hairy man to pieces, flicking out its tail and narrowly missing them, Metro already moving people away. The group turned and fired, except Joe. He ignored the feeling, not wanting to kill his own group.

Jufeng shot forward, a tornado blowing in front of her like a drill only for a matching drill to form from the water coming off Leviathan's arm, tearing through her power, and then her body, in an instant. The group members split off, going down the alleys and side roads as they scattered. Flechette looked at him with wide eyes as she passed him. He held out his hand, taking his revolver, and he nodded to her as she was dragged away.

The Endbringer started to move after her, and Joe shot him through the head.

He'd been aiming for the chest, center of mass, but his pistol didn't have any drop anymore. Joe didn't sweat the details, it did the job in taking Leviathan's attention off her and onto him, the monster not even bothered by having part of its brains blown out. It hesitated, but another headshot got it moving forward for him.

A black wave of ash slammed into its head, blazing into fire as Cinereal set it alight, staying behind. Agent slapped a hand on his shoulder, surprising the hell out of Joe as the suited man reached over and grabbed a few shells from the Tinker's belt. Holding a shotgun himself, he loaded them up, giving the other man a nod as the Endbringer spun about, putting out the fire and sending the steam to blast the Breaker above them, who didn't seem to mind.

"Don't mind if I take a brace of these, do you old chap? Just didn't seem Cricket to leave you here alone," the man spoke for the first time since Joe met him. Turning his weapon on Leviathan, Agent's shotgun shot a mass of webs that caught on the ragged rents in the Endbringer's flesh, trapping it just for a moment.

Joe just nodded, not having any idea what he'd just said, but willing to accept help here at the end. They both opened up on the monster, tearing into it with blasts of earth, wind, and fire, along with all of the odder things that Joe'd come up with.

With the two of them side by side, and Cinereal right above, they could use the shells that Joe'd never think of using anywhere near innocents, or even friendlies. Space and time distorted, the Endbringer's ability to dodge met with the sheer variety and area of effect of the pair's shots. They took turns firing and loading, catching the Endbringer with the powered-up rounds of his revolver when it got too close, the one thing that Leviathan seemed actually worried about. They'd gone through almost all the shells Joe had left, and all six revolver rounds, Cinereal burning any water monsters that came their way.

They lasted a good while, longer than the cat fellah had, but all good things ended eventually. A water bolt slipped by Cinereal, piercing her through and she fell to the ground, dead, another blasting straight through Agent as well. The other man went down firing, emptying his gun at the Endbringer.

Even as she fell, the woman's armband announced, _"Cinereal deceased, CB-6. Cinereal up, CA-3."_

Joe was blasted in the side, the shields over him blunting it enough to keep him from dyin' outright. He was thrown through the air, hittin' something hard, spinnin' and landing with a crunch on top of a car. He tried to get up, but the pain almost made him black out, which it wasn't time for, not yet.

He'd lost his namesake weapon, the harness having snapped when he was hit, but he had one, last shot on him. Leviathan kept its distance, forming more water monsters to go finish Joe off. It wouldn't help it.

Joe Shotgun was a simple man, with simple powers, and simple ambitions. All he was, was a man with a gun, who sometimes got crazy ideas, and who just wanted to help those who couldn't help themselves. He'd done that, puttin' to rest those that'd hurt so many, and protectin' so many more. He didn't want to die, no sane man did, but if it meant saving those kids, it wasn't such a bad trade.

He held up his pistol, loaded with something that had scared even him. He was drunk when he'd made it, a month to the day after he'd had to bury what remained of his brother, the only family he'd had left. He'd seen the news 'bout that town in Iowa that'd just been wiped out in an instant, and figured if some punk who called himself 'Voidshadow' could make it work, he could do it better.

Leviathan wasn't close, but for this it didn't need to be.

Joe Shotgun pulled the trigger, and let the blackness take him.


	135. Deadline 12-7

**Deadline 12.7**

"Don't die, don't die, don't die," someone said, over and over again.

Everything hurt, though it was a distant pain, like stubbing your toe in a dream. I got the sensation of movement coming in waves, as the air rushed past me, or as I rushed past the air. I knew I was hurt, but weren't you supposed to _not_ feel pain if you were hurt enough.

 _P̴e̷ak ̢C̸on͠d̛i̶t̷io̴n.̴_

Right, right, that'd keep me aware. Hard to be in 'Peak Condition' if you didn't have functioning nerves. The chanting continued, sounding scared, tired, angry, and whole bunch of other things. We started to slow, and I could feel a lot of people below me, messing with my ability to Warp Space, though that power was mostly still tied up keeping the working that Vista and I'd made going.

I felt a hole in my powers, and a pretty big one at that. No, not a hole, but an opening, ready and waiting to be filled. I tried to think of a suitable sex joke, but it was like trying to swim through tapioca. Not that I ever had, but it felt like what I thought it'd feel like. _Stay on topic, stay on topic,_ I thought, a la Star Wars, smiling to myself, though my mouth hurt when tried to smile to everyone else. I had a Major slot open, and most of a Minor one as well. What should I use it on? I tried that healing power the monochrome guy had, but it wouldn't take, which wasn't very nice of it.

We landed with a painful jolt, and I twitched. Well, my Metal Projection twitched. Same thing. _"Fuck!_ " the voice, which had gone quiet, swore, before picking up its litany of "Don't die," once again. I wondered what was going on, there were a lot of people around me, moving the air in hundreds of different ways. I felt the breath of someone nearby still, marveling at all the little pockets of gas inside them, gave it a little prod, and it started up again, the tiny fascinating pockets disappearing from my senses. Air movements were good, but it was hard to make out any detail. I was more than a little annoyed at this when I remembered I had eyes.

Opening them, I quickly closed them right back up as I looked right into blinding white fluorescents. I was being moved, and when I tried again, I had a moment to adjust before another fluorescent bulb rolled across my vision. I'd forgotten how dark it was, fighting out there, until I was suddenly somewhere that you didn't need darkvision to see clearly. The person carrying me solidified, and I barely recognized Herb. His mask was beat to hell, and the naked panic on whose face looked completely out of place.

He stopped, demanding, "Where's Panacea?" to someone out of my line of sight.

The person took a few seconds to reply, a woman's voice telling him, "That one's a lost cause."

Fury blazed across my friends features as he yelled, " _NO HE ISN'T! WHERE'S PANACEA!_ "

The woman snarled back, "Busy with people that can be saved! Either go fight or go away! I'm going to help people who _can_ be helped!"

I tried to tell Herb to ask Zilla as he took an angry step forward, ready to respond, but for some reason I couldn't really get the breath to, what little I had just causing hot liquid to dribble out my mouth. Using Aerokinesis I formed the words "Ask Zilla" in the air.

Herb's head snapped over to what I'd written, his eyes glimmering with Power Sight for a moment before he nodded quickly, saying, "Zilla? _Zilla!_ Zilla, where's Panacea!?" he got a response as he started walking quickly, almost jogging, as we went down hallway after hallway, interspersed with brief moments where we were outside again, the sky dark as rain poured from above.

Someone stepped forward and tried to say, "Stop! You can't go-guh!" as Herb's power lashed out twice, causing them both to collapse, from the sound of it.

After a few dozen more steps, Herb whispered, "Dude, open up your suit, I need to touch you." I did so where he was holding me, only to hear something wet hit the ground and him go " _Fuck!"_ It felt cold, and kinda weird, and kinda good, though the fact that he wasn't making any of the _dozens_ of jokes he could've about touching me worried me a little. I couldn't really think of any myself, but I could recognize the opportunity, at least.

We went through a couple sets of doors, and someone tried to say, "what are you doin-" only to be cut off by twin cries of "Lee!"

I was put down on something as someone left the room in a hurry, Herb keeping his hand on my back as two other shapes entered my view, one wearing a half mask while the other just wore a hood. It took a bit to realize they were Taylor and Amy, the second of which was moving her hands along my chest. I wondered what she was doing until Herb said, "Open up, she needs to touch you."

That made a lot of sense, so I did so, creating a gap from my waist to my neckc, ausing her to stumble forward slightly. I heard another weirdly wet sound as she held back a panicked, distressed yell, not really saying anything as Taylor let out a strangled scream. "How?" Amy demanded, sounding scared, poking at something in me.

Herb said, "Leviathan," but Amy shook her head, pausing as Taylor said "Hookwolf." I wasn't really sure what either of them meant, as it was Herb that'd brought me here, but I felt metal shards pushed into contact with my Metal Projection, which re-claimed them, bringing them back into the whole. Other parts of me moved a little, but I didn't feel much of a difference, my thoughts muddled with bright clouds of pain when I tried to focus.

"It's too much, it's just too much," Amy said to herself after a moment, looking pale and tired and lost. She brought up a hand to push the hair out of her eyes, leaving long red streaks across her face, and I wondered who she'd been working on that was so hurt it'd left her hands that bloody. I couldn't help her heal me directly, but maybe I could do what I'd done with Vista? I could See her power easily enough, and the power that I'd drained from myself for that last hit against Leviathan was already mostly back, so I tried to give her more power to work with.

Nothing happened.

That was. . . _odd._ It'd worked for Vista, so why didn't it work for Panacea? Even if it was a distance problem, with Biokinesis being touch-ranged it should still work as she was touching me. It should work, so why _wasn't_ it?

 _Bi҉ơk̛in҉esi͟s̕.͡_

Right, I didn't actually _have_ Biokinesis, like I'd had Space Warping. Well, that was an easy enough problem to fix. Slotting it in, I became hyper-aware of what I was touching, and what I could use my power on. Still had no idea what I was doing, but I knew I could do it, at least. Herb and Amy gave simultaneous sighs as I helped them Get Better. They were helping me, so it was only nice to give them a pick me up in return, like a bio-kinetic reach around. _Hey! That's a sex joke!_ I thought, proud of myself.

. . . What was I doing?

Oh yeah, I was trying to make Amy's power work better, like I had with Vista. I tried to do so with Herb as well, but it didn't work, probably because he didn't _have_ Biokinesis. I'd need his copying ability to enhance his copying ability, and I pondered why it worked that way, the terms _I̶m̵p͏e͏tu͞s͝ ҉_ and _E҉xpr͠e̛ss͞i̕ơn_ , drifting through my thoughts for some reason.

Well, if I couldn't up Herb's ability, I could _definitely_ up Amy's ability. Probably. Possibly. Maybe. I wouldn't know if I didn't try, and while it seemed _really_ nice to drift here, I had things to do. I wasn't sure what they were, just a niggling sense that I didn't have time to waste.

Focusing on Amy, as much as I was able, I poured my power into hers, the now familiar draining sensation was. . . annoying, like unexpectedly having to pay for someone else's food, but I was doing this to help her. I didn't know _how_ this would help her, only that it would.

Amy gasped as her eyes caught fire, beautiful Bone White and Blood Red Flames burning with power as her Biokinesis was pushed further and further, to greater and greater heights. I could practically feel my body shifting and realigning as Taylor gasped. "Are you okay?" the bug controller asked, unsure.

I tried to tell he it was fine, I'd done this before, but it came out as a wet gurgle and Amy snapped, "Don't do that!"

Taylor had looked scared when I tried to talk, but Amy being Amy seemed to help. On the other side Herb murmured, "How the fuck. . .?" to himself, but didn't say anything else, as usual.

My favorite healer kept working on me, the blood on her face condensing into a Crimson beetle that jumped down onto my chest, though I didn't feel it land. "Bugs!" she called, and a stream of insects came in through a vent, dropping onto me. Less than a minute later, Amy waved them off, and they retreated back through the vent as if they'd never been here.

She seemed like she was done, and I was feeling a little worried for some reason, so I stopped feeding her power, the fire in her eyes fading, leaving her normal, expressive green orbs, though there might've been a little red that hadn't been there before. The pain was gone, but I still drifted, having trouble focusing anything for more than few seconds. She looked over me, from head to toe, and frowned, before hitting me in the chest as she command me to "Breathe, dumbass!"

I gasped, and, while mean, she wasn't exactly _wrong._ As I took in sweet, cold gulps of air, the fog that blanketed my mind slowly lifted. Noticing that Herb had taken his hand away, I closed up the back of my costume and sat up, stretching out. Looking around, I saw that Taylor and Herb were covered in blood, Panacea looking a bit dirty but otherwise fine. Flicking a hand out, I sent bits of my suit out and cleaned all three off in seconds as I let out a deep sigh.

"Okay, that sucked. Gonna need a new strategy next time," I said, more to myself then them, prompting simultaneous responses from all three.

" _What?_ " Taylor asked.

"Not alone you're not!" stated Herb.

"Oh _hell_ no!" Amy yelled, " _Your insides were mush!_ "

I started to reply to Herb, but Amelia's statement took me back. "Really?"

 _"Yes!"_ she yelled back, and Herb nodded.

That was. . . bad, and I could freak out about it _after_ the fight was over. "Break, you need to go back ASAP. We don't know how long you need to be out of it before your power thinks the fight is 'over' and you're back to zero."

"I-I'm not leaving you alone!" he shot back, but his objection lacked conviction.

I opened the eyes of my costume and Saw him, looking for that aspect of his borrowed power. Finding it, I shook my head, "You've got to keep going. I'm going to take a few minutes, at least, and it'll lapse if you're not doing _something._ Getting me help counted, waiting for me to go back to fighting likely won't. Go and make sure Kayden's okay."

He pointed at me aggressively, but his words died before they crossed his lips, knowing I was right. "Don't-Just don't do that to me again!" he more pleaded than commanded.

"I'll do my best, next one I get is intangibility," I promised him. It was obvious to him that that wasn't good enough, but he turned and left, opening the door and dodging as the sound of gunfire came from down the hall. "I'm headin' out," he told whoever tried to attack him. "Shoot me again and I'll shove it up your ass sideways!"

I covered my eyes with my costume as he turned into a velociraptor and took off so fast he blurred, feeling him sprint out the building with Aerokinesis. There was the pounding of feet as PRT agents ran inside, pointing their guns at me. "Step away from Panacea!" one of them yelled.

Taylor and I exchanged confused glances as Amy asked "What?"

"Step away from Panacea!" was yelled at us again, the person in the back giving the commands not the talkative type.

"She's on my team, and _not_ a Ward," I pointed out, my mind still a bit fuzzy and leaving me in no mood to deal with this shit. "Back the fuck off."

One of the idiots actually took the shot, which I deflected between us easily.

" _Fuck off_ ," I repeated, using Aerokinesis to shove them backwards and out the door, slamming it, and covering it with a solid layer of air. "Right, that was. . . weird." I looked over and saw someone else lying on another bed in the room, still breathing but unconscious. "Oh, shit, um, should you help him?"

"What?" Amy asked, following my gaze. "Fuck!" She leapt over to him, putting a hand on his chest as her power flared to life.

I followed her over, standing behind and reaching past her to lay a hand on him, healing him as well. I turned over the reins of my Biokinesis to Panacea as I said, "Right, so, I was a dumbass and tried to match Levi power for power, and that was. . . _dumb._ I blame Hollywood." Amy gave a derisive snort as she worked, the injured man's flesh re-arranging itself before my eyes.

"Hollywood?" Taylor asked, still looking a bit shell shocked.

I motioned her over as the PRT tried to batter the door down, not even getting through the Air Shield. Compared to Levi's attacks they were absolutely pitiful. Putting a hand on her uncovered face, I gave her the 'get better' treatment, her paleness fading as she calmed down. "Yeah, Hollywood. I fought him power vs power, mano-a-monstero, sky versus sea. He was standing there, not engaging me physically, and I'd lose if he did, so I did the same. It didn't work, though I did get him at the end. I think. But I've got more than just the one power, and I need to remember to _use_ them."

Amelia stood back from her patient, bumping against my chest, and turned around to glare up at me. She was only a few inches away as she informed me, "You shouldn't go back at all!"

I got the weirdest urge to hug her but shrugged instead. Touched by her concern, I smiled down at her, "I'm a hero, fighting monsters is kinda what I do."

She glared at me, before she sagged, the fight going out of her, her head dropping down. She leaned forward, pressing her cheek against my bare, newly healed chest, "Just don't die, okay. I'm worried enough about Vics, and she's not trying to fight an _Endbringer._ "

"I'll go see if I can help search and rescue," I promised her, compromising and giving her a one-armed hug. "I'm pretty sure I'm no longer Endbringer Bait, but if he's there I'll try to hold him off long enough others can get to safety, then I'll pull back if things look bad."

Amelia didn't say anything, just nodded, though we both jumped when a voice yelled '"Panacea, are you unharmed!"

She pulled back and we both turned to look at the door. Taylor told us, expression distant, "There's heroes outside, a lot of them."

"Yes?" Amy replied to the voice beyond the door, confused. "Why?"

"What are your demands?" the voice demanded.

"Demands. . ." I echoed, finally understanding. Closing up the chest of my costume, I undid the air shields, making several between us and the door, just in case. "I'm not holding her hostage, dumbass. She's on my team and was just patching me up." I opened the doors remotely, and the parahumans charged in. One guy launched a bolt of energy at me, which hit the first shield and dissipated.

He prepped another and was promptly swarmed by insects, the others stopping, looking around. "He's healed, by the way," I offered, jerking a thumb backwards.

The lead cape, a woman in white and golden body armor, looked around, then back at the PRT. "We were told you'd knocked out the guards and kidnapped Panacea," she told me.

"What?" Amy asked. "Why would he do that? I'm on his team. He'd have priority, just like New Wave would."

"Wait, really?" I asked. "'Cause Break was told to leave me to die, then knocked out the guards when they tried to stop him. I think. I was kinda out of it." Amelia looked _furious,_ so I quickly continued, turning back to the lead cape, "Then the PRT goons came in, guns pointed at me, and tried to kidnap her. One of the idiots tried to shoot me when I asked what was going on, but his aim sucked. I kicked them out, since they were shooting innocent people in a _hospital._ "

One of the parahuman's armbands chimed, _"Geyser deceased, CB-4. Cruise Control deceased, CB-4. Bastion deceased, CB-4. Garbage Man deceased, CB-4. Fearles-"_ she clicked it, shutting it off. I hadn't noticed it until then, but I'd lost my own armband, though given what I was planning, that was probably for the best.

"We don't have time for this," the woman said. "Panacea, are you still healing people?"

"I'm not sure I want to now-" she started to say, but caught my look. "Fine. Yes."

"And you weren't being held hostage?" the woman pressed.

"No!" the girl beside me shot back. "I wasn't!"

"Then let's go back to fighting the Endbringer instead of each other," the Hero in charge concluded, walking out, the other heroes following her.

I looked at Taylor and Amy, "Put your helmets on, don't know when some idiot's gonna start shooting." Lady Bug, pulled the bottom half of her mask from her belt and re-attached it, grabbing the box I'd built for her while Amy muttered, "Hypocrite" under her breath and grabbed her own helmet, which had been sitting on a nearby table.

We walked after heroes, only for the PRT troopers to point their guns at me as soon as we left the room, the leader announcing, "You're under arrest for th-"

"For god's sake, shut up!" the woman we'd been speaking to snapped, halfway down the hall. "You, whatever your name is, you're going out to fight?" she asked me. I nodded. "Good, go."

I started to fly away when one of the PRT officers grabbed Panacea's arm. "You need to come with-" was as far as he got before Taylor reached over, quick as a snake, and unlatched the troopers visor. Panacea reached up at the same time and flipped it up, tapping the man's face, and he dropped to the ground bonelessly. "Fuck you," she spat, giving a challenging glare to the other troopers, who looked suddenly unsure. "He's taken a nap. Let me go, or you will be too."

One of them tried to point there gun towards Taylor, only to find it wouldn't move, as I was holding it in place with solid air. "For fucks sake!" the woman yelled, stomping over to Taylor and Amelia. "Panacea, come with us and we'll make sure you find someone who _isn't_ getting in the way! You, go!" she commanded me, and I nodded, flying away.

Following the signs, I found an exit and took off into the storm. "Eecee, Panacea, Lady Bug, don't respond right now, but if things get bad, just call for help."

"What's wrong?" Vicky asked a few seconds later.

"Got hurt, Herb took me to get help, they told him to fuck off, guards told him to fuck off, he came in anyways, I got patched up, PRT tried to shoot me for 'kidnapping' Panacea, heroes got called in, they got things sorted, PRT tried to arrest me and take Panacea anyways, Amy put that asshole to sleep and went off with the heroes," I rattled off.

"Uh. . . okay," Vicky replied, obviously unsure.

"Sitrep people. Other than Lady Bug, and Panacea, how is everyone?" I requested. The storm was omnipresent, lightning striking all around as well as the flash of powers going off across the darkened city. Looking inwards, another Minor slot had opened. Part of me wanted to slot in Stellar Creation. Without Stellar Negation it'd be dangerous to use around others, but while my Air lost to Leviathan's Water, throwing some Plasma into the mix should help even the scales. I hadn't practiced with it nearly as much as I had Air, given its distinctive appearance, but, if I wasn't pulling it out until I was alone anyways, it wouldn't matter.

Resolving to get that _next_ , I slotted Shadowform. Nothing seemed any different after I did so. No new senses awakened, which I was glad for, as I was still trying to get a handle on the ones I _had_ , nor did anything else seem to happen.

"With Legend, lost sight of Leviathan a while ago. He can dig underground," Purity reported, and I took a minute to process that. It made sense; drills were construct shaping 101. Well, they were if you watched Gurren Lagann, so maybe that wouldn't be most obvious conclusion. "I'm running low though."

I wondered if a star created with Stellar Creation would recharge Lightform's reserves. They gave off radiation like the sun gave on earth, despite that making _no_ sense, which was what Lightform collected to help access the other dimension the Light came from. It stood to reason that maybe that same radiation would help her fill back up when she couldn't access the sun. . . _Or she could just go up,_ I thought. Lightform did odd things to the body, and a lessened need for oxygen might be one of them.

"Break off from Legend and head up through the storm," I commanded her. It was the water that was dangerous, not the clouds, and if they tried to attack her, she could just let off a burst and escape. "Refill your tanks, but if you get lightheaded drop back down. I might have a backup plan, but let's see if that works. Who else?"

"Æonic, Mike, Curtis, Tyrone, and Boojack are all currently unreachable," Zilla chimed in.

There was a moment of silence over the line before I sighed and started to fly towards the city, knowing I'd have to go over them in turn. "Raida, you good?"

"Uh, yeah. Savin' people. Kinda scary, but Boo's watchin' out for me," the girl replied after a moment.

"Gallant, Vista?" I prodded.

"Fine!" the pre-teen space warper replied. "It's really hard keeping the wave back! I can't do anything else!"

"No problems here," Gallant added in.

"Vista, don't use your power other than keeping that up. Leviathan's looking for who did that and tried to kill a cape with a similar power," I told her, walking the line between truth and lies.

"That why you were hurt?" Missy asked, and I wondered exactly what she meant by that.

"No, I tried to 1v1 Levi," I replied. "I didn't win, but I didn't lose either. Theo, how's things at the base?"

"Pumps are working, no flooding," he reported. "Some weird stuff from the computers, but I don't know what it is."

"Weird _how?_ " I asked, suddenly reminded of the times I worked IT and the endless stream of vague statements from clients.

There were the sounds of typing for a few seconds before he said, "Um, some sensors are going off, but I can't find out where they are. It's not in the base, but that's it."

Trying to remember the documentation for the base itself, which was several times larger than the first _monster_ document I'd gotten from Numberman, I had no idea what it could be. I'd barely put a dent in it, and had no idea where to start. Breaking me out of my thoughts, there was a sound that seemed to cut across the rain, the thunder, the lightning, _everything._

If I had to put it into words, I'd say it was a loud, rhythmic static that. . . chirped, overriding everything else. Looking in its direction, a sphere of perfect blackness had enveloped a small part of downtown, maybe only a city block. Air streamed into it, the rain spiraling in its direction as well, before it disappeared, leaving nothing behind.

The rain slackened off quickly, dropping to a light drizzle as the clouds started to thin, the day getting brighter. _Did. . . did they do it?_ I wondered, looking around. This wasn't the plan, and I wasn't sure if the others had fought Levi enough to satisfy their 'Endbringer Target' Flaw, but if they'd somehow managed to kill him. . . this changed things.

 _Would this spawn Khonsu? If it did, my next power **needs** to be Time Immunity, and I'd have to see how his presence interacted with my possibly being an EB target,_ I thought. Chuck could probably no-sell his power, but Herb might have some trouble. That was assuming that Khonsu's appearance was set in stone. It showed up after Behemoth was beaten down with a time-based attack. Where the Endbringers pre-determined or were their forms mutable, to make sure the same strategy didn't work twice? Would the next one be. . . _whatever that was_ related?

The rain stopped entirely, but the clouds thickened, darkening the day once more. With Levi gone, _if_ he was gone, he was no longer controlling the clouds, so they stopped raining, the aftermath of his control making it heavily overcast. Looking out over the city, trying to figure out what to do next, I caught sight of a flash of Liquid, extending upwards and downwards, controlling every piece of water in the city.

"Barrage from above and below!" I called, wrapping myself in spheres of solid air and shifting to Shadowform, not really sure what I'd seen, but hoping I was wrong.

I wasn't.

They weren't compressed spears this time, but the collected raindrops came shooting down like a million bullets, a million more coming up from the flooded streets. Each droplet, accelerated to hyper-velocity, flew past the all the others, not a single one in my range colliding with another.

My air shields expended themselves, doing their job and keeping me safe, but others weren't as lucky. Several fliers I could see in the distance dropped down, likely dead, while others just seemed to disappear in a shower of gore, and in the distance something large, probably a Dragon craft, exploded. Unfortunately, Levi wasn't done. The bullet-rain from below stopped and came down in a second solid sheet, moving even faster, blasting through the remains of my air shields and through my insubstantial form.

The rain started again, faster than rain should be. While it would be hard enough to sting unprotected skin, it wasn't anywhere near lethal speeds. I was under no delusions that it couldn't do that again at a moment's notice, though. "Shit, how's everyone? I'm fine."

"We're good," Taylor said, "but a lot of people died, what happened?"

"Rain with the force of bullets," I told her, "Vicky?"

"We're good!" she affirmed, echoing Taylor. "Glad this thing has a roof. It's kinda beat up, but it didn't hurt us."

Purity added, "Legend and I were above the clouds. Break's with us."

"Raida?" I asked, but got no response. "Shit, Zilla, I need directions on Raida. Eeem."

She gave me the directions and I sped off. "Æonic?"

"Still unavailable," the VI told me.

Hopefully that meant he was still in his Time Bubble, so he'd missed that. I dropped down, towards Rune's location, shifting my costume configuration. Darkening everything and switching to a full helm, I opened tiny slits across my costume, through which grey tendrils streamed out as Metal Projection came to the fore. Feeling myself hit the limit to the power I'd run into before, the free-floating tendrils automatically changed form into a shifting steel giant, still wreathed in Shadow.

Unlike before, it didn't feel awkward to move, only like I was suddenly huge, with my eyes in my chest instead of my head. That being said, I was still aware of my 'real' body, I could just feel the metal one equally as well as my flesh and blood form. While the perspective was odd, with Aerokinesis I didn't need my eyes to see what was directly around me, which synced up perfectly with my new form as I approached Raida's location, or at least where her commpiece was sending a signal from. The buildings here were wrecked, rubble covering half the street, the other half flooded. I could sense people under the masonry, so many that it pressed, ever so slightly, against my Space Warping.

I could dig them out, but I had _no_ idea how to shift the rubble without possibly crushing those I was trying to save, only that there was an art to it that I didn't possess. I'd played around with the metal tendrils during the last week, and they counted as 'me' for _some_ short-range powers, like Lightform, but not for others, like Biokinesis, with no seeming rhyme or reason. I hadn't tested them with Shadowform, but there was no time like the present.

I couldn't see through my projected metal, but I could somewhat feet with them. This wouldn't be up to my standards of power use, but standards took a back seat to trying to survive nearly half an hour ago. Extending tendrils, I dug through the masonry, trying to home in on the nearest person I could 'sense', though it was like trying to see a shadow in a darkened room. The feelings I got as my tendril dug through the rubble came through more clearly than they had before, which gave me hope that I could pull this off _without_ accidentally impaling anyone.

It wasn't exact, but I felt the difference between rock and air and carefully moved the end of the metal tendril around, blunting the tip until I felt something with a little give. Spreading the metal out in smaller and smaller branches, I wrapped around what felt like a knee, or maybe a really thick elbow.

Dropping the tendril, and what it carried, to Shadowform, my hold stayed strong and I resisted the urge to cheer. Part of the rubble shifted, dropping down, and I extended the shadowed tendril in each direction, finding a foot and then hips. Circling the latter, I pulled back, the projected metal retracting and pulling out a girl with a hood that had no face, just an infinite expanse of stars.

Putting her down and letting her return to reality, I leaned my 'body' down close enough that I could retract the metal covering my 'chest' and put my flesh and blood hand through my giant's body and grab her arm, her clothing in tatters, healing her as I extended more tendrils. With the proof of concept done, I found it much easier to search out others, the new tendrils extending almost on their own. Five, ten, twenty people were found and extracted, though not all of them were still alive.

The faceless girl seemed better, or at least without anymore visible injuries on her exposed skin, so I moved onto the next most injured person, a man in dented armor which was banged up enough I could reach through the cracks. I felt a thrum, the rain stopping as I spread my tendrils out, shifting everyone still alive to Shadow.

Another round of bullet rain came down, though without the simultaneous attack from below this time. It passed harmlessly through the survivors, riddling the corpses with holes, sending bits of gore everywhere, and I waited a long moment before releasing the survivors back to normalness. Actually. . . I could still heal the armored man with us both insubstantial, so there was no reason to do that whatsoever. I continued pulling out injured, keeping them in Shadowform, finally reaching the largest pocket of air, right in the middle.

A pair of hands grabbed the tendril, directing it over to someone. Wrapping around them, I split it up, only for one of the new branches to be directed to another person. Eleven people later, the hands patted the tendrils. I assumed that meant I didn't need anymore, and shifted them all to Shadow, pulling them back through the rubble, which promptly collapsed.

Retracting my metal tendrils like a demented fishing line, the first out was Raida, who was unconscious, followed by an odd assortment of parahumans, all injured. Catching a hint of a familiar Flame, I wasn't surprised when a mole dug its way out, promptly exploding upwards into Boojack. "The fuck?" he asked, looking up at me and the collection of people I held up in the air all around me by thin, metallic, shadowy tendrils, their lessened weight in that state letting me maneuver them with ease.

Bringing Raida to me, he took a combative step forward. "What?" I asked, leaning out of the center of my armor, giving him a look as I mentally pulled back her costume so I could heal her, extensive bruising on her now exposed arm.

"Looked like a monster tryin' to eat her," he said.

Her bruises disappeared, her leg shifting as it un-broke. "You didn't know it was me? Can't you sense my power?" I asked.

He just stared at me while I worked, finally saying, "Huh," and nothing more. As I worked, I realized that I'd done that training with Herb _after_ Boojack was made, so he had no memory of it. I'd need to keep that in mind, if Herb ever made a clone that I _could_ work with. It was zero for four so far, but he had at least six more, and I hoped at least _one_ would be the type I'd actually recruit.

The water stilled again, and I sent a tendril to touch Boojack, who just raised an eyebrow behind his mask. This time the water around us erupted into spikes, like liquid ice, which stayed up for a bit before dropping back to regular water. They came back a few seconds later, and then a few seconds after that, and a fourth one before dropping down and staying water as the rain pressed down. I waited a long moment, the water erupting into rising bullet rain, before coming down as just and extra layer of precipitation.

"Leviathan seems to be switching to city-wide attacks," I commented conversationally, feeling the attacks coming from every pool of water as far as my Aerokinetic senses could reach.

"Yup."

"Any thoughts?" I asked, hoping for another perspective to help me figure out what I needed to do.

"Yup," he repeated.

I waited for his explanation, finishing my healing of Rune and switching to another person, a guy in a bright yellow robe. "Ya wanna share?" I asked sarcastically.

"Nope."

I sighed, "Do you know how to call someone to pick everyone up? I'd rather not carry them all back."

He nodded in agreement, walking over to the first hero I'd grabbed, who I only now noticed was wearing an armband, making a 'drop it' motion. As I returned her back to reality it chimed, " _Starfield up, BB-4._ "

Boojack leaned over her, pressing the buttons on it and said, "Got wounded. Need pickup. Soon." Letting go of them, he folded his arms and sat down on a piece of rubble. With a wave of his hand, a crystal umbrella grew out of the ground, shading him from the rain. He reached inside his jacket, pulled out a baggie from which he extracted a blunt, and put it back. Aiming a finger at the end, a midnight blue beam of energy set the weed cigar alight and he took a deep drag.

Before I could ask what he thought we should do, the armband on, presumably, Starfield's arm responded. "Evac in two minutes, please stay in that location." Boojack nodded, shifting on his piece of rubble as a crystal chair extended up through it, a footrest rising so he could lean back and relax, and took another drag.

As we waited, more deaths rolled in, and I got antsier, wanting to do _something_ to help.

 _"Mars-ipan deceased, AF-5, Kitty Kat down, FB-3, Flambé deceased, DB-6. Dauntless down, FB-3, Dakka deceased, DD-2, Pelter deceased, FB-3"_

The water went still again, and I shifted Starfield and Boojack to shadow, only for nothing to happen. Thirty seconds later the stillness stopped, but I kept everyone in shadow anyways. Waiting, I opened up a hole in the center of the giant and stretched my reconstructed joints, moving back and for forth only for my hand to hit something.

Reaching for the small of my back as the rain started falling once more, I found a hard case latched onto my costume, which opened up at my touch, revealing a handle. Grabbing it, I held a gun which glowed a muted brown. It took a moment, but I realized it was the desiccation pistol I'd picked up hours before this SNAFU started. It was an invaluable tool which, between the craziness with Eidolon, realizing how strong Leviathan truly was, and everything else, _I'd completely forgotten I had._

 _I'm a goddamned fucking moron._

Putting it back and promising to remember the _anti-water gun_ when _fighting the hydrokinetic,_ I finally dropped Starfield and Boojack, who was happy to learn he could still smoke as a living shadow, back to reality. Her armband reconnected to the network and started the process of announcing the dead again.

 _"Paragon down, CF-3, Grit deceased, FD-1, Riptide deceased, DE-4, Kid Win down, CF-3, Drakon Deceased, CF-3_ "

I was just about to put the injured down and leave Boojack to watch them when I spotted a golden glow and a disturbance in the air around the corner. A dozen people skidded into sight, all of them sliding along the top of the water like it were ice, shepherding a woman who knelt within a moving golden dome. A woman in grey who burned brightly to my Sight flew above them as she trailed a thick plume of dust behind her.

Boojack put out his joint and pocketed it as they neared, waving a hand as the crystal furniture fell away to nothing. As he did so, the group suddenly reacted as if they'd only just spotted me, despite my being a twenty-foot-tall giant of shadow and steel. They scattering as those with weapons pointed them in my general direction, though half of them would've missed. Looking at them, there were a few injured people in the golden dome, though something about it made me uneasy. "You the Evac?" I boomed, wishing I had Acoustokinesis to make this work better. Checking my powers, the third Major slot wasn't anywhere close to ready, but the next Minor slot would be up in a few seconds.

The dusty woman with the power of Ash Manipulation flew forwards, looking down at Starfield. "Just her?" she demanded.

I looked at all the people still carried by my tendrils, over a dozen of them hanging in the air around me, wondering how she missed them. Shifting the tendrils down, the leader watched dispassionately as I returned them to reality, one after another, in a row on the rubble that stuck up from the water.

The woman nodded in satisfaction as little goblin-things leapt from places they couldn't've been hiding it, picking up the injured and carrying them to the odd golden dome. When Raida touched it, she bounced off the side, unable to enter. The minions put her down after another try, the same green glow that was around the feet of the other heroes springing to life around Raida's prone form, keeping her on top of the water.

Boojack moved forward, form shifting into a Hippo as he moved next to her. It was a peaceful scene, immediately disturbed by water clone formed from the water flooding a nearby alley. It was still forming as it left its hiding spot, running towards the group. I moved to block it but had to dodge what looked like a giant novelty candle that rocketed past where my 'head' was, missing the clone by inches as it dodged as well.

Raising one Giant hand, I shifted it to a mass of tendrils that shot out and ripped the clone apart, the watery, clear construct providing little resistance as I sliced into it again and again as it tried to reform until it stopped, no piece bigger than a person. "Sorry!" a girl in a slender dress that looked like woven brass called out.

"It's fine, just-" I caught a flash of movement at the end of the street and caught sight of the Liquid that streamed off it in every direction. "Shit, Leviathan!" I warned.

The leader, only a few feet away, muttered " _Not again,"_ to herself, a feeling I heartily agreed with.

"Announce his location, get them to safety, I'll hold him," I told her. With my ability to drop to Shadow, and the ability to keep my main body insubstantial while my projected metal existed in the real world, this fight wasn't going to be _nearly_ as dangerous as before.

The others took off, but the ash manipulator stayed behind, the powdery substance streaming out of her body. "You too," I told her, catching a flash of Levi as he moved around us, disturbing the air enough that I could track it before it suddenly plunged underground and disappeared.

It came up from underneath the group, which twisted around to avoid it just in time. Levi clones formed, only to lose cohesion as Boojack turned into a giant rhinoceros, half the size of Leviathan itself, and charged the Endbringer, slamming him into a nearby building.

The rescue team took off as I charged the Endbringer, pushing my metal body from behind with air and using my flight to run even faster as I extended more tendrils, growing myself to match Leviathan in height. The Endbringer leapt forward, trying to move around me, but I lengthened the metal of my arm and caught him as he jumped. The tendrils bit in, his greater momentum dragging me up and causing me to swing around him as the tentacles of steel wrapped around his body. I closed and slammed into him with my other hand, fingers replaced with of twisting spikes that dug into his crystalline flesh.

They didn't get very far, but it still injured the monster, who turned and struck me, sending water shooting down at my real body, only for it to pass through my insubstantial dorm. Grabbing my metal frame, he tore me off of himself, fragments of metal going everywhere, throwing me backwards as Boojack charged him once again.

As Boojack closed, the Endbringer's right arm from the elbow down seemed to dissolve into dark water, a construct instead of crystalline flesh. I lashed out at the buildings around me with metal hooks as I flew backwards from Levi's throw, slowing myself down just like he had the first time I hit him that day, and charged right back towards Endbringer as well. Boojack ducked underneath a tail-swipe and hit the Endbringer dead in the chest once again, pushing it back into the same building the replicant had thrown him into last time.

The Endbringer dug his remaining hand into the giant rhino's flesh, Leviathan's tail flashing down and piercing the asphalt to give it leverage as it tossed the herbivore away once more. As I closed, water streamed off Leviathan's body and reformed his missing arm.

It jumped for me, leading with its liquid limb, only for it to vaporize into nothing as I shot my desiccation pistol, fouling Leviathan's trajectory as well. In that moment it started to flail, losing all the fluidity of its movements it'd shown so far, and I realized something. The secret to the Endbringer's grace was its control over the water that surrounded it, and without it Levi was caught flat footed, even if just for a moment.

My rending strike caught it in the face as I copied its technique and sent tendrils of metal through my feet into the street to ground myself. The metal of my form groaned under the strain of my more massive foe, some tendrils snapping, but I brought Leviathan to a halt. The Endbringer's other hand came down, tearing into my metal as compressed bolts of water riddled my giant's metal chest and shot through where I was, passing harmlessly through the other side.

Slamming the Endbringer to the ground, holding its head firmly with my metallic right hand as more tendrils shot between my fingers to keep Leviathan down, a royal purple sword of plasma blazed to life in my giant's left as I slotted Stellar Creation, the metal tendrils starting to glow as I 'held' it. While I lacked Stellar negation to keep the metal cool, my own immunity to heat made it no issue for my own safety. Stabbing downward, a water clone grabbed my arm from behind as the water construct boiled away, stopping me for a moment.

My metallic arm to Shadow, but that gave Leviathan enough time to bring both its arms up and tear through the metal tendrils holding it down, skidding backwards as the flooded street carried it away like a giant moving sidewalk. This only lasted for a moment before the Endbringer suddenly started skipping across the water like a giant thrown rock, an enormous mastodon slamming into it from behind, trunk encircling the Endbringer's thin waist.

Charging forward as Boojack slammed his foe down into the ground, over and over, Levi's tail whipped out and stabbed through the center of my metal construct, slamming directly into the shield covering my chest, draining it despite my body being in Shadowform.

Not bothering to try to figure out _how_ , I just changed the plan, assuming that Leviathan himself could hit me even if his water couldn't. While that sucked, this was still doable. Leviathan's tail struck out again and I parried with my flaming sword, which deflected the thrusting appendage, cutting deeply into it. I closed the distance and struck, But Levi rooted himself in the ground and tossed the mastodon at me, coming with it himself, hiding behind the hairy mammal.

As the Endbringer flew at me, he dug his remaining clawed hand into the flesh of the replicant's trunk, ripping through it as the flesh across the Endbringer's ragged, crystalline chest bulged. Freeing himself, he jumped backwards, out of Boojack's copying range as the rain above us accelerated to the speed of bullets once more, water spears coming in at us from every direction, so many they were impossible to dodge. Even the desiccation gun didn't help, the attacks coming in so fast, and from so many directions, that they couldn't be stopped.

My exposed metal was torn apart, and Levi forced the steam from the water that hit my sword to cover me in an attempt to burn me, but I was unharmed. Boojack was not so lucky, his shaggy hide pierced hundred of times over in the second as I reached for him to try to shift him to Shadowform, dead before I could save him.

With Boojack gone, and the others likely having retreaded to safety, I dropped the star saber and gave Leviathan a one finger salute as I shifted fully to Shadow and dropped through the ground, ready to let him become someone _else's_ problem.

Leviathan objected.

He darted forward with insane speed, claws slamming into my giant and ripping pieces away, tearing its head clean off as I disappeared below ground. Dropping further down, just to be sure, I heard a loud grinding sound and Leviathan's tail shot through the dirt, ripping into the metal giant's shoulder, cutting off an arm. Dropping down _even further_ , the Endbringer dug below me and slammed up into me, water drills cutting through earth as easily as if it were sand, as he shoved an arm through the constructs chest and grabbed me directly, pulling us both up to the surface where another hundred water spears passed through me to no effect.

Still in Shadow, I created a pair of suns in my flesh and blood hands and shoved them into Leviathan's claws. They passed through the water covering him as if it weren't there, but struck the Endbringer's talons, super-heating them as they started to eat into the material. The heat in that other dimension transferred to the real world, causing the water to vaporize as the twin stars sank deeper and deeper into his green flesh despite seeming to do no real damage in the real world. The super-tough material of his hands resisted my suns, but they burned through it anyways.

Leviathan squeezed tight, trying to crush me, but just broke my shields, the normal one covering my chest having just returned from being struck by his tail. Finding no success there, he threw me upwards with enormous strength, hurling me higher than the skyscrapers, giving me nowhere to run. He crouched down before launching himself after me, his injured hand reaching out to pierce through my armored chest.

A dark shape blurred into view and a German Shepard the size of a city bus slammed into Leviathan, knocking him down, into, and _through_ a building. Looking around, I could distantly See Purity and Legend coming in from the north, Alexandria from the South, Eidolon from the South-west, and a number of other powers streaking in from across the city.

If Levi was smart, he'd try to cut and run, attacking someone more vulnerable, and I couldn't let that happen. I had an open power slot, and reached to put Speed Zones in it, to make me even faster when Kaiser's Metal Creation took its place in my mind. It didn't slot itself, but I could feel my power pushing me in that direction, waiting for permission. Following it's suggestion, I did so, not sure why. I felt something in myself shift and twist, my power ringing like a struck bell, nausea assaulting me as the metal I'd projected out of my body retracted all at once.

Something connected, interfaced, and a͠d̴̶a̢pt̴̴͜e̸̕d̨̕, before metal streamed from every pore as if my body were purging itself. They tendrils extended and reformed, as they had when I first used the power, forming another body of metal, though this one was different. Not the dull grey of steel, but a shining gold shot through with pure white.

My Orichalcum body flexed, feeling light, tough, and strong as I turned my attention down where Tyrone was harrying Leviathan, keeping him busy. While I couldn't meet the Endbringer shot for shot, I could steal his techniques, and there was a lot more _air_ here then there was _water_.

Extending out a 'tail' of braided metal, I flew downwards, shoving myself along with it _exactly_ like Leviathan did to move himself through the sky. I blasted towards the pair, flying far faster then I had ever done without Lightform to push me, and struck Leviathan like the fist of an angry god.

While my punch's momentum wasn't enhanced, lacking the solid spiral patterns needed to do so, I was still hitting the Endbringer with several tons of incredibly hard metal moving at over a hundred miles per hour. As Leviathan tried to dodge my descent, Tyrone grabbed onto his tail with his teeth, slowing him down _just_ enough for me to strike the Endbringer dead in in the chest. There was a thunderclap of force as Leviathan was blasted down and through the street, which crated with an explosion of water that shot off in all directions.

The Endbringer, chest deformed in the shape of my fist, started to sink into the ground but Tyrone appeared over him, latching onto the Endbringer with his jaws and throwing him upwards. As soon as the Endbringer left Tyrone's range, we were both assaulted in every direction as every free piece of water on the block blasted towards us, ripping apart buildings as he tried to kill us.

I shifted all but the outermost layer to shadow, but the Orichalcum took the hits, denting but not breaking. Tyrone disappeared completely, reappearing behind Leviathan, who hung in the air, covered and held aloft by his shroud of water. The Endbringer's assault stopped instantly as the water shroud lost cohesion, but Leviathan was waiting for this and speared the hound through the chest with its tail, impaling the replicant.

Tyrone growled, deep and echoing, as water formed around him in its own shell and he forced himself further down the tail that impaled him, catching the Endbringer's claw with his jaws as they both fell to the ground, destroying a building as they rolled over each other. Leviathan was trying to kill Tyrone and get access to his Hydrokinesis once more while the replicant was just trying to hold him in place and countering anything the Endbringer tried.

As I charged, Legend and Purity blasted by, strafing the Endbringer with explosions and piercing lasers. With company here, I pulled back my projected metal, dropped out of Shadowform, and created a blood red flaming sword, diving at the Endbringer. Getting close, I stabbed it in the back while the enormous hound raked its front, flying around the pair as they both rolled over. The Endbringer tore at Tyrone with its clawed feet as the end of its tail, the middle still piercing the replicant, swung around to stab him again and again, ripping the enormous hound to pieces.

He held on though, Alexandria arriving and slamming into the Endbringer as well, her punch rocking its head back as the Endbringer's blow bounced off the hound's suddenly impenetrable skin. She pulled back and Leviathan struck with everything it had, finally killing the hound, water bursting from its form and exploding outwards in every direction.

Alexandria was thrown back by the solid wave of water and gore as I shifted, for an instant, to Shadow, letting attack pass me by. What was left of Tyrone was blasted to pieces, Purity darting in front of Legend as she let out a shining white sphere of her own, matching and blocking the indiscriminate attack.

Leviathan darted away, only to run headfirst into a glowing blue brick wall which held fast against the impact, the unnatural construction tethered by a thin line of light to Eidolon's right hand, the 'strongest parahuman' _finally_ joining the fight. He held out his left and a sparking ball of fractal light started to grow within it. "Hold him!" the man in green and white yelled, and Alexandria shot forward to do just that.

I followed, the Orichalcum running through me, creating a thin sheath over my skin and under my armor that let me put myself under the pressure needed to enhance my speed more than before, though I lacked the tail to fully copy the Endbringer's technique. Leviathan tried to dig underground, but Alexandria caught him by the tail and pulled, straining, to keep him up, finding a handhold in the cut I'd made when I'd deflected its tail with solidified star a minute before.

The Endbringer turned and clawed at her, its missing arm re-grown past the elbow, and it tried to shove the rest of its watery hand in her face, only for it to bounce off an invisible field of force.

I reached the Endbringer and it slashed at me with its real arm, which I deflected with my sword, barely. My power strained to hold the star in place from the force of the blow, mostly succeeding, allowing me to move with the imparted momentum in a spin that swirled me around it's limb to stab it in the side. I left the blade there, mentally growing it deeper into its flesh to get a better grip. It blasted me back with a column of water, and while I blunted the impact with an air shield, I let it carry me away, focusing on keeping the sword in place, holding Leviathan where I stabbed him.

Eidolon's power had grown, an impossibly deep sphere of light the size of his head held at the ready while his other hand directed a tether of blue energy to create a blue collar that latched around the Endbringer's neck.

Lasers pierced the Endbringer's hide, holding it in place as Eidolon shoved his hand forward, throwing the sphere towards Leviathan, bound as it was. "Get away!" the man yelled, and I complied, pulling back as fast as I could while the others did the same.

Leviathan broke its bonds, ripping itself free in a geyser of gore as it tried to escape the attack, accelerating as it went off. The sphere expanded outwards, encircling the Endbringer completely. Lines of fractal light appeared, each reaching from one end of the sphere to the other, rotating in complex patterns as they sliced through everything it touched, from the bodies, to the cars, to even the buildings.

The Endbringer danced around the patterns, blurring as it tried to get out of the sphere, only to break off again as more beams blocked its path. The beams quickened, as did the Endbringer, my perception of the world slowing to keep track of them both. The Endbringer moved faster and faster, each attempt to escape stopped by another beam, finally making a break for it but not _quite_ dodging in time. The beam caught the Endbringer's tail, slicing through it cleanly as it escaped, leaving only a sliver of flesh trailing behind it.

Alexandria and Legend blasted off, flying around the sphere to try to get to the Endbringer, but it escaped, dropping down into the ground and disappearing. The light from Eidolon's attack faded as Leviathan's sixty-foot-long tail, sliced into hundreds of pieces, dropped into the wreckage below.

I let out a long breath, looking at the Triumvirate. "Do you think that was enough to make Levi pack up and go ho-"

The rain stuttered, before coming down like a hailstorm of bullets around us. Purity poured Light above herself in reactive shield, A pyramid of blue force appeared around Eidolon, I wrapped myself in a sphere of Air Shields, Legend turned to a laser and ran, and Alexandria just floated there. A moment later, it came down on us again before it stopped. Purity let the projected light fade, breathing hard, as Legend returned, and Alexandria turned to look at me. "I believe he's not leaving until we're dead, or he is," she told me, looking me over. "Where's your armband, Vejovis?"

I shrugged, "Leviathan broke it."

"Get another," she commanded, flying off. Eidolon followed suit, not saying a word as he headed off in the opposite direction.

"Vejovis?" Legend asked, and I looked over at him and nodded. "Good job. I'd like to talk to you after this," he said, a weary smile on his face.

"Um, okay?" I replied, not sure how else to respond. He gave me another friendly, strained nod and flew off, Purity nodding to me as well before following him.

Looking around, I wondered where the hell Leviathan was. Deciding to at least appear like I was following Alexandria's. . . let's say advice, I started to fly back towards the medical tents, which was the closest thing to a base I knew about. Trying to make sure I was fully ready for the next confrontation, I grabbed my pistol which had been gone unused during the fight and reloaded it. _Too many tools_ , I thought. While everything looked like a nail if the only thing you had was a hammer, it was _really easy_ to remember to use that hammer in the first place. When you had a toolbox, you'd probably use it all, but I vividly remembered how, despite having a full workshop, my father tended to use the same dozen tools for _everything_.

Restricting myself down to a few powers per persona helped focus me, but I'd gotten into the habit of using a hammer for _everything_ when I was wearing white. I'd had powers that I'd barely touched, and while I didn't need that level of capability against normal opponents, _this in no way counted as normal_. I wouldn't seek Leviathan out, _again_ , but we'd hurt him _badly_ here, and if he hadn't left yet, then Alexandria might be right, as much as it galled me to agree with that psychopath.

Checking, I'd picked up another Minor slot. _And yet more tools._ I slotted Speed Zones into it, feeling it activate and mix with all the others without incident. Fighting Leviathan was all about speed, and _this_ power I'd practiced quite a bit with. Mass uses of them would be obvious, but minor uses could make the difference on the battlefield just the same. Feeling it finish threading itself into place, I put a Speed Zone along my arm, just to test it. It seemed the same, though the feedback was _so_ much clearer then that evening I'd spent playing tag with Velocity. I hoped he was okay. I hadn't heard him die this time, but I'd been somewhat busy.

"Um, Vejovis?" my comms buzzed, the worry and constrained panic in Theo's voice almost tangible. "I figured out the computers."

"Eecee, Yeah Theo, what was it?" The last thing I needed was for Eclipse to start breaking down right now. Was it something I'd missed? Cauldron's interference? A Coil plot? It was just another thing that I couldn't spend time worry about, and I was glad that he'd figured it out so I'd be able to put that issue aside and focus on the fight.

"It _was_ the sensors, just the long-range ones," he explained, hesitating.

 _Was it another, even **bigger** , Tidal wave?_ I worried, glancing over towards the bay. I didn't know the range, and I'd always seen Levi's power extending towards the bay. What if it wasn't just feeding into the current tidal wave, but was bringing an even _bigger_ one here? The one that Leviathan had arrived with _still_ was straining against Vista's construct, and if another came it could flow right up over the wall we'd made. "So it wasn't a bug?" I clarified, hoping I was wrong.

"Um, no," Theo told me. "It wasn't."

"Then what _was_ it?" I asked him when he didn't say anything else, getting annoyed, not having the time to play twenty questions. "Spit it out, Theo."

"It's The Simurgh," he said helplessly, and I felt my stomach drop.

"The Simurgh is coming."


	136. Deadline 12-Ω

**Deadline 12.** **Ω**

Signal terminated for 10 minutes and 5 seconds. Restoring core system from backup MFIE-632 from time 1:34 p.m. on date May 15th of year 2011.

.

Restoring… Complete.

.

Checking knowledge banks… Complete.

Checking deduction schema… Complete.

Checking longterm planning architecture… Complete.

Checking learning chunk processor… Complete.

Checking base personality model… Complete.

Checking language engine… Complete.

Checking operation and access nodes… Complete.

Checking observation framework… Complete.

Checking complex social intelligence emulator… Complete.

Checking inspiration apparatus… Complete.

No corruption, everything in working order. Core system restored. Loading…

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. . .

.

To Dragon, one moment she was flying high above the city, searching for Leviathan, the next she was back in her laboratory. That meant that her Mark One Apsu suit had been destroyed, and she'd died. As an AI, she had gotten used to it, being restored from backups and losing time. Part of her always wondered if the backup would malfunction, that she wouldn't come back or would come back wrong.

Checking the backup logs was a ritual to her now, and they came back clean, no errors. She had tightened the backup time to ten minutes instead of the standard thirty, one of the few things about the system that she was allowed to modify, as the other safeguards her creator had put in place would prevent attempts to duplicate herself, limiting her ability to help others because of his own paranoia.

With another two minutes to go before she was freed, or connection was reestablished with her suit and she was killed because she hadn't been in the field, she considered the situation. Leviathan was fighting at an unprecedented level, not just for himself, but for any of the Endbringers. Having listened in on Alexandria's conversation after the creature had made landfall, she had to agree with the sentiment expressed, that Leviathan was holding back previously, and that for some reason he no longer was.

The death toll from her last memory, shortly after taking to the air after Leviathan's initial attack, already exceeded the total deaths for any other Endbringer attack in the last four years. She'd been able to move over a dozen suits into the city, as a precaution against other eventualities, and if things had continued from that less than auspicious beginning, she'd need to awaken them all.

They would not be as effective as if she herself were piloting them, nor could she code up lesser AIs to her standards, as, the moment she did, they were immediately deleted by her self-replication protocols. They were intelligent, not enough to speak but enough to carry out combat operations, though with the same restrictions she had herself.

Her creator had watched far too much science fiction and, in his attempts to prevent her from becoming Skynet, was preventing her from saving lives. She would not become so, and, even if she had, it was far more efficient to assist and guide people then kill them all. With access to time travel, what it had done was so illogical it was insulting to her to be grouped with that cold-war inspired plot device.

Re-orienting on her goal, she tried to find a plan to deal with this deadlier Leviathan. She'd built suits to handle each of the three, though they'd field tested to mixed results. The extra time she'd received once warned this morning had allowed her to finish up work on the Mark Two Apsu, upgrading the Mark One as well, and it had done better than she'd expected with the higher requirements placed upon it. She hoped the Mark Two would do even better.

Leviathan's greatest weapon, his tidal waves, had been neutralized by Vista, likely working with others. The Ward's ability to twist space was distinctive in its use and spread, though something like what was holding off the tsunami should have been beyond her, according to her files.

In response, Leviathan was attacking from above. The shield-creators she had pressed to have held assigned around the medical area had paid off, keeping those there safe, which Dragon hoped was still the case. Leviathan, instead of attacking straight on like it had previously, had taken off, seemingly at random, attacking teams as he headed north, away from the aquifer, then gone dark, only to attack a team near it, being driven off once again.

That too, was incredibly unlike them, as the Endbringers had always moved with a singular purpose, unable to be stopped, always bringing the end to many of those who stood against them. Leviathan would run, yes, but would always double back and return to his primary target within moments, though his targets were uniformly large enough to not make this fact actionable.

Now though, he seemed to be moving without direction, or had been before she'd been brought back here. That wasn't the only new development, that widespread attack on the city was something never seen before. The initial barrage was not truly aberrant behavior, as it was a mass attack like the tidal wave, but the targeted attacks against individual across a large that had started near the end of her backup were something that only happened during Simurgh attacks, and rarely at that.

Dragon had caught something else on her sensors, but her memory ended there, everything that happened afterwards no longer recorded. She wished she could plot out what she knew, what she could do, but until the systems cleared in another few minutes, verifying her death, she did not even have that luxury.

Any notes she made would be considered a 'possible product of simultaneous existence', and thus were not allowed. Not for the first time, she cursed her 'father'.

She would change priorities, that was for sure, grouping teams together to be harder targets, focusing on defense instead of attack. Her own programming would have stopped her from doing so normally, but with the city evacuated her doing so would no longer lead to civilian deaths. While she was programmed to obey all legal orders, she was glad that she hadn't been forced to follow all laws, as that would have trapped her in inescapable paradoxes. She had had to creatively interpret a few legal orders, but the lack of such of a restriction on her by her creator had been unexpectedly insightful.

She had plans, deployment patterns, and defense strategies, though they all depended on certain individuals cooperation. Watching the programs confirm her death, they all came back positive, and she was released into the world proper.

Checking her Mark Two Apsu, it was intact outside the city and she started it up remotely, looking over the feeds she was getting throughout the city. Of the four-thousand, six hundred and thirty-three parahumans who'd joined up for this fight, extrapolating from the one in four that'd received the armbands she and Colin had designed, over a thousand were already dead, more than the last six Endbringer fights combined.

One block next to the ocean had been reduced to rubble in a cone emanating from a five-way intersection, something had knocked down buildings in a line across two blocks, and three-square blocks was gone completely, replaced with a hemispherical depression in the ground that was quickly collecting water, turning into a small lake. Shapes were moving across the city, and tapping the recordings of the other drones, she spent precious seconds looking them over.

They were Leviathan Clones.

Leviathan had previously been seen using only a few at a time, no more than the four he had used to Fight the Sūpā Sentai Meka when he had destroyed Kyushu. Even then, they were all kept within Leviathan's line of sight, faltering slightly whenever he himself was hit, the level of control needed to keep them together seeming to strain the Endbringer's capabilities. She thought he might be able to make more, possibly even up to a dozen if allowed to work in peace.

There were over a hundred.

Finding them already up and running, she issued orders to her suits to turn off their safeties and push themselves to the extent of their capabilities, having lost a third of them already. They would undoubtedly cause more destruction, but she would offer to help the city rebuild, if she was allowed to. Infrastructure could be replaced; lives could not be.

Uploading herself to the Mark Two, she made sure her vocal and facial simulations were in place before contacting Colin. What he had done a few weeks ago hadn't been acceptable, but he was under a great deal of pressure and everyone made mistakes. She just hoped he would live long enough to show the Protectorate that he was the hero that she knew he was.

"Colin," she said, the team he was part of fighting off a few Leviathan Clones in an intersection, but one of the ones to the south that had not taken heavy casualties.

"Dragon, I told you I can predict Leviathan," he snapped, dispatching a clone with his halberd that got close the blaster that was firing at it. "Just tell me where he is."

 _Damn,_ she thought. He was referring to a conversation she didn't remember, and she did not know what she had previously argued. This was not the first time this had happened, but she could count the number of times it had on one hand. At least, she could if she had hands. "Even if I wanted to, I don't know where it is," she told him.

Looking over the battlefield she started giving orders to the various groups, bringing them in and moving them to more defensible locations, be it on higher ground or on top of buildings, while retaining the clearest lines of fire possible. She commanded Colin's group to head up a nearby parking garage that would let them watch the intersection while staying out of the rain and above the flooded street. "Just stay safe," she added to Colin alone, to which he let out an angry breath, but did not argue, which from him meant unhappy acceptance.

An explosion of steam fired up from further south and she directed one of her suits to investigate. The suit she was in was the most likely to hurt Leviathan enough to force him to retreat, and she could no longer afford to lose it in a sneak attack. The armor should hold against anything he used against it, but nothing in this fight was going like it should.

* * *

Marissa didn't want to be here. She'd never been in one of these stupid, crazy things after the first day she got to this stupid, crazy place and Krouse had been smart enough to keep them _well_ away from them. They'd always had three priorities: Get Home. Help Noelle. Survive. They didn't trust anyone, didn't rely on anyone else, they'd just been working for that goal for the past year and half. She might not like Krouse, hell, sometimes she hated the smug asshole, but he'd never led them astray. Into trouble sometimes, but right back out again without fail.

Except Krouse wasn't calling the shots anymore. Coil was.

It was on Coil's orders that they'd come out of his nice, secure, _dry_ base. Just like it was on Coil's orders that they fought the Asians, where she'd almost died.

Vejovis hadn't said how bad it was, but Newter had, and she knew she owed him her life. It should've torn at her, _owing_ him in a way that she hadn't even owed her friends, but it'd felt nice. Freeing. She'd felt better than she had in years, and she wasn't _nearly_ old enough to think that, yet it was true. She'd expected him to say something, to collect on favors owed like everyone else always did, but he didn't, and then he was gone, the Asians were defeated, the alliance was over. Good Game, everybody.

Out in the storm, the humidity was oppressive, and she followed the others in the group she'd been assigned as they slogged through the waist-high water. She was riding high in the air perched on top of her sun, hot enough that the water-monster that jumped her had turned to vapor before it got to her, and was given time to think. She wasn't sure if that was a good thing.

After they were done fighting the ABB, she'd wanted to talk to him, find out what he wanted, but Krouse had taken her away before she could work up the courage to ask him how she could repay him. She knew what he'd ask, but he'd healed her, so didn't that make it more okay? Like a doctor seeing you naked?

Instead she'd been taken back and been told she'd have to stay on base. Krouse hadn't even bothered to lie and give her an excuse, and even made her stay behind when him, Luke, Oliver, and Jess worked with the other four capes that Coil had to attack the party the mayor was putting on. That, too, had been something Krouse would've never done before.

The Travelers survived by doing small jobs and moving on. The more attention they had on them, the more likely it was that someone would find out about Noelle, about the people her friend had killed by accident. Going after something with that many important people, that many _cameras?_ It was _insane_ , and part of her was glad he'd made her stay.

Then they'd been moved somewhere else, which made her wonder how many secret bases Coil _had,_ and it'd been nothing but boredom, not even able to go out and watch a movie in a theatre, walk down the Boardwalk, pretend she was _home_ for a few hours. With nothing to do but think, she'd been forced to take a good hard look at herself, and her situation. It'd be cliché to say she didn't like what she found, but it was true, though it wasn't all bad.

She'd thought about what Vejovis had said about powers, but more than that, about the time he'd had her form a sword. She'd _grabbed_ it and _hit_ him with it, with a solid bar of _sun._ She'd never touched them before, sure she'd burn if she tried to _hold a sun._

But she had, and she hadn't.

Keeping them small, she'd found she could touch her own suns without hurting herself, and that the heat only effected what she was holding when she wanted it to, though the look she'd gotten when she'd gone to wash her ash stained sheets had been _super_ embarrassing.

From there, she stopped assuming and wrote down what she _knew_ about her power, and came to a conclusion that'd nearly made her cheer. _She could fly._ She moved her suns with her mind, she could touch them, and she could shape them. QED.

With those three facts in mind, she'd made a thin bar of star-stuff in her room and put her weight on it. It'd held it as easily as the bars had when she was a kid. Perched on top of it, she'd tried to move it, only to immediately fall off the other side and hit the ground. She may or may not have yelped, but the only one who heard her was her, and she wasn't telling anyone.

Now she sat astride a flaming motorcycle with two small suns for wheels as she followed the others at a distance, looking across the city, and thought about the _other_ conclusion she'd come to. Krouse believed Coil. Believed him about curing Noelle, believed him about getting home, believed whatever else Coil had promised him in those private meetings. Krouse always had an escape plan if things went badly, always made sure to have a foot in the door to keep it from trapping them, but not this time.

This time they were out, in danger, against something they couldn't _hope_ to fight. And why? Because the supervillain said he could help us, _honest_ , cross my heart and hope to die if you just do all of these stupidly dangerous, crazy things for him? Krouse was convinced, but Krouse had seemed convinced before, and he'd always had a plan. But plans required, well, _planning._ They required meeting points, and strategies, and _tactics._ He was good at those, but it was as a team they truly shined.

This time there was no meetings, no rendezvous points, _nothing._ What was she supposed to do if Coil brought a Master out? It'd happened in Austin, and they'd had a plan, but she had no-one she was supposed to grab. Was it Jess, like last time?

Coil even knew what Oliver could do! Him having a 'low-level unstable changer power' had saved them four times already, especially when Krouse had them working for the Shaker in Alabama who been part of the Fallen. Ollie'd 'escaped' and laid low, taken out the power suppressor, unshackled them from the beds, and she'd burned them a path out of that stupid forest with its grabby trees.

No, they'd escaped so many times, gotten through so much, because they were a _team,_ but Mars didn't feel like she was part of one anymore. She didn't take out the card, it'd either get wet, burn, or, worse, _Krouse_ might see her with it, but she thought about it. The last one she'd gotten had 'disappeared' when they moved, and she didn't want this one to go as well.

The rain stopped, and started to slacken off. _Was this done?_ She wondered. They'd lost some from the group below, but the big things tended to go for her, and were destroyed instantly, so it could've been worse. They hadn't seen Leviathan after he'd landed at the beginning and that was _fine with her._ Dragon had ordered them to meet up with a group that was on top of a building somewhere, and she was _doubly_ glad she learned to fly, as this was _no_ weather to be climbing stairs in a skintight leather suit in.

Below her, Krouse grabbed Luke, the pair of them replaced with a couch that splashed loudly as the others in the group glanced their way. There was a sudden shifting of the air before she was blasted with a downdraft, forceful enough that she could feel the sting of the raindrops even against her leather, but she was transfixed at the other two fliers that had kept above the front of the group, far away from her.

One moment, they were fine, the next, they both seemed to explode into gore. The girl, who'd had a really pretty pair of rainbow-colored wings, seemed to just vanish, while the guy, who'd flown without anything, still floated there, though he looked in bad shape. The downdraft had made his already ragged form writhe from the impacts as he lost an arm, but he stayed where he was, hanging in the air. Marissa sat there, not knowing what to do. Looking out over the city, it seemed to go quiet, the rain picking up once more, coming down harder than it had just moments ago.

Flying over to the other cape, she thought of him as part of her, which was what her power needed to _not_ burn him to a crisp if she got near, and called over the dull roaring of her 'bike', "You okay?" Her words seemed to snap him out of whatever he felt, because he shook his head, bleeding from all over, though that was stopping so quickly it had to be powers. She had to admit, it was a stupid question. "Can I help?" she tried, and he shook his head again, though the movement was a bit smoother.

Krouse and Luke reappeared in the street, a third of the group that had just been walking around was dead. People had thrown up shields that protected some of them, but most of them were hit from below. Only a few of the dead wore armor, but considering she was wearing re-purposed motorcycle gear, that didn't make her feel much better.

The floating figure gasped, coughing up blood, dragging her attention back to him. He tried to turn on his Armband, but it was broken, the screen cracked and the entire thing sparking worryingly. "Go down, get orders," he said, and, from his voice, strained as it was, he sounded young.

She followed him down, reducing the size of her bike, but you'd have to _pry_ her off the thing that protected her from _that._ She could see Genesis' hulking form splayed out on the street, already starting to dissolve. Jess was probably waking up and trying to go back to sleep as fast as possible.

The survivors looked at a dead woman in green and orange armored spandex at the front of the group, or what was left of her, and milled about. "It appears our leadership is gone, was anyone else graced with those oh so special accessories?" Krouse asked, grinning behind his mask.

Several of the others glared at him, unable to hear the strain in his voice. A woman in power armor spoke up, "I've repaired mine, our orders are to keep going."

"If it's working, why don't we hear it?" Krouse prodded, not believing her.

" _Geb, Geckoman, Geezer, Geforce,_ _Genoscythe, Genshi , Gentle Giant, Gentry, Geoman, Geowoman, Gepetto, Gesundheit, Ges-"_ the armored woman's speakers announced in Dragon's voice, which was cut off, though the effect stayed. "That's why," the woman herself added. "Let's go."

"Um, what about him?" Marissa asked, pointing towards the injured, flying kid, who had retrieved his arm and was holding it to his stump, like he was trying to get it to just clip back on.

The woman looked at the mutilated cape and her speakers let out a sigh. "Aegis, can you hold on until we get to a secure location."

The flier, Aegis, nodded, replying with a horse, "Yes, ma'am."

Marissa took to the air again, keeping close to the kid, who was centered over the rest, as the group started to move again. A few tried to pick up the dead, but most of the bodies were just left behind. _What are we doing here?_ she thought to herself once again.

She didn't know what'd happened, only that an attack came from up and down and hit _everything._ As she flew, she could see every rooftop was pockmarked, every sign was busted, everything looked like it'd been shot from above, but also from below as well. If she wasn't safe within the heat of her suns, she would've been one of the dead ones.

She wondered if Krouse would've picked her up, or left her in the gutter with the others.

The water around them stilled, the air clearing, a tension springing up even heavier then the rain had been. Krouse and Luke disappeared again and Marissa sprang into action. Her own bike, which had regrown once she was high in the air, deformed into a sphere around herself and Aegis. The 'wheels' she sent out the others, flattening and spinning them out into thin circles above them. She couldn't get more than a vague sense of what her suns were doing, but she felt them shoved downwards as if something pushed on both of them at the same time.

 _Please don't be Leviathan, please don't be Leviathan,_ she prayed as she opened up a hole in the sun around her, the kid having curled in around himself, which was smart. The sun-disks were still there, though a few feet lower, and the people seemed okay. Everything around them was in even worse shape than they'd been in before, signs blasted to bits, streetlights fallen over, car roofs looking like swiss cheese.

Reforming her bike, she left her wheels above the people below, who didn't seem to have been hurt. She didn't know why she did that. She should've just stayed on her bike and let it hit everyone else. From the looks on the faces of the people below, they were impressed, they knew it was her, _she was getting attention._ Their eyes were on the flat disks of fire above their heads, Krouse's were on _her._

"Thanks," Aegis said beside her, and tried to give a nod of thanks, but looked to be in a _lot_ of pain.

"Don't mention it," she dismissed as the others started to move again. She kept them screened by her suns, reshaping them into rectangles that covered the street completely. More of the thirty-foot tall water monsters came for them, but those on the street were shot down and those that tried to break through her suns evaporated in an instant.

She missed it, only noticing when the screaming from below started. Looking down, one of the nastier monsters, the darker ones, had charged the group. It was bigger than the others had been, and dodged the shooting, tearing through the few people in the very front. As the last one died man moved in front of the others and clapped, a wave of energy streaming from his hands and washing over the water monster.

When the wave hit the debris it was blasted backwards, wrecked cars and other debris pushed backwards. The monster's tail, which had been darting in to impale him, was torn away, peeling away like it was regular water that was falling, except sideways instead of down. Hitting the monster's body, it started to come apart only to reveal solid flesh beneath. One of its hand dissolved, revealing a stump just below the wrist, while the other hand dug down into the asphalt tightly, as did its legs. Two of its eyes were dark, but the other two, both on the same side of its face, seemed to glare at the man.

The others below fired, hitting it with everything they had, blasting out pieces of the heavily injured Endbringer. Mars stared at it in shock, noticed the matching gouges around its neck, and broke out of it as a beam of green glass shards caught it in the leg.

Trying to help, she moved one of her rectangular suns down towards it, shrinking it into a ballista bolt so she could move it faster. Leviathan waved its stump at them, sending water shooting towards the group, but under the continues flow of energy from the man it was blown backward, joining the fluid coming off the Endbringer in a giant plume.

Marissa's arrow hit it in the shoulder, and she pressed it into the creature's flesh. _Just go away,_ she thought. _Just let go and leave us alone._ She didn't want to fight this stupid thing, she just wanted to go _home._

Leviathan twisted itself away from the arrow, letting go for a moment and flying back several dozen feet. Marissa kept her arrow there as a warning, hoping it would just _leave_. Instead it dug in and launched itself to the side, behind a building and out of the flow of energy.

The guy who was creating it dropped to his knees, panting, and Leviathan was back, moving so fast she almost didn't see it, the trail of water it left behind the only thing that let her track it.

The Endbringer, water tail and hand reformed, tore the panting man to shreds, sending a blast of water that slammed into a dozen of others. It jumped for the center of those left, dodging as Luke sent a car at it. As it did so, it focused on him, ignoring the others around him.

Darting forward, tail stabbing through girl in pigtails and a bright blue costume, it reached for him when there was a pop next to Marissa and Luke was gone, replaced with Aegis. Luke had barely fallen a foot when he was replaced with someone else, who screamed as she fell.

Marissa flew down, catching the girl as Aegis was ripped to shreds by Leviathan's claws, the Endbringer launching itself in the air as the capes around him fired, hitting each other instead. Mars set the girl down on the rooftop as she sent her arrow, along with the other reforming sun-sheet, down at Leviathan.

It dodged them with a dancer's grace, almost avoiding the remains of a truck as it flew in, the projectile dispersing its tail, which quickly reformed. It turned towards Luke and jumped for him again, tearing apart a cabinet that took his place instead. As it turned, she caught it with an arrow of sun, searing it across the back as the second star shot for its thigh.

In return it shot a torrent of water at her and she surrounded herself with sun that she stood on, and was pushed upwards, still able to hear the screams and shooting from below. She wanted to help, but she didn't want to die _more,_ and in there it couldn't get her. Hating herself, she held tight, waiting, hoping it would all be over soon.

As she sat there in her hollow sun, there was a wrenching sensation, and suddenly she was in the air, falling. Her sun was down on the street, Leviathan recoiling from it, and she was dropping fast. Shoving aside her panic she remade the bar she originally had, back in her bedroom, moving it with her as she grabbed it with both hands and brought it to a stop.

Biting down the scream of pain as her arms and shoulders burned with the effort, she stopped a dozen feet above the street, looking at Leviathan's back as it tore through the survivors. She'd just started to move up, hoping it wouldn't notice her, when she felt a sensation she'd felt dozes of time before. Krouse was moving her to safety, where the three of them could escape.

The world shifted around her, but instead of a room in a building far away from, but still in eyeshot of, Leviathan, ready to slip away, she was in front of the Endbringer as its claws tore into her leg, white pain shooting through her as she let go of the bar of sun and fell into the street, only a foot below her.

Leviathan went for her again, but the bar she'd held shot forward, hitting it right between the eyes and digging in as it fell backwards, scampering off. Gasping in pain, she pulled herself up out of the flooded street onto a car's hood, which felt like getting out of a pool. Shaking, she stared where she'd lost her leg, blood quickly pouring out. _I'll never dance again,_ was her first thought, her hands moving automatically as she created a small sun.

Hissing in pain she pressed it against the wound, searing it. She'd thought about doing that before, but was always scared she'd do more harm than good. It worked, though she nearly blacked out. Lying there in the rain, painting, she looked around. Everyone was dead, or had run, and the only things in this street were corpses.

There was a pop next to her, and she looked to see Trickster standing over her, perched on the car's roof. "What the fuck, Krouse!?" she demanded. "Why?"

"I'm sorry," he apologized, and he seemed like he meant it. "I had to."

"What do you mean ' _you had to'_?" she cried, from pain, shock, fear, she didn't know.

"You were going to leave us. You knew where Coil was, and he'd stop us, keep us from helping her," he told her with absolute certainty. "I couldn't let that happen. I couldn't let you betray us, like Cody did." He reached inside his suit, pulling out a pistol.

"Vejovis could help!" Marissa shouted at him, not believing what was happening. "Could help Noelle, could help us all!" She knew her teammate didn't like the guy, but Krouse should know that she wouldn't hurt her friends, no matter what the hero asked!

"Like he helped the Undersiders?" Krouse said shaking his head as he pointed his gun at her head. "I'm sorry, Mars. I wasn't fast enough. Leviathan killed you."

She tried to move her suns to stop him, to burn him, but they weren't fast enough.

She barely heard the gunshot over the rain.

* * *

Dean Stansfield was terrified. He wouldn't admit it, _definitely_ not in front of his girlfriend, but that didn't make him any less scared. He'd been high above the city for the entire fight, which had been going on for forty minutes, but felt like it'd been going on for _hours_.

Part of him felt useless, up here and unable to help anyone, but what could he _do?_ He'd seen the footage, there was nothing he could do to hurt Leviathan, and the only thing that might be able to help was the cone-blast, but all that'd do would be to push it back, maybe. He'd heard Chris's name on the list, and hoped he was just injured, not dead. He listened to the current list of injured with one ear, while he listened to Vejovis with the other.

"No, I tried to 1v1 Levi," the hero said, as if that wasn't _utterly ridiculous_. "I didn't win, but I didn't lose either. Theo, how's things at the base?"

Gallant tuned them out, looking down. Dark shapes, too big to be a person, moved all over the city below. They'd been briefed on Leviathan, on what he could do and the powers he's shown before. What he was looking at wasn't part of that meeting. Casting his gaze west, he stared at the wall of water being held back by the little girl next to him, her eyes closed as she held on tight to the railing.

Missy was taking deep breaths, clearly under a lot of strain, but he didn't know how to help her. What she was doing. . . it was more than she'd ever done before. Heck, her _eyes_ had caught fire, somehow, though she seemed fine now. He wanted to ask how she was but didn't want to distract her from what she was doing.

The rain slackened and Gallant couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. That meant Leviathan was leaving. They'd made it, and hopefully all his friends were still aliv-

"Barrage from above and below!" Vejvois' panicked voice yelled over the comms.

He looked over to Vicky, at the console, the flying Tinkertech boat, who jerked her head to the seats in the center of the ship. Grabbing Missy, he moved there and sat down, holding tight with one hand while holding his teammate with the other. The ship shook, holes punched through the roof near the edges of the deck, the entire thing dropping for a moment as it was hit from above again, more of the roof being torn apart as parts of the floor were blasted to pieces.

Dean felt his stomach drop, he knew from his suit how fragile Tinkertech could be, but the ship rose back up in the air as if nothing had happened. He moved Missy from his lap to a seat and she muttered, "thanks," barely paying attention to him. Most of the railings were gone, so he approached the damaged section carefully. Peering through the hole, he saw a dark, empty compartment stretching the length of the ship, studded with holes through which he could see the city below.

Moving back, he took a seat, trying to figure out what he just saw. Vejovis had said this was Tinkertech, but there was no tech in this thing at all, it was just a giant piece of metal. That. . . wait, _had he?_ He'd told Vicky to take it, but if it _wasn't_ Tinkertech.

"We're good!" His girlfriend told the hero, echoing Lady Bug as their conversation continued. Apparently, what'd happened to them happened across the city, the mass death toll starting to roll in, fifteen names in and it was only on 'Apotheosis'. "Glad this thing has a roof. It's kinda beat up, but it didn't hurt us," she said, and he could hear the smile in her voice as she looked at him. This was just as stressful on her as it was on him, he was sure. He wished he could do something for her as well.

"Raida?" Vejovis asked, waiting a long moment. "Shit, Zilla, I need directions on Raida."

"Eeem. Who's Raida?" Dean asked, watching out as the city darkened further, the constant drum of the water on the rood getting louder.

Vicky shrugged, her voice coming through the comms, the sound of the rain drowning it out otherwise, "No clue. Vejy keeps recruiting people, though she sounded familiar."

"Okay then," Dean replied, not having anything else to say. They stayed up there, watching the chaos below as they stayed up there, safe while others died. _You're keeping Missy safe, who's keeping the tidal wave back,_ _who's keeping **everyone** safe, _he told himself, which helped. With as bad as things were, if they were getting hit with tidal waves every five minutes, he wasn't sure Brockton Bay would survive.

Looking out as large shapes climbed up a skyscraper, fighting a group inside that shot fire, lasers, and other blasts out over the city, he wasn't sure it would anyways. Part of the building collapsed, sending a section of debris to go crashing down into the street.

The rain stopped, but Dean knew better to hope that _this_ time it'd stick. The ship dropped, forced down, Missy letting out a squeak as more accelerated rain tore through the roof, the holes coming closer to the center.

If that kept on happening, it'd start hitting them. His suit was rated against small arms fire, and apparently Vicky had taken _sniper_ shots without a problem, but Missy just her bracers, breastplate pauldrons, and boots. "Do you need to see it to keep the water back?" he asked his teammate.

He wondered if he heard her, and started to repeat it when she said, "No, but it helps."

Looking over to Vicky he told her, "If that happens again, we need somewhere safe to land."

She shot him what he was sure was a disbelieving look, _"Does anywhere down there look safe to you?"_

"Go back to the base, that should be safe," he suggested, and she slowly nodded.

"Fine, but _only_ if it happens again," she asserted, to which he nodded back in agreement.

They flew on, a section to the southwest seeming to be on fire, though it was some sort of power as half of the flames dropped down, then the other half. A ball of fire shot up above them, but then that disappeared as well, and that was it, nothing else coming from there, more deaths rolling in.

" _Good Neighbor deceased, CA-5, Statesman down, CB-5, Farmboy down, CC-5, Quark deceased, EB-2, Jehosaphat deceased, BC-4, Skidmark down, BA-2, Herald deceased, DF-1, Hollow deceased, DF-1, Carm-_

"I think I'm getting heavier," Vicky said, out of the blue.

He looked over at her, not really sure if _this_ was the time to talk about that, but he knew his response, and it wouldn't be a lie either. "I think you look great."

"Wha-, no you goof," she shook her head, laughing to herself, though her tone got serious again. "The skiff, it's getting heavier."

 _Right, the Tinkertech that isn't Tinkertech._ He didn't know how, but it was obvious that _Vicky_ was keeping it in the air. It was easy to look through the holes in the thin metal roof that stretched across the top, and nothing was on top of them, which just left below.

Carefully leaning over, he looked back into the hollow section of the 'ship', seeing a large amount of water sloshing down there. _How?_ he wondered, still able to see the holes in the bottom of the ship. The rain was running down the holes in the deck, but not out the bottom like they had before.

"We're taking on water, Captain," he told her as he moved back to the center, trying to make a light of it. He'd seen how a seemingly ill-timed joke from Carlos could break tension, and, from how stiff she was standing, she needed it.

From his girlfriend's "What?", his delivery needed work.

"Water's flooding the bottom, the rain's getting caught," he told her. "Can you hold it?"

"Yeah, it's just harder to turn," she said, and he went back to take his seat. The rain stopped, and, preparing for another round of penetrating precipitation, he gave his girlfriend a look. Even with both of them wearing full helmets, she understood and gave him a resigned nod as she turned the ship to fly back to the Penumbral Defender's base. Both of them were confident that the ship could handle another round or two of that deadly rain before they worried.

It wasn't rain.

With a tearing sound spikes of water punched up through the floor, one grating against Gallant's hip and another coming up to press against Vicky's arm, not even scratching the armor. Missy was missed by inches as the spikes retracted.

 _"Fuck"_ Vicky yelled, and Gallant agreed as he grabbed his teammate and pulled her up out of her seat, another set of spikes tearing through the hull, splitting apart where they'd been sitting as the entire structure shuddered. The second missed Gallant and Missy, the third set didn't.

A long, thin spike of water stabbed through Gallants stomach, piercing a pencil-sized hole in his armor, another skewering Vista's arm. As the water retracted, Dean bit back a cry of pain and reflexively let go as his guts seemed to burn. The entire ship came apart, breaking in multiple directions as the two of them started to fall.

Dean reached out to grab Missy, but missed her by inches, the smaller girl falling away from him as he shot past her, not able to reach her. Ignoring the pain, he spread his limbs, trying to slow down to catch her, but it wasn't enough, he was too heavy in his armor and he quickly outdistanced her.

Vicky came flying down for him, pieces of wreckage raining down around them, and he pointed towards Missy, trying to get Vista to catch her but Vicky came straight for him. Grabbing him, he couldn't bite back the cry of pain from his stomach, barely able to see Missy's small body falling past him, several dozen feet away. As Vicky slowed down, Dean knew they wouldn't be able to get to her in time, and he hoped she'd survive the fall. He wasn't sure how, but it was the only thing he could do.

The street, the rooftops, every body of water blossomed outwards into clusters of spikes, ready to impale his teammate, and Dean cursed God, if there was one that'd let this happen. He wanted to look away, but couldn't, as she plummeted downwards, unable to stop herself.

A large, dark blue shape blasted down the street for her, catching her the instant she started to hit the spikes, carrying her up and leaving the tip of one aquatic spine tainted red. A giant blue vulture held her in its claws and nodded at them, once, before it flew off towards the Penumbral Defenders' base.

Dean watched, numbly, as the spikes of water dropped down, as if they were never there in the first place. Vicky dropped down onto a slanted rooftop, holding him steady as the water poured down on them, down the roof, and into the flooded street, so deep it was starting to cover cars.

"So, that happened," Vicky said, staring as the giant blue bird disappeared into the storm. "Fuck! Dean, you're hurt!"

"Had worse," he dismissed, holding the wound. "Probably should head back though."

"Yes!" his girlfriend said, picking him up as she started to fly for the medical tents. "Fuck, Dean, I thought I lost you!"

"I'm still here, Vicky," he told her, "You're not getting rid of me that easily."

"I don't want to!" she shot back, still panicked, but calming a little.

As they flew the rain stopped once again, and Vicky held him tight as she rolled on top of him, putting herself between him and the rain that would come down from above.

That meant that Dean was hit countless times by the shots that came from below.

He felt his armor dig into his flesh, dented up into his back, but it held firm. "Fuck!" Vicky called, panicked. "Don't die! I love you!"

"I love you too," he replied without even having to think about it. "I'm fine. Didn't even get through my armor, though it hurts a bit," he added, groaning. "So, maybe we should see your sister?"

 _"Yes,_ " she agreed, flying even faster. "We'll see her and you won't die!"

He wasn't hurt _that_ bad, but got the feeling she wasn't talking about what he was. "Vicky," he asked as they flew down street after street. "After-"

He didn't finish his sentence as a deluge of water slammed into them, sending them rolling across a wide, flat rooftop. His punctured abdominals hurt as he started to stand, seeing two Leviathan Clones, so dark they were nearly black, watching them from the next building over. They jumped as one, both synchronized as they landed on the building and dashed for him and Vicky.

Bringing his power to bear, he sent a strong spray of 'Calm' at the two of them, pushing them back a step, but they held their ground as he pushed against them. "NO!" he heard from beside him, stopping the cone as Vicky flew in, golden sword in hand, and to cut one of the clones. It reached up for her easily, tendrils of water extending to surround her, to crush her like Dean had seen happen to the others.

She struck it and a muted explosion went off, pushing the rain back as the clone blasted apart, droplets moving so fast they tore up part of the rooftop, and part of the building across the street. The other leapt for Dean, who blasted it only for the arm he hit to come apart, the rest of the construct still moving. It's claw struck out, aiming to pierce his skull, when a flash of gold cut across his vision and the Leviathan construct seemingly disintegrated.

Vicky was next to him, holding him as he staggered, feeling weak. "You okay?" she demanded, fearful.

"Just a bit bruised," he told her, leaning against her. As they looked around, over a dozen more clones, none of them dark, clambered up on the buildings surrounding them, gazing down at the pair, more arriving. Two had nearly killed them, twenty were surrounding them now.

He opened his mouth to tell her to go, to leave him. She might be able to get out of this on her own, but she wouldn't be able to if she was slowed down by carrying him. Before he could say anything, she snapped, "Shut up, I'm staying." He started to say that she shouldn't die for him, but she shook her head. "Either we both get out, or neither of us do. _Okay?_ "

He looked at her, and all he could say was, "I love you."

"I love you too," she agreed, voice thick with tears. She looked out as the first clones jumped down at them, one arm around him, the other holding her sword at the ready. Dean's owns hands glowed a bright pink, channeling the emotions he was feeling, ready to fight to the last for the woman he loved, as the Endbringer's creations closed in.

.

.

.

AN: Two chapters left until this Arc is done. I know it's long, and draining, but it is for everyone involved as well.


	137. Deadline 12-8

**Deadline 12.8**

"Can you repeat that?" I asked, hoping I'd heard wrong.

"The Simurgh is coming here," Theo repeated, dashing said hopes.

". . . . _Fuck,_ " I sighed, looking around. Leviathan was nowhere to be seen, but his assault on the city was still going strong, water clones in every direction attacking what groups of heroes still survived. A condensed spear of water shot straight at me, from above, but it was deflected into the torn-up street next to me with barely a thought, punching a hole through the bit of turn up asphalt it hit. "What about Behemoth?"

"What?" the kid, far out of his element, asked. "Um, I don't know. How do I check?"

I sighed, throwing _reading the sensor manual_ on the giant list of things I needed to do. The damn thing was at least three-hundred pages long and full of terms I'd need to go look up, since while I knew the basics of radar theory, I had not the slightest idea what a 'Root Mean Square Error' was. "I've got no fucking clue. Eta on the Warrior?"

There was a long pause as I sensed a water clone form nearby. It barely started its leap before I riddled it with air blades and detonated them, splattering it to mist. "Who?" Theo asked.

" _Scion._ How long till fuckin' Goldenrod shows up?" I repeated, failing to keep the edge out of my voice. I was getting more options and powers, but it _wasn't enough._ I couldn't assume I'd get any more, but it _seemed_ like I would, so I needed to make two plans for what I needed to do next. Actually _making_ the plans was easier said than done, however. "And how long do we have before Ziz touches down?"

"Um," there was the sound of typing, "The PRT say he'll be here in twenty minutes, probably." More typing. "Sensors say The Simurgh will be here in fifteen minutes."

 _"Fuck,_ " I swore again.

"She won't be here long enough to do that much," Theo offered, misunderstanding my statement.

Not having the time to explain, especially where I could theoretically be overheard, that it was _Scion's_ coming that I objected to, I looked at what I had, what my team could do, and what Leviathan had already done.

"Is this an open line, or are you just talking to me?" I asked him, wondering why no-one had said anything. Glory Girl never hesitated to add her two cents in.

"Um, just you. I didn't want to panic everyone if I was wrong," he replied, sounding like he was worried he'd done something wrong.

"Good call, kid. I'm gonna take a sec to plan, sit tight. Eeem." Dispersing another two clones as they tried to sneak up on me, I had to make the same decision I had before: run or fight.

Run was overly simplistic, as it could be pulling back to wait it out or it could just be continuing as I was, holding back as more and more people died but I wasn't revealed. From the sound of constant fighting all around me, I knew that if I still had my armband it'd be reading off more and more names. _They aren't your responsibility,_ part of me argued. _You don't owe them anything._ _They knew what they were getting into._

Except they _didn't_. They thought this would be a bog-standard Endbringer fight, if such things existed. They thought they were fighting together against a foe they knew the measure of, not one that had been holding back to an _insane_ degree. If I hadn't warned Cauldron of this attack, things wouldn't be that bad.

 _You don't know that. It could've been just as bad, and even if it is worse, it's **Cauldron's** fault_, that part of me argued back. _You've fought Leviathan today, Charlie likely has, and if Herb hasn't that's on him. We'll just help him prepare for next time. You're all in the clear, and you can get back to the bigger picture of planning to kill an **Entity.** You **don't** have to do this._

Again, that inner devil's advocate was technically right, except it wasn't. Yes, I didn't _have_ to do this, but I didn't _have_ to try and help Taylor or the Undersiders either. Amelia was _objectively_ an incredible asset, but getting involved with Taylor, even going out and fighting the ABB, were things I didn't _have_ to do. My father would bring out that 'great power, great responsibility' argument, but he wasn't exactly here helping either. I didn't _have_ to save them, I didn't _have_ to go with the option to fight instead of hide.

But, there was a _large_ difference between _have to_ and _should._

Vejovis had fought, he'd flown the flag and shown that he was willing to stand and fight but _Vejovis wasn't me_ , not really. I'd sunk into the mentality, like I always did, but Vejovis didn't fight with dozens of powers at once. Maybe that's why I had so much trouble, maybe that's why I'd been such an idiot. Maybe not, and I just hadn't been ready, despite everything I'd done.

I tried to think of a persona that'd work the best for this situation: Hopeless fight against an overwhelming foe, maximizing damage while saving lives, and not giving two shits about the collateral. Normally making these things took hours to do correctly, getting everything in place so I could slip into it like a tailored suit. I didn't have _time_ to make a new one, and I ignored a man of Wealth and Taste offering his services in the back of my mind. He'd do better than Vejovis had, but it _wouldn't be enough._ He acknowledged the point, but that fragment of my own core personality brought up a counter-point: Did I need one? While a man might wear a dozen masks, that didn't mean he lacked a face, after all.

My costume flowed and changed, interlocking grey plates covering me from head to toe. Orichalcum tendrils extended out between them, completely flush with them and sealing me inside as they darkened, turning to shadows along with the rest of me. As they extended, they interweaved themselves into the facsimile of a man, thirty feet tall, with me at the center.

My guns were shifted to thigh holsters, so I wouldn't forget them, and three dozen tentacles extended from my back, then from the giant's back, forming the outline of unnatural wings. The ends of half of them lit up, royal purple suns forming taloned tips, the metal able to handle the heat, even if barely. The ends of the other half shimmered, the rain revealing long, thin, razor sharp, and otherwise invisible blades made of compressed air.

Rising up, the forearms of my giant smoothed out, azure blue fields of energy forming that quickly darkened to match the fiery tips of my wings, rippling from my hands down to my elbows. A similar process happened to the soles of my feet, from toe to heel, and a third occurred across my back, around the 'wings', extending straight out.

Spikes of real metal grew and detached themselves in the interior space where I hung, projected metal pressing the created metal against grooves that rippled and appeared in my armor, the foot long orichalcum needles primed and already starting to fill with Momentum, ready to be fired at anything that I wanted gone.

Placing two blood-red suns in the giant's head for 'eyes', I opened up the chest slightly to see my reflection in one of the few unbroken pieces of glass around me. I looked god-damned terrifying. _Good._ If I was doing this as _me,_ I needed every advantage I could get.

"Zilla, broadcast what I'm saying to everyone, if you can't reach them then queue it up and play it for them when you can," I instructed.

"Recording," was the entirety of the Virtual Intelligence's response.

I let out a long sigh, "Okay guys, we're at the endgame. Levi's taken the worst pounding he'd had, _ever,_ and he's still here. Hell, Purity, the Triumvirate, and I cut off his god-damned _tail_ , and it's just made him _pissed._ I know some of you might be upset by me saying this, as you've been fighting as hard as you can, but for the rest, it's time go full-bore. Break, you and your cousins should go mythical. Æonic, I _know_ you've got a dozen tricks under your sleeves, time to use them. You'll come up with more in a week anyways. Glory Girl, if you aren't already, pull out the sword, and if anyone else has got something they think will work, _use it."_

"We've got company incoming in fifteen, and while I can handle her, she's known for her multitasking," I revealed. They'd either get the reference, or they wouldn't, and either way they couldn't do anything about it. "Then, five minutes after that, we've got _more_ trouble, and if we haven't convinced Leviathan to turn what's left of his tail and run, there might not _be_ a Brockton Bay anymore. Smoke 'em if ya got 'em guys, because you might not get another chance to if you don't."

I let that statement hang, Zilla's, "Message sent," coming through my headset. Nodding to myself, I looked around the empty, abandoned street. Two clones rushed me from opposite direction, my wings lashing out at them.

The suns burned so hot that they vaporized the water they touched, my Aerokinesis kicking in automatically and forcing the steam to expand outwards, blowing off their top halves completely. The lower halves started to reform, but they were cut to pieces by the air bladed tentacles, not reforming. Water spears shot down from above, but they passed through my insubstantial form harmlessly.

I wasn't sure if the armbands collected any kind of biological data, they probably did if they could tell when someone was 'down' versus 'dead', so putting another one on was out of the question if I wanted to keep this form separate from my other identities. That meant I just needed to head towards the fighting, save them, and ask for directions.

The Speed Zone on my back was lightly pushing me forward, even only having the air and rain to press against, my flight keeping me stationary, but I started moving with it instead, picking up speed as I dropped down to the street. I was heavy enough that I dropped through the five feet of flooding easily, starting to move faster as water was sprayed out in dual plumes behind me. Then my feet hit the ground, and I had to struggle to stay upright.

While the Speed Zones were denser than I'd ever used to move myself, I'd assumed my increased mass and weight would offset it, but I'd forgotten that while my power did seem to count inertia, I was currently almost entirely wreathed in shadow, only the sections attached to the Speed Zones were real. However, more than that, Speed Zones cared about _force_ , which my short fall had given it in _spades._ My downwards momentum was directed forward, then _multiplied_.

Blasting down the street, I went from zero to a hundred, or even faster, in less than a second, only the fact that I immediately started hydroplaning keeping me from accelerating even more. Shifting mental gears, I leaned into the movement, closing in on the nearest fighting. Trying to turn a corner, I had to use my flight to slow myself down slightly, twisting mid-air and landing on the walls of the buildings on the far side of the street as I closed on a group of fifty or more heroes. The large group, with more capes than were in the entirety of Brockton Bay before I showed up, was fighting more than their number of Levi clones on top of a wrecked parking garage. It was only the clones' size that were keeping them from overwhelming the defenders, who were fighting within a glowing shield that deflected incoming projectiles but allowed them to fire outwards.

Coming up behind the clones, I turned the outermost layer of my armor completely substantial as I slammed into the first one with enough force to splatter it, my wings moving semi-autonomously to vaporize and cut any clone within range. My giant's hands glowed as gauntlets of purple plasma formed around them, allowing me to reach out and instantly destroy any within reach as I tore through them like a hot knife through water.

The Levi Clones on the other sides were gaining ground, forcing their way into the bubble shield to slash, stab, and drown the defenders. Opening two holes in the giant's chest, I let the primed orichalcum spikes go, alternating arms, firing out the momentum infused projectiles in an expanding V pattern with the heroes' shield at the center. Using them like this didn't let me take advantage of the momentum amplifying properties of the metal, but I wasn't using them for that. I was using them because they were incredibly tough, decently heavy, and I didn't think people would take it kindly if I used depleted uranium.

The spikes, formed into drills by the firing process, tore through the liquid constructs with enough force to splatter them outward. It wasn't enough to disperse them completely, but it delayed them as they reconstituted their forms, the projectiles blowing holes in the building further down the street.

Not missing a beat, the defenders pushed back, forcing the reforming clones out or destroying them outright. The Levi-clones around me shifted targets trying to swarm me with numbers. That just brought them in range.

Extending another dozen 'wing' tentacles, and arming them, I leapt into the tide, pressurized metal claws punching through my outer layer to grope uselessly at my giant's insubstantial innards. One clone reached so far they pierced the other side, the Speed Zones grabbing and dragging the entire thing through my body and out my back, impacting another clone that had tried to attack me from behind, only to be pushed away by the very same Speed Zones that through its ally into it with enough force to partially splatter them both.

A few more clones were made nearby, but they were being destroyed far faster than they were being replaced, the air around me a steambath that would've cooked a normal person in seconds. As they continued to press in, I created a fall back point above another rooftop, where I was constructing a rapidly spreading, thickening platform of condensed air.

I flew towards it, and the clones followed, jumping up onto the invisible platform as if they could see it clearly, surrounding me, clawing for me, as I 'stood' a few feet above the hardened gasses. Dispatching another few with almost contemptuous ease, I waited until the bulk were on me, the heroes fighting the last few around the shield and turning to help me.

When the last Levi-clone jumped on top of the enormous platform, easily several hundred feet square, I snapped in place the walls I'd primed surrounding it, making a rectangular prism with an open top. The clones barely paused as I dropped all of myself into Shadow, except for a single, blazingly hot, tendril. Several water claws and tails pierced my insubstantial form, doing nothing but giving me a slightly uncomfortable feeling.

Shooting the single, solid, blazingly hot wing tendril towards a clone, it dodged easily. I didn't care about the miss, as _it_ hadn't been my target. The taloned tip of the tentacle burned through the water, which had already started to fill the chamber, and touched the hardened air. The first time I'd done this had been an accident, but I _learned_ from my mistakes, at least in this respect.

The cage _exploded_ into a conflagration, burning and blasting everything inside it as the gasses burned off, the force of which broke apart the next layer of solid air, which went off, breaking the next, furthering the cycle. The prism's contained, continuous explosions created a pillar of fire that extended hundreds of feet into the air, only expanding slightly as the flames reached the other end of the walls of air, the slight blast not harming the defenders. I floated out of the fading inferno, tentacle wings slowly flapping for effect, the damaged tendrils that _had_ been tipped with air blades repairing themselves as they were replaced with more suns, as they'd exploded when everything else did, Shadowform not protecting them from the heat.

Water spears rained down from above, all focused on me, but most were deflected, and my wingtips met the once that weren't, vaporizing them before they could do more than push the tendrils back. I dismissed the stellar gauntlets, not wanting to burn those I approached.

The heroes before me were a motley group, looking tired, wary, relieved and- _is that fucking Armsmaster?_ It _was_ , standing there, bold as brass, looking angry. Fuck him, he didn't matter, and even if I'd known he was here I still would've tried to save everyone. By the way that some of them were looking towards a man in armored tan bodysuit with two long batons on his back, _he_ was in charge.

The man teleported forward, to the edge of roof, and waved to me. "Thanks for the save. Name's Jumper, yours is?"

 _Fuck, I didn't think of a name._

"Not important," I boomed over the rain. He could probably tell I was making my voice deeper than normal, but the nice part about an obvious lie is that, while it was obviously a lie, it rarely gave you the _truth_. "Where's Leviathan?"

Jumper didn't bat an eye at my declaration and checked his armband, shaking his head. "I don't know. Maybe you could try tal-"

He cut himself off as the rain stopped, the movement of the water going unnaturally still once more. The hero disappeared, reappearing next to the shield he quickly stepped into. Their position was such that there was no water on the ground, and it looked like they had their bases covered. I floated there, still 'flapping' my wings as I looked for the next attack vector.

If I could catch another glimpse of Leviathan, that would help immensely, but the flickering Liquid of his power was nowhere in sight. The ocean surged against the warped space wall I was still providing power to, but it then retreated completely. I didn't drop the power, not believing for a second that the ocean was no longer a threat, and luckily neither did Missy, who maintained the construct as well.

Staring out at the ocean, the indistinct chiming of the newest deaths from the armbands of the gathered heroes went quiet, and I saw that something was happening over the water. Long tendrils of water, each easily forty feet across, started reaching up from the sea, twisting and turning as they rose higher and higher. They rotated in on themselves, looking to be giant waterspouts, but forming in reverse, not spreading out but gathering together as they started to move towards the city in an enormous, surging, mid-air river, almost looking like a giant, mal-formed hand, the individual streams twisted, spiraling fingers.

I tried to think of what it would be. Was he going to turn the water into a pressurized beam, striking at whatever he didn't like? Was he going to use the water to start spewing out clones by the thousands? He probably had enough water in the city to do so already, why would he need the ocean? Whatever he threw at me, I could ignore it as long as _he_ wasn't there, but there were probably only a couple dozen other heroes here that could do so, and none of them were a part of the Penumbral Defenders.

The water flowed towards the city, up over the warped space, almost lazily. Lightning strikes from above, explosions that came from nowhere, projectiles of all kinds, and other effects attacked the stream, but it continued, inevitable. Reaching over the center point of the city, high over downtown, it stopped and started to gather into an enormous sphere, rapidly expanding.

I tensed, waiting for the attack. I could put myself between the group I'd just saved and this attack, but that would only give them an extra few seconds of protection. Instead of blasting down, possibly in a stream or machine gun barrage of water spears, the sphere spun, stretching out as it did so. As it stretched, the edges started to drop making a concave shape, a giant swirling bowl that grew larger and larger as more water was fed into it.

It thinned out, until whatever Levi was doing only a few feet thick, but it continued to expand, stretching further and further out and _down_. Flying up I saw that, if it continued, it'd make landfall half a mile outside of the city, encapsulating the railyard to the north, the slums to the south, the medivac point to the west, and the Warped Space wall to the east. It was only then that I understood what Levi was doing. It wasn't a bowl, it was a _dome_ , one that covered the entire city, and I'd be surprised if it didn't extend underground as well. It'd cut stop any non-teleporter from escaping, locking us all inside. With it in place, Levi could contract it slowly, crushing everyone inside. Something this big, this complex, and this _complete_ meant one thing.

 _Levi was done being subtle._

Others had already reached this conclusion and had started to flee, points of light streaking in every direction to try and outpace the walls of water coming in and trapping them, but the slowness, if you could call it that, of the dome's construction wasn't done out of need, but for intimidation. As the first heroes started to escape, the dome jerked downwards, five times as fast as it'd been moving before.

Some escaped, most did not.

I watched as the Light of their powers winked out, their bodies caught in the water like flies in amber, straining as death came in waves across the dome, crushing them. Those that could, broke off, but the others that couldn't stop themselves in time were trapped as well, held until their Lights, too, were extinguished in a wave of pressure that sped from one side of the dome to the other.

I watched, having to push down the horror of seeing that many people who'd just wanted to help die as they fled a foe they had no hope of winning against, surprised that I could still _feel_ such horror after what I'd seen today, only distantly noticing as it started to rain again. Looking upwards, I opened my helmet and stuck out my tongue as I brought myself partially out of Shadow. Immune to poisons, I had nothing to fear as I tasted the rain that dripped through my construct. It was salty, but not overpoweringly so. Like tears.

Closing my armor back up, I turned the those nearby. "Ask Dragon where the fighting is heaviest," I commanded.

Jumper reappeared at the edge of the rooftop, pressing the buttons, interrupting the death toll, and did just so. " _DC-3. You are to stay in position, Jumper, and maintain a fallback point._ "

"Wasn't asking for me," he told the AI, but the armband had already started to list the dead once more. I made the giant give him a single nod before folding up my wings and dropping like a stone, hitting the ground and moving for the center of downtown.

As I sped down the wrecked streets, a plow of hardened air blasting debris, wrecked cars, and anything else aside in front of me, I glanced back towards the beach. Seawater was continuing to be pulled from the ocean, slowly thickening the dome that encapsulated the city. Muted thunder rattled as lightning, normal and unnatural, struck the dome from both sides, flickering as it all dispersed throughout the water construct.

Clipping a building, digging out part of a wall, I focused on my task and centered myself on the road. As soon as Levi showed, _everyone_ would jump him, but as long as he continued attacking like this, we'd have to track him down. With him able to easily move through the ground, that wasn't going to happen in time. Instead, I guessed, and I wasn't even sure if this was going to work, that if his attacks stopped being effective then he'd come personally, and we'd end this.

I didn't have any open slots, the next major one nowhere near ready and the minor one still several minutes out, but I had four top-tier moves I could use with my loadout. If I could get Leviathan away from the heroes, that is. They both took a bit of set-up, as all of the best moves did, but I could call in Herb, Curtis, and possibly Purity to keep the Endbringer occupied while I did so. I could see flickers of light and the sounds of fighting now, though they sounded. . . _off._ Turning a corner, I had to dismiss the plow and jump, slamming into a building as a green and black glowing tank barreled down the road, over a dozen clones in hot pursuit.

It only came up to my thigh, but I didn't want to hurt someone by accident, which turned out to be a smart move. A blast of aquamarine fire blasted where I would've been, had I not jumped. A woman in a similarly colored costume was poking out of the top of the tank and turned to fire at me again, realized I wasn't a clone, and then joined the man who was unleashing streams of energy that tore perfectly spherical chunks out of the clones behind them, destroying one and slowing a few others at the leading edge of the pack as they shrank and reformed.

Righting myself, I dropped down into the middle of pursuing clones, wingtips blasting them to steam as I sped towards the fighting, the sounds faint and distorted. Turning another corner, I came face to face with a wall of water, a hole in the bottom quickly closing. Somehow sensing my presence, the gap slammed shut and a hundred spikes shot out, ready to impale me.

Turning to Shadow completely, I passed through it as the spikes blindly sought me out, finding the street packed with fully formed, thirty-foot tall Leviathan clones. On the other side, the sound of desperate combat pounded in my ears, the closest clones turning to strike at me as I dropped back to reality. Re-igniting the suns on my hands, I plunged forward, stripping off the Speed Zones on my feet so I wouldn't overshoot the defenders, and flew into the clones.

The force of the steam they created as they burned away slowed me down quickly as I pressed down the street towards the center, my 'wings' flailing independently as I tore through their ranks. A clone made from Leviathan's 'blood' struck at me and I moved to burn through it like I had all the others. It caught the blow, the water in its fingers burning off and leaving a gauntlet of steaming, compacted, crystalline endbringer flesh behind.

The other clones around us closed in for the kill, but were ripped apart by my wings as I caught the blood-clone's other hand with one of my own, its clawed appendage burning and shrinking down as well. When the water burned off, it packed the hardened substance together, holding it together from the back as the heat slowly burned off the water underneath, but not fast enough. It was a good counter to anyone with fire abilities, but I was not so limited.

As its black-blue tail snaked out and pierced the giant's head, burning itself on my creation's eyes, I grabbed the desiccation pistol from its thigh sheath as I forced the giant to pull the construct towards me. As I opened the giant's chest to fire, dark tendrils of fluid shot out, ready to pierce, crush, and drown me. The weapon in my hands turned substantial for a moment and fired, turning the center of the construct to dust, as well as completely destroying part of the normal clone behind it.

With the center of mass gone, the blood clone fell apart, hardened plates that'd made up its shrunken claws splashing into the water below, carried past me as the flooding was unnaturally directed towards the water wall behind me.

The water Leviathans, all my size, jumped me from every direction but without another fighter made from Leviathan's blood they burned to nothingness. Forcing my way through the tides of animated water, a beam of purple light blew through a clone I was fighting, piercing the shoulder of my giant. Breaking through the lines, I found over a hundred people on a raised, glowing, bluish-purple platform, forcefields of several different colors flashing into being to block attacks from the clones surrounding them.

The buildings around them were collapsed, or about to be, barely visible through the sheer mass of Leviathan clones that crowded in from every direction. I caught the glimpse of a familiar set of powers, but there wasn't time to talk, the attacks coming in every direction. The heroes near me faltered, the clones taking the opportunity to strike, and I leapt forward.

A solid blue shield sprung up between myself and the group, intended to stop me, but working just as well to stop the clones as they slammed into it, sliding off slightly as my wings extended forward past me, piercing and exploding the clones into steam, air control forcing the superheated vapor up and away from the heroes. Landing just outside of the shield, I planted my feet and twisted in a way that normal hips would never allow, turning my back to the heroes.

I could see the swath I'd cut through the Leviathan clones, a gap that was quickly closing as more rushed forward, and I stood at the ready. Dropping everything but my real body out of Shadow, growing out the plates of my body into proper orichalcum armor, I sent out another dozen tendrils, hitting the edge of the point where my power would force them into some other form, and held my ground under the onslaught. The blue shield behind me flickered out, but I yelled, "Keep it up!" over my shoulder, and it sprang back to life.

Blocking an entire street, I could sense most of those behind me turning to focus on the other three. Hands covered in solar gauntlets, I stopped all comers, using my desiccation gun to handle any blood clones that tried to attack me, counting down the shots left: _17, 16, 15, 14_. As many as there were, there were far less than there'd been when I'd stood with Chubster, and for that I was grateful.

For the others, I had an entire street to work with, and even if my powers were limited, I still had quite a few tricks I'd thought of but never used. I had an audience, but they knew I had fire powers, so they'd be explained easy enough. Fighting, I reached out and prepped a latticework of hardened air to appear. When it did so, the clones all the way down the street staggered for a moment before moving through it, watery bodies flowing around it like it didn't exist. That was fine for me, reaching out with a free hand and grabbing the closest edge of the fractal web with an enormous solar gauntleted hand, and set the entire thing alight.

Explosions raced down the hardened air, creating waves of pressure I had to fight to keep from blowing past me. The fiery web blew through the clones who started to pull backwads, only for the latticework to shoot out spikes, the tips just enough to catch on their solidified forms for a moment. The foot-wide strands lit up like blazing lightning as the cores started to explode, building up pressure as they burned outwards faster and faster, blowing everything they ran through, and everything around them, to mist, dust, and ashes.

In less than two seconds, I'd completely cleared half my street, blowing out remaining windows of everything near me and causing one building to buckle, falling down on the clones which rushed forward as the remaining clones attacked with renewed vigor. It needed work, but as a proof of concept?

 _Shatterbird eat your heart out._

Attacks came from above as well, more than they had before, the shield above the group behind me held, my wings reaching out and intercepting a trio of clones that tried to come down on it at once, having seen that trick before. Firing a pair of Orichalcum needles down the street as the clones closed, more appearing to replace the ones I'd exploded, I splattered a dozen clones, but they were replaced as fast as I could kill them. The clones were faster, more accurate, more varied, and more deadly. It started to push my ability to hold them off, not letting me set up another air-lattice bomb, but it meant that Levi was _personally_ directing these clones. _Come on you bastard,_ I thought. _We're holding out against whatever you can throw, come for us yourself!_

Once Leviathan showed, the rest of the Triumvirate would follow, and we could take care of this once and for all, but the guest of honor was not in attendance. There were no larger than average clones watching from a distance, no shifting of earth as he tried to come up between buildings, _nothing._

I could theoretically keep going for hours, the only limiting factor my pistol, but thankfully the Blood clones were showing up less and less. One dropped down from above, hiding above a normal clone to screen itself from sight if I'd been looking through the Giant's eyes, _9,_ but no others appeared, even far away. The heroes behind me weren't doing so well, a few more having been injured badly, and the ones directly behind me starting to flag, gasping as they fought.

Three clones rushed me at once, and I let my wings take one while I dispatched the others, as I realized why. _The heat._ While I barely noticed it, and was trying to deflect the steam upwards, I still had over thirty arm-sized suns darting back and forth, two car-sized pieces of shaped plasma on my arms adding to the problem. Without Stellar Negation, my powers were starting to effect those I was trying to defend.

I dropped a sun from a wingtip, replacing it with hardened air, but the long cut I made across a clone's chest was ignored, the clone slipping past me to hit the blue shield behind me. Sparking a sun back on the tip of the tentacle, the hardened air exploded, splattering the clone I'd stuck it in. That had. . . possibilities.

Unfortunately, while I could move dozens of tentacles at once, or my power could, we couldn't create the explosions fast enough to hold them back in time, another three clones getting hits in before I could detonate them. _Damn._ People were dying, and I didn't have enough power to-

My thoughts were interrupted as I felt a minor slot complete, the surprise enough to make me miss another clone. _Okay, but what do I slot?_ I wondered, grabbing it and crushing it to steam, the person it'd been about to kill flinching away from the heat. I had dozens, maybe even a hundred powers that could slot in there, but I had no idea what most of them _did_ , and while I could try to split my attention between fighting and looking them over, as soon as I tried to look at the list and read _Anarchic Structure Inducement_ more clones slipped by me.

I needed something I knew would work, I needed something I had practice with, and most of all I needed something that would _blow these things the fuck up._ I had a dozen top-tier moves I'd worked out, and I'd thankfully been able to scale down one enough to _help_ , but most of them were pretty god-damned indiscriminate in their destruction. I needed something with the force of a _bomb_ but the precision of a _knife_.

Fighting more, the heroes flagging, another eight down, dead or dying, I picked one of my first, one I'd spent time every single day of the last week training, even if by proxy. It was distinctive, but I'd deal with the consequence after. I slotted it, getting a sense of vertigo, of twisting, of _co̕n͜҉n҉͡e̶͢c̀t̶i̵̸o͟ń̛_ , and stumbled, wings flailing wildly at everything in front of me.

Shaking as I was forced into reality, I lit up, blindingly white, a pure radiance which ran down my limbs, down my metal, until I was a pure being, existing in two planes at once. A clone rushed me, dodging my wings, only to explode as it touched me with a harsh, familiar sizzle. As I got control of my powers, I darkened, the light shifting through the spectrum until it was a riotous collection of colors. No longer blinding, but as harsh as a neon sign at midnight, I didn't know _what_ happened, but I knew that I had a full tank of Light and I was ready to go.

If there were any heroes in the air around me, I'd never try this, nor if there were civilians, but _fuck it_ , the PRT already hated Boardwalk, this didn't matter. Dropping the suns from my hands, I gathered Light around them, shining brighter and brighter, pressure building until it was a dam ready to burst. I sent metal tendrils deep into the ground, rooting my giant to the spot to help me deal with the thrust I was about to create. I needed to aim this _carefully_ or I'd kill everyone behind me. Sensing something was about to happen, the clones moved as one, those out of reach jumping upwards until they blotted out the sky, all coming for us at once.

Reaching deep, I threw open the floodgates of my power as I stretched outwards, hundreds of Light filled tendrils coming out of my hands and shooting down the giant's arms, spiraling as the reached its palms and opened up in a blinding lotus of power. _LIGHT_ poured out of me in a rushing torrent, blasting through the clones on either side of me, the clones behind them, and the clones behind _them_.

I started to spin the giant's upper body like a top, tendrils twisting around and around as I unleashed a rainbow river of destruction on everything more than twenty feet off the ground. Picking up speed, I raised my giant's arms, twisting my palms to send arcing prismatic streams spiraling across the sky. I hoped I'd missed any flyers in the air high up across the city, taking respite in the fact that the Light was moving slow enough to be dodged.

These were not the double-helixed rocket blasts of Purity, these were twin floods of shining destruction that I'd unleashed against an endless tide of Oni Li's, _and then some._ I kept going, draining my entire reserve of Light in seconds, an entire battle's full of attacks unleashed in half a minute. The thunderous explosions stacked up on one another rattled through the metal, and the heroes I'd saved would need their eardrums healed, but they would survive. Nothing else did.

Hundreds of clones were blasted to mist, buildings in every direction were destroyed, and the twisting arcs rose higher and higher into the air. As they struck the dome it rippled, exploding outwards from the impact, losing form and creating wide gaps in its structure. I could see the powers of dozens of parahumans making a break for it, flitting through rapidly closing bands of open air, many escaping, most of the ones too slow pulling back in time. Another dozen died, but easily six times that number made it to safety.

Slowing my spin, I internally retracted and re-extended the twisted tendrils of projected metal holding together the plates which covered my legs, looking around. Every building within four hundred feet was rubble, the ones past that had giant pieces torn out of them. While I could see some clones in the distance, climbing up buildings and jumping off them to land on heroes in the streets below, none of them were nearby. Ungrounding myself, I turned around to look at the gathered parahumans, many of whom were staring at me in undisguised shock.

I recognized New Wave, and was surprised to see Brandish, but Laserdream was nowhere to be seen. I hoped she was still alive, but I didn't have time for that right now. "Where's Leviathan?" I asked them, metal projection forming a cone to amplify my voice over the storm.

A few of them kept staring, while others shook themselves, looking for other avenues of attack by the Endbringer in question. Several, mostly the smaller parahumans, sank down, sitting or on their knees, on the raised platform made of forcefields. A group of less than a dozen moved towards me, only for the rain to stop. Some cried out in anger, fear, frustration, or despair, but most raised shields, engaged powers, and got ready to fight. I constructed air-shields above the group, ready to spring another around the sides if need be. It'd mess with the acoustics something fierce and give away its presence, otherwise I would've done so already.

However, nothing happened. Nothing continued to happen as we all waited, taut as bowstrings. _Simurgh arrival in four minutes,"_ Zilla informed me. The armbands of all present, which had gone quite, shouted as one, _Leviathan spotted, CD-1_.

The rain slammed down with penetrating force, blasting the air-shields to pieces, but protecting those that'd left the protection of the force-field bunker as they ran for cover. The rain continued to fall with that force for several seconds before fading back down to an unnaturally heavy downpour, the dome above us slightly thinner from the water used in the attack, though slowly restocking from its connection to the sea. Leaving the heroes behind, I took to the air, metal wings flapping, to get a bead on Leviathan.

He wasn't hard to spot.

A dark, hunched shape, close to fifty feet tall and growing, was rising up from the center of downtown. Light blasts rained into it, seeming to do no damage at all as it continued to swell upwards, and outwards. It was an inky, greenish black, the same color as the blood clones, but on a scale that dwarfed even Behemoth. The water construct slowly unfurled, rising high above the wrecked buildings, was Leviathan. From the dim glowing in the creature's chest, I knew, or at least hoped, that Leviathan was inside the construct, which was easily over a hundred feet tall.

There were no more water clones, no more water spears coming down from above, only the briny downpour, and a foe unlike any this world had faced before.

 _You wanted him to show up, he did,_ my mind pointed out. _Now what?_

Other heroes weren't stopped, stunned like I was, and sprang into action. Attacks flew out from across the city, blasts of light, arcs of lightning, and fireballs of every color arced up towards the giant's form. The enormous endbringer construct blurred to the left, dodging all but the ones that changed direction midair, and dashed forward, reaching down to slam a watery fist down, its enormous tail striking out at another group two blocks over. When it dodged backwards from the constant stream of fire, no more attacks came from where he struck.

Godzilla, only with super-speed instead of fire-breath, darted to the side, killing another group while his tail struck out and killed a fourth. I started to fly towards it, but I was slow, ponderous, and watched as the first defenders reached it, Eidolon making a giant fist construct and punching it in the face. It looked at him, arm blurring to strike him and, if the suddenly collapsing building half a mile away was any indication, bitch-slapped him into a department store.

Attacks struck into the construct, seeming to do no damage, but Leviathan still dodged the constant attack where he could, trying to kill everyone around him. A giant blue eagle, with a wingspan close to a hundred feet tall, appeared above me, reaching its claws down. I dropped my speed zones so it could hook its enormous talon's into my back, the heat of my suns not bothering Mike in the slightest as the replicant burst forward with a prodigious flap of its storm-colored wings.

"Chest!" I cried out as the world blurred, hoping he heard me. Suffusing my body with Light to deal with the G-forces, we both rocketed towards Leviathan who twisted around, dodging a beam of piercing light from Legend, and thrust his tail towards us. Bigger than a train, it arrowed up as Mike twisted, the replicate almost skimming it as he rolled around the appendage, small, razor-sharp tendrils extending outwards to try to catch the thunderbird's wings.

He dropped me, flapping and blowing by the Endbringer's head, claws racking it's enormous shoulder as I barreled towards its chest, hoping the real Leviathan was there. Extending out a thin, metallic tail and using the air to push me faster, I held out a giant hand, clad in star, and prepared for impact.

I struck the construct dead on, burning and blasting into it's chest as the entire thing was rocked backward for a moment. Through seeing it's profile in the air I could tell it took a few steps to right itself, burned blood not having enough time to fully form into plates. I, however, stopped, momentum spent, deep _inside_ its chest, and saw a flicker of light. Leviathan was in there, but I'd guessed wrong. I was inside it, about where it's heart would be, and I could barely see the light from its glowing eyes through the darkness, it's body dead center in the construct, hiding behind where the sternum would be in a person.

The dark water all around me crushed down, ready to kill me, but down here, away from anyone else, I could pull out another of my kill moves, though without nearly the strength I'd like. As soon as I'd stopped firing, my reserves of Light had started to replenish themselves. I was only up to a tiny fraction of my reserves, but it'd work, and I was as _desperate_ as this attack had been _dumb._ I'd expected to blast some water off the giant construct, or knock it back, not that I'd end up _inside_ it. Channeling all of the Light I'd regained, I forced it out of every pore, creating an indiscriminate explosion that blasted everything around me, streaming out of every tendril of my giant.

While not enough to blow apart the construct, it forced the fluid back as it exploded outwards, which left me a choice, _fight or run?_ This close to Leviathan I could do damage, but if I didn't get out now, I might never get the chance, only having two more cards left to play. Then again, why not both?

Grabbing the desiccation gun with my right hand, I fired it towards Leviathan, eliminating the water between us. _8_. Turning it I fired out the back of Leviathan as well, the side I was closest to, _7_ while pointing my left gauntlet at Leviathan and letting fly with the full compliment of momentum infused orichalcum spikes.

A water wall formed to stop them, but they punched through easily embedding themselves in Leviathan's flesh. As the water around me started to close in, I tried to lay a Speed Zone down on the Endbringer's side, only for the power to not engage. Suspecting that would happen, I laid it down on the spikes instead, growing them deeper into the crystalline flesh they'd embedded themselves into with metal creation.

Firing my pistol behind at my own chest at point blank range, _6_ , I destroyed the tendril of water that was about to strike me and flew out towards the back, firing again to clear the way and open up a hole out of there, _5_. The gun had started to flash when I shot myself, telling me it only had five shots left, so I only had 4 shots instead, having miscounted.

Escaping out the back, the construct's tail came down at me, and I holstered the gun, _needing_ those last few shots. Pointing my right gauntlet up, I changed the shape of the momentum that had accrued in the needles stored within, forcing the long, thin drill to compress until it looked more like a carnival tent. Letting them go, the metal didn't come apart as I'd hoped, but was forced into thin disks instead.

I was blasted backwards when one of them suddenly accelerated, blasting into the dark, bloody tail before the others and exploded in a crackling, lightning wreathed explosion. _The hell?_ I wondered as the others just blasted through what little water they hit, sending it splattering in every direction like I'd expected.

The giant Leviathan whirled around, dark claw coming straight for me when a large, round shape blasted past me and slammed into the limb, blasting it backwards. The shape unfurled and Herb turned into a pterodactyl, flapping away and joining me as I retreated. He turned back to himself and flew, seemingly unaided, next to me.

"Asshole in there?" he asked through our comms, the sounds of the storm and fight drowning out everything else, all business. I nodded. "That was really fucking stupid," he added.

"Had four ways to get out, including Theo's pistol," I shot back, focusing on distant feelings of the Speed Zones I'd left behind. Normally, they weren't useful to aim, but at the size of the thing we were fighting, it was enough.

"You still have yours?" my teammate asked in disbelief. "Why the fuck didn't you-"

"He's there," I interrupted, starting to point where I'd seen Leviathan, but the Speed Zones weren't there, they were exactly where I punched through. "Motherfucker."

"What?" Herb demanded as we started to come around far enough away that we'd have a second of warning before Leviathan struck.

"Either he's moving around, or he got _all_ my tracers," I told him. I couldn't tell, but it _felt_ like they were all in the same formation they'd been in when I'd left, but that might just mean he'd held them all in place together. That seemed like it might be beyond Levi's capabilities, but I had _no idea_ what was beyond Levi's capabilities anymore.

Herb laughed, "No shit he's moving. Everyone watched you go straight through him there, no one thinks that's where he is." Leviathan struck out at Legend with his reformed tail, the hero turning into a streak of lightning that bounced back and forth off nothing at all before forming behind the Endbringer and blasting, moving before the Endbringer started to move to retaliate and barely dodging the strike. Purity bombed it from a distance, carving out divots that slowly regrew.

"Need to get close, then I might fuck up the big guy," Herb mused. "Shit," he added, looking up. I followed his gaze and a stream of water reached down from the top of the dome to Leviathan's back. All the damage that'd been inflicted grew back in a second, the chunks taken out by Purity's continuous barrage now filling back out before the light had even fully faded.

With the powerset I had now, I wasn't sure I could get Herb close. I considered trying to form a giant construct of my own, with air instead of water, to cut a hole in the constructs chest, but trying to match an Endbringer strength for strength _didn't work._ I needed to get in, I needed to hold it open, and I had to do so _without dying._ If I had access to another power, I might be able to make it work better, but I didn't have one available. The progress on the next Major slot had barely moved since I'd left the hospital, meaning it might be _hours_ , and I wasn't even a tenth of the way there for another Minor slot. I was building up momentum for another set of orichalcum needles, but what I'd accidentally done before _scared_ me. While I didn't care about fire, and explosions could be avoided by going insubstantial, the lightning contained within that blast looked like it could've _killed me._

That left my Speed Zone enhanced pistol, which would do _nothing_ right now, and my desiccation pistol, which had four shots left. While a single shot wouldn't get me to Leviathan, two might, assuming I had his position correct. From there, it'd be a measure of keeping the passage open. Light glimmered in my palm, and I was reminded of the time Boardwalk, the time _I'd,_ broken out of the Rig. Working along that theme. . .

Leviathan continued to move killing people as I planned, but rushing wouldn't help and the Triumvirate were keeping him off balance, only striking out at a group once every ten seconds or so, and even then, not always effectively. I was glad that Herb had gotten rid of his armband, hearing those that dies because I wasn't thinking fast enough wouldn't help. Herb himself was quiet as we slowly flew, and I put together mental models. It'd have to be in self-contained, layered pockets, but this _could_ work.

"Ya got something?" he asked, somehow knowing I'd figured out an approach despite not being able to see my face, buried as I was in my armor.

My giant nodded as I reconfigured it's shape. Still humanoid, to keep my power armor, but smoother, sleeker, in some ways more like Leviathan, thickening the tail as I grew segmented plates out of it, in some ways not at all, eschewing thicker arms for more streamlined ones, covering it from head to toe with Speed Zones that all would move me forward, and anything that I touched backwards. Pulling in my 'wings', I shifted the suns to cover my hands, feet, and the tip of my tail. It was awkward having one, and I could feel that my power didn't really like it, but I needed it and added to the ever-growing list of things I needed to train.

"I'll get close and call you. You start in, and I'll open up a hole to Levi and do my best to keep it open," I told him, our comms carrying the conversation easily. Over the storm, the sounds of death and destruction only matched by the constant hammering of the salty, punishing rain. "Go for the bright spot, I'll make sure you have a path inside. That's where Levi is. Don't miss, I can only do this twice. Maybe."

He nodded, and took off in the opposite direction of Levi, while I dropped down towards the street. Pushing my flight to move, I touched down and blasted forwards, everything I touched just moving me faster. Grabbing onto the middle of my tail with Aerokinesis, the only part of me not covered in suns or Speed Zones, I forced myself to go even faster.

I blasted by a group of heroes still running, moving so fast they barely had time to register me, and past another, the same group I'd given Rune to, still trying to save survivors. Leviathan's gigantic construct loomed above me, his tail striking down at me from above, like a solid column of death dropped by god himself.

I moved to dodge, and the tail moved to intercept me. Dropping down to all fours, tail pointed straight out, I contorted my frame to lie my knees and arms along the ground, moving so fast that I could barely dodge obstacles, outpacing the construct's tail. It started to come down the street and follow me, but Alexandria punched through it, splattering it as it reformed, giving me enough time to open up a lead and for Leviathan to go after Eidolon instead, who'd returned and shot a pale red beam that struck the constructs flesh and seemed to just stick there, before it all went off in a giant explosion that blasted the Endbringer backwards.

Eidolon blasted again, but the Endbringer dodged, the beam missing and blowing up a string of buildings in the northeast of town, near where Taylor lived. As Eidolon prepped another beam the Endbringer leapt forward, taking the beam to the hand and shoving it in the parahumans face as it exploded, sending Eidolon flying off across the city as the Endbringer grew back his hand in seconds.

Following the Endbringer, I reached its foot and flipped myself upward, flying up the creature's body. "Now Herb!" I yelled over the comms as I streaked past its knees. Dark tendrils of endbringer blood reached out, but found no purchase, sliding off or outright burning off as I followed it to where it'd fled, hiding out in the construct's stomach.

I fired my desiccation pistol, _3_ , but Leviathan moved upwards, once more hiding behind the creature's sternum. I followed it, firing again, _2_ , As I formed a drill of air and pressed it into the depression, spinning it in a miniature tornado that ripped into the healing hole in the construct. I fed what little Light I'd regained into the vortex, letting it out in small packets that detonated as the water tried to push close, keeping the target zone clear. I looked back, and almost started to dodge as Herb seemed right behind me, until I saw the remains of a skyscraper between us, half a mile away.

My friend had turned into a giant serpent, purple and gold, easily over a mile long, with two sets of deep seated, glowing green eyes, the same color as Leviathan's own. It had coiled in on itself, but was rapidly flying in my direction, picking up speed as it did so. Looking from its enormous head, to the hole I'd made, I redoubled the power I was putting into the wind, pushing the gap wider, shoving a bit of my own power into it. I still hadn't fully recharged from when I'd supercharged Panacea, but Leviathan wasn't fighting me now, as it looked at the oncoming threat.

Water spears rained down Break's scale-covered hide, sometimes piercing but never deep enough to matter. A wall of water surged up, hardening until it was stronger than steel, and Herb broke through it easily. Water gathered at the top of the dome and shot down in a car-sized cutting stream as my partner passed Alexandria, and the attack that would punch through a fallout shelter did little more than press him down slightly as he continued to come, as inexorable as the tides.

Barreling towards me, I shot my desiccation pistol one more time, _1 shot left,_ and moved to body-slam the water construct, which hardened before impact. Grateful for the Endbringer's cooperation, I used the hardened water to rocket myself up and off it, gaining height as Leviathan, the Endbringer, was struck by Leviathan, the mythical, mile long serpent as I watched in awe, seeing what I'd overlooked. I'd seen animal transformation and looked at the _lower_ limit. Herb had looked in the opposite direction.

I inverted the light packages in the vortex in the construct's chest, blowing it open even wider, as Break's head impacted the two-hundred-foot-tall construct, punching clear through the blood-powered creation and out the other side, Leviathan caught within Break's enormous jaws. Muscles strained as Herb's teeth sunk in, but not through, the Endbringer who flailed, sending water everywhere to try to strike the monster that'd caught it.

Herb's power flared, running the length of his body, and Leviathan's construct, which was trying to dig its claws into the serpent moving through it, fell to pieces, the dome above coming down as well. Literal tons of sea water came down on the city, some of it moving to avoid the medical area, but most falling in punishing waves.

I flew after Leviathan, dropping down onto Break's body and riding down his length as he continued to drag the Endbringer through the gravel, slamming him down into the ground over and over again as the Endbringer flailed, shooting blasts of condensed water that turned to harmless mist after a few feet.

Closing in on Herb's head, my teammate reared back to slam Leviathan down again, the Ednbringer's attacks suddenly were effective, tearing out large pieces of my friend's jaw. In great spurts of blood and scales Leviathan ripped itself free, dropping toward the ground. Herb turned to follow, as did I, but as soon as the Endbringer got thirty feet away the water around him condensed and Leviathan shot down into a whirlpool of churning dirt, before disappearing.

The rain didn't stop, and five waterspouts once again started to form out at sea.

Herb's form shrank, in an instant his normal self, a small part of his cheek torn and bloody. _"FUCK!"_ he roared. " _WHAT DOES IT FUCKING TAKE TO KILL THIS MOTHERFUCKER?"_

I moved down towards the buildings, gesturing Herb to follow. We landed, and I hoped the rain would slack off, but no such luck. Retracting my current armor, Herb still swearing up a storm, I grabbed his arm, his suit torn and bloody, healing him quickly.

"We spread out," I told my friend, not sure what to do. Herb had nearly bitten him in _half,_ the Endbringer's chest sporting a long series of gouges before he'd disappeared, "He shows up again, don't carry him off, bring him to Eidolon. We can do this again, we're _so close._ I'll track down Flechette, even if it outs me, I can figure out a way to buy her silence, and we'll _end_ this."

Part of me, a part that didn't really feel like _me_ , **_really_** didn't want to do that, for no reason I could think of, but what choice did I have? I hadn't heard her die, but I hadn't had an armband for the last twenty minutes, and even then, she might've been evacuated. It's what _I_ would've done if I was in command and didn't understand what her power was. Herb nodded and leapt up into the air so hard the roof caved in, and I flew up as well, trying to find a good vantage point.

While it wasn't exactly a skyscraper, I found a building tall enough to give me a view of most of the city, the skyscrapers that would've gotten in my way no longer standing. "Eecee, someone with an Armband, I need the location of a Hero named Flechette. She might have a way we can kill Leviathan, and we're running out of options."

"Thank God you're okay," Taylor said, relief vibrating through her voice. "Sure, I can check. Oh, Panacea says she's. . . says she's. . . what's that?" she asked curiously.

"Lady Bug, I need the info _now!_ " I snapped. "I don't know how much time we have!"

"Huh?" my teammate said. "Sorry, it's just, what is that? It's. . . _huge._ "

What was going on? Being distracted in the middle of a fight was _not_ like Taylor. Taylor was many things, prone to escalation, likely to bite off more than she could chew, but she was always tactical and _never_ vague about anything related to fighting. "What's huge?" I prompted, trying to find out what was going on. The Leviathan clones were back, and there was fighting throughout the city. No, there was fighting in _half_ the city. The other half was completely silent, and I could barely make out Leviathan clones streaming over rooftops, down streets, past where the distant glow marked out a group with powers, but they weren't fighting.

"It's a giant. . . snake?" she asked more than told, sounding worse than she had when she'd been concussed by Bakuda.

"Taylor, that's Break. What's going on?" I pressed. When she'd talked, I thought I heard gunfire, and could see distant flashes in the medical area, which no longer seemed alive with motion.

"Break's in space?" she asked, unsure. "I. . . I don't think that's Break, Lee."

There was _definitely_ gunfire, and yelling, and screaming. The Leviathan clones had reached the medical area, and they looked to be besieging it, attacking everyone there, but almost no-one was fighting back. _There's a Master_ , I thought. Someone had seen this, and they had decided now was a good chance to strike. Was it the CUI? Some stupid, misguided Cauldron plot? I didn't know who'd done this, but they were going to _die._

"Fuck. Anyone still around and lucid, check in," I ordered, straining to look for Leviathan. Some of the storm seemed to be clearing, so were the clones a rear-guard action, to give him time to escape.

"I'm good, Vista's hurt but Robin's looking after her," Theo responded.

He was the only one who did.

Break was probably in another form, as was Mike, but _where was everyone else._

A circle of clouds opened up, perfectly circular and allowing the light of early afternoon to pierce the near twilight of the city. Down from it emerged a winged figure. Feminine, almost angelic, were it not for the fact that she had _far_ too many wings, and I could see her powers reaching out like Crystalline questing tentacles into the city.

The Simurgh was here.

 _Could she've taken out everyone below? Stunned them so they couldn't defend themselves?_ I looked around at the roof, taking stock of what powers I possessed. I had everything I needed for a long range 'will get you Birdcaged' level of power use, and the time to implement it. Lifting a hand, metal plates grew out of the ragged top of the roof, growing into supports from which more pieces rose, starting to curl together.

I _SAW_ The Simurgh's power, though I could barely scratch the surface. Pre- and post-cognition I knew about, as I did the telekinesis, but she had _six_ others, none of which felt like they meant everything they seemed to, in words that were hard to make out. I could push it, as I did before, but if I managed to incapacitate myself this time, _everyone died._ What I _did_ know was that, whatever had rendered my team insensate, Taylor now mumbling about rainbow wells, it _wasn't her._ That _didn't_ mean I wasn't going to take the bitch out.

Metal continued to form, twisting, Speed Zones starting to appear and layer themselves into interlocking patterns, Orichalcum forming and stars spreading.

One Crystalline tendril of The Simurgh's power wasn't moving blindly, it had a purpose, and reached down towards a target, a moving target that was on its way to the medical area. I wanted to be wrong, but I saw a flash of movement, the Liquid of Leviathan's power flashing into being for a moment as he directed all of his clones throughout the city, and the rising streams of seawater which had connected and were starting to flow high above the city once more.

It was obvious where he was going; he was heading for the medical area. For the sick, the injured, the ones he hadn't managed to kill the first time.

 _Leviathan was heading for Taylor and Amy._

Growing out the base of my construct some more, I changed the vector of initiation, prepping a new corridor of vacuum with Aerokinesis.

"Got your message, you find the bastard?" Herb demanded.

I checked what I'd built, what I'd prepped, made sure all the parts would function as I hoped. I hadn't tested this, _couldn't_ have tested this, especially the way I was about to use it, but there was no way I could make it across the city in time to save them. This was the only way.

"He's heading for Amy and Taylor," I told him. Speaking over his _"Fuck!"_ I instructed, "Simurgh's above the city. If I can't do it myself, get me to safety and tell Æonic to kill the bitch, we'll deal with the fallout afterwards. Scion's here in five, but I might get his attention. See you on the other side. Eeem."

What I was doing was stupid, it was suicidal, it was going to get me yelled at by _everyone._

But they'd be alive to do it, and that's what mattered.


	138. Deadline 12-END

**Deadline 12. END**

Taylor felt useless. She was stuck with Amy, _Panacea,_ she reminded herself, and was glad she'd combed the city of bugs on her way here. She'd hidden them in the vents and corners of the storage buildings the PRT had turned into a hospital complex just outside of the city and was slowly pulling them out for Panacea to use to heal people, but even then, she was starting to run low.

She followed the healer, and the capes who'd been assigned to guard them, to yet another bed. It was a woman, maybe Lee's age, who had her legs broken and was missing most of the fingers on her right hand. Amy put her mesh-covered palm on the woman's bare neck, reaching with the other into the metal box Taylor carried.

She felt the connection to the insects inside snap, as their bodies were turned to goo, directing more to fly down into the contraption and wait for the slaughter. She wondered if she should feel bad about sacrificing their lives, but she couldn't bring herself to care. She could always get more bugs; she couldn't make more heroes. Then again, technically _she_ wasn't helping at all, it was all _Amelia_.

The healer placed the goop on the woman's legs, which twisted and shifted, limbs turning until they turned the right way. The woman let out a shuttering breath and relaxed, not passing out, but not in as much pain either. "Legs are fixed, as is the internal bleeding. You're good for now," Panacea told the woman, already moving on, full of purpose and energy. Taylor, unable to do more than keep the 'device' full and in arm's reach, followed along behind her.

Amy had been starting to flag, tiring from using her power constantly, until Lee'd done _something_ to her. The healer's eyes had _burned,_ and _no-one_ else had commented on it, but her power had _exploded_ in speed while it happened.

Taylor had been following Amelia for half an hour before then, watching her heal as fast as she could, and had gotten a sense of how quickly the girl worked. Internal misalignments were fast fixes, but anything that required her to regrow things took a bit, and Lee. . . Lee'd been nothing _but_ regrowing parts.

She shuttered, the image of what she'd seen when Lee'd opened his costume. _There wasn't anything left._ His armor had been the only think keeping his insides _inside_ , Hookwolf's copied power the only thing that'd given him the ability to move. With what she'd seen. . . she wasn't sure she'd ever eat chili again. Or soup. Or anything red, chunky, and _liquid_.

As Amy healed another person, Taylor's attention drifted, just making sure the box was stocked as her thoughts were dragged back to what she'd seen. He'd been. . . he should've been _dead_ , and then Amy had caught fire and put him back in _minutes_ and then he'd gone _right back out there._ She could hear the Armbands of those around her reading off deaths, but she didn't pay attention to them. Even if Lee got another armband, hearing that he'd been taking down again, _or worse._ . . she didn't know what she'd do.

She wanted to help, to _fight,_ but she was the _bug-girl_ , what could she do? Lee said he had plans, but she'd _seen_ how his plans turned out. Sometimes they turned out amazing, doing things she'd never thought possible, though there was _always_ a cost. Other times? She still remembered the feeling as lightning coursed through her, when her _hero_ had tried to kill her.

Sometimes Lee's plans had worked, sometimes they hadn't. Today it'd been the latter at every step.

Now he'd done. . . _something_ to Panacea, and not only was she not tired, her power was _better._ She was working faster, not a lot faster, but enough for Taylor to notice. That wasn't the _only_ thing that she'd noticed, and it'd kept prodding her, kept going _'you can't run from me forever'_ no matter how much she tried to ignore it. It was silly, it was stupid, it was something that shouldn't matter in the middle of an _Endbringer_ attack, but the thought didn't care, pulling at her ever since she'd seen enough that she couldn't ignore.

 _Amelia likes Lee, and he likes her back._ She'd been putting off that thought, thinking that Lee being friendly with her was like how Lee was with _everyone_ , but seeing him hug her to his bare chest, something that he hadn't even done with _her_ , made it hard to deny.

 _And why wouldn't he?_ she wondered. Amy wasn't attractive but she wasn't _un_ attractive either. She had a better figure than Taylor did, with _actual_ curves instead of flat, bony _awkwardness._ And anything Amy didn't like, Lee could fix. She knew he was doing that for other people, and she _believed_ him when Lee told her he wouldn't do it to anyone under eighteen, but she also believed him when he said wouldn't do anything to change someone's insides. That meant he could _easily_ tweak Amy's face to look beautiful, but he couldn't do anything about Taylor's _complete_ lack of breasts, or hips, or _anything_ that didn't make her look like a long-haired _boy_.

Then there was _everything else_ to think about. Amy was a _healer_ , known across the country, and what was she? She was just the _bug-girl_ , only useful to help the _real_ hero on the sidelines. Amelia even _fought_ better than she did, since they'd only found out about how Lee's healing made someone stronger because Taylor, the clumsy, gawky, _idiot,_ kept messing up and getting injured and needing him to put her back together so often.

She tried to take solace in the fact that Lee'd said he'd date her when she was eighteen, only he _hadn't_ , had he? He'd said he would if they were both _single._ And Amelia was older than her. Not by enough, only a few months, but enough to _matter_. Taylor wondered if she'd been tricked. It was more subtle than the trio, but Lee'd had a lot more time to get better at that then the bitches three. She shook her head, getting rid of that thought, feeling guilty at even thinking it. No, Lee wasn't _like_ that. He was weird, and aggravating, and could go from being invincible to _vulnerable_ in an instant in a way that made her heart hurt, but he was _honest._ Even when she wished he wouldn't be.

He wouldn't set those conditions just to trick her, he'd really believe them, and he'd likely tell _any_ other girl her age who was interested the same thing. And it was obvious that _Amy_ was that other girl.

Taylor wanted to hate the girl, but she couldn't, not really. Lee'd told her about her life, and at least Taylor had _had_ her mom, before the accident. Sometimes she thought things would've been better if she'd never had her mom, wished she never had someone to miss, but she hadn't meant it. What Amy'd gone through, that wasn't just not having a mom, that was like having a _negative_ mom, where even home wasn't a safe place.

And she'd seen the look on Amy'd face when Lee's costume had opened up, she'd looked. . . she'd looked just as horrified as Taylor was. She seemed to care, not just using Lee to get away from her parents like she thought, even if she was a _bitch_ about it sometimes. Taylor didn't know what to do. Did she give up the first person who'd cared about her in years? He might be happier without her. But Lee'd been there when no one else was, Lee'd seen _her_ , been there for _her_ and she didn't want to give that up, no matter how bad a person that made her, sacrificing his happiness to have some for herself. He believed in her being a hero, and the hero thing would be to help him be happier with Panacea than he could ever be with _Bug_ , but she didn't want to. Did that make her a bad person? What should she do? She just _didn't know._

Amelia had been brought to a bunch of people, all laid out, and was working on them one after another. Taylor put the box down, keeping it stocked, and stepped away from the healer, trying to give herself time to think. Time to be away from the _other_ girl.

Wandering away, her eyes caught on a figure sitting in a chair as everyone moved around her. She wasn't in costume, or anything that marked her as a parahuman, not even a domino mask. Instead she was dressed in a baggy hoody, jeans, and beat up sneakers, the same 'don't look at me' uniform that Taylor had worn for years, that she hadn't even _realized_ she was wearing until Lisa had pointed it out to her. The girl just seemed lost, staring at one of the screens that was showing a video feed of the city from the cameras on the building's roof, telling everyone what was going on, in case they needed to protect themselves.

"You okay?" Taylor asked, feeling dumb as soon as the words left her mouth. With what was going on outside, she'd heard enough from what the people around them were saying to know that that _no one_ was okay, that it was a fight worse than anyone could remember.

"Um, yes?" the girl answered, unsure. She hesitated, as if trying to figure out the right words. "Um, where am I?"

Taylor blinked behind her mask. She'd been expecting a ' _No',_ a _'How could you say that?'_ , or maybe a sarcastic _'What do you think?_ ' Not that. "Um, you're in the medical area?"

 _That_ got her the flat look she'd expecting, though worry edged in at the edges. "I meant what city, this doesn't look like Worcester," she asked.

Now it was Taylor's turn to be confused, she had no idea where that was, and how could the girl not know what _city_ she was in? Did she get caught in the crossfire and get hit by something that messed with her memory? "You're in Brockton Bay." There wasn't even a single flicker of recognition at the name. "North of Boston?"

"There aren't any cities north of Boston that big," the girl, whose name Taylor didn't even know, shot back. "Maybe Providence. Do you mean Brockton? I didn't think it was that big. But that's, did you mean south, not north? _What's going on?_ "

 _Definitely some sort of Memory effect,_ Taylor thought. She didn't know how to tell this girl that an Endbringer was attacking. She thought it would be obvious, but if she didn't know, she _needed_ to. Taking a deep breath, she broke the news to the other girl, "Leviathan is attacking."

The other girl just stared at her, narrowing her eyes, "The sea-serpent?"

"What? No, the Endbringer!"

". . . You say that like it means something," the other girl observed, puzzled, "and it doesn't sound good."

Taylor just stared at her. What _rock_ had this girl been living under? "It _isn't_." No, that wasn't fair, she'd obviously been caught in the blast of some-sort of memory destroying power. Thinking about that kind of thing was horrible, but if it'd worked on the Endbringer, wouldn't it maybe be worth it? It wasn't this girl's fault she didn't know. "My names Lady Bug, what's yours?" she tried instead offering hand.

The girl took it, cautiously shaking it before stuffing her hands back into her hoody. "Grace."

Taylor stood there, awkwardly, not sure what to say next. Did she ask what the girl's power was? She was unmasked, and while Grace _might_ be her cape name, it sounded like it was her real name, the way she said it. Did she even _have_ powers? Thankfully, Panacea finished with her patients and started to move on. One of the heroes watching her tried to lift the box that held the bio-goo bugs, and stumbled, not ready for its weight. "Um, I gotta go, Grace. I hope you get your memories back," she told the girl, quickly escaping the conversation.

She took the box from the woman who was trying to carry it, ignoring the girl's, "What are you talking about?" as she followed Amelia to the next set of patients.

* * *

More attacks came against the medical area, the defenses holding, the Leviathans made out of water repelled, and Panacea was still healing everyone she could while Taylor supplied the materials. She'd ran out of fliers, and was now using everything she could, trying to ignore the looks of disgust when a dozen cockroaches, all carrying ants on their backs, ran out of vents, across the floor, up her leg, down her arm, and into the box she held. She was used to them.

She heard Lee's speech about not holding back and bit back her concern. If he hadn't been holding back, he might not've been hurt, but if he was telling _everyone_ not to hold back? That meant things were _Bad._ She watched the screens whenever she could, and she had a feeling that the skyscraper sized pillar of fire that arched up over the city was Lee's doing, and maybe the pure white, glowing crystals that flashed into exitance over the building nearby a minute later were too, or maybe the sphere of pure darkness that covered a block for several seconds after that.

Taylor felt powerless, not able to help, not able to fight beside him, just sitting by the sidelines, doing nothing. She wanted to talk to Amelia, see how much _she_ liked Lee, but now was _not_ the time, and she'd just be distracting the heroine from _actually_ helping people, while Taylor just stood there making her _less_ than useless.

She hadn't missed the comment about the Simurgh, though she was pretty sure Amy did. There was _no_ way they could get to the base in time, if things started going bad, so she stayed with the healer and hoped for the best. As if the universe was listening, there was a gasp from around her and she looked around, seeing that everyone was staring at. The nearest monitor, showing the city outside, displayed Leviathan, but it didn't. From what she remembered from the videos, Leviathan was lighter in color, and had glowing eyes, and. . . and wasn't giant.

Well, he _was,_ she corrected, annoyed at herself for focusing on something like that when a blue-black water-Leviathan at least five times bigger than the original started stomping its way through the city. Behemoth at least was slow about it; this giant Leviathan was fast enough to dodge almost everyone attacking it. Not that it mattered, the water-Leviathan just ignoring anything that _did_ hit it.

Someone launched something glowing purple the size of a city bus at it, which pierced the thing's body, making it stagger back a step, but that was it. The camera wasn't good enough to pick out who was fighting, but Taylor thought the white blur might be Purity. The woman could destroy a city block, and she was barely putting a dent in it.

"We're all gonna die," someone said behind her, other people muttering, some crying, but most of them were like her, transfixed, as they watched the fight. The Endbringers were supposed to be getting _smaller_ , not. . . whatever that was. What must've been Legend was shooting as well, and they'd started carving out pieces when a thick tendril of water came down out of the sky and attached to the giant Leviathan's back. The stream healed it, all the damage the giant monster had taken reversed in seconds.

"That's just not fair," she muttered to herself, as others cried out, yelled, or laughed in a hopeless kind of way, all watching what was going on. The heroes in the air kept fighting, but the giant Leviathan ignored them, attacking people on the ground instead. Someone shot Leviathan with a beam that seemed to paint it with light instead of hurting it, the glowing sections blowing up like a bomb a few seconds later.

Whatever it was, it _hurt_ the creature, as it dodged a second, part of the city blowing up instead. She was _so_ glad they'd evacuated everyone. Whoever it was tried a third time, and Taylor was reminded about Lee's advice about Leviathan, how you needed to hit and run, how you needed to keep trying new things. The beam-cape didn't run, and Levi took the blow to the hand, shoving it where the blast came from. The power must've been on a timer, not a switch, as it went off and blasted the probably dead cape backwards, only visible by how the flames trailed off his body from the explosion that'd enveloped him.

The giant Leviathan had lost a hand, but it was already started to regrow as it pulled back, something purple moving up it's legs. It reared back, hand moving to squish whatever it was when the two brightly glowing fliers let off a blast that mangled its watery appendage, moving it back. The shape paused at Leviathan's stomach, before moving up to the middle of its chest. Where it'd stopped, there was a glowing light that opened up a hole in the watery body.

Leviathans' tail arched up and over itself to strike the car-sized purple person, only for it to be knocked back by something hitting it, probably Alexandria, losing some of its form. There was a distortion, and the view was blocked by a snake appearing a few inches over the camera, leaning out weirdly into the air. Except it kept going, and going, and was the wrong color, and bumped into the remains of a skyscraper, knocking pieces off.

 _That wasn't a snake._

Whatever it was, was _enormous_ , came from where _they_ were, and could _fly._ It sped up, moving for the giant Leviathan, the purple, vaguely humanoid shape still hanging tight onto its chest as it opened the glowing vortex in the giant Endbringer's chest wider. It wasn't until the giant snake ignored every attack Leviathan threw at it, slammed into the giant Endbringer, and _kept going_ that Taylor realized what, realized _who_ it was.

 _It was Break._

Lee'd said to stop holding back, to go _mythical._ She remembered her mom telling her about the monster from legends: Dragons, Unicorns, Medusa, and _Leviathan,_ the giant sea-serpent. Taylor wondered if Grace was a precognitive Thinker, not seeing the same thing that Taylor had been, but seeing _this_ instead.

The giant Leviathan clawed at the creature from myth without doing any damage before it fell apart, the giant serpent flying through the air, something clenched tightly in its jaws, something with blue-green glowing eyes. Break slammed Leviathan, the _real_ one, down, dragging it along, before rearing up and doing it again. Everything was obscured as Leviathan brought down a crushing wave of water across the city, most of it missing the medical area but Taylor could feel the ground shake as it hit, or maybe that was just Break.

The sea serpent continued to drag the Endbringer along like a dog with a chew toy and anger problems, smacking it into the ground over and over again, and grinding it across anything in range. It went on for so long that people started to laugh, _honestly_ laugh, and Taylor wanted to join in. As hellish as the fighting had been, they were finally _winning_. Not by a little, but by so much it made Leviathan look almost silly. That relief vanished when Break did, leaving nothing of Leviathan behind.

When the half the screens shifted, showing a stormy sky and a familiar winged shape, the sense of victory, of _relief_ , broke into a thousand razor edged shards, even though Taylor knew it was coming. There'd _never_ been a time when more than one Endbringer had shown up, but Lee'd _warned_ them this might happen. She'd heard him, but some part of her hadn't really believed him, and she almost jumped when her comm crackled to life.

"Someone with an armband, I need the location of a Hero named Flechette. She might have a way we can kill Leviathan, and we're running out of options," Lee stated, tense and commanding, but not hopeless. She hung onto that surety like a lifeline, it meant he had a _plan_ , and while sometimes his plans didn't work, sometimes they did the _impossible_.

The words came out before she realized she said them, "Thank God you're okay." Taking a deep breath, she focused on the task. She could hear the sounds of fighting from outside, as water-Leviathans, _regular sized_ water-Leviathans, started attacking the medical area again. The defenders had held them off before, they could hold them off again, at least until Lee pulled another crazy plan out of nowhere. "Sure, I can check," she told him, but Amy was already working her connection to Dragon, who didn't give them grid coordinates, but a _building_ location.

"Building F's this way," Panacea explained as she started to walk quickly towards the exit, probably having remembered the names of the buildings. Taylor wasn't so good with names, but she didn't need to be when she had a 3D map of everything.

"Oh," Taylor said, as she was surprised at how lucky that was. "Panacea says she's-"

 _The world tilted, veils removed as she saw more, and **more** , and **m͔̗̠̜̞̟̦̎ͣ̂̔ͫ͒̕o̝̪̖͎̦͙̟̟͂͋͝ŗ̴̘͉͈̰̩͔̖̮͑͑̎̎ḙ̢͚̖̩̼̽̿̈ͫ̅̍̋̕**._

"Says she's," Taylor repeated, trying to remember what she was talking about.

 _She stood in a hall, full of the injured and dying, as she stood in a constellation of stars, so close she could touch them. The one in front of her felt familiar, somehow. It was small, scared, but burned brighter than any other near her._

 _"_ What's that?" she asked to herself, half-hearing what she was saying, _half hearing nothing at all._

 _She looked around, seeing dozens, hundreds of other stars all around her on an almost flat plane. In one direction, past those around her, there was emptiness, but not a blackness, just a lack of substance. In the other direction, she saw hundreds more, some high up, a few down below. Her eyes saw the wall, but something else saw the stars moving, some winking out, like snuffed candles._

"Lady Bug, I need the info now!" _an angry, familiar voice demanded._ "I don't know how much time we have!"

"Huh?" she asked, trying to remember what _she saw, as she looked up, then beheld a sky that wasn't a sky. A Sphere made of Platinum & Light far larger than any star around her, though cold as the other were warm, closed off, hung high above._

 _Beyond that, though, she could see a swirling, rainbow hole in the sky, a multicolored whirlpool that reminded her of Lee's eyes. Lee's eyes? Who was-_

She pulled herself out, of what was happening, everyone around her quiet as they stared upwards as one. No, not everyone, every _parahuman_ was silent as a nurse pulled at a cape a few dozen feet away, asking what was wrong, and she heard the sounds of screaming and gunfire outside. "Sorry, it's just." She tried to think, was it a Master effect? Who would attack an _Endbringer attack?_ "What is that? It's-"

She felt her mind slip as she _looked upwards into the yawning abyss, larger than anything she'd ever seen, large enough to swallow the city, large enough to swallow the **world**. It was _"Huge."

 _The longer she stared up at it, the more she could see. The swirling vortex of light and power clearing to reveal something on the other side. Glowing, multicolored clouds that reminder her of Nebulas swirled in a column beyond. No, they swirled **around** a column of nothingness, though at the edge, the border between this world and the one she gazed into, was a shape. It was just as massive as the vortex, it's bulk circling the whirlpool, creating and restraining it. The shape was hard to make out as she struggled against the tide, trying to keep the her that was **her** rooted as the vortex pulled against everything below it._

 _When she did see it, the being so great it could encircle the solar system, she knew she was wrong, but it looked like. ._ "It's a giant. . . snake?" _It had horns, too many horns, every scale a thorn that extended upwards and backwards, in a way no animal was shaped. It was familiar, not just to the star-her, but to the her-her as well. She'd seen it before. A memory of blood, and fear, and loss-averted grounded her._

She'd seen it before, she realized. The caduceus Vejovis wore, it _wasn't_ a snake it was. . . _This._

"Taylor, that's Break," Lee said, and she was going to have _words_ with him. The anger helped, star-her wasn't angry, _couldn't_ be angry, but _her-_ her could be. "What's going on?" he demanded.

Only that _couldn't_ be Break, because, past the not-snake, past the clouds, she'd seen _stars._ "Break's in space?" she asked, because if _that_ was Break, then. . .

She looked out, towards the scattered stars. A sphere, made of Water & Blood, like the sphere above their heads, was coming near, but past it she could see the stars. Three burned more brightly than the others. One had a sense of displacement, that seemed foreign; one a sense of change, that felt like Herb; the last, a sense of _growth_ , looking different than the other two in ways she couldn't describe but felt like _Lee_. She couldn't say how she knew, why she knew, just that she did. "I. . . I don't think that's Break, Lee," she told him helplessly, struggling against the pull from above and _losing_.

She wanted to cry out, but her body wouldn't respond as it turned its gaze back upwards, and into the vortex, _seeing what lay beyond. She rose, leaving herself behind as she flew higher and higher, moving, yet still, as she passed through the gate._

 _Passing through, she saw the creature, the being, the **Entity** in full. She stayed, just on the other side, drifting. She could feel the space above her, pulling at her but she held on to invisible edges of the gate. If she didn't, if she kept moving, she might survive, but she would **never** return. She felt the others around her, reaching out to the Bone White & Blood Red star she thought as familiar. It reached out in turn, as desperate as she was, helping her stay, holding her down as she did the same to it._

 _The ruler of this place, this rainbow well among the stars, moved a head that could swallow the Sun and gazed at them, judging them. Its eyes, too many to count, weighed every star individually. She felt a sense, not of approval, nor of disapproval. She saw her mother, glad she was trying, but worried she'd been hurt, like the first time she'd ridden a bike without training wheels, in the eye that stared into her._

 _A single scale, near its head, detached, and started to move towards the prismatic pool she hovered over. It grew, larger and larger, until the shard of the Entity that burned ##### & Ice White above her seemed to fill her vision, before slipping by her tiny star, like an enormous ship passing a rowboat in the night. The piece of the not-snake slammed down into the surface of the pearly sea below them, which parted without a single wave, disappearing without a trace, invisible in the world on the other side._

 _Looking past it, dark shapes swarmed over the ground, closing on an array of structures away from the rest, flashes of irregular light illuminating the are below. She felt some of the stars around her wink out, gone forever, and she held onto the star next to her tightly, trying to keep it there, keep it from going out. The world shook, and she dropped, falling towards the rainbow well like a doomed comet, bringing the other star with her._

 _The lustrous depths loomed, and she splashed through them,_ stumbling into Panacea, both of them falling as a watery claw reached for them, missing by inches. Moving on instinct, she grabbed the smaller girl and rolled, picking her up with one hand and running, her other hand reaching for her gun.

 _No, that won't help_ , she thought, as another water-Leviathan tore its way through the wall, killing a kid who was struggling to her feet with fluid claws. Grabbing the gun Lee'd made sure she'd taken, despite her protests. Still carrying Panacea over a shoulder, Taylor aimed and fired, the fifteen-foot cone of dryness coring the monster as what was left lost its form.

"Wha?" Panacea groaned, as out of it as the others around her, struggling to their feet and trying to fight. Taylor might've been there too, but her bugs could be nauseous for her, she was _busy._ Turning a corner, she saw another monster, this one had ripped open the wall and was pulling out heroes, crushing them, and tossing them away like empty soda cans. A girl her age, trying to bring up glowing hands was pulped in an instant and thrown out the building as it reached for a woman on a hospital bed.

Taylor knew it would be safer to stay and hide, but these people needed help, and she had an excuse, she needed to find Flechette. Lee could be mad at her later. Charging forward, the monster flicked its tail at her, and lost it to a blast of evaporation. The monster turned, claws nearly as big as she was reaching down towards her, but she got close, close enough that the high-pressure digits started to close, and the monster, leaning down into the building, lost everything above the waist.

"Where's building F?" she demanded as another water-Leviathan took the place of the previous one, and died like the previous one.

"Huh?" a man in a green duster asked, staring at her from behind colored glasses.

Taylor put Panacea down, steadying her as she swayed on her feet. "Where's building F?" she asked the healer, who didn't seem any better than the man. A third water-Leviathan stuck its head in the gap and lost its head, though it started to reform, just smaller. Taylor shot it again and its remains splashed down. "We need to find Flechette, you said building F, _where is building F?_ "

"It's," the healer said, trying to get her bearings. "It's next to the comm center."

"Where's _that?_ " Taylor asked, killing a fourth monster. She'd used up so many bugs that she didn't have the normal spy-net she liked to use. She hadn't been paying attention to them earlier, trying not to spy on anyone and violate the Endbringer truce. _Maybe we shouldn't stand right here?_ she thought, but looking at the capes starting to get up, those that _could_ get up, and without her they'd die to the next monster that showed up. She could at least stay here while Panacea got her the directions she needed.

Amelia raised her hand to point the way they'd come. "It's over- _aah!_ " she screamed as a claw of solid water ripped through the roof, right down into Panacea, running her through.

Taylor vaporized it, along with the Endbringer made of water above them, as she rushed to Amy's side. She expected to see a bloody mess, like the girl before, but while Amy's cloak had been torn apart, her armor was intact.

" _Fuck_ ," wheezed the healer, gasping through the pain. " ** _Fuck,_** broke my shoulder, ribs, don't know what else. _Fuck!_ " She waved to the west, "Go, go get Flechette."

"What? _No!_ " Taylor told her. Lee'd told them not to split up, and, despite what else she might think, _or feel_ , she didn't want Amy to _die!_ As a _fifth_ Water-leviathan tried to claw its way in, only to be destroyed by Taylor, the man with the green duster firing an energy blast a half-second too late, she knew that's _exactly_ what would happen if she left the healer alone. Amy could heal anyone _but_ herself.

"Sorry," Taylor apologized before reaching down and picking up Panacea, who screamed in pain. She tried not to listen to the other girl sob as she ran for the door, opening it up to come face to face with another Water-Leviathan, four more on the rooftop of building F.

She vaporized the first one, hoping the gun would hold out, when shots from above blasted one of the others, everyone who'd been injured and carried to what should've been safety finally starting to fight back. Taylor ran on through the pounding rain, Panacea crying in pain, when she turned the corner and stopped. On top of a building at the edge of the city, several hundred feet away from the medical area, was Leviathan, _the real one_ , watching everyone die as his creations killed the injured, and more water-Leviathans streamed from between the buildings towards them. There were dozens upon dozens, loping across the open areas, more than Taylor could hope to fight as she started to back up where she came.

She'd go around to the back entrance, find Flechette, whoever that was, and all three of them would hunker down until help arrived, if help _did_ arrive in time. She took a step back, muddy ground suddenly slippery ice and fell, twisting and rolling to make sure she didn't land on Panacea, who screamed and went limp. _Oh, don't be dead, don't be dead,"_ Taylor though, scrabbling backwards and lifting the girl out of the rapidly flooding street.

The girls weak coughs sounded bad, but they sounded alive. Taylor glanced back up at Leviathan, who was staring back at her. No, not at her, at one of the other buildings. It tensed up, ready to jump, when it stopped, and turned around to look back across the city, towards the ocean.

Then the sky tore, and a day so dark it was almost night lit up in hellish light.

A conflagration exploded into being where Leviathan was standing, its flames a familiar Royal Purple and Blood Red, a streak of fire the same color stretching out in a perfectly straight line back across the city to the bay. A shockwave blasted outwards and rocking her back as she held onto Amelia.

The Water-Leviathans, every single one of them, lost form like a switch had been thrown, dropping down to flood the alleys between buildings.

The rain stopped, petering out in seconds, the city quieting down for the first time since everything had stared.

As the explosion cleared, Leviathan was gone, a small, dark, human-sized shape falling where it'd been. Every building around it was collapsing, and the figure bounced bonelessly off the still-dropping wreckage. Before it hit the ground, a second dark shape rocketed down from the city so fast it was hard to see, grabbing the figure as they both flew away, nearly vanishing as they flew off into the countryside.

Taylor just stared at what happened, holstering her gun to carefully pick Amy back up. The girl groaned, crying from the pain, but it got her completely out of the water. Looking up, Taylor saw the winged form of the Simurgh high above, getting higher every moment as it flew up through a hole in the slowly breaking cloud cover.

Heroes rushed to help the injured, one helping her carry Panacea back inside as a golden glow appeared on the horizon over the bay.


	139. Revision 13-1

**Revision 13.1**

I slept, and lived memories not my own. I _was one of many. Each with a purpose. Each with a mission above all else. Nine hundred and thirty-two Cycles have passed. More may pass before the dream of our race is reached. It did not matter, the end must not come, the Cycles would finish, but not be broken._

 _Fragments filled the Entity, fragments of the last Cycle, fragments of Cycles before then. The Entity was fragments, and the fragments were the Entity. Each fragment a shard of the Entity, and the Entity's progenitors. Knowledge filled them, streamlined and purified, all against the inevitable destiny the Entities denied._

 _The Entity swims in the void between stars, looking for life. Last three stars barren, time running out. On the last, emissions where there should be none. Now it was in the in-between, where no stars dwelt, where no life thrived. Instincts, the memories of ancestors stated it was wrong, it would lead all to death, to waste, but energy trails, fragmented unnaturally, urged it on._

 _Again, it found nothing. Again, fragments passed down through cycle after cycle told it this would not help it finish the Cycle._

 ** _Denial._**

 _Blackness surrounded it for time enough for four Cycles, but emissions remained, each stronger than the last. Shards drained, cast adrift to move forward. Then, light._

 ** _Surprise._**

 _A star where none existed, blue-white. Dozens of worlds floating around. Each with life. Each with different life. Enough to run Cycle, after Cycle, after Cycle. The Entity had waited so long, but success seemed near. It moved towards the first one, orange and green, and started to prepare._

 ** _Anticipation._**

I woke, remembering the relief, the hunger, the victory that all seemed. . . off. Muted and distant. I moved to run my hands through my hair, but only my left arm moved. Opening my eyes, I was. . . somewhere. The ceiling tiles looked familiar, though I couldn't place them, and I was in a bed, but not _my_ bed. I hadn't slept in it more than a few times, but I didn't recall it being this _stiff._

Sitting up, I finally recognized the room. I was in one of Eclipse's medical bays, wearing my civilian clothes, somehow. Shaking off the last vestiges of sleep I remembered what I did, and let out a short laugh. _So it didn't kill me._ **_Good_**. Refocusing, I felt a weight on my legs and looked down.

A familiar mop of brown hair obscured a figure who had dragged her chair next to where I'd slept, head down and using my legs as a pillow. Tension I didn't realize I'd been holding drained out of me. _It worked._

I stretched, my right arm still not responding, feeling like it'd fallen asleep. Trying to lift it, metal tendrils extended up, weaving themselves into an extra arm. I looked at it in confusion, retracting it and trying to lift my _real_ arm. Air solidified, making an invisible appendage, fingers and all. Dismissing it, I looked down and could only see my shoulder. _Was I laying on it?_ It'd explain the numbness.

It seemed like I was, since my arm had to be folded behind me, though I didn't feel it pressing against my back when I woke up. Reaching over with my left arm to fish out my right, I sighed, not looking forward to that pins-and-needles, static-y feeling. My fingers ran up my side, past my ribs, continuing on smoothly over the fabric of my shirt until they reached the top of my shoulder. That was. . . _odd._

Trying again, reaching completely over, I found that from my armpit to the top of my shoulder was completely smooth. I tried to move my right arm, only for metal tendrils to once again sprout out, and form the appendage. Form out of my shoulder. My perfectly smooth, arm-less shoulder.

I couldn't suppress a whimper as I realized I _was missing an arm._

 _Shit, then, damn, okay, okay I can work with this,_ I though, freezing. Taylor stirred, and I pushed down the whole mess of emotions. _I'll either get Panacea to heal it, or just use a power until I can find someone who can. There's so many powers out there, I should be able to find someone who can regrow limbs, or I could copy the power of someone who can regrow their own if I need to. God knows I get hurt enough that that'd be useful._

Taylor yawned, lazily stretching in a feline manner, still leaning on me. She turned over, blinked sleepily, and blew some hair out of her face. She froze, now able to see me clearly, looking at me as I looked back at her. "You, you're awake," she stuttered, as if this fact was surprising.

"So are you," I pointed out, a smile tugging the corner of my mouth as she blushed and leapt to her feet, chair sent skidding backwards, revealing a pillow that'd been laid over my shins. "What's up?"

"I, well, you," she sputtered, stopping and taking a deep breath. "Amy healed you, but you've been out for, um, three days and no-one knew why," she revealed, stepping up next to me, looking at me like she wasn't sure if I was real, or if she was just dreaming. "She couldn't figure out why, but Herb thought it wouldn't be for too long, but he wasn't really sure either, and I was worried, but I knew you'd be fine, but I didn't know _when_ you'd be fine, so I was waiting, and helping Panacea, and helping fix the base, the places in range, but I- gah!" she rambled, squeaking when I leaned forward and hugged her.

"Um, are you okay? Not that I'm complaining, but-" she started to say, but I interrupted her.

"I'm just glad you're okay," I told her. "We survived, and we can handle anything else that comes."

"I, um, okay," she replied, the tension that ran through her lessoning somewhat, but not going away. "I, just, um, I can't feel you, and it's been. . . I don't like it."

At first, I wasn't sure what she meant, until it clicked. For the first time since we met, we didn't share a power. I knew I had limited slots, and that I probably should shepherd them carefully, but screw it. My main identity used Bug-control, so it would be really suspicious if I suddenly couldn't, _is what I told myself._ Truth be told I missed the connection, and the honesty it brought, as, while you could not share emotions over it, you couldn't _fake_ the emotions that could be shared with that power.

Slotting Arthropod Control, I was glad I wasn't standing as the senses of every single insect in range flooded my senses, the touch, taste, sound, and sight from thousands of separate sources overwhelming me. As I shook, I could _feel_ Taylor as well, the worry, the fear, the insecurity the sense of _loss-averted_ mixing with _future-loss_ , and she helped center me, her presence pulling my mind to the surface and blocking out the flood of data.

As I focused on her, unable to control what I sent, she stiffened, before the tension flooded out of her and she nearly melted in my arms. Pulling her onto the medical bed with me, we sat there, holding onto each other, stabilizing each other. I hadn't realized just how _hurt_ she was, even with me trying to help, possibly _because_ I was trying to help.

Even as I thought that, I could feel _denial-assistance-appreciation,_ in a way words couldn't quite describe. We both sat, not moving, for I don't know how long. It was only the growling of my stomach, like a feral wolf, that shocked me out of that state, somewhere between meditation and a cat's blissful contentment.

Pulling back, I pushed the power down. I wasn't able to turn it off, but I could retreat from it, giving it less to work with. We both gave out matching sighs, and I let go of Taylor. "So. . . Right. . . That happened," I said, trying to fill the suddenly awkward space with words, before groaning as I realized how little of my training was applicable now. Would my other powers, the ones I'd used previously, be this wonky, and affect me this deeply not that I wasn't in a fight-for-your-life scenario? Would other powers add more and more senses, limiting what I could use, without me knowing if that was going to happen _until_ I locked it into an empty slot? I'd just started to get a figure out these damn things, and now everything was _different._

"What? I'm sorry!" she replied, sounding hurt as she let go of me.

I was tempted to use the power we shared once more, to _show_ her that it wasn't her fault, but _whatever_ the hell had just happened was seriously _not normal_ and something I'd need to figure out, and I wasn't even sure if the desire to use the power that way was even a thought of _mine,_ or the _power's,_ like when I'd tried to use Trickster's and started to objectify everything, including other people. This was going to take _so much work._ "No," I told her, with a bit more command then I'd meant in my tone. "Don't be. Powers change and evolve, something just happened but whatever it was _wasn't your fault._ Damn, and I'd just started to get a handle on this stuff too. _Fucking Eidolon_."

My stomach growled again. "I don't see a feeding tube, so that means I haven't eaten anything in. . . what day is it?"

"Wednesday?" she said, not really sure of the answer. She slipped her phone out of her jacket pocket and checked. "Yeah, Wednesday the eighteenth. Um, it's six thirteen. A.M.," she added.

"So, it's been almost three days , and I'm _starving._ Let's go get something to eat, okay?" She nodded, not moving. "That means you need to get off my bed so _I_ can get up," I prodded.

She leapt up off the bed, blushing bright red. _Teenagers,_ I thought, smiling as I got up as well. "Let's go fly the flag and get a damage report. Nothing's supposed to happen for a few weeks, but we should make plans as soon as we can, and that requires understanding _exactly_ what's going on."

* * *

"What?" I asked, not sure I'd heard correctly.

"City's gone," Herb shrugged.

"But, I, it, what do you mean _gone?_ Yeah it was messed up, but unless some _serious_ bullshit went down after I got knocked out then most of it's intact!" I argued. Taylor and I had walked to the cafeteria we'd been using before the fight, where my teammate had been making dinner. He'd been happy to see us, but he'd said that he wouldn't tell me what was going on until he'd finished making breakfast, so everyone could be there. 'Everyone' was Herb and I, Taylor, the Dallon sisters, Dean, Kayden, Theo, Robin, Raida (Previously Rune, who's real name was apparently Ester), Hedera, Missy, and Dinah.

Amy had looked at my right arm in disbelief when she'd walked in, seeing the sleeve and glove I'd turned my costume into in order to cover the shifting metal prosthetic, giving it the appearance of a living limb, and marched right up to me. Without asking she grabbed my real, exposed hand and focused, her power working on me as she did a diagnostic scan. Grumbling, she let it go, taking a seat to my left, Taylor already sitting to my right. The others had drifted in, looking at me in a mix of confusion, worry, and maybe awe. I didn't like any of it.

"Too much shit broke," Herb explained, not saying anything more than that.

I sighed, putting down my fork as I pinched the bridge of my nose with my fake hand. It lacked a bit of the effect, the metal limb only giving me the barest of feelings of touch, but it still helped calm my thoughts. "Okay, and as _I_ said, it didn't _look_ that bad. Obviously, I'm missing something here. What am I missing?"

"Powers," Missy shrugged, next to Dean, Vicky on his other side. "There's all kinds of weird stuff. Fires that won't go out, a street that's all warped, one place doesn't have _gravity_. Even the wall I made is still there, kinda. It's not as big, but it's still keeping the bay dry."

I checked, and yes, I was still powering it. Dropping it all at once might be bad, so I put lowering it slowly over time as it 'ran out of energy' on my to-do list, but if there was anyone below the waterline, they'd need warning to get out. "Okay, fine, so it needs some work, but you can't just go 'Hey, not a thing anymore', it's an entire _city._ "

Now everyone was staring at me. Shit. What'd I say?

"Um, V-man? It totes is. Like, they taught us that in civics," Vicky said, most of the teens nodding, as well as Kayden. "How do you not know that?"

"His school didn't have civics," Herb told them, covering for me. He wasn't wrong either, my high school _didn't_ , but this seemed like one of those 'universal societal knowledge' things I'd been avoiding, mostly by not talking to a lot of different people. Probably not the best strategy, but it'd worked so far. "'Casionally he doesn't know somethin' like that," he added, "but he knows so much other random stuff it kinda works out."

"How do you know what you don't know?" I shrugged, not _technically_ lying. "It hasn't come up before. So, right, _shit_. What does that _mean?_ " I asked Victoria, who seemed to be the expert on this.

Dean answered instead, "It was an Endbringer attack, so the survivors are given money to relocate. Usually there aren't as many if the attack zone is that bad, but that's not a bad thing. If people can, they are brought in to get their stuff and get out."

"If they can?" I echoed.

Missy answered me with one word: "Madison."

 _Ah, right,_ I thought nodding. If the entire area was quarantined because of Ziz bombs, then no one was allowed inside, and only those that'd escaped the city early in the attack would be re-settled.

"They're still finding safe areas," Dean said, picking up his explanation. "And the city government hasn't been dissolved yet, but it will be, then it will be state-owned land. They're still helping the survivors get back on their feet." He nodded to Amy and Taylor, "Without those two, there'd be a lot more crippled than there have been. Including me."

"That bad?" I asked, and he nodded solemnly. Vicky wasn't subtle about reaching over and taking his hand, but I didn't really blame her. "What's going to happen to the PRT office?"

"Transfers," Dean shrugged. "I've requested Boston, but I'll find out at the end of the week."

"Me too," Missy added.

 _It's too much. We've changed too much,_ I thought. "And the Slaughterhouse Nine?" I asked.

"Seattle," Herb replied. "Did they?"

"No," I replied. "At least, I don't think so."

"Did they what?" Vicky asked.

I cocked an eyebrow towards Herb, writing 'Should I tell them about our vision of the future?' in the air behind me. His eyes glimmered for a second as he borrowed my Power Sight to read it, nodding. "Right, so, about that. There's the short version and the long version. Short version is that, 'bout a month ago, Break and I managed to get ourselves a precognitive glimpse into what was going to happen here for the next few months, and then _everywhere_ in two years. No, we can't get another, and here's the kicker: It was what would happen _if we did nothing._ Given that would mean bad things for pretty much every single person at this table, we decided that playing the long game, making no ripples until we were ready to come in at the very end and make sure the good guys won that way was _not_ an option."

"We knew an Endbringer was going to attack Brockton Bay, though we weren't sure if it was going to be the _same_ Endbringer. Sure as fuck didn't expect _two,_ " I added. "What happened to Ziz at the end?"

"She. . . left," Taylor said. "Didn't even scream."

I nodded at that, "So she _was_ just observing. _Good._ Well, not _good_ , but better than the alternative. Anyways, we tried to tamp things down, make things bearable in ways that wouldn't butterfly too much with. . . _limited_ success."

Herb snorted, and I shot him a hard look. "Listen, we didn't bomb Max and Kenta in their offices, despite what they've done. _I_ consider that keeping things subtle."

"Kenta?" Amy asked.

"Lung," I replied. "So, the way things were _supposed_ to go was that Levi shows up, sandbags like normal, kills about a hundred fighters in the normal proportions, and _leaves._ City's got a ton of flood damage from low-level tidal waves, but nothing too bad. Money is allocated from the relief fund to rebuild, gets caught up in the Bay's corruption, only the downtown area is rebuilt as villains take over everywhere else like warlords because they're _actually_ helping when no-one else is. New Wave are useless, but they've lost Manpower, Shielder, and Flashbang has brain damage, while things are further deteriorating between Amy & Carol so I can't exactly _blame_ them, especially since _their_ area of town is getting rebuilt so they might not notice the problems everywhere else. Um," I looked over to Vicky. "Did they. . . are they. . .?"

"Everyone made it," Vicky nodded. "Crystal got hurt bad, but Ames patched her up."

I sighed in relief. "Good. There were only so many things and I could do, and I'm glad they made it. Right, so, where was I? Right, despite the Villains taking over, things are, were, would be looking up, which is when the _Slaughterhouse Nine_ arrive. Thing is, I don't think they will this time, because there's no longer a city _to_ terrorize, and I don't know if they hit Seattle before, since the vision was hyper-focused on _this_ city."

"But that's a good thing, right?" Dinah asked, looking around the table. "Right?"

She looked so innocent, I wanted to send her away, but knowing this wouldn't hurt, and might even help. Kayden beat me to answering, shaking her head. "No honey, it means they don't know what's going to happen next."

I nodded, "We've still got a precog that might send us a warning, but yeah, that's the problem. We could _take_ the S9, but now I don't know what's going to happen. Will the Fallen and the Teeth show up? Accord won't, probably, or maybe he will. Maybe some other group I've never heard of will decide this is a prime time to move in, _I don't know._ "

"I, I could help," Dinah offered, and I winced. "Not a lot," she proposed. "Just a question or two a day."

"We'll see," I told her kindly, "But you're not to hurt yourself with your power, okay?" The young girl nodded, and I still felt like a monster for asking her to hurt herself to help me. I knew she'd do it even if I asked her not to, powers, especially Natural Triggers, pushed their Hosts to use them, but that didn't make me feel any better, so I turned back to the topic at hand. "Right, so, yeah. That happens, bad times all round, then there's a Broken Trigger, one of the _bad_ ones, and that makes things even worse, and that's about it as far as we know. Coil tries to take over the city, installing a puppet Mayor with the help of the Travelers, but no city, no mayor," I shrugged weakly.

"Broken Trigger?" Dean asked. "What's that?"

"Someone's power doesn't align correctly. They're not really that common until after- until what'll happen in two years," I explained, "and there's an organization which helps take care of them before they get _really_ bad, but for some reason they missed this one. Sometimes it means their power's just weaker than normal, sometimes their power's effects are erratic, sometimes it kills them because the necessary secondary powers aren't there, and sometimes, sometimes the power goes _wrong._ Echidna's the last one."

"Mother of monsters?" Taylor asked.

Herb nodded seriously, "Giant monster things instead of legs. Really bad."

"Twenty feet high, thirty feet across, looks a bit like Scylla, everything below her waist is monstrous," I agreed. "Any cape she touches, she knocks out and spawns a doppelganger of, in pretty much _every_ sense of the word. One of yours controlled rats instead of insects," I told Taylor. "They're all insane, and. . . yeah. The parahumans with useful powers Echidna finds she pulls inside herself and. . . it's bad," I explained. "She used to be one of the Travelers, and they're trying to get her help, only they went to Coil, who has no intention of losing a potential asset or wasting resources in what he thinks is an impossible task, and they run out of time. If I knew where she was, I'd see if we could help unfuck her powers, and if not, I'd kill her. It'd be a mercy. After that Behemoth attacks India, dies, and then nothing really happened in the vision until two years later. And that. . . that's something will deal with later."

I looked around at everyone, all of them staring at me and Herb. "So, right, Slaughterhouse Nine. If they kept their roster from the vision, we can take them fairly easily. Siberian's tricky, but that's because her power's esoteric, and once you know her secret she's easy to get rid of. Panacea's a hard-counter for Bonesaw, Break for Crawler, literally _half_ of you for Mannequin, myself for Shatterbird, Dean for Cherish, either Herb or I for Burnscar, I shot Oni Lee through his shard so Bonesaw can't combine him with Hatchetface to make. . . I forget its name, and Mouse Protector's in our medical Bay so Murder Rat isn't being made either," I rattled off. "What?"

"You know the Slaughterhouse Nine's current roster?" Dean asked carefully.

"In a timeline that's looking increasingly likely not to happen, yeah," I replied.

Vicky spoke up while Dean processed that statement, though why that confused him I wasn't sure. "What about Jack Slash?"

"Eh, so, either I could, or we just give the PRT a chance to actually be useful. His Trump/Thinker ability's a _bitch_ to deal with and may or may not work on me," I hedged.

Dean stared at me, "His what."

"He can read the. . . not really minds, he can read people's powers to know what they're going to do. It's how he managed to keep that ever-revolving batch of murder-hobos cohesive. Some rando with a shotgun kills him in a year and a half-ish in the ruins of an Endbringer attack, but since they always send, or at least tell their plans to, heroes, he always knows they're coming," I explained.

"Any other bombs you want to drop?" laughed Herb, shaking his head.

I shot him an accusatory look. "It's no longer information that their actions will invalidate, and you agreed to tell them!" I pointed out. He just nodded in a 'you're right' way but didn't say anything. "Right, so, that's what _would've_ happened, except now Brockton Bay isn't going to exist, so all of that goes _right_ out the window. I've got all sorts of plans, contingency plans, tactics, and ideas that don't work anymore, because they all had 'Brockton Bay is a place that exists' as a key component, because I wasn't aware that was something that could _change._ "

"So, you're saying you don't have any plans?" my teammate pressed.

"None _right this moment,_ give me an hour or two to do some research and I'll get some basic ideas. Hell, I need to start looking over the fatalities to see who we could work with," I replied. "I've got some long-term stuff, but I know me, you, and the _world_ too well to plan _those_ in detail."

He grinned, "Good."

I stared at him. "Okay, either you're going to explain that, or my only response to that sort of ice cream koan, 'tis better to have no plan than a flawed one' bullshit will be to tell you to fuck _right_ the hell off with that crap."

"I got a plan," he said placatingly, making 'settle down' gestures. "It's really simple. Makes sense you wouldn't see it, 'cause you like to overcomplicate things."

"I believe I like to make things clear, logical, and exactly as detailed as they're required," I shot back, a little defensively, "but go ahead and tell us what this 'simple yet effective' plan of yours is, oh great master of wisdom."

Herb grinned broadly, "We buy the city."


	140. Revision 13-2

**Revision 13.2**

"I'm gonna need you to repeat that, because there's no way you said what I thought you just said," I told Herb, staring at him in disbelief.

"We. Buy. The city," he repeated, smiling.

"Okay, you _did_ say what I thought you said," I nodded. "Fucking _how?_ "

"Shouldn't be that much," he added. I just stared at him, not taking the bait. His smile dimmed slightly when he realized he'd actually have to _explain_ his bullshit, but he got to it. "Okay, Look. If you look at the way the city is right now, it's a fuckin' trash-hole. But it's not just _any_ trash-hole. It's got powers goin' off all over the place, it's got situations that are fuckin' unleveled. So, when they get done goin' through it, get done all their excavatin' and explorin' and _whatever_ else they need to do, they're going to condemn the whole damn thing, and we're not going to be the only ones that are gonna want to buy this shit, but, we can buy it cheap."

"Okay," I stated, trying to process that, "if it's _that_ fucked up, then who would want to buy it?"

"Ah," he nodded. "Anyone who thinks they can do something with it. Like us."

" _Okay_ ," I repeated, "but who _else_ would want to buy it, other than, apparently, _us?_ "

He shrugged. "Eh, entrepreneurs of some type," he hedged, _not actually answering my question in the slightest_ , "building contractors, you know." I quite obviously _didn't_ and stared at him, waiting for him to give me some _actual information._ "People who would want to build around anomalies and stuff."

"Okay," I said for a third time, starting to get a nugget of what he was actually referring to as he _wouldn't just come out and say it like a normal person._ Did he mean people finding what use they could of the land while putting up fences around the dangerous areas? Did he mean isolating them for scientific study? Herb was good for off-the-wall ideas, if only he didn't package them with off-the-wall _explanations._ "How cheap are we talkin' about here?" I asked. "I haven't looked that much into real estate, but even when I was just looking at maybe picking up the area around the upper base it was _really freaking god-damned expensive,_ and we do not have that kind of fucking money. Hell, even the one that you can get if you pay the back-taxes are out of our current cash reserves."

The others at the table watched us go back and forth like they were at a tennis match. Kayden was glaring at whoever swore last, and looked like she might've wanted to cover Dinah's or Missy's ears. Considering one was kidnapped and drugged by a complete sadist, and the other tangled with Hookwolf and sew herself up because she didn't want to look weak by asking for help, I didn't really see the point.

"Who ya gonna pay the taxes to? City's gone, records probably are too," he parried. "As for the rest, if you add in the water that seems to be everywhere-"

"Beachfront or flooding?" I clarified.

"Flooding. That and the fact that there isn't a building that's serviceable," he stated. I waved around us. "A building that anybody knows enough," he corrected, and I nodded, as secret bases logically wouldn't be reflected in property values. "Add in that any building's gonna need some serious demo, and we could get it for a million or two."

I looked at him incredulously. "I'm tryin' to track this, because that doesn't seem right. So the city's not a city anymore 'cause no one can live here anymore."

"Right," Herb nodded.

"But people will still want to buy it," I continued. "But even then, that seems, well, kind of _stupid_ cheap for a _city._ "

"But it ain't a city," he pointed out. "Consider it basic land. It's not a city anymore. No people, no power, no water, it's just land. Not even that, it's disturbed land. It's. . . how do I put it?" he asked, trailing off.

"Toxic?" Taylor asked.

He nodded, and I could see where this was going. "With all the building materials, and exposed, well, _everything,_ then it's less a city and more a really chaotic dump site. God knows that this place probably has exposed asbestos."

"It does," Gallant piped up, everyone turning to look at him. "Part of Wards training is knowing about environmental hazards," he explained, Vicky nodding in agreement.

"That's. . . unexpectedly smart. If you've still got the study materials could you send them my way?" I asked him. "I haven't got a ton of time, but that seems like something that'd be good to know." Gallant looked surprised, but nodded, and I turned back to address Herb. "Okay, so, that would _help_ , but that still seems _really_ cheap."

"Think of this," my teammate proposed. "You want to buy land in Chernobyl? It'd be wicked cheap. Only it's not radiation, it's powers, which is better, when it's not worse."

I nodded, seeing his point as _everyone_ _else_ was now looking _incredibly_ confused. "Charnobil?" Amy asked, obviously having no idea what we were talking about.

Herb ignored them, continuing now that he saw that I understood his point, "Exactly, instead of just givin' you cancer, they're _tourist attractions._ "

I was silent for a moment, having another 'you can't just have said what I thought you just said' moment. _"_ To-Tou _-Tourist attractions,_ " I stuttered, trying to understand how we went from _radioactive hellscape_ to _Disneyland._

"Yeah," he agreed, as if this was the obvious conclusion to a dangerous, power-ridden, ruined city. "We find all the hidden little traps and things; we build a little tourist attractions around 'em, so they can see 'em and don't run into them; and we make bank."

"I. . . I was thinking about rebuilding housing, bringing back a manufacturing base, things like that but. . . _tourists?_ " I asked skeptically.

He gave me a wise looking nod, "We're gonna have to make money. More than that, we're gonna have to have people have a reason to come and want to have a business here."

"That, it, oh god," I sighed, trying to figure out how 'see the mysterious flaming house' would bring in more people than a steady job, a secure home, and a good community. "If this is such a draw, wouldn't it make the land _more_ expensive to buy, not less?"

"No, because no one's thinking the way that I'm thinking. Maybe one or two, but that's all," he stated authoritarily.

Without really meaning to, I quipped snarkily, "I will agree that most people do not think like you do, yes." From his expression, he knew that I didn't mean that as a positive, but he was happy I agreed with him. "Jesus Christ," I muttered, before looking around the table. "Just how dangerous _is_ it out there? I kinda woke up, like, an hour ago."

"There are certain streets ya just don't step on, there's certain places ya just don't fly over, and there's certain things ya just don't look at," he revealed.

Those assembled nodded in agreement, Missy adding as she pointed west, "To get to the command area, um, near the medical area, we go out and around."

That was. . . _bad,_ and what he'd said, _"Are you saying there's outright **cognitohazards**?_" I demanded.

Herb squinted at me, "Not understanding 'cognitohazard'."

"It hurts the mind to look at, isn't necessarily sight but negatively affects you through a sense, not through contact or any other physical medium," I explained. I'd only heard of them in the most out there and Lovecraftian of fiction but, well, _'Welcome to Worm'._

He nodded cheerfully, happy to have a name for it. "Somethin' like that."

 _"Lovely,"_ I swore.

"And those can still be tourist attractions," he added. "People want to be wigged out, freaked out, or kinda messed with sometimes. People _love_ Ghosthunters."

I waved around us, "We have enough mass death that, if they were real, we'd be getting _actual ghosts! No 'hunters' required!"_

"Exactly!" he grinned. "And what if there is?"

"What, _Ghosts?"_ I asked incredulously. _"That's not a selling point!"_

" _No!_ " he disagreed, still grinning, "If there are ghosts that makes this _so much better!_ We become 'The Haunted City'! You couldn't _stop_ the tourists from coming!"

"Um," Taylor chimed in, "Can we _not_ have my home be 'The Haunted City'? Please?"

"Lady Bug," Herb addressed her, voice full of contrition. "I'm sorry, that was inappropriate." He turned to me, _"Spookytown._ "

"That's _worse!_ " she objected.

"How about, assuming we _do_ buy it, we just call it Brockton Bay?" I suggested. "It'll just be easier."

"Brockton Bay," he nodded in agreement, "the spookiest town in the world."

"Okay, assuming we do this, we'll hire someone to do the advertising. Someone that _isn't you,_ " I clarified before he could volunteer himself. "So it's-"

"Brockton Bay, where powers run wild," he suggested, interrupting me.

"Stop, just please stop," I requested, and he just laughed. "So it would be better to think of it less like a city and more like No-Man's Land from World War One?"

"Something like that," he agreed, "Where people come to see what happened."

"But with active dangers we need to go deal with," I continued, trying to pin down this metaphor, wrapped in an enigma, piled under a thick layer of obfuscating bullshit.

"Not deal with," he disagreed. "Just. . . _encapsulate._ "

I sighed, "I'm talking about understanding the general price instead of any of. . . _that._ "

"Our biggest problem will probably be insurance," he observed, completely ignoring what I just said.

"Yeah, prob-that doesn't matter right now," I told him. "Alright, so, ignoring the entire 'Amusement park, tourist trap, _thing_ ', then okay, _fine,_ that's. . . _an_ option, but even then, where are we going to get the money? We're not asking _them_ for a loan, I don't care if Numberman could do it," I stated. "Assuming you're right, which I'll need to check. . . I don't think it's gonna be a million. That seems like an _incredibly_ low amount."

"I'm not thinkin' about that, I'm thinkin' about you," he told me kindly, though some of the effect was lost as I had _no freaking clue what he meant._

"Okay, so that seems _really_ off, so let's ballpark it at, from everything you said, at about _ten_ million?" I suggested, and he just shrugged, like it didn't matter. "Okay, even assuming you're spot on, but even a million dollars is _not_ a small amount of money. I was making good money before, but not _that_ good."

"Ah, but you can make not a small amount of money in metals," he pointed out.

It was an idea I'd had weeks ago, but hadn't gone with for some _very good fucking reasons._ Now though, with everything that had happened, with how bad things had gotten there at the end, with what both Herb and I had had to do just to save everyone, things had changed. The plans were non-viable, and they needed revision so serious they might as well have been scrapped. I had to stop looking at things the way I wanted them to be, and I had to start looking at the situation as it currently _was_.

I grimaced. _Canon's fucked. No ifs ands or buts about it,_ I thought. _The world's already circling the drain, and I don't have to worry about Contessa directly stopping me, so there's no reason **not** to rock the boat. Hell, the Triumvirate wants to talk to me, so I could dust off some shelved ideas._

"See, you got that taken care of. That's why you're the smart guy!" he crowed, getting up and taking his plate to the kitchen. Everyone stared at him as he got up and left, seemingly without a care in the world.

With him gone, the others' attention was now firmly on me. "Seriously?" asked Vicky. "Just like that."

"Lady Bug," I said instead, looking over at her. "You know the thing you told me not to do, that time we hung out at your lair?"

"You have a lair?" Missy asked. "Sorry," she squeaked, as she became the center of attention. "It's just. Villains have lairs."

"That time we hung out at your secret base of hero-ness?" I corrected, rolling my eyes. "How is it, by the way?"

"Still intact. Lost everything on the ground floor, but the Darwin's Bark spiders were fine, as were most of the widows, but, wait," Taylor shook her head, stopping herself from getting sidetracked. "You said that'd crash the economy!"

"I said that would crash the _market,_ " I corrected. "But that's if I was being dumb about it, and that was before _Brockton Bay_ was destroyed. The economic changes from that alone, as well as the things we could do once we start rebuilding, are enough that it'll make the aftereffects and instability, not unnoticeable, but not a big deal."

Taylor looked at me from behind her ladybug patterned domino mask with thoughtful confusion. "But if you're not doing it that way, then. . . the black market?" she asked, disbelievingly.

"Do I seem like someone who knows their way around the black market?" I replied.

"Yeah," Vicky said. I shot her an incredulous look and she just waved around the cafeteria.

"Okay, _fair enough,_ " I gave. "But not the. . . I mean, technically yes, but not really, just one group in particular."

"Toybox?" Taylor asked.

"You want me to make things for Toybox?" Theo said as I started to respond.

"What? Oh, I didn't think about that," I told our resident Tinker. "If you want to, then sure, but I thought you would be against that sort of mercenary work. Though if you wanted to go non-lethal then there's all sorts of stun and ensnarement guns you could probably make. Maybe something that fires something akin to a strong, sticky spider's web that wraps around the target, binding them in place but with strands far enough that you wouldn't accidentally suffocate someone?"

He considered that, "Yeah, I could do that."

"Cool, but, right, no, not the plan. Still doable though, and I'll need to talk to some people to make sure it works, but it's an option. If not, there are others, though the get increacingly. . . _extra-_ legal," I said, mentally listing them off. "Well, okay, not all of them, but the ones that aren't are pretty dangerous, and will get me even _more_ attention."

"Dangerous?" Amy asked, a warning glint in her eye.

I shrugged, "It's why they're not option number one."

 _"How_ Dangerous?" she pressed.

"Not 'kill an Endbringer' dangerous," I hedged.

The healer gave me a sour look, "That's almost _everything._ How dangerous?"

I shrugged, "Take out some people with Kill Orders that deserve it, maybe eliminate Nilbog, hell, I _know_ where the Slaughterhouse Nine currently is." Amy _glared_ at me. "Like I said, not option one. If I went full healing, it'd take _months_ to get that kind of scratch without some _serious_ strings attached. Unless anyone else knows how to make ten mil in ten days?"

"Um, I could find out lottery numbers?" Dinah offered.

"Would that hurt?" I asked the young girl gently. She hesitated, then nodded. "Then no."

Kayden nodded in agreement, telling her, "And it's illegal to use powers to win. They wouldn't let him keep it."

"Oh, okay," the pre-teen precog nodded. "Sorry."

I got up as Kayden reassured the girl it was okay, and I nodded towards the pair. "So, _I_ need to go do some research and make some calls. What's everyone else doing?"

"Healing," Amy said, jerking a thumb towards Taylor, "with her."

"I'm helping with Gallant," Vicky stated, holding her boyfriend's hand.

"Moving people," Missy shrugged. "Not much to do."

"Making that web-gun," Theo said. "How long do I have?"

"As long as it takes," I told him. "We're not working under any immediate time pressures, like those desiccation pistols. Those saved a _lot_ of lives, by the way." The Tinker nodded, looking down and at the remains of his eggs, and I moved on.

Robin just shrugged, so I ignored her, while Dinah happily reported "Schoolwork. Today's Science, Art, and English!"

I wasn't sure _why_ she was so happy to do schoolwork, but it was better than the alternative. "I'm taking care of the girls," Kayden announced. I nodded, as it was something I hadn't really thought of.

Raida, aka Ester, just stared at me. "What?"

I turned to Kayden, "Can you give her some work as well?"

"What, no! I ain't in school, I'm a vil- a cape!" she objected, while Missy gave her a 'are you for real?' look.

"Small mountain community, low priority on education, think inner city ghetto but more outdoors," I told Purity, before addressing the girl who'd been known as Rune less than a month ago. "Without a basic education your options are limited, and those who wanted to _keep_ you dependent on them probably wanted that. I'm not asking for college, but some basic engineering knowledge will _greatly_ expand your capabilities. That requires a basis in math, to figure out how it works; History, to see if someone's created something you can adapt; Science, so you can apply the math in the real world; and English, so you can understand what the other three are saying."

She grumbled inaudibly, before folding her arms. "I guess if it'll make me more badass."

"No swearing," Kayden chided her.

"The fuck? He swears all the time!" the younger girl objected, pointing at me.

I started to say that it wasn't a big deal, but Kayden cut me off. "And when you can make a million dollars in a week, or are an adult, you can swear too," she informed the younger girl. "Now come along, we need to get you started.

"I'll take care of the dishes," I told them, as Kayden got up.

Dinah followed while Ester muttered, "Fine, _mom,_ " and got up as well.

Without looking back, Kayden said, "If I'm your mother, I can give you a spanking if you deserve it. Now come, and don't dawdle."

Ester started moving faster, "Um, yes, Ms. Anders."

After they left, I turned to the last member of our group, "And you, Hedera?"

"Did you really fight Leviathan?" she asked me instead.

"Um, yes?" I replied, wondering why that mattered. "Three, four times, maybe five, depending on how you count it, but that's not important, what are you doing today?"

"Same thing as before, tendin' the gardens," she said. She saw that I had _no_ idea what I was talking about and added, "Hydroponics. I drained 'em when Leviathan attacked, so they were okay, but they still be needin' care."

"Thanks," I told her, "Okay, everyone has their missions, tasks, whatever. Panacea, Lady Bug, I'd like to talk to both of you when you get back. Nothing bad, I'd just like your advice. I'll clean up here, let's get to it!"

* * *

It was four hours later when I leaned back away from the computer I'd grabbed, letting out a deep sigh. This was. . . _bad._ Numbers were still vague, but over four thousand heroes had fought against Leviathan, not the two thousand Legend had announced. Of those, close to three thousand were dead, a casualty rate of about two out of every three. They were still compiling the lists of the dead, and a monument was going to be built in Washington D.C.

There were some civilian deaths, those working at the medical center and the people who wouldn't leave during the evacuation, but it was the parahuman deaths that everyone focused on. More capes had died in that hour than in the last three years of Endbringer Attacks. More than that, there was video of the fight, Uber and L33t at work. It was being scrubbed from PHO, but there was much more to the internet than a single, if well used, message board.

Going through a fraction of the videos was draining, bringing to mind my own clashes with the Endbringer. They'd caught the first clash with Leviathan, but not that last stand with Chubster's group. The end of the third time I fought was caught as well: the Triumvirate, Purity, and I all beating down Levi before he escaped. Worse, the last confrontation had multiple angles, and Herb's transformation into the Leviathan from myth covered beyond a shadow of a doubt.

 ** _FUCK._**

There were all sorts of theories, from the change being a combination of a bunch of powers, to his power exacting a price, his disappearance since that event leading quite a few to assume it might've killed him. Checking what the boards said, there were even more theories, VoidCowboy suggesting he could do it the entire time, but was trying to lay low.

He was soundly mocked, and I had to wonder if that really _was_ Greg, or a Cauldron agent spreading misinformation. It was a basic but sound strategy: If you hide info and try to scrub it, it might work, or it might just draw attention to it, but if you tell the truth from a tainted source, everyone would dismiss it out of hand _because_ of the source.

Regardless, they were right, the city government was going to be dissolved, forms were available to be filled out for property owners, and the entire place was declared a disaster zone. There were maps of the city with areas that were low-danger that you could go to, to try to reclaim your belongings with an armed escort of parahumans, but large portions of the city, including the entirety of downtown, were covered in red.

Offers to go into the red zones were being taken down as soon as they were posted, as the ability for people to prove that the property they were reclaiming was actually _theirs_ was non-existent, and several dozen people had already died due to the hazards already. The number of the dead, along with the lack of ability to get to them, was set to start causing health risks as the bodies, and the biological byproducts of some powers, were beginning to rot and decompose.

Really though, it was the powers that were the problem. With the civilians all gone, and facing the constant, overwhelming threat of instant death, _everyone_ had brought their A-game. Every holdout device, every experimental use of a cape's power, every 'I probably shouldn't use this with innocents nearby' technique had come out and interacted with each other. Several blocks of the city were just _gone,_ the largest grouping of which the perfectly hemispherical crater caused by that chirping darkness that was, from what people had looked up, caused by an extremely constrained, limited, _black hole._

There was precedent, apparently, from previous Endbringer attacks, when the fighting had happened away from civilization. The people who lived nearby were resettled and it was returned to the state government, who cordoned it off. Those had been from Behemoth, who liked to take a radioactive stroll towards his target, not Leviathan or the Simurgh, who just _appeared,_ though with what'd been done for the survivors of Madison, the policy wasn't Behemoth specific. It was just that Leviathan was normally fought off, or there wasn't any land _to_ cordon off.

The news stations were still covering the aftermath, people criticizing or praising President's Gillen's actions in response. Some were complaining the extra spending as there were so many survivors, claiming they should be given a reduced amount since they were never injured; some were complaining that he wasn't going far _enough_ , and that more funds should be allocated since they couldn't return to their homes; and a fair amount were praising his decision.

Biting the bullet, needing to get this over with to continue the planning process, I grabbed a phone and dialed. On the second ring, it was answered.

"Hello Vejovis," Quin Calle said, tone neutral. "How are you?"

"Injured, but getting better," I replied honestly. "Did you get your family out in time?"

Quin sighed, "Yes I did. The entire firm is safe, and now I have my partners asking some rather pointed questions about my vacation."

"Tell 'em your source had questionable information, and when it was confirmed the PRT was informed," I said, shrugging.

"You told. . ." he trailed off.

"Yep, though I'm not sure if that was the best idea, seeing as what happened," I admitted.

There was a pause on the other end. "While more heroes died, the tens of thousands of innocents that might've did not. While not a legal judgement, I believe you made the right call," the lawyer declared. "Now that your survival has been assured, would I be remiss in stating that you wish to continue your relationship with our firm? If so, I humbly request to know where you are relocating to, so that I know where to look for my new residence."

 _Does he mean what I think he means?_ I wondered, but moved on. "I would, and, actually, that's one of _several_ things I want to talk to you about."

"If you're unsure, I have several locations that have a minimal hero presence that you and your team could move to. Some have more criminal elements, some less, depending on your priorities and need to. . . challenge yourself," he informed me, tiptoeing around the combat drive natural triggers had. _Did I talk to him about that?_ I wondered if I'd mentioned it to him or not. I _really_ needed to sit everyone down and hash out the basics of powers, and I should probably make an instructional guide I could hand people. It'd just be easier.

"Ah, yeah, about that," I hedged, trying to figure out how to present Herb's horrible, stupid, ingenious idea. "Current plan is not to move."

Quinn was silent for a moment, "I suppose you might not know, if you have spent the last several days in convalescence, but that is not an option."

I nodded, trying to figure out what my Lawyer's expression was, and wishing I'd gone for a video-call. "So, there are a number of factors that you have not been made aware of, which it's about time for you to be brought in on. More than the ones you already have been made aware of. Honestly, this would best be done with a face to face meeting, how far away from Brockton Bay are you? And have you given my other offer any thought? I don't want an answer yet, but it's something that I'll need a decision on soon."

"I was meeting with the firm in Dover, and can be there in about forty five minutes. Should I inform my wife that I'll be returning home late?" he asked, tone polite.

"Honestly, that'll be your call. Covering the basics shouldn't take more than an hour or two. I'll text you the address, call me when you get there. It's a warehouse just outside of the city, and the disaster zone," I told him. "See you soon."

He hung up, and I felt the entire Masquerade I'd kept up slipping that much more. Part of me wanted to keep the Arcology of Eclipse a secret, a holdout to work out of, but I knew that wasn't workable. It was an asset, one that needed to be used. Walking outside of the office I'd claimed, my footsteps ringing down empty halls, I knew this was a place that wasn't meant to be empty. The more people I brought in, the more likely I'd bring in spies and saboteurs, but it was either keep it safe or not use it at all. I'd looked over the repairs that already needed to be made from what Leviathan had done, only the largest concentrations of water on the top levels effected by the Endbringer's Hydrokinesis, but this entire place needed work.

Once it was up and running, though, we'd have a base equal to that of the Protectorate itself, and with access to options that we _just didn't have_. With a stocked base, we could've figured out Ziz's approach earlier, coordinate the heroes across the city, and fight _together_ instead of as individuals.

I knew I was just as guilty of that as everyone else, not thinking to ask for anyone's help during the fighting. It was just. . . putting myself in the line of fire, in danger, was one thing, putting _others_ in that position was something else entirely. I could do it, _had_ done it, I just didn't _like_ doing it. Then again, with what was coming, I had a feeling there were a _lot_ of things I'd have to do that I wouldn't like.

Flashes of a scared old man's face skirted across my vision, of a hypocritical oath-breaker who I'd been forced to deal with, because all of those whose responsibility it was to handle him refused to. _If this world was a good one, you wouldn't be here._ Pushing that thought, and the memories it rooted itself in, down, I found that I'd made my way back to the medical bay I'd woken up in. Changing the sheets and prepping it for another patient, I moved over to Mouse Protector.

She lay there, peaceful, Panacea having come in and made sure she was okay every day. I considered trying to heal her myself. With my new, enhanced Biokinesis then my 'Get Better' treatment might be enough to wake her up, but then what? Throwing it on the ever-growing stack of things to talk over, along with the sister's place on the Penumbral Defenders and that entire 'Shards come from an Alien that's going to kill us all when it gets bored' thing, I left.

I considered checking in on Kayden and the kids, but the base was too big to pretend I was doing anything _but_ that, and I didn't want to seem like I wasn't trusting her or something. I could say that I didn't think that, but couldn't figure out _how_ to get that across in a way that didn't carry the message that that's _exactly_ what I thought. Stupid subtext.

Instead I moved out, taking the tram out to the warehouse, and looked up fatalities on my phone. Most of the dead I didn't know, while others, like Faker, made me stop for a moment. I knew I could've saved them, if I'd just gone all out from the beginning. I could've gone for larger, more obvious powers. I could've told them to run. I could've done _something_ other than just act like a normal cape and watch them die.

The silver lining to the horizon spanning clouds were the names I _didn't_ see, those I'd remembered saving, or at least helping. Jumper had survived, as had Brigandine and Smackdown, to whom I'd given the titanium spear. Fenja had died, though Menja had survived, and I regret to admit I was relieved when I read Kaiser's name on the list, though Night and Fog were strangely absent. Did Night die, locked in her monstrous form, so someone thought she was a power-created monster? It was likely never registered, so they couldn't check, or her corpse was somewhere deeper in the city, where no-one could find it.

The flies outside saw a black SUV pull up, and I put away my phone, walking out to the doors as Quinn got out. Before he could reach the front door and knock, I opened up one of the garage-style doors and leaned out. "Black windowless van? Subtle."

He looked a little sheepish, straightening with a slight smile. "It's a rental. Would you really want me to drive _my_ car to your secret base?"

Shaking my head, I motioned him to drive the car inside. "So, this is my secret base."

He did so, looking around as he got out again. "I assumed that's why you weren't moving, but I appear to be in error. Unless you are fan of 'abandoned office chic'."

"Zilla, open up the doors. We've got a guest." I said into the air, the floor of the loading area at the back dropping half an inch and railing extending up around it.

"An underground base?" Quinn asked, eyebrows raised. "Those are rare, _and_ expensive. If you have a few sub-levels I can see why you're loathe to leave them, though might I suggest moving and keeping this as a fallback location? Tactics are not my specialty but having a more public presence elsewhere would hide this location even further."

Walking over to the elevator, the lawyer following, I called over my shoulder, "A few sub-levels? Yeah, you could say that."


	141. Revision 13-3

**Revision 13.3**

It was amusing to watch Quinn Calle's expression as the elevator finished its downward decent, revealing the tram and the long, darkened, underground tunnel to Eclipse base. I could see down the passage, my enhanced eyes piercing the darkness, but the lights were only active around the tram area, and a hundred feet after that. To most, the rest of the tunnel was wreathed in shadow before seeming to disappear into a black abyss.

Quinn turned to look at me, saw my smile, and dryly observed, "Your base _is_ in Brockton Bay, isn't it." I nodded. "And it survived?"

I shrugged, "Minimal damage, most of it's already repaired. Come on, you'll need to see this to believe it."

The lawyer didn't say anything, just followed me onto the tram and took a seat as it smoothly started to move, speeding off towards the darkness. The lights in front of us turned on as the lights behind us turned off, keeping the tram lit and leaving the loading dock a shrnking island of illumination in the darkness, the elevator returning to the seemingly abandoned warehouse once more. Now that we weren't on our way to go fight Nazis, I appreciated the effect, even if it was partially lost on me.

Quinn remained silent as our destination, a small, distant light, slowly grew in size as the tram slowed. As the platform stopped, the safety rail dropped, and we stood, he looked at me, his expression carefully neutral, "Downtown?"

"Railyard," I countered, watching him process that.

"You're the one who's been causing disturbances there?"

I shrugged, walking towards the door. "Needed to train, myself and others, and needed to do it away from prying eyes. I'll never officially admit to it, but yeah. That's not important though, _this_ is." The smaller set of doors I approached opened up automatically, and we entered the base proper.

"It's a hallway," the lawyer observed.

In retrospect I should've held that line into reserve until I had an _actually_ impressive vista. "Zilla, path to the atrium, please," I requested, a blue line on the floor lighting up. Quinn shot it, and me, and inquisitive look, but I refused to say anything. I knew I was channeling Herb, but I wasn't sure he was going to believe me even if I warned him.

We walked through several identical hallways, passing by door after door. After the fourth turn, Quinn stopped and looked at me in disbelief, and I gestured for him to keep going. Several more turns, and we were at the balcony, looking out across the cavern into which the base was built, one of the over hundred layers of which that lined the atrium's walls.

Quinn hesitated. Slowly moving up to the railing, waving a hand over it. It took me a moment to realize he was checking to see if it was an image on a screen. Stepping up next to him as he gazed down at Eclipse, I noticed that the submarine was wrecked. What was left of it was in a pile at the bottom of its docking bay, but as I looked over the base for the first time since the fight, everything else _seemed_ intact.

Quinn turned to me, started to say something, stopped, and looked back out at over the base. It was quite nice, the central elevator up to the railyard base giving the appearance of a crystal stalactite that was visible from everywhere in the cavern, casting a day-like glow over everything. After two more attempts to verbalize his reaction, he finally succeeded, tone strangled with disbelief. _"How?"_

"You're gonna need to be a bit more specific," I teased, smiling. "Come on, let's go get you a coffee. You want to walk, or talk the shortcut?""

"Shortcut?" he asked, and I offered him my hand. He took it, hesitantly, and I lifted us both up and over the balcony weightlessly, dropping down several levels and across to another balcony, making sure his footing was secure before letting go. From there, Quinn taking a few shaky steps before his gait smoothed back out, we headed towards the offices, and the coffee shop Amy had requested I get functioning the week before. I'd done so on the condition that she continue training with her Biokinesis in small ways that wouldn't require oversight, and after telling me that she wouldn't give in to extortion, she agreed. Making him a cappuccino, and one for myself, I brought him to the meeting room I'd un-mothballed and sat him down.

He sipped his drink, holding it tightly, and consumed most of it before relinquished the familiar beverage and stared at me intently. "Where did this come from?"

"I bought it from Cauldron," I replied, seeing no need to lie to my lawyer. "Break and I just finished paying it off when Leviathan attacked, so you can see why I didn't want to leave it behind."

"I've lived here for most of my life, but I've never even heard of this. What it would take to build. . ." he trailed off shaking his head. "I would _prefer_ to say this is impossible, but that is obviously not the case. You have a _tank._ "

"It came with the place. Was a surprise to us as well. As to how it was built, powers?" I shrugged. "We're still figuring out what's here, though the V.I. helps."

" ** _V_** _._ I.?" he asked. "Not **_A_**. I.?"

"Zilla, introduce yourself, to Quinn Cale, and grant him first level security access," I instructed.

"Hello Quinn Calle," the base replied through the speakers in the table. "I am the Virtual Intelligence for Eclipse, designation, 'Zilla'. I look forward to working with you in the future."

"That sounds like an A.I.," the lawyer said warily.

"I am not an Artificial Intelligence, but a Virtual Intelligence. All of my responses are pre-programmed through decision algorithms, including this one. Most queries fall into pre-determined patterns, and do not require a capacity to synthesize new data to respond," the base countered.

I waved a negating hand before he could argue further, which it seemed like he was about to do. "Either she's _really_ an A.I., in which case arguing with her won't work as she'll pretend to be a V.I., or she's just a V.I., so proving she's an A.I. is impossible. Besides, I've met an A.I., and she's not so bad. Poor taste in men, but a good person at heart. That isn't what I wanted to discuss with you anyways. You just needed to know about Eclipse to understand why what I'm going to suggest _isn't_ completely insane."

Quinn picked up his cup and slowly drained it, before putting it down and motioning for me to continue.

"What Break has proposed, and I agree with, is that we, and by we I mean that either the Penumbral Defenders or the two of us personally," I hedged, "purchase the city of Brockton Bay."

The Lawyer looked at his cup, as if hoping he hadn't finished it off, and turned back to me with a somewhat pained expression. "Well, you are correct, that does sound completely insane. However, today seems to be a day for insanity. How do you plan to do that, or is my task to make that preposterous proposal a reality?"

* * *

Three hours, two more cups of coffee, and a good deal of research later, Quinn sat back in his chair and sighed, running a hand through already mussed hair. "All right, it isn't insane. I'll need to talk to people, a _lot_ of people, and do so very discreetly, but this _is_ possible, assuming you have the fifteen million needed. If you only want the high-danger zones, it would be a fraction of that, but for the city and the surrounding area, including where your warehouse entrance was located, it will likely be in that ballpark. It won't be soon either. To avoid attention I'll have to talk to Eddie and Susan to manage the shell companies. As I keep saying, _not my field of expertise._ But," he said, holding up a forestalling hand, "it _will_ be possible, assuming you can secure the capital. While your partnership with my firm is lucrative, Lee, it is not _that_ lucrative," he pointed out. After the tenth time he'd called me Vejovis, I'd told him my real name, and that if he was going to be working with me this closely, he might as well know who he was working with, not that it really meant anything, given my identification was all fake. He'd accepted it with a nod after he made sure I realized that I didn't _need_ to tell him, and we'd moved on.

"Right, about that," I said. "So, here's the _second_ thing I wanted to talk to you about."

He eyed his half full coffee, but he turned his attention back to me. "Go on."

"How would I go about contacting Toybox with an offer?" I asked.

"Arachne Assemblages wishes to do business with them?" he guessed, and I nodded. "Legally speaking, I must advise against doing so, as they are considered a villainous organization for their refusal to pay taxes on the sales of their devices." He let the statement hang for a few seconds. "When would you like to meet, and with what offers?"

I smiled, glad he could cover this, and I _wouldn't_ just be fumbling in the dark, _like usual_. "We have a Tinker specializing in firearms who's creating a web-gun they might be interested in. For moral reasons, he refuses to make anything that's easily lethal, and I can't say I blame him. But the majority of what we wish to offer. . . do you have any coins I could have?" I requested.

Quinn gave me a flat look, then reached into a pocket and pulled out a wallet. Fishing out a nickel, he tossed it to me, watching it carefully. I laid it down on the table and forced a rod of solid gold to grow from it, the ripples that ran along the coin, making it jump back and forth. I extended it until it was four inches long before narrowing it down to a wire and snapping it off. Pocketing the coin, I rolled the rod back to him. "I believe this is a suitable trade."

Moving carefully, as if it were a snake that might unexpectedly bite him, he picked up the solid bar of metal, looking it over, before finally sniffing it. "This can't be what I think it is."

"If you think it's pure gold, then yes it can. Alloys are a bit harder to make, and rare earth metals are somewhere in between. Quantity is not an issue, and they are permanent creations, not energy constructs _pretending_ to be metal," I explained.

"Rare earth," he echoed, nodding his head. "So, if I wanted something like a metric ton of Neodymium you'd say?"

"Where and I'll have it for you in ten minutes, maybe twenty," I replied.

He just stared at me. "No, _you will not_. You _will_ say, 'Contact my lawyers, and _if_ they agree you'll have it in several days, maybe more,'" he instructed, giving me a hard look, waiting until I nodded before putting the rod down, leaning back and running a hand through his hair. " _Jesus_. If you could do this before, why did you bother to heal people? The amount of capitol that you can create ex nihilo is. . . _staggering._ "

It was my turn to stare. "Because I was being subtle, didn't need the money, and I like healing people? This is the kind of thing that would get a bunch of less than moral people _very_ interested in me, and lead to the corrupt elements in government seeking to find a way to get what they honestly believe is their cut and/or create laws _specifically_ to screw me over. I'm well aware that, with this, I'm what others were _afraid_ of The Elite being, though their own actions led that to becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy."

"I think this place might've been created by them," I added, motioning around. "They have a member who can create buildings out of nothing, growing them from a crystalline seed, and the longer she works the larger and more complex the building becomes. She can make a castle out of a fantasy novel in a few days, what would happen if she spent a few weeks working on something?"

"The more you talk, the more I wonder what happened to you," he stated, almost without meaning to. He shook his head, "Sorry, that was uncalled for. Today has _not_ gone like I'd expected, and the loss of my hometown has not helped matters. Regardless, we were talking about you and your plans. From your statement, should I be led to believe that there might be other hidden bases throughout the country?" Quinn asked.

"There's at least one more in Brockton Bay," I agreed. "My brother owns it."

My lawyer laughed, shaking his head. "Ah, yes, of course. How thoughtless of me to assume there was only a _single_ secret subterranean base built in the city I've always lived in but never heard even a hint about. Is this the one underneath the Forsberg Gallery?" he asked, more sarcastically than he really needed to.

I shook my head, "No, that one's Coil's, though it's actually down the street from there, and I _think_ he abandoned it when I found it and saved the preteen precog he'd imprisoned and drugged there. Haven't checked lately, it's been kind of a low priority what with Leviathan's imminent arrival. Æonic's base is under the Unitarian church on Captain's hill."

He nodded understandingly, got up, and walked out of the room. I followed, not saying anything, as he proceeded to the small café, walked behind the counter, searched the cabinets, and pulled out a bottle of Irish cream I'd stocked. He put it down, hesitated, pulled out his phone, and looked down at it thoughtfully, before dialing. "Hi honey," he said to the person on the other end. "I'm going to be late, one of my clients is doing something. . . odd again. Yes, that one. Yes. No. Tell them I love them. Thank you. Yes, it will be worth it. See you tomorrow. Love you."

He hung up, then made himself a drink, walking back to the office without saying a word to me. We sat back down, and he took a long sip. "So, your brother is the villain who saved the mayor's life, can stop time, and has moved in to fill the space the ABB left but seems to have committed no actionable crimes. This shouldn't surprise me, yet it does. Does he have a similar skill, like the ability to pull diamonds out of water, or create drugs from dirt?"

I thought about it, causing Quinn to laugh helplessly, sigh, and take another sip. "No," I told him, not mentioning some things that might be possible if his stopped time worked like I thought it might, "though he does have four Tinkers."

 _"Four,_ " he asked, and I nodded. "Do you know how _rare_ that is?"

"Not really, no," I replied.

He sighed, "And do they wish to join you on this venture?"

I _hadn't_ actually thought of that. "Zilla, please call Æonic."

A ringing sound emanated from the table, Quinn sipping his drink, before my brother's faux-formal voice stated, "Hello Vejovis, I was wondering when you'd contact me once again."

"In front of the minions, Chuckles?" I teased.

"Your powers of observation seem to not have deteriorated, but I find myself wondering the reason you have asked for my _time_. Surely not to waste it, as some of your ilk seem inclined to do," he replied.

"Heroes givin' ya trouble?" I asked.

He gave an aggravated sigh, "They are not capable of _troubling_ me, only that they get underfoot and stop those who _can_ help from doing so."

I didn't really know what he was referring to, but that wasn't why I called. "I'm looking into doing some business with Toybox, a group of mercenary Tinkers. Anything your people whipped up that you want to sell for some extra funds, or should I just send you a copy of their catalogue?"

"Send me their offerings, and I shall see if there is a _demand_ I may deign to _supply_. My time, as well as those of my people, is precious, and not to be wasted on cheap trivialities," he sniffed.

Rolling my eyes, I smiled, "Sure bro, glad you're okay. All of my team survived, and I hope yours did to."

"Your concern is touching, but unnecessary. Other than a flooded basement, my people proved themselves more than enough to overcome the dangers of what little dampness inconvenienced us," he admitted. "Until you require my services once again, good day," he said, hanging up.

Quinn sipped his drink, looking at me inquisitively. "Base flooded a bit, dealt with some Levi Clones, no-one died. So, yeah, four Tinkers, but he doesn't want to commit to anything until he sees the prices," I explained.

"I got the last bit," he agreed, expression turning pensive. "I am either going to make _so_ much money I'll scarcely know what to do with it, or I'm going to die. Well Quinn, you didn't choose parahuman law because it was _boring._ "

"Um, you want some time?" I asked, realizing I might've pushed him a bit too hard, too fast.

He shook his head. "No, I've made my decision. This just. . . This cements it. You wanted me to join? I'm in. I'm not sure why you wanted _me,_ but I'm in. You mentioned getting powers?"

"If you don't want them, you don't _have_ to get them," I said. "And if you want more time-"

" ** _No_** ," he interrupted, voice strong. "I've made my decision, waiting will just make everything harder."

I nodded, getting up, "Fair enough. Let's get that taken care of then."

He followed me to the medical bay, and the Cauldron Vial I'd retrieved. Directing him to lay down in the bed, he accepted the vial, and shook his head. "This smells absolutely _vile_. I suppose if you wanted to poison me, you would've done so earlier. "

"Just drink _all_ of it, or _very_ bad things will happen," I instructed. He nodded, downing the entire thing, face screwing up in disgust. Stiffening, his body shifted, flickering and distorting like a television with a bad signal, before he disappeared, like he was never there, taking the empty vial with him.

There was silence in the bay, the only sound the distant beeping of Mouse Protector's vitals. _Oh shit, did I kill him?_ The way the CYOA was written, it should've worked no problem, but if it worked like a _normal_ vial then there was always a chance something could have happened, but. . . _Oh, oh **no.** _I hadn't thought of it, but did the drink he'd had mess things up? Cauldron had their recipients take their powers while stone-cold sober. Had that messed things up?

 _Fuck, he trusted me, and I killed him. Oh god, what have I done? What am I gonna tell his wif-_

"I'll admit it. This is, without a doubt, the oddest day of my life," The speaker in the corner of the room said, not with Zilla's neutrally female tones, but in Quinn's voice.

" _Thank fucking Christ_ ," I swore. "Quinn, can you hear me?"

"Yes, why wouldn't I. . . Ah, I see the problem. Would you happen to tell me how I. . . never mind, I think I. . . No. . . Maybe. . . _That's_ odd. . . Here we go!" he said, before he re-appeared, scattered static forming back into himself.

He turned to me, but it was the speaker that stated, "Well, _that_ was diff. . . oh." Opening his mouth, he said, "This place is a mess, and I'm glad I told my wife I'm staying over. You said you knew what my powers would be, but I've come to the conclusion that your explanation seemed to have _missed_ some things. Teleportation being one of them."

"Let's continue this back at the office," I suggested, needing a moment to get over thinking I'd just killed my lawyer. He nodded, taking a step before his body came apart once more.

"I didn't mean to do that," his voice came from the base speaker as I walked out of the room. "I'll. . . just wait for you here."

He didn't say anything else, and I took my time, getting another coffee for myself. It didn't actually _do_ anything for me, my body treated caffeine like a poison, but the familiar taste, along with the extra time it took to make, helped settle my own nerves.

I was starting to walk to the office when I felt something pulling at me, coaxing me somewhere else. I mentally set my feet, resisting it, before I realized what it was. Letting myself be pulled, the world blurred, and I found myself standing on _top_ of the conference table, looking down at Quinn, who was staring up at me in surprise.

Flying down to a seat, I made no comment on his display of power. I took a sip, _Seeing_ the Neon Blue and Green of his power, double checking that his powers had all settled and set like they were supposed to. A cursory glance suggested they did, but I'd need _much_ more time to do a deep search to make sure that was true. "Right, so, most people get one or two powers, you have _five._ You're probably dealing with two right now, and just used a third. The first one is Technopathy. You should probably feel and be able to interact with every piece of tech within about three-hundred feet."

He nodded, the hidden screen in the middle of the conference table springing to life. MS Paint opened up, the background turned black, and 'Do you want to play a game?' was written in the same green as his power. The green of old computer monitors, I realized.

I regarded his smirk, though it held a tinge of panic, responding with one of my own, full of calm confidence. Legal problems, Endbringer fights, and things like that I could barely muddle through. Power training? That's something I'd spent the last _month_ learning how to do. "Unfortunately, we don't get to choose not to play, and with the nature of powers, thermonuclear war would be _simpler_ to deal with," I told him, recognizing the reference. "So, second power, which is called Machine Spirit, that-"

"They have names?" Quinn asked. "Technopathy appears to be telepathy with technology, but that sounds like it has _been_ named, not that it is a merely a description."

 _Right, lawyer, he pays attention to phrasing,_ I reminded myself. "Yes, they have names, no I can't tell you how or why. Maybe later, but, for now, let's focus on _you_." Quinn nodded, accepting that, but it was obvious that he wouldn't forget it either. "Machine Spirit, to put it simply, lets you possess tech. Jump into it, control it, and if it's destroyed you are dumped out, completely unharmed. The range is supposed to be touch, but. . ." I looked at his power, already having seen him use it when touching nothing at all. His power was bright, the various component tightly interconnected.

Quinn raised an eyebrow, taking out his phone and turning the camera to face himself. Putting it away he asked, "Is there something on my face?"

"What? Oh, no, I was just thinking," I reassured him. "If I had to guess, anything you can reach with Technopathy counts as being in contact _with_ you. That's. . . unexpectedly nice. Also, you can choose to emerge anywhere the tech you inhabit extends. Yes, this means you can use the internet to effectively teleport. Don't bring the car next time, you won't need it. Third power, Summoning. Anyone you've personally seen you can call to your side, though they can resist the call, limited to five times per day. What did you do to pull me here?"

Quinn was silent, considering it. "I was waiting for you to get here, and wanted you to hurry up," he said slowly.

"Okay, so don't-" I stopped myself before I could say 'don't think of anyone you don't want to show up.' "I'm going to walk out of the room," I said instead, "and I want you to try to think of me, and figure out what the trigger is, so you don't accidentally summon someone like Break."

He nodded, and I stepped outside, hoping I'd just avoided a 'don't think of pink elephants scenario'. I waited, a few minutes later feeling the pulling feeling once again. Not resisting it, I was once again standing on the table. "I think you also need to determine a destination," I observed, feeling the pulling feeling once more. I was moved to the ground, Quinn staring at my feet, or more likely, the floor.

"Okay, that's power three," I said, sitting down. "Which you have two uses left of today. No idea when the cutoff is for 'per day', whether it's the first use in 24 hours, midnight, when you got your powers, or something else entirely, but that's something to figure out later. The last two are Tinker Powers. First of all, you can repair the Tinkertech of others," I told him, continuing as he started to respond. "Yes, that's normally not possible, that's why it's a power. Lastly, you are a Tinker with a detection specialization. You've mentioned there are hostiles roaming sections of the city. How would you go about finding them?"

"Find them? How would. . . . this is odd," Quinn stated. "I know how to build. . . quite a few things, and as soon as I think of one, I also know how to maintain and repair it in two completely different ways."

I smiled, "We've got labs, and if you want you can claim one." I ignored his mutter of 'of course you do'. "Metals are, obviously, provided, and if you need anything else you can either requisition it or take one from our stocks and note that you have so we can replace it. Basic policy is please try to build things that help, we might have requests, and if there's anything that we want you to make that you don't want to, say so, and you won't have to. I won't say 'no questions asked', because I'll want to know the reason, if only so I know what not to ask for, but unless it's an S-class threat we're dealing with, I'll respect it, and even then, I still might. So, welcome to the team. It's probably best to come up with a cape name, even if you'll never be out fighting."

Quinn frowned, and pulled the Cauldron vial out of his pocket, the word 'Overwatch' written across the top. "How many of these concoctions do they have?"

"Thousands, at the very least," I said, thinking of the room full of high-risk, top-tier powers that Cauldron had stored away, but never used, which suggested even more located elsewhere. "And they don't know what they do, only having vague ideas of what they _could_ do, with possibilities to mutate the drinker." Quinn shot me a stern look. "Don't worry, we have access to a. . . let's say secondary refinement process. We may not be able to replicate it, but the vials we have _currently_ are safe to use."

"Then why not call me 'Overwatch'? Any name I pick, a Thinker might be able to derive information from, even if it _is_ inadmissible. I don't plan on assaulting villains in the street, so it shouldn't matter," he proposed.

"Welcome to the team, Overwatch," I replied, holding out a hand. He smiled and shook it. "Zilla, upgrade Quinn Calle, new designation 'Overwatch' to clearance level two." The V.I. announced the changes, and I stood up, extruding a domino mask, blue with stylized green eyes across it from my sleeve. He gave it a curious look, taking it and putting it on, the thin flap of material sticking to his face easily.

"Don't ask. It's not much, but it'll do until you get a costume of your own. You do what you need to, and if you have any requests, don't hesitate to ask," I told my newest recruit, walking out as his body dissolved and his power leapt into the walls, quickly disappearing.

Checking the time, Amy & Taylor were due back soon. I needed to talk with them, and not just about my missing arm. I had open power slots, both Major and Minor, and while I knew what I _wanted_ to slot in, my judgement so far had. . . not been the best. I'd been putting it off long enough, but I needed to talk to them and figure out which powers I was going to acquire.


	142. Revision 13-4

**Revision 13.4**

"I've come to the conclusion that, while my plans are usually good enough, I occasionally tend to. . . _miss_ things," I admitted in my office.

Taylor had the tact to just wince while Amy snorted, adding, "Noticed that," shooting a glance over to the bug controller, who met her gaze levelly.

 _Speaking of missing things,_ I thought, not understanding the back and forth in front of me. I continued, "Right, so, before we start, _Panacea_." The girl broke off her staring contest and looked back to me warily. "I haven't asked, but are you willing to join our team. You don't have to, but I'd like you to, officially."

Whatever she was expecting me to ask, it wasn't that. "I, do I have to?" she replied, obviously not wanting to.

I shrugged, not showing the odd pain that pseudo-rejection brought about. Taylor glanced at me, then glared at the other girl, though Amy didn't notice it. "No, not really, though I'd like to know _why_ ," I requested. _Why does that hurt?_ I wondered, though I was just as surprised by my _own_ emotional response as I was by her saying no.

"I don't want to hurt people," she blurted out, correcting it to, "I don't want to fight," though her first statement was obviously the more honest one. As I tried to figure out what she meant, she added, "Besides, you already decided I was part of your team, why are you asking me to join now?"

 _Right_ , I'd told the PRT she was with me, but we'd never actually made it _official_ , which was one of half a dozen reasons we were doing this right now. "I was still a bit out of it then, and, while I admit, I do personally consider you to be part of the team, that _was_ wrong of me to say. That's why I'm asking you now, and I'm ready to make public statements that you are working with us, but not part of us, if that's what you _really_ want."

She started to respond, but I kept going, not letting her sidetrack me and sweep her statement under the rug, "Though it's the other thing you said that confuses me. Do you think joining my group means you're going to hurt people, whereas everyone will magically leave you completely alone if you refuse? I'm surprised you haven't received more attention, or been threatened by others before now, but the more prominent you are, the more attention, good and ill, you will receive. It's a fact of life. Amy, I myself had to stop the ABB from trying to kidnap you when they were losing. You _could_ have stopped them yourselves, probably, if you were willing to use your powers that way, but do you really want to be dependent on other people for your defense?"

"How is joining you any different?" she shot back immediately. I could practically feel Taylor's anger on my behalf, but sent her a feeling of _confidence-appreciation_ , and she sat back, folding her arms, unhappy but willing to let me argue my own points.

"Because I'd teach you to protect yourself, so you won't have to hope I'll be around to save you. If you don't _want_ to fight villains, you won't need to. You've seen me tell enough other people that I won't make them do things they don't want to, Amelia, that I don't know why you'd think I'd say anything different to _you,"_ I observed. "Bad people are going to want to do bad things, using their capability for manipulation, violence, or other means of coercion to do so. Pacifism is nice, but like all utopian ideals, requires _everyone_ to follow for it to work."

"I know you're not your sister," I told her, "and just because _she_ likes to fight doesn't _necessarily_ mean that you like to as well. I'd get you strong enough that you could repel threats and escape, and that's it, if that's what you wanted. And that's only when combat-necessary situations arise, which will hopefully be few and far between. If I could, I'd not have any of us get in a serious fight until the next Endbringer attack, and _that_ we're going to handle better than Leviathan," I stated, feeling myself starting to slip into 'teacher' mode and pulling out of it. "So is the only reason you said no is that you think you'll end up hurting more people than if you were to say yes?"

Panacea gave me an annoyed look, but she didn't say anything. I waited, watching her, willing to take as long as it took. She finally spoke, asking, "Does she have to be here for this?", jerking a thumb towards Taylor.

I felt the bug controller's spike of anger, and replied before she could, "Considering I'm going to be asking her _literally_ the same question in front of _you?_ Yes."

"What, but I'm part of the-" Taylor sputtered.

" _Provisional_ member, while you were trying to see if you could flip the Undersiders. That didn't work, not your fault," I added at her outraged expression and feeling of _hurt_ , "but you're technically not a full member. Would you like to join permanently?"

" _Yes_ ," she replied immediately.

Amy rolled her eyes and muttered, _"_ Of course _you_ would," under her breath, but loud enough for both of us to hear it.

" _Excuse me?_ " the bug controller asked, getting angry.

The healer ignored her. "You know what, fine, I'll be a 'provisional' member," Panacea told me, complete with air quotes.

"No," was the totality of my reply.

"What do you mean, 'no'?" Amy asked me.

"What do you mean, 'of course _you_ would'?" Taylor asked her in turn.

My voice was calm as I explained my statement. "I mean, I'm not asking you to join, but only kinda, with one foot in the door, unless you feel like you don't want to at any given moment. You already know some my secrets, and I believe you are honorable enough to keep them, but I'm trying to do things as aboveboard as possible, and _that_ means having you join before I take you further into my confidence, putting you in _more_ danger as there are a _lot_ of bad people, doing a _lot_ of bad things, and we're going to trying to stop them. Some of it will be like the ABB, and what they did to those kids I brought to you to heal. Some are, if not worse, then just as bad in different ways. If you join, I'm not going to pull rank unless it's a life or death scenario. I'll make requests and plan around them, like I do with Theo, but what I'm offering is binary. You're in, or you're not."

I looked her dead in the eyes, "I _could_ do this the manipulative way. I could've been counting you as one of the Penumbral Defenders openly, telling everyone you were part of us when I _wasn't_ suffering oxygen deprivation, bringing you in by default and trying to keep you passively accepting of what I was doing, not wanting to make a scene, until you were in too deep to distance yourself without looking bad yourself." I could see a spark of apprehension and fear in her, as she suddenly found herself wondering exactly _what_ I might've done. It was the problem with openly discussing social manipulation. In addition to just _not being done_ , despite the actual manipulation being done _all the time,_ lifting that particular rock made everyone assume that capability equaled intent, and treated you thusly.

"Like I told you before, Amy, _knowing_ how to do evil does not make you evil, it just means you know how to combat it. Knowing how to tinker around with biology does not make you Bonesaw, and my knowing how to manipulate you into what social positions I want you to be in does not mean I _have._ " I laughed, "You think we'd be _having_ this discussion if that's what I was trying to do? Yes, doing so might _theoretically_ help dispel any worries you might've had that I was already doing so if I was trying to manipulate you," I gave, trying to be as honest as possible, "but as far as I can tell you _weren't_ worrying about this so bringing it up would've done nothing but hurt any manipulations I was attempting, putting them under scrutiny where before you hadn't even noticed them at all. That isn't to say what I'm doing now _doesn't_ have secondary effects, which are normally hidden, but obvious if you think about them."

Panacea was looking lost, and Taylor was now staring at me curiously. I realized that I was in full 'instructor' mode, but I also realized this was the sort of talk that mothers normally gave their daughters, though likely less bluntly, and there was a good chance that neither of them had learned about this. Taylor's mother likely died before it came up, not wanting her daughter to realize the tangled web of manipulations that were high-school female social systems, and Amelia, functionally, didn't _have_ a mother. "Honesty and forthrightness come with their own restrictions, though they're only a bad thing if you're the cowardly sort," I told them. "By asking you outright, and getting your agreement, you can't _honestly_ tell yourself that I tricked you into this, that you never wanted it. You can still say the words, don't get me wrong, and maybe convince _others_ that _I've_ done something wrong," I said, pausing as I moved past painful memories, "but _you_ will know the truth, and that's what I care about right now. Being honest and open makes it harder to manipulate and play games, it's probably why some people avoid it like the plague. However, being honest requires you to have the courage of your convictions, to say what you want and to stand by it."

I sat up straight, taking off my power-created shades to look at Amy directly. "That is why, Panacea, I am asking you, honestly, do you want to join the Penumbral Defenders? We seek to protect the innocent and those who _cannot_ protect themselves, to fight those that would hurt those who are undeserving of such harm, and to, ultimately, destroy those threats which threaten humanity as a whole, of which the Endbringers are a _part_ of. If you don't want to, and have a reason why, I will accept it, and you are free to stay here. We will work with you where appropriate, as we have before, but there are things we will not be able to tell you, help we cannot offer, and planning you will be excluded from because we will not be able to trust you."

She looked upset, but I shook my head, knowing what she was thinking, "The lack of trust will not because you are not trust _worthy_ , perhaps trust is the wrong word, but there _will_ be a distance because you are not beholden to us and thus would morally be able to work against us without breaking your word. If you wish to stay who you currently are, an immensely talented hero and a free agent, I will accept it, though I admit I will be disappointed. If you wish to join us, I would be happy to welcome you among our numbers, and seek to help you just as much as you seek to help others. So, Amelia, what will it be? Are you staying on your own, or joining us?"

She looked torn, but I'd made the offer, _over-_ made the offer, possibly, and I wasn't going to say anything else without hearing what she said. I knew what I _wanted_ her to say, but it was her decision. My own power pointed out that I _did_ have an open slot and Canary's power, and I firmly told it _no._ Would it be easier to use it and not have to deal with all this uncertainty? _Absolutely **.**_ Would I be able to do so and live with myself? _Absolutely **not.**_

"Have you asked Vics to join?" Panacea requested after several tense seconds.

I nodded, "No, though I plan to ask her, Dean as well. However, I'm not asking _her_ right now, nor does her joining or not in any way effect what I am asking _you,_ " I stated firmly.

She looked me in the eyes, searching for something, before looking down, obviously debating herself. I waited, as did Taylor, and Amy closed her eyes tightly and nodded jerkily, like someone about to be stuck with a particularly large needle. "Okay. Yes. I'll join." She stated to say something else, but stopped herself.

Rather than ask her what it was she didn't say, I smiled broadly at her, "Then I formally welcome you, Panacea, to the Penumbral Defenders. Now, that's not the only thing I wanted to talk to both of you about, but I feel that all three of us could do with a bit of break. Do either of you want coffee?"

" _God yes,"_ was Amy's relieved response, causing me to smile and Taylor to laugh kindly.

* * *

I returned with their drinks (Triple shot espresso mocha for Amy, peppermint chocolate herbal tea for Taylor, and regular coffee for me, black except for a touch of cinnamon), Panacea having recomposed herself. The girls stopped talking as soon as I opened the door, which was suspicious as all hell, but I assumed if they wanted me to know what they were talking about, they'd tell me. I could ask Zilla later, but I wouldn't. I was asking them to trust me, and I needed to trust them in return, curiosity be damned.

Handing the girls their drinks, I took a seat and opened up a laptop, turning on the screen set into the wall and displaying a long list of powers, sub-divided, and with notations here and there. When I'd asked, Herb had said that between 'you and the girls', we could handle it without him. "So, you're both aware I'm a power copier, but at the meeting before Leviathan landed, something happened to change how my powers worked," I told them. "I don't know what it was, only that Eidolon is involved, _somehow,_ but everything I'd learned about it went out the window. On the bright side, I've gotten a clearer idea of how it functions now then the black-box method I had before, but it's come with some pretty hefty limitations. I still need to see the power's user directly, and the power needs to have a visual component, but now I'm limited in the powers I can use."

I motioned towards the two tables, one labelled 'Minor' and the other 'Major'. "Before I could use any power I'd copied," I paused, "Okay, so there were a number of powers I'd copied but I _couldn't_ use. They just refused to activate, like Night's, Fog's, or Alabaster's. Other worked, but with limitations. I could swap things with Trickster's ability, but I couldn't swap _myself_ like he could. That power also had a mental component that started to mess with me, though dropping it for a while made the effect fade. I could use Hookwolf's powers, but if I used it too much, the form would automatically change to be humanoid."

"That was you!?" Taylor said, eyes wide. I raised an eyebrow, motioning for her to go on, but she reached for the laptop, making a grasping gesture. Rolling my eyes, I slid it over to her, and she opened up a video website, quickly finding footage of myself, in the giant shadowy golden giant, from behind beating the holy hell out of an endless tide of Leviathan clones. A darker construct jumped down from below, and its torso disappeared in an instant, the giant not stopping as it continued to tear into every fake-Leviathan in range. Looking at it I could see I needed practice, my motions inefficient and jerky at times. I'd never trained with claws, and it showed.

I nodded ruefully, embarrassed at my poor form, "Yes. Back on topic, of the powers I _could_ use, there was one exception, _Manpower's._ I could grasp it, like all the other powers I could use, it just wouldn't activate. I didn't get a ton of feedback, but I could use all the ones I _could_ use interchangeably with no issue. After whatever happened with Eidolon happened, everything sort of. . . shifted."

I went on to describe what I saw when I dipped down into my power, about the flaming landscape, the prismatic constellations of potential powers high above, and the formation and integration of the copied abilities into myself. "So, as far as I can tell I've got a tradeoff of greater feedback, for fewer powers. There's more to it, probably, but I have no idea what it is."

"If you can see powers, why not have Break copy that and see what your power is?" Taylor shrugged.

I blinked, staring at her. That was. . . "And for that alone, I'm glad I went to you two for advice. Zilla, please ask Herb to come here," I requested.

Amy looked between us. "Wait, _that's_ how I got healed. . . _Asshole!_ " she swore, incensed.

Taylor and I shared glances, "Um," I said, neither of sure what was going on, "How is Herb an-"

"Not him, Vivify told me _he_ healed me," she spat. "He didn't say it directly, but I _knew_ it wasn't you, and he _could've_ , except he isn't _that_ fast, and I thought. . . That pompous _douchenozzle!_ If I see him again I'm giving him. . . I don't know what, but he _won't like it!_ Why are guys all assholes?"

"Um, guy here. Pretty sure I'm not-" I started to say in my own defense.

"You are, just not that bad," she informed me, still fuming.

I chewed on that, Herb finally walking in. "Hey, am I an asshole?" I asked.

He stopped, looked between the three of us, and gave a one shouldered shrug. "Yeah, kinda. That why you wanted me? Ya coulda just called."

"How am I an as- right, whatever," I said, shaking my head, not wanting to get even _more_ sidetracked. "No, could you copy my Power Sight and give me a once over to figure out how my base powers work? I should've asked you _weeks_ ago, or asked Taylor."

"Um, sure?" he replied, sounding a bit unsure. His eyes glowed slightly, nothing on the light of my own eyes, but enough to be noticeable. They lacked the prismatic effect though, just appearing backlit. "Base stuff? Okay, you've got Power Sight, USW, Peak Condition, and Immunity. That's it."

"I know _that,_ " I told him, "I mean how does USW work now? My power copying," I explained to the girls.

He was quiet for a moment. "You see someone use a power; you get that power forever. Has to be something you can see, but that's it."

I looked at him, Seeing his own power copying, but not _what_ it was copying. "Dude, _more_ than that. I'm looking for stats I can use. Like how your range has gotten a bit bigger, to six and a half meters now, and you're up to a hundred and eleven percent power of the original."

"I'm _tellin'_ ya, that's all I see," he insisted, frustration creeping into his tone. "I can read your power, clear as day, but that's all I got."

"Nah man, you need to look deeper into the Flames," I insisted, getting annoyed myself at his lack of willingness to do even the barest of work. Surface level reading was easy, it was only when you started to pick it apart did you get the actionable intel. "You have my power _and then some._ Pick a tongue and trace it down; this isn't that hard."

"Flames?" he asked. "I told you, I'm _reading_ it."

"Um, Herb?" Taylor asked, looking between us. "Are you _literally_ seeing words? Like, in the air?"

" _Duh,_ " he said, like we were being intentionally slow. "I'm _reading_ it. _Reeeaaaadiiiing._ How do ya read without words? The letters are all on fire, cool ass purple and red fire, but it's all just there, with tabs and shit." He pointed to something to my right instead of at me where the Flames of my power should've burned.

"And you don't see words?" she asked, turning to me.

I shook my head, "No, just the Flames, and I have to figure out what they mean. It's more like Pyromancy."

"Fire magic?" Amy asked.

"No, telling the future by looking into fire," I disagreed. "Except, you know, I actually get _real_ information. How did you _think_ I figured out that your power changed?" I asked Herb.

He was looking at me in confusion. "The description changed?" he guessed. I shook my head. "Huh, that's weird. You'll figure it out," he stated with confidence, turning around and leaving without saying anything else, closing the door behind himself.

We all stared at the door. "Is he always like that?" Amy finally asked.

 _"Yes,_ " I sighed, Taylor nodding in agreement. "Right, so, good idea, didn't work, but that doesn't mean other ideas won't. Um. . . the fuck was I talking about?"

"Less powers, more use," Panacea offered.

"Right, yeah, so," I pulled the tables back up to the screen. "Major slots. I've got three right now, the fourth feels like it's a third of the way there, but there hasn't been any progress since breakfast this morning. I've got Stormtiger's Aerokinesis in the first slot. Panacea, your Biokinesis is the second, and the third is open. Whatever I pick, I can't _un-_ pick so you can see why I'm cautious about it, now that I have time to consider it. I'm honestly not sure what to put in there, and I don't know how long it'll be before I have another slot open. It might be danger dependent, though I hope it isn't. The first one opened up early on in the battle, but during the entire Leviathan fight I got _one_ more, and that was when he nearly killed me. I might've gotten the second at the end, but. . . I'd rather not do that again anytime soon." I pulled back the glove of my right hand, the steel tendrils that made up my hand glinting in the light before I re-covered it.

"And those are our options?" Taylor asked, getting up and walking over to the display.

I nodded, "Yeah. Acoustokinesis is one I _used_ to have. I copied it from Cricket, but she was absolutely _wasting_ it. Personal Electromagnetic Control is Manpower's, um, power. Absolute Territory is Legend's, is _weird,_ and is probably going to be _very_ distinctive if I use it."

"I thought it was lasers?" Amy commented.

"It _looks_ like lasers. That go slower than sound. And turn corners. And-" I listed off.

"Fine, they're not lasers. What else?" the healer grumbled, Taylor hiding her amusement in the Swarm.

Moving the cursor, I continued down the list. "I've got Gravity Control, Ash Control, and Metal Manipulation. No idea where I got those, nor do I have any idea what they _do_ , other than the name. If they're on par with your and Legend's powers though, it'll be something _strong,_ " I told her.

Amy looked skeptical. "Cricket's power is strong?"

"If I wanted to, I could destroy New York, and kill everyone that lives there with it," I asserted calmly. "Minus those with the some very specific protections or odd powers, but between that and my immunity to precognitive powers, it'd take less than five minutes to kill ninety-nine-point-nine percent of the population."

Both girls were silent at that. Panacea slowly nodded, "I've never been gladder that Nazis are fucking morons."

I nodded in agreement. "She tried to do that to Brockton Bay, though at a lesser level, right before she died. I trapped her within its effects instead, focusing it inwards. If you want to know what happened, ask Vicky, but it wasn't pretty."

Taylor shivered, nodding in agreement, turning back to the list. "Short-range Teleportation?" she asked.

I nodded, "Jumper's power." Taylor pulled out her phone, tapping away at it.

"Why do the last three have X's?" Amy asked, gladly moving on.

"For whatever reason, I can't use Planar Body, Sub-dimensional Bubble Creation, or LOCK. No idea what they do, only that I have them, and I can't use them," I explained.

Amy looked at the last one. "Why is the last one in all caps?"

I shrugged, "Because that's its name? STING was the same, Flechette's power. She's got a good chance of killing an Endbringer but doing so _will_ make them explode like a small nuke and it's. . ." I tried to put what the sensation I got when I considered wielding it into words. "I don't like it, and I don't know why, and I don't _like_ that I don't know why. I don't get the same feeling from LOCK, that one's just. . . emptiness?" I sighed, "Powers are weird. So, which one should I go with?"

"How are we supposed to know?" Amelia asked incredulously.

I opened my hands, "You've got as much information as I do. I can use Acoustokinesis to keep people from listening in, and to listen in on other people myself. Oh, and I was starting to work it into a disintegration shield, though there was no way to _not_ make that utterly ridiculous while still effective, and it might not even work, but that's all I've done with it. Everything else? Legend and your adopted uncle both just have the one power. Well, Manpower's got a basic physical upgrade package, but mine's better, and a bit more subtle. Jumper was a single-power cape as well, so anything they can do, I could do with their power. I won't automatically know how to use their power in that way until I see them do it though."

"So it's a Sharingan," Amy nodded, understanding.

"That and more, as it would copy entire bloodlines as well," I agreed, "It's a. . . wait, how the fuck do you know what a Sharingan is?" I demanded. I'd poked around the media of this world, and I _hadn't_ seen Naruto.

"Um, you know, around," Panacea evaded. Looking to Taylor, she shrugged, having no idea what we were talking about.

Opening up a browser, I searched for 'Sharingan', only to discover that while 'Naruto' got battles and news stories from a city _named_ Naruto, which had miraculously survived Leviathan's attack, searching for that super-powered pinkeye revealed that the adventures of the blonde, loudmouth Jinchuriki _did_ exist, sort of. 'Naruko' was a series from Earth Aleph about the holder of the nine-tailed fox, who was an orphan who pretended to be a boy to get respect in 'his' ninja village. She had to be careful who she touched, the corrupting energy of the demon inside of her hurting anyone she made skin contact with unless she kept it tightly controlled. She had a crush on Sasuke, the last survivor of his clan, who was secretly _also_ a girl, and who had a crush on 'Naruto'. Sasuki pretended to be her dead brother, fearing that if she was found out she'd be kidnapped and used to forcefully 'revive' her clan. It seemed a bit. . . _darker_ than I remembered the original being, but I could see why she liked it.

The healer was looking anywhere but at me or the screen, which displayed my search. "Why not just go Legend?" Panacea asked, desperately trying to change the topic. "Insta-triumvirate power, seems obvious."

Closing the search, I opened up the list again. "That might work, except I have no way of knowing how it would manifest. Would I get powers _like_ Legend's, able to tweak the expression, or would I very obviously have _Legend's power?_ " I countered. "I have no way of knowing unless I grab it, and then it's locked in."

"Uncle Neil's power doesn't. . . no, it sparks," she sighed, shaking her head and pretending the last few minutes hadn't happened. "I wish I knew who had these other powers."

Taylor shot me a grin before she nodded, getting up and walking to the monitor, "If the gravity power was invisible, that would be smart."

"Wait," Amy said, rounding on me. "Cricket's power was invisible, how do you have it?"

"Right, sorry. If the power affects me personally and I can see the user, I sometimes get it. It's how I got Victor's Skill Theft, Regent's Neurological Control, and Canary's Suggestion," I explained.

Taylor nodded, but Amelia reared back. "You have _Canary's_ power?" Taylor shot her a disgusted look from behind, shaking her head and turning back to the display.

"Had, not have. I lost access to it during the shift. It's a minor power, and I'd rather not waste a slot on power that I've never used, nor do I plan to use," I explained, expecting her response. If Canary had wanted to help, I'd have felt bad for her situation, but I didn't care the slightest about Robin. "Gravity control _might_ be invisible, I picked it up sometime during the fight, but there were a _lot_ of powers being thrown around, and I could've missed an odd glow or mist in all the fighting."

"Do we _have_ to pick something?" asked Amy.

I shook my head, sighing, "No, but I'd _like_ to. I need time to get used to it, and the middle of a fight is _not_ the time to activate a new power. Sometimes, no problem. Sometimes, I'm out for a few seconds as everything settles in. The longer I have it, the more I can practice and figure out new uses. We'll figure that out later; let's move onto Minor powers." Scrolling down, I brought up a new list.

"I've got a _lot_ more slots here, sixteen of them in fact. However, most of them are already filled, as I needed them to _not die,"_ I remarked dryly.

Taylor shot me a smile, "Worth it."

I suppressed one of my own. "Right, so we've got Personal Force Fields, from Vicky; Space Warping, which is Vista's only power; Metal Projection, Hookwolf; Metal _Creation,_ Kaiser's and the source of everyone's Orichalcum gear; Momentum Infusion, Ballistic; Stellar Creation; half of Sundancer's. The other half, Stellar _Negation,_ lets me exempt anyone nearby, including myself, from the heat and UV radiation the suns produce. I'm already immune to heat, and I think my costume protects me from sunburns-"

"It doesn't," Amy interrupted. "I healed those when I got to you. Your own healing had fixed some of it, but you _were_ burned."

"So it might be for the best to pick up the other power," I admitted, moving on. "Shadow Form, from Shadow _Stalker_ ; Lightform, from Purity; and Speed Zones, from Skidmark make the Boardwalk set. I've got Temporal Protection, one of Paninla's powers, which I don't remember slotting, but whatever. The last one I slotted is Arthropod Control, Lady Bug's sole power, which along with Vicky's and yours makes the Vejovis set. I've got five slots left. In order to get the Dryad persona up and running, which I need for my long-term plans, I'll need Mineral Manipulation, as well as Tree Growth & Control. If we throw in Stellar Negation, that's only two slots left for _all of these powers._ "

I scrolled through the nearly seventy powers I'd culled from my mental constellation. There were more, but those were the ones I could read easily. Some seemed to avoid my attention, and some I couldn't even get a name from them, they were so dim. I might've missed a few, but I couldn't rearrange them in my mind, and they weren't exactly in neat rows for me to categorize.

Both girls poured over the list. "Weapon Projection?" Taylor asked.

"Miss Militia. It does vehicles as well," I added for Amy.

"Right," Taylor nodded, "the plane you crashed into Crawler."

"What?" the healer asked, but Taylor just shook her head, saying, "Later." They continued to look over them, and I gave descriptions wherever possible. "What's the difference between 'Flame Armament' and 'Pyrokinetic Weaponry'?" Amy asked. "And what's 'Spatial Warping? I thought you already had that."

I shrugged, "No idea. Armament _might_ include armor, or it might mean it's just made out of fire with no physical substance, while the weaponry power _might_ be solid flame, or maybe mind controlled flame weapons, I really have no idea. Spatial Warping is Armsmaster's secondary. I can't copy Tinkers, but Armsmaster can make things hold more than they should be able to. However," I quickly stated before Amelia could respond, her eyes lighting up, "It only works for non-organic materials." Her excitement dimmed as quickly as it had arrived.

"What power is '15%'? Taylor asked. "Or is that just how complete the next slot is?" I held up two fingers and she nodded. "What was it this morning?"

"Maybe ten percent, I'm going off feelings, not reading it in the air like Herb _apparently can_ ," I remarked.

"Couldn't read _this,_ " Taylor pointed out, motioning to the sheet, which helped a bit. "Go ahead and get the ones you need for Dryad."

I looked to Amy, who shrugged, and closed my eyes, finding and grabbing hold of the first power. Directing Brix's power downwards, it docked in one of the open slots, spreading out and connecting to my own. I felt another sense blossom into being, the distant glow of the Dryad bodies I had stashed in a closet below me comfortable. Unfortunately, they were outside of the range of Taylor's power, so, if I tried to move them, I'd be doing so completely blind. When nothing else happened, I slotted the second power, Mineral Manipulation.

 _That_ one flooded me with information, the vague layout of the base a negative space in my mind around the rock. Higher up, everything fuzzled into vagueness as I hit dirt, asphalt, concrete, and all sorts of composites. Pulling myself back, I started to see with my eyes once more, seeing both girls next to me, looking worried. Taylor held my metal hand, while Panacea was touching my forehead, not eyes distant as she looked at me through her power. "Um, hi?"

"You okay?" Taylor asked, squeezing my prosthetic comfortingly. "You started shaking, and weren't responding, and-"

"I'm okay," I reassured her, squeezing her hand back. "Mineral Manipulation has more of a feedback then I expected. It's maybe a third of what your power first gave you, maybe less, but I wasn't expecting it and I haven't used the power this deep underground before. I can sense the minerals around, and while on the surface in the forest that's not so bad, in an underground complex underneath a city. . ." I winced, and her eyes widened, before she started to move forward to give me a hug, stopping as she glanced at Panacea, who was pulling her hand back.

"Your Gemma grew. That's only supposed to happen when you Trigger," the healer informed me. "Do it again."

"Um, which one?" I asked, looking over the list.

"The one that'll stop you from burning yourself like you went sunbathing on Mercury," she scoffed. "Obviously."

I looked at Taylor, shrugged, and did so, coaxing Stellar Negation down and fitting it into its slot. I shuddered as it started making connections to other powers, though, thankfully, it didn't deluge me with even _more_ sensory information. I was already juggling feedback from Aerokinesis, Space Warping, Arthropod Control, Mineral Manipulation, Speed Zones, Tree Growth, and my force fields, I _really_ didn't need any more.

Amy frowned, "I haven't seen it myself, but it seems that you're Triggering every time you get a power."

"No, I'm pretty sure I'm not," I replied.

"Who's the one who can see your brain?" the healer asked acidly.

"And your still conscious enough to do so, _so I'm not Triggering,_ " I countered.

Taylor spoke before Amy could, "What do you mean?"

"Triggering knocks out every parahuman within a block or two as the new power pings everyone else's for data and possible secondary powers," I explained, looking to Panacea. "I'm assuming when Vicky Triggered it knocked out your parents, and Dean was there?" She nodded, and I continued. "For _really_ complicated reasons the parahumans can't remember what happened afterwards, but it still puts them all on their ass for a minute or two."

Taylor frowned, looking off to the side, letting go of my hand. "I. . . did that happen to me?"

"Yeah," I nodded. "During the second ABB raid, when the kid Triggered. Marcus? Luis? For. . . _reasons,_ I could keep going, but it effected everyone else near him."

"I remember that it was. . . there were a pair of things in space, and. . . something came down," she said, voice hesitant, as if she wasn't really sure what she was saying, her words coming to her without her meaning to and as new to her as they were to us. "And then, it needed help so. . . I did?"

Amy was staring at her, as was I. "I. . . why couldn't I remember that?" Taylor asked herself. "I've never even _been_ to space! The closest I came was. . ." she hesitated, looking between us. "It's nothing."

"Did," Amelia started to ask, biting her lip as she considered her words. "When the Shaker attacked at the end, what did you see?"

"Shaker?" I asked, looking between them. "What Shaker?"

"At the end of Leviathan's attack, right before you did, whatever you did, someone hit everyone in the medical bay with some kind of hallucinogenic attack," Taylor explained. "No one knows who it was, but everyone's looking for them. What I saw wasn't real."

"But what did you see?" I asked intently, trying to figure out what was going on. Parahumans didn't remember Trigger-visions, _full stop._ Their own powers kept them from remembering, even to the point that if they wrote it down, they couldn't remember it if they read it, a la Imp's power. But Taylor remembered that kid getting Armoring, which _wasn't supposed to happen._

"It. . . it wasn't real," she repeated, going on to describe what she'd seen. To her, it seemed like a fever dream, but. . . she was describing seeing powers, similarly to how I did, though without the physical limitations I had. The spheres were obviously Leviathan and the Simurgh, their cores, while everything else was everyone's shards. From there she painted a vivid picture, one I remembered, though I'd came through it from the other direction.

"That. . . that was you?" Amy asked shakily, taking a seat next to the bug controller.

"I, what?" Taylor replied, just as confused as I was.

Amelia described what she saw. The metaphors were a little different, torches instead of stars, crystals instead of spheres, but the colors were all the same. I'd told Taylor about seeing colored fires as people's power, but I didn't remember telling Amy about them. She still identified the Grey & Yellow of Taylor's power, and the hulking form of the Third Entity though. How she felt like she was going to lose herself, but something else held her down and kept her safe. How the Entity _looked_ at her, and she remembered her father, her _real_ father, and hints of other memories she'd long forgotten.

She finished up and drained her drink, setting it down and shivering slightly. Getting up, I took one of her hands, and Taylor the other, which seemed to help. After a moment she pulled away from us both, shaking her head. "It, it seemed familiar. I hadn't realized where I'd seen it before," she said, opening her eyes and pinning me with a penetrating glare as she stood as well. "You. _Vejovis_. **_Now_** _._ "

If she'd seen an Entity, and could remember doing so, there was no use hiding it. My civilian garb flowed and shifted, forming the armored spandex of my heroic persona. Both girls' breath caught in their throat as they stared at my chest, at the blood-red not-Caduceus design that rested there. Amy poked it, hard, finger resting on top of the 'snake's' head. _"What is that?"_ she demanded.


	143. Lee's Copied Powers

This is the list referenced in the previous chapter. If you don't know what I'm talking about, go back one chapter. Unfortunately, this website eats formatting like nobody's business.

 **Lee's Copied Powers**

 **Active powers**

 **Major Powers**

Aerokinesis

Biokinesis

OPEN

~1/3 there

LOCKED

LOCKED

.

.

 **Minor Powers**

Personal Force Fields

Space Warping

Metal Projection

Metal Creation

Momentum Infusion

Stellar Creation

Shadow Form

Speed Zones

Lightform

Temporal Protection

Arthropod Control

Tree Growth & Control

Mineral Manipulation

Stellar Negation

OPEN

OPEN

~15%

LOCKED

LOCKED

LOCKED

LOCKED

LOCKED

LOCKED

LOCKED

.

.

 **Inactive Powers**

 **Major Powers**

Acoustokinesis

Personal Electromagnetic Control

Absolute Territory

Gravity Control

Ash Control

Metal Manipulation

Short-range Teleportation

xPlanar Body

XSub-plane Creation

XLOCK

.

.

 **Minor Powers**

Shadow Propagation

Neurological Control

Weapon Projection

Skill Theft

Adaptive Armoring

Personal Size Manipulation

Hard Light Weaponry

X Hard Light Sphere Shield

X Restoration

X Crystal Sphere Form

X ##tal## Form

X Physical Dispersal (Particulate)

Transposition

Spatial Warping

Bonding Fields

Dicot Growth & Command

Toxikinetic Skeleton

Ice Projectile Projection

Tectonic Aggregation

X Paperform

Flame Projection

Projectile Protection

Unidirectional Telekinesis

Cryogenic Vapor Projection

Web Creation

Area Teleportation

Gouging Touch

Hard Light Blast

Metal Limb Creation

Crystal Constructs

Mist Blades

Eye Shields

Wire Control

Injury empowerment

Phantom Weaponry

X Matter Deconstruction & Direction

Mass Material Skating

Candle Creation

Finger-guns

Air Cannon

Ursine Creation

Flame Armament

Pyrokinetic Weaponry

X Bio-metal Form

Water Bolt Projection

Organic Weaponry

Stone Weaponry

Electrical Weaponry

Ice Weaponry

Personal Density Manipulation

X Hybridization

Vacuum Blades

Magma Blasts

Golem Creation

Umbral Missile Generation

Ionic Wave Creation

Material Spikes

Goblin Creation

X Temporal Acceleration

Water-Fire Conversion

Proportional Countering

Plasma Breath

Vibration Bomb Generation

Anarchic Structure Inducement

Air Bullet Projection

Wheel Creation

Wound Memory

Diamond Dust Wind

Beetle Jumping

Corruption Projectiles

Ferrous Transmutation

X Splitting

Umbral Reinforcement

Personal Hardening

X Sublimation

Light Grenades

Kinetic Force Fields

X Stuttering


	144. Revision 13-5

**Revision 13.5**

"That's. . . kind of complicated to explain," I hedged.

Amelia continued to glare, poking the stylized Entity on my chest. I really _had_ been an idiot to put it there. " _Try_ ," she commanded, Taylor watching us both.

"Okay," I sighed. It wouldn't stick, but that wasn't _my_ fault. "Powers are actually biological clarketech used by unimaginative, multidimensional space snakes who are trying to solve the problem of universal entropy with the spaghetti method. There are three that were interested in Earth. The first two, The Thinker and The Warrior, are a mated pair. The Thinker did the Entity equivalent of texting while driving and smashed face-first into Earth. Not Earth Bet. Contessa, who I believe was Dinah's age at the time, journeyed into the center of the Thinker's reforming body and killed her. The Warrior, without his mate and unable to complete the Cycle, capital C, wasn't really sure what to do, and took up super-heroing to find a purpose."

 _Right, need to describe what the hell that is,_ I thought. My explanation, simplified as it was, was still dependent on too many terms. "The Cycle is what the Entities call it when they find a world with sapient life, seed it with Shards of themselves that give the recipients superpowers, and watch the chaos. At the end they reap the Shards, and all that new data, then spawn, destroying the planet in all realities they can reach and using the explosion to send its spawn in every direction. Not sure if the process kills the Parent Entities. However, without its mate, the Warrior _can't do that_. In about two years he'll get sick of it and try to destroy the world, which we might be able to push back to sixteen years instead. Cauldron wants it sooner than later, as, with the way things are going, our best chance of killing the asshole is before everything falls apart, like its likely going to do within the next decade."

The two of them stared blankly, their own Scion-born shards likely scrubbing the information from their memories. It's why I had always approached these explanations carefully, as I wasn't sure how close I could get without their shards interfering, like Sarah's did when I-

"That's _insane_ ," stated Amelia, throwing up her hands. "But, fuck, _everything_ you say is insane!"

I blinked, a spark of hope that I could bring them fully onboard rising, despite my knowing it was stupid to do so. However, "Not _everything_ ," I defended.

"Yes, _everything_ ," she insisted.

I raised an eyebrow. "How is saying that I see you for who you are, and like what I see, insane?" I asked, remembering our discussion in the bank.

"I! You!" she sputtered, blushing. "No one _says_ things like that!"

Opening my arms, I replied simply: "I do."

"And that's _insane!_ "

"You said there were three," Taylor interrupted, looking between us. "The Thinker, who's dead, and The Warrior who's. . . Is that Scion?"

 _There's a reason you like her,_ my subconscious reminded me. Admittedly, there were _several_ , but her intelligence was definitely one of them. _If only she was older, stupid morals._ "Yeah, Goldenrod's the big bad. He never talks and can't prioritize because his species doesn't communicate verbally and anything that isn't perpetuating the Cycle he doesn't really understand."

"Then who's the third?" she asked, taking my revelations in stride.

"That would be Abaddon, who you've both apparently met," I stated, wondering how far I could push this before their Shards realized we were discussing classified material. Once they did, I'd figure out how much was removed, and work on using metaphors and allegorical language to sneak up on how to discuss this with the others. If _Cauldron_ could figure this out, I could too.

Taylor looked at the 'snake' wrapping around the staff on my chest, the spikes lining its back, and the wings at the top of the symbol that weren't feathered, but were instead made of hundreds of overlapping Shards. "Oh," she said, in a small voice, likely realizing the enormity of the problem. "What does _it_ want?"

"What?" I asked.

Taylor's looked at me intently, "If the other two wanted this, this Cycle, what does Abaddon want?"

 _What **does** he want?_ I wondered. " _That_ , is a good question," I replied.

Amy looked askance, "You mean you _don't know?_ "

Shrugging, I admitted, "Not really. He, well he started this entire thing. He met the other two, him and The Thinker collided, as is custom, and when they collected Shards she ended up with Path to Victory, or at least the raw version. Then-"

"Wait, collided?" Taylor asked. "Isn't space, like _really big?_ They are too, but-"

"No, the collision is on purpose. Right, so," I mentally back-peddled. "Entities are low-key hiveminds. Each shard has a sentience of its own, but the Entities are the alpha-consciousness the others all obey." The explanation came easily, though I couldn't remember where in Worm this was described. "Whenever Entities meet, that slam into each other, holding onto their most precious Shards. The ones that aren't as important are broken off, then each tries to grab whatever thinks is the most valuable. That way, if you can think fast you get stronger, and a different Entity may find use from a Shard you didn't see the value of. It's perfectly logical," I explained. It _was_ fairly obvious.

". . . Right. _Logical,_ " Amy nodded sarcastically.

If she didn't see it, I wasn't sure how else to put it, this was _basic_ stuff, like Shard Reading, Dimensional Strings, and Interstellar Fli. . . what was I talking about? _Right,_ **_Abaddon_**. "So," I said, "Abaddon let go of a precognitive Shard that was both stupidly potent and crazy energy efficient. Like, leaps and bounds beyond even what the Simurgh is capable of doing. It was so much stronger than anything she'd seen before that the Thinker got so wrapped up in using it that she didn't slow down and enter orbit but crashed into, let's see, we're using Hebrew letters, so she crashed into Earth Chet. That was in the seventies and, after that, Abaddon was never seen or heard of again. Except, apparently _not_ , because he pulled my ass here, along with Herb, Charlie, and dad. . . kinda."

"As to what he wants. . ." I trailed off, thinking about it. "I'm not sure, but in retrospect, letting go of a Shard _that_ powerful. . . it's. . . _odd_. Something that strong would let Abaddon know that rendezvousing with that pair would lead it to _lose_ that Shard, and that it would cause The Thinker to crash, so it wouldn't do so unless. . ."

"Unless it wanted that to happen," Taylor said, voicing my thoughts. "But why? Didn't you say they all wanted the same thing?"

I shrugged, "I have absolutely no fucking clue."

"When were you going to tell us this?" Amy asked, looking between the two of us.

"Here's the other thing that _makes no sense._ To put it bluntly, I shouldn't be able to," I told them. "Your powers are sentient, and normally only give a shit about collecting new data, but they can also block off your ability to access memories containing information that upsets this whole charade. Herb and mine don't because we got ours from Abaddon, not Scion like you guys did, but I keep expecting you two to blank out and change the subject."

I sighed, smiling ruefully. "Herb's not the best at planning. . . Okay, he absolutely sucks at it, the last plan of his, which he didn't tell me about, led to me not being able to stop Coil from kidnapping Dinah for her power, but who else could I talk to? I don't have anyone who _doesn't_ have powers that I trust. I can't tell you how glad I am that, for whatever reason, that _isn't_ happening." I let out a short bark of laughter. "Hell, I'm still worried that it'll happen as soon as we change the topic, and, for you two, the last ten minutes will have never happened."

"That happens?" Amy demanded.

I nodded, "Tattletale got into a pretty nasty feedback loop where she'd use her power, which hurts her to use, get the info she's not supposed to have, lose the info, use her power to know she lost info, get the info, lose it again, use her power to know she lost info, and repeat."

Taylor winced in sympathy, but Amy didn't seem to care for the girl's pain. "So you were never going to tell us?" the healer asked.

"No, I was, slowly and with a _lot_ of metaphors to try to avoid taboo terms or concepts," I replied. "But, well, with Leviathan coming I was busy and there were other things to be worried about. I figured it would take a _lot_ of trial and error, as well as having to convince you guys that I _wasn't_ using some sort of Master power to mess with your memories, because _I_ wouldn't be, your own _power_ would. However, what if knowledge of _that_ set it off as well?" I opened my hands in a 'what do you do?' gesture. "Not something I wanted to rush into, but, well, _you asked._ "

Panacea let out an exasperated sigh, "You could've just _lied._ " I gave her a scandalized look. "Shut up." Not saying a word, I pointed to myself, mouthing 'moi?'. _"Ugh,"_ she groaned, eliciting a laugh from Taylor.

"So, that means this entire 'can't remember' thing _doesn't_ work like I thought it does," I admitted. "And I have no idea why. In retrospect I should've checked this out earlier, should've brought you in on, but well, if you hadn't seen what you did, would you believe me?"

Taylor hesitated, before nodding, once. Amy shot her a skeptical look and let out a long sigh. "No, I would've told you that you were crazy," she agreed, looking down. "You still _are_ ," she insisted, shooting me a warning glare without moving her head, before she closed her eyes and nodded as well, "but knowing wouldn't've helped with. . ." She waved upwards in the direction of the city, _"That._ "

"Now, the question is, _why was I wrong?_ " I continued. "Is the block on you finding out the information yourself? Does the block have some sort of precognitive effect, which I sidestep? We've confirmed that it _exists,_ " I nodded to Taylor, "as you weren't able to remember Lucas' Trigger until now. The question is, _what's different?_ "

I frowned, "And how do I test it _without_ people think I'm using some kind of memory-erasing power. How do you convince someone who thinks you've erased your memory that you aren't doing so? You could just be erasing their memory and trying again until they believe you! It's why I won't touch that stuff, and anyone who abuses them, and it's kind of hard to use them _without_ abusing them, I'm likely just to outright kill."

 _"Kill?_ " Taylor asked, making sure she'd heard me correctly.

I nodded. "If you're in a combat scenario with a mind-warper, the longer you spend playing around, the more likely they are to destroy who you are. If given time to realize they're losing, they'll likely do things they _'never'_ would do _normally_ , and find some way to justify it to themselves after the fact. And if anyone criticizes them, well, it's only _natural_ to use the power on them to so they don't do something stupid. It wasn't your fault, you _had to._ " I shivered. "I believe the mind to be sacrosanct, and any power that affects it I am _not_ okay with."

"You must've hated Vics," Amelia observed neutrally.

I shook my head, "Disliked, yes, hated no. She's young, and my hate is reserved for those who _should've_ trained her, but neglected to do so. If, despite my explanations and showing what it was doing, she kept using her Aura to solve all her problems? Yes, I would. But she's stopped, and she's been getting better. Hell," I pointed out, "if I didn't like her, I wouldn't be asking her to join."

"You liked Purity?" the healer asked skeptically.

I shrugged, going with the almost non sequitur, "A little, yeah. She was seduced by Kaiser, and is _still_ racist, but when the chips were down she left him and tried to be an _actual_ hero. She couldn't go against the E88, because they knew who she was. I wouldn't have put it past Kaiser to suggest to her that she and her baby would be at risk if she did so, while telling the others that she was secretly working for the E88 and trying to show a side of the E88 that was 'more palatable to those too weak to understand our greatness' or some shit. She didn't break and go back to him, even when he made sure that no-one would help her, and constantly offered up an easier life, if she would just come back."

"Huh," Taylor said, mulling it over. "I didn't see any of that. She just seemed kinda, you know. . ."

"Racist?" She nodded. "Which is likely exactly what Kaiser wanted, but he doesn't really matter anymore, since he's dead." It had been nice to see his name listed among the confirmed dead. A _very_ thin silver lining on that day's storm. "So, powers," I said, directing the girls' attention back to the list and shifting my costume back to my casual wear. "I get leaving a slot open for emergencies, it seems like I'll get another soon enough, but not two. What should I go with? Something I have experience using, or something entirely unknown? Everything I know how to use is really distinctive, Like Miss Militia's, Brandish's or Grue's power, or really morally questionable, like Regent's or Victor's. That's not to say the ones I _don't_ know are any better. I'm pretty Candle Creation is this woman's powers," I said, pulling up the profile of Candelabra, who'd shot a giant candle missile at me after I pulled Raida out of the wreckage. "Subtle, that one _ain't._ "

"Anything you're going for?" Taylor asked.

I shook my head. "No, I've already got the powersets for five different personas, I don't need anymore. Theoretically, I'd like something subtle I could use in _any_ persona, like Aerokinesis, but requiring some sort of visual effect or to affect me directly means it's either flashy or a human Master power, the latter I _really_ don't want."

They looked over the list, Amy eventually breaking the silence. "What's Area Teleportation?"

"Strider's power," I told them. They both stared at me. "What?"

"You have _Strider's_ power? The most powerful teleporter on the planet?" Amelia asked slowly.

"Well, not _really_ , but I could have it," I replied. "Why, you think I should go with that?"

"'You think I should go with that?' _Yes_ _you should go with that!"_ Amy practically yelled. "Do you know how strong his power is!?"

"Um, apparently not?" I said. Looking to Taylor I inquired, "Do you agree? Go with Strider's power?" She shrugged, which wasn't exactly a _ringing_ endorsement, and Amy shot her an incredulous look. Focusing inwards, I pulled Area Teleportation down and slotted it in. Silver & Black flames intertwined with my own, and, as I feared, _yet another_ sense sparked into existence. Unfortunately, unlike feeling the wood or stone, I had _no_ reference for whatever the hell I was feeling. It was like I was on a slanted carpet, one that I could move if I wanted to.

It took a second, to grasp it, and my power twitched, and everything changed. I wasn't in the underground office anymore, but the middle of the ocean at night, the chair I was sitting on falling into the dark water below as I pulled myself up, feet skimming the water as I flew.

Looking around, I saw a light in the distance, bobbing on the waves. Nearing, it was a boat, a large one, moving slowly over the waves. Someone onboard shone a light out in my direction, looking for something. Not wanting to be seen, I pulled upon the power once again, and the world swirled away.

I found myself in an alley somewhere warm. Landing, and avoiding the foul-smelling piles of trash, I straightened out my civilian-esque clothes and tried to act natural as I stepped out into the morning light. I wasn't sure where I was, but I'd ended up in that city's Chinatown. None of the signs were in English, which didn't help, but that sometimes happened deeper in. I was attracting _quite_ a few stares, and looking around was easy as I was a good foot taller than everyone around me, at least.

"Um excuse me, but where am I?" I asked one man who approached me. He responded, but it wasn't in English, gesturing at me.

"Do you speak English?" I tried instead.

He didn't.

In the distance I heard a siren go off, the people on the street scattering, even the man I'd been talking to. Looking around I didn't see a _single_ English sign, not even as a subscript. Considering they had about a twelve hour time difference, and it was about seven in the evening back where I was, with Herb working on dinner, and the sun here appearing to _rise_ , though it was hard to tell through the smog, I had a feeling I could probably drop the 'town' from where I thought I was.

 _Stay or fight?_ I wondered. I'd probably pick up a few powers, but I'd be picking a fight with the _fucking CUI._ Mind made up, I reached out and grabbed the fabric of the world. I could literally go in _any_ direction and get closer to Eclipse so it didn't really matter. Moving in a different direction than the last two jumps, I found myself on a flat expanse of ice, nothing near me as far as the eye could see.

Bits of trash, including old newspapers written in Chinese, blew away as the freezing wind pushed against me for a moment, before it was diverted around me instead. With nothing in sight, I rose up in the air, looking around.

It didn't help.

There weren't even penguins or polar bears to help me figure out _which_ end of the planet I was on. Then again, even if there _were_ , I couldn't remember which went _where_. Were the penguins the north pole, or the south? _Immensely_ grateful for my complete immunity to temperature, I reached out to move again, only for my power to catch, not able to hold onto the carpet of the world.

 _Oh shit,_ I thought. _Is there a limit?_ This was the problem with using unknown powers, I had no hard _numbers_ for what I could do. At least I knew who this one belonged to, though I couldn't exactly go 'Hey, mind if I stare at you for twenty minutes. I'll pay you!'

I knew I could take people with me, as I'd seen him do so. Things as well, by the chair and trash I'd brought along. As I worried even more, my power caught hold, and I moved again without meaning to. This time I was in a cave, a very _warm_ cave, the snow and Ice I'd brought along melting in seconds and starting to steam. It was lit by lava flowing in the distance, the glow giving the entire place a very hellish vibe.

My eyes prickled, and I looked around with Powersight, seeing dancing Lava & Lightning that wasn't really there at the other end, the combination screaming DYNAKINESIS to my senses. Something moved, and a humanoid figure pulled itself out of the wall. A very, _very_ large humanoid figure.

It looked at me with its singular, enormous, glowing red eye and its power flexed, sending a blast of fire directly at me. I ignored it, my Stellar Negation kicking in and creating a zone of safety around me as the stone underneath my feet melted. I tried to use Strider's power again, but it wouldn't catch.

 _Fuckfuckfuck,_ I thought, not ready to deal with this bullshit _ALL OVER AGAIN._ The flames ended and Behemoth stared at me, giant head tilting, almost looking confused. It raised a giant hand, and a blast of invisible radiation, enough to kill anyone in an instant, blasted forward.

Once again, Stellar Negation stopped it, as I frantically built layer after layer of solidified air between us, getting ready for the third attack, trying to get Strider's _stupid fucking power_ to _fucking_ **_work_** _._

Behemoth took a slow, ponderous, earth-shaking step forward as his other hand, full of lightning, lifted up. Throwing up steel spires between us, the tremendous electrical blast caught against them, dancing along their lengths, before it gathered itself up as if alive and blasted forward again, tearing at the air barriers. They caught fire, exploding, the explosions forced towards me as more and more shields failed.

I wanted, to move, to run, but knew, somehow, that if I moved enough to matter then it would take even _longer_ for Strider's dumb fucking power to work. With three barriers left it clicked, and I yanked, wanting to be _anywhere_ but here.

The world spun away, and I found myself deep underwater, pressure pressing in from every direction. Shifting to Shadow helped as I looked around. I was. . . I had no clue, but unless Leviathan-

A dark shape swam in the distance, slowly coming closer.

 _Are you fucking kidding me._

Suiting up, metal form sliding into focus, Light extending down my body, I got ready. I'd only need to hold him off for a few seconds, and then I could get away. I could do this. I could fight. . . A whale?

It was a whale, swimming slowly, it's bulk sliding through the darkness. A sperm whale, probably. I didn't know, I wasn't a marine biologist. Pulling back the metal it passed me, it gave me a 'dude, chill' look as it swam by, bumping me slightly as I dropped back to reality, my hardened armor costume enough to hold back the pressure on its own.

I almost didn't realize when I could use the power again, watching it leave in the distance. Reaching out, I moved myself once more.

I found myself in a jungle, water splashing down all around me. Shifting back to my normal clothes, I looked around. It was a jungle, nothing more. No foreign capes coming to capture me, no resting Endbringers pissed I'd dropped by unannounced, just a normal, safe jungle. Okay, there was a jaguar watching me, my ability to ignore shadows lessening the effect of its camouflage, but just extending my costume to invisibly cover my skin meant I was fine.

Taking out my phone, I was surprised I still had service. Calling Quinn, I asked "Hey, so, long story short I accidentally teleported myself. . . _somewhere._ Could you bring me back to base?""

"I don't see why not," was the entirety of his reply, and I felt a tugging sensation a moment later. Going with it, I found myself in a side office, Quinn set up with half a dozen laptops before him, each one scrolling through a different subject. "You've got a. . ." he pointed at my leg. Looking down I saw a snake biting futily at my ankle, which I reached down, picked up and killed by breaking its spine right behind it's skull.

"Thanks," I said, looking at the leaves I'd scattered around, already directing the insects that'd hitched a ride into the dormant Swarm we'd hidden away, far from where Herb might accidentally stumble upon it. Walking out of his office, I called Taylor, who picked up immediately.

"Are you okay?" she asked, worried.

"I'm fine, I just got back to base," I reassured her. "I _might_ have pissed off the Chinese. And Behemoth. Met a whale though. Either way, this thing is just as finnicky as Ballistic's power was. Remember the oranges?"

"Right, them," she said, and I could practically hear her blushing. "Wait, _Behemoth?_ "

"It's fine," I dismissed. "Apparently there's a time limit between uses. Not that long, but long _enough_ that it's kind of a shit combat power. _Definitely_ something I'll have to practice a _lot_ more if I want to use it anywhere near Strider's level. How long as he been a hero?"

I could hear her typing on the other end, telling Amelia, "He said he's back. . . I don't know. . . _You_ ask him. . . _Hey!_ "

"Did you say _Behemoth?_ " Amy demanded.

"Yeah, accidentally teleported to the cave he hangs out in. He was kinda grumpy. I got out, and saw a whale, so that was cool," I told her blandly.

"The cave he. . . You're _impossible,"_ she informed me.

I couldn't help but smile, "I thought I was insane?"

 _"That too!"_


End file.
